SAN JOSE — The San Jose City Council has approved a $350,000 payment to a woman who was violently kicked and dragged by a police officer during a car stop four years ago, an encounter made infamous after an eyewitness video went viral on social media.
The payment was greenlit Tuesday and will settle a federal excessive-force lawsuit filed by Guadalupe Marin, who the video shows was passively resisting Officer Matthew Rodriguez before he kicked her in the abdomen, handcuffed her, then dragged her across a McDonald’s parking lot near East Santa Clara and 24th streets on July 22, 2020.
Marin and her attorney, Sarah Marinho, declined to comment on the settlement, under which the city and San Jose Police Department admit no fault. A memo from City Attorney Nora Frimann described the payment as “a negotiated settlement between the parties to avoid the risks inherent in litigation,” which is routine in these agreements.
This is the second six-figure settlement paid by the city in as many years for on-duty conduct involving Rodriguez. Along with at least three other officers, he was sued for excessive force by Anthony Cho, who alleged that on July 18, 2020 — four days before the incident with Marin — he was beaten with batons, punched and kicked during a traffic stop in which he was suspected of driving a stolen vehicle. His ensuing resisting-arrest charge was dismissed, and in March 2023, the city agreed to pay him $200,000 to resolve his lawsuit.
Rodriguez is currently being prosecuted for a charge of misdemeanor assault and battery under color of authority. He is on administrative leave from the police department pending the resolution of the criminal case.
Both the lawsuit and a police report accompanying Rodriguez’s criminal complaint attest that even before the viral video, a police supervisor found inconsistencies between Rodriguez’s body-camera footage and his initial report that the 39-year-old woman was not complying. The report and lawsuit suggest a communication gap, when the driver thought she was obeying the officer’s “get on the ground” order by squatting, when Rodriguez wanted her to lie on the ground and crawl toward him.
Moments later, Rodriguez was heard yelling, “I’m going to kick you in the (expletive) face!” after which the lawsuit asserts he “swiftly kicked (Marin) in the abdomen at full force, knocking the wind out of her” before dragging her across the pavement.
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He was later heard saying, “Why you didn’t (expletive) listen?”
Rodriguez and another officer were also accused in the lawsuit of falsely claiming in their police reports that Marin was resisting them; the minute-long eyewitness video showed Marin sitting passively outside a silver BMW as Rodriguez stood a few feet away.
The second officer, Tyler Moran, was a co-defendant in the lawsuit on the contention that he failed to intervene and stop Rodriguez. Moran, who has since left SJPD, was also a co-defendant in Cho’s lawsuit.
Police said officers stopped the BMW because the the vehicle had eluded two attempted traffic stops in the previous four days. But the lawsuit contended that one of the officers on scene quickly realized that Marin was not the driver in those previous instances, and that Marin’s sister, who was a passenger that day, had recently bought the car from a local mechanic.
The lawsuit also emphasized that Marin was clearly “unarmed since he could see she had nothing in her hands and was wearing form-fitting shorts and a tank top,” and that because she is “5’1″ and soft-spoken, was objectively not a threat in any way to these officers.”
Three misdemeanor charges against Marin that resulted from her arrest that day were later dismissed.
