Woman files civil rights lawsuit against San Francisco over jaywalking arrest
Attorneys of a woman who was pinned against a wall and arrested for alleged jaywalking last year filed a civil rights lawsuit against the city and county of San Francisco on Monday.
The suit follows the July 2024 arrest of Christiana Porter, a young mother and domestic abuse survivor, who can be seen in business surveillance footage walking in a crosswalk before she was physically detained in what her attorneys say was an excessive use of force.
Porter, a Black woman, had just left Office Depot on Geary Boulevard, where she had printed out materials related to a domestic violence case in which she was the victim.
According to the complaint, Porter was wearing headphones but looked both ways before crossing Second Street. About halfway through the crosswalk, surveillance footage shows a police vehicle approaching before Porter throws up her hands. Civil rights attorney Treva R. Stewart of Pointer & Buelna—representing Porter—said the officer honked at her client.
After she crosses the crosswalk, the surveillance video then shows Porter walking onward with headphones on, and the patrol vehicle pulls into the wheelchair onramp on the sidewalk. Stewart said at that point, Porter was unaware of the police car behind her as she continued walking while listening to her headphones. Then the police vehicle is seen driving into oncoming traffic on the one-way Geary Boulevard, before Officer Josh McFall gets out of the patrol car and steps into her path.
Porter appears to jump and then steps backward before the two appear to speak, as seen on the soundless surveillance footage. When she tries to walk around McFall, he pins her to the wall of a building.
That's when bystanders took out their phones to record footage of Porter screaming, as McFall repeatedly says, "Stop resisting," and Porter yells, "Get off of me. I'm not resisting. Give me my phone."
Stewart said her client had been terrified to get on the ground, fearful that he would shoot her and that she was upset by the physical interaction as she is a survivor of domestic violence.
Witnesses in the background of the cell phone videos can be heard saying they saw Porter in the middle of the crosswalk when the light changed. Some of the bystanders then begin shouting at the arresting officers.
"Officer McFall's actions were not just unnecessary and violent—they were illegal," said Stewart.
According to the complaint, the San Francisco Police Department in 2023 changed its policy that previously allowed the police to stop people for "low-level driving infractions" when they believed other crimes could be involved—recognizing the practice had disproportionally impacted people of color.
"Jaywalking was decriminalized in California to prevent exactly these kinds of pretextual stops, which disproportionately target Black and brown people," said Stewart, adding that SFPD now bars officers from using jaywalking as a justification for stopping pedestrians. "Yet, Officer McFall ignored both state law and department policy when he detained and brutalized Ms. Porter."
In conversation with the bystanders, McFall is recorded saying that Porter refused to comply despite the chances she was given, and when she began to walk away from him, he had no choice but to make the arrest. He explained that he used the approach of driving the wrong way down Geary and getting in front of Porter in case she couldn't hear or see him.
"It was simply a pedestrian stop," McFall said. "She refused all commands to stop, refused commands to give me her ID, refused commands to keep her hands out of her pockets and her purse, where she had—I don't know what. She could have had weapons concealed there."
The complaint states that Porter suffered a concussion, separated shoulder, back pain, neck pain and sciatic nerve damage in her hips following the arrest. She is seeking damages that include lost wages and medical expenses, along with punitive damages against the officer, though no specific dollar amount was specified in the complaint.
When asked for comment on the case, Alex Berrett-Shorter, deputy press secretary for the San Francisco City Attorney's office, said, "Once we are served with the lawsuit, we will review the complaint and respond in court."
