A lawsuit claimed that Fresno, California police consistently ignored women’s claims of domestic violence and threats, leading to the death of one woman and the paralysis of another at the hands of an abusive former partner. This week, an attorney for the women’s families announced that the city has agreed to pay $500,000 to settle the lawsuit, ending a nearly nine-year legal battle.
The lawsuit claimed that several Fresno police officers responded callously and inadequately to women’s reports of abuse and threats by ex-partners, and failed to arrest the men who attacked them despite ample cause to do so. As a result of the officers’ inaction, one of the women, Pamela Motley, was paralyzed, and another, Cindy Raygoza, was killed when their former partners assaulted them.
According to the suit, Motley repeatedly reported violent threats from Paul Motley, her estranged husband, to the police. Despite Paul’s repeated violation of a temporary restraining order, police made no attempt to arrest him.
In one April 7th, 2014 incident Paul explicitly threatened to shoot Pamela if she didn’t return to him by April 14th. However, when Pamela reported this threat to the police, the responding officer “seemed insensitive and rude to both Pamela and other witnesses who were present and available to give corroborating statements,” according to the lawsuit. The officer “did not even exit his vehicle or turn his engine off when speaking to Pamela,” and even “told Pamela that she should not be too worried because ‘These guys only follow through 1 percent of the time.'” On April 12th, 2014, Paul shot Pamela in the face, paralyzing her, before shooting and killing himself. Pamela died in 2020 after contracting COVID-19.
Police treated Raygoza with similar apathy. According to the suit, Raygoza called Fresno police after her ex-boyfriend, Michael Reams, broke into her home and attacked her. When police arrived, Raygoza told an unnamed officer that she had been a victim of domestic violence in a previous marriage. The suit claimed that the officer then “took it upon himself to berate Cindy and criticize her choices of men,” and told Raygoza that “if she continued to associate with [Reams] she would be ‘crying wolf’ and would not receive any responses to her calls or service to her address.”
Police never attempted to arrest Reams, and despite continued threats, Raygoza never contacted law enforcement again. On July 14th, 2014, Reams stabbed Raygoza to death in her home.
In addition to claims from Motley and Raygoza’s family, attorney Kevin Little said that more than thirty women eventually joined the lawsuit with claims of mistreatment by Fresno police when reporting domestic violence. This week, after more than eight years of litigation, Little announced that the City of Fresno agreed to a $500,000 settlement.
“Today marks the end of a long road for the families, the Motley and the Raygoza families,” Little said during a press conference this week, adding that the two women were fatally and near-fatally attacked “as a result of inaction on the part of the Fresno police department in the face of multiple complaints that they made regarding their abusers that went unresponded, unanswered, unaddressed.”
While the hefty settlement can’t bring Motley and Raygoza back to their families, it does send a rare—and strong—message to local police departments that encourage officers to brush off domestic violence, or even blame women for becoming victims of their ex-partner’s violence.
“She was loving and giving, and she would be there for anyone. And then the time that she needed help, no one was there to protect her and help her,” Amanda Sylvester, Motley’s daughter, said in a press conference. “No one took her [seriously], and she feared for her life for months.”
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