In August 2022, Bruce Frankel’s girlfriend called 911 after Frankel began having a seizure. But instead of receiving medical attention, a police officer burst into Frankel’s home and tased him. To make matters worse, the police went to great lengths to try to hide their mistake by making false accusations against Frankel.
Frankel has now filed a lawsuit against the officers who tased him, claiming that their actions clearly violated his Fourth Amendment rights.
The ordeal began in the early morning hours of August 29, 2022, when Frankel, 61, began having a seizure at his home in San Anselmo, California. Her girlfriend, named in the complaint as Alice, awoke to Frankel panting and called 911, telling the operator that Frankel was having trouble breathing.
As he waited for medical help to arrive, still on the phone to 911, Frankel’s seizures stopped, but he remained disoriented. The complaint notes that he is now entering the “post-crital phase of seizure, when the brain is recovering, but the victim remains unaware of his surroundings and unable to understand directions.”
Shortly thereafter, Officer Kevin Sinnott of the Marin Central Police Authority arrived and rushed into Alice and Frankel’s bedroom, attempting to restrain Frankel.
Sinnott “struggled [Frankel] on the bed, and attempted to handcuff him,” the lawsuit reads. “Just 25 seconds after he arrived, Sinnott’s voice became angry, and he yelled [Frankel], ‘Stop. Stop arguing with me.’ Alice replied loudly and emphatically, “He’s unconscious.” Sinnott argued with her: ‘He’s not unconscious. He’s fighting.’ Alice later warned: ‘You’ll break his neck.'”
Sinnott then tased Frankel, causing him to bang his head against bedroom furniture. Two more police officers and three paramedics arrived soon after. Frankel was handcuffed and taken to a local hospital, still delirious.
The lawsuit alleges that the officers attempted to hide their use of force by placing false accusations on Frankel. According to the complaint, an interrogating officer “blatantly lied [Frankel] in a final attempt to get him to make an incriminating statement,” telling him that “when the officer got there you started assaulting him.”
The lawsuit also claims that Sinnott falsely told one of Frankel’s doctors that he was “getting ready” to fight him when he arrived, slowing Frankel’s eventual diagnosis of seizures.
Frankel was eventually booked into the Marin County Jail on charges of resisting arrest and battery. He was later released “still wearing only his underwear and a disposable hospital suit; he had no wallet, phone or money,” the complaint reads. “He couldn’t remember Alice’s phone number in prison and they didn’t want to help him contact her, so he walked in hospital slippers about half a mile to a gas station,” where workers helped him call a taxi.
Although the Marin County District Attorney’s Office ultimately declined to formally file charges against Frankel, he still suffered permanent damage as a result of his treatment by the police. In addition to the physical injuries he suffered as a result of Sinnott’s use of force, Frankel spent over $10,000 fighting police attempts to have him prosecuted.
The officers “filed or caused to be filed false reports in an attempt to defame [Frankel’s] reputation, concern him with criminal prosecution, intimidate him and prevent him from bringing charges against them for improper and excessive use of force,” the complaint reads, adding that the police “acted willfully with the wrongful intent to injure [Frankel] and for an improper and malicious motive amounting to malice.”