A Marin County jury has acquitted San Rafael Police Officer Brandon Nail of all charges. The Marin County District Attorney filed two felony offenses against Nail: assault under color of authority and filing a false police report, as well as an allegation that he inflicted great bodily injury in the aftermath of a violent encounter with a suspect. The weeks-long trial was presided over by Judge Kevin Murphy. Rains Lucia Stern St. Phalle & Silver, PC Partners Julia Fox and Andrew Ganz represented Nail at trial and secured the not guilty verdicts.
The case arose from a July, 2022, incident. Nail, a six-year veteran of SRPD and field training officer, was summoned to assist a colleague who was trying to detain three men in a high-crime area.
After one suspect repeatedly disobeyed the officers’ orders to stay seated, and after warning him, they attempted to handcuff him for all of their safety. Instead of complying, the suspect tensed up, pulled his hands and arms forward, resisting the officers’ efforts to restrain him. Consistent with his training and standard police practice, Officer Nail then tried to bring the suspect to the ground. The suspect continuously resisted and then turned assaultive in his resistance, including grabbing and pulling at Officer Nail’s outer carrier vest while the other officer was pinned against a parked truck. Nail delivered one strike to the suspect’s face and, after further resistance, he was eventually able to get him into handcuffs.
“Officer Nail was wrongfully charged criminally, as he was administratively, to assuage political unrest and not as a result of his ‘crossing the line’ from serving as a law enforcement officer to becoming a violator of the law he was sworn to enforce,” said Julia Fox.
After the criminal charges were filed, the City terminated Officer Nail’s employment. Fox appealed his termination. Earlier this year, with the criminal trial still pending, Fox represented Officer Nail at an arbitration. Following that, Officer Nail was exonerated of alleged policy violations and reinstated with full backpay.
“Officer Nail is thankful this lengthy litigation has come to an end,” said Fox. “We are grateful that the unanimous decision by the jury has put an end to more than three years of uncertainty,” added Fox.
“It was, is, and always will be outrageous to charge someone with a crime for trying to do an unimaginably difficult job consistent with their training, as best as they can, especially when we require officers to place themselves in dangerous and completely unpredictable situations on a daily basis,” said Andrew Ganz. “I hope the next time this is attempted, people will consider applying the same sort of political pressure on their District Attorney to stop this practice, which is not only immoral, but severely compromises public safety.”
Congratulations to Julia and Andrew!
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