Ryan Hartman, who was fired from the San Marcos Police Department, listens during his arbitration hearing on April 25, 2022.
San Antonio Express-News
Ricardo Delgado, San Antonio Express-News
San Marcos will pay $125,000 to a Hays County man to settle a lawsuit that claimed he was needlessly shocked by a stun gun by two officers — one of whom had faced multiple complaints from social justice groups.
Al Leyva, 23, filed the lawsuit against the city of San Marcos and San Marcos police Sgt. Ryan Hartman after Leyva had a Taser used on him by Hartman and officer Jacinto Melendrez during a traffic stop Jan. 12, 2021.
An internal investigation by the San Marcos Police Department determined Leyva had his hands up and was complying with police commands when he was shocked, and that “there were no reasonable circumstances justifying such force.”
The review determined Hartman violated department policy and civil service rules. San Marcos police Chief Stan Standridge suspended Hartman for one week, with Standridge describing Hartman’s use of a stun gun on Leyva as “unnecessary and unreasonable” in the suspension notice. Hartman was allowed to use accrued vacation time to satisfy the suspension, as was allowed by the city’s contract with the local police union. Hartman faced no charges related to the incident.
Hartman no longer works for the San Marcos Police Department, as he was fired Jan. 18, 2022, for insubordination.
Former San Marcos police Sgt. Ryan Hartman is seen in Lockhart Police Department body camera footage from June 10, 2020. Hartman was involved in a wreck that killed another driver. In a separate incident, Hartman needlessly used a Taser on a San Marcos man during a traffic stop, an internal police investigation determined.
Rebecca Webber, an attorney representing Leyva, said she and her client are pleased with the settlement agreement. Leyva had “no interest” in being bogged down long term in the court system to seek a larger payout, she said.
“It was good for him to just take the early money and move on with his life,” Webber said.
“I know that we left money on the table,” Webber said. “I do think that, especially for Hartman, this was a case where punitive damages would have been appropriate because of the way that he so callously abuses his authority.”
Social justice advocates had been calling for Hartman to be fired since he was involved in a fatal auto crash in Lockhart in June 2020.
Hartman was off duty and driving his Ford pickup down a one-way street in Lockhart when he ran a pair of stop signs and drove his truck into the passenger side of a Honda Accord driven by 64-year-old Pam Watts, according to multiple police reports.
Watts’ partner, 56-year-old Jennifer Miller, was in the passenger seat of the car and died at the scene. Watts sustained several long-term injuries.
Officers said they found a half-full beer can in Hartman’s truck after the wreck, though Hartman denied having anything to drink. He took a court-ordered blood test three hours after the collision that turned up no alcohol in his system. A grand jury declined to indict Hartman on charges related to the fatal wreck.
In the January 2021 incident, Leyva was a passenger in a car that was pulled over by police after officers responded to a call involving items allegedly being stolen from a convenience store. Officers stopped the car in the 300 block of Wonder World Drive, according to the investigator's report.
After Leyva exited the vehicle, he was standing with his hands raised, holding his driver's license and his cellphone, when Hartman and another officer used their Tasers on him, according to the investigator's report. Prior to using the Taser, Hartman is heard on his police-issued body camera telling other officers "I’m going to tase this guy," according to the report.
richard.degaldo@express-news.net