The Bakersfield Californian

City of Bakersfield to pay $250K to mother of police shooting victim

The city of Bakersfield settled a federal lawsuit involving the family of a police shooting victim and a Bakersfield Police Department officer who gained national notoriety for inappropriately touching a corpse in an unrelated, highly publicized incident.

The city will pay $250,000 to the mother of Michael Dozer, who died from a 2014 shooting by former BPD officer Aaron Stringer, the city’s attorney confirmed to The Californian on Monday.

A federal jury initially cleared Stringer of wrongdoing in the shooting of Dozer.

The claim against the city filed by Leslie Laray Crawford asserted the Bakersfield Police Department violently confronted and detained Dozer, who had a history of mental illness, at the TMP gas station in the 2100 block of East Brundage Lane and unnecessarily shot him, according to previous reporting in The Californian.

A federal jury disagreed with the claim; however, Crawford appealed the case and the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals vacated that decision in 2019, finding the district court abused its discretion by barring Crawford’s testimony, in its ruling.

The suit ultimately was dismissed Oct. 26, avoiding a second trial.

Crawford could not be reached for comment regarding the settlement.

Mick Marderosian, the city’s lawyer, said Bakersfield decided to pay the settlement amount because the amount was not egregiously high.

Stringer also was involved in a 2015 controversy in which he reportedly grabbed the head of Ramiro James Villegas at Kern Medical Center and told an officer “he loves playing with dead bodies,” according to previous reporting by The Californian. The previous reporting also states Stringer touched the dead man’s feet and said “tickle, tickle.” He later left the force.

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2021-12-01T08:00:00.0000000Z

2021-12-01T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://bakersfield.pressreader.com/article/281578063942422

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