Orange County, California, has agreed to pay $7.5 million to the family of a homeless Black man who was shot and killed by a sheriff's deputy in San Clemente in 2020, an attorney confirmed to Law360 on Thursday.

Kurt A. Reinhold, 42, was killed during a confrontation with two sheriff's deputies, Jonathan Israel and Eduardo Duran, who were members of the county Sheriff's Department's homeless outreach team.

Months later, Reinhold's mother, wife and two minor children sued the county and the individual officers in federal court alleging excessive force, battery, lack of due process and violations of state law during the deadly encounter.

On Tuesday, the Orange County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the settlement agreement, which now awaits the signature of a federal judge.

"The family is pleased and feels vindicated," John C. Taylor, one of the family's attorneys, told Law360. "There's accountability for the excessive force. Period."

In an amended complaint filed in March 2021 seeking damages, Reinhold's family members said the color of his skin was a factor in his killing, which occurred almost exactly four months after the murder of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis police.

"Mr. Reinhold was unarmed, had not committed a crime, and never posed an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury to the involved deputies — he was targeted for being Black," the complaint says.

In the afternoon of Sept. 23, 2020, Reinhold had just bought a can of iced tea from a store located on a busy road running through San Clemente when Israel and Duran decided to arrest him for jaywalking.

"You going to stop or are we going to have to make you stop?" Israel can be heard telling the man in dash camera video released by the county.

"For what? I'm walking," Reinhold replies.

"For jaywalking," Israel says.

The situation escalates quickly from there. The video shows Reinhold becoming angry because the deputies insist on arresting him while he tries to walk away. Israel can be seen putting his hand on Reinhold several times as he repeatedly yells, "Don't touch me!" and tries to push the hand away, while Duran has his taser drawn.

The deputies eventually tackle him to the ground, and the video appears to show Reinhold's hand moving in the direction of one of the deputies' guns during the scuffle, though it's unclear whether the movement is intentional. Seconds later, two shots are fired.

"One of the deputies claimed that Reinhold was reaching for his gun and the other deputy then shot him two times," Taylor said, adding that there was no evidence that the deputy's gun was ever extracted from the holster.

"They tackle him and take him to the ground. He's unarmed. At no time does he try to strike or injure or harm the deputies," Taylor said.

In the suit, Reinhold's family members alleged that Israel and Duran didn't have a valid reason to detain him, but that they did so, violating his rights under the Fourth and 14th amendments.

In the dash camera video, the two deputies can be heard disagreeing on whether Reinhold had jaywalked, with Duran telling Israel, "You shittin' me dude," and "Don't make case law."

The civil suit includes claims against the county for failing to train sheriff's deputies about what constitutes jaywalking and for maintaining a policy that accepts the use of excessive force. Duran and Israel were never disciplined or retrained as a result of the shooting, the complaint says.

In answering the complaint claiming affirmative defense, Orange County said the deputies "acted in good faith, without malice and within the scope of their duties" and invoked qualified immunity, a legal doctrine that shields law enforcement officers acting in their official capacities from civil suits. 

In an April 7 order, U.S. District Judge Josephine L. Staton of the Central District of California tossed the municipal liability claims, but allowed the federal constitutional claims and those under state law to proceed.

Taylor said Reinhold's family members filed their suit with the hope that it would help change the Sheriff's Department practices.

"The family hopes that there would be some sort of positive impact on either the training or the implementation of tactics — tactics when the homeless outreach deputies are interacting with the people that they're supposed to be helping," Taylor said.

Don Wagner, who chairs the Orange County Board of Supervisors, said in email statement that the settlement ended a "very tragic case." 

"We decided to settle because this is a very tragic case and it was an opportunity that both sides agreed would be a fair number to put an end to the fight over this really tragic situation," Wagner said. "There is simply no good to come out of this circumstance. We're very hopeful that this gives the family some closure and we never see anything as horrible as this again."

The county's sheriff office and attorneys representing the county and the individual defendants declined to comment.

Plaintiffs Latoya Reinhold, Reinhold's wife, and minors S.R. and J.R. are represented by John C. Taylor, Peter Reagan and Neil K. Gehlawat of Taylor & Ring LLP.

Plaintiff Judy Reinhold-Tucker, Reinhold's mother, is represented by Robert S. Brown.

Orange County and the individual respondents are represented by Jesse Keenon Cox, Jonathan C. Bond, Marlena R. Mlynarska, Norman J. Watkins and S. Frank Harrell of Lynberg & Watkins APC.

The case is Latoya Reinhold et al. v. County of Orange et al., case number 8:20-cv-02369, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

--Editing by Karin Roberts.