Settlement terms in fatal Fresno police shooting of teen Dylan Noble a mystery

Terms of a settlement in the fatal Fresno police shooting of Dylan Noble won’t be known for a least a week since federal court documents say both sides have 30 days to submit final “dispositive documents.”

The settlement comes as a surprise because the city has fought hard in U.S. District Court to keep documents about the fatal June 2016 shooting confidential. In fact, the city successfully obtained a protective order that prevents lawyers from disclosing information.

Magistrate Judge Stanley Boone said in a July 27 court order that a settlement has been reached and the case was closed. But the order also said both sides had 30 days to submit “dispositive documents” to the court to finalized the agreement.

On Thursday, no one at City Hall or the lawyers for Noble’s parents would talk about the settlement. But the city council is expected to discuss terms of the settlement in closed session Aug. 9.

The case has attracted national attention and public outcry because Noble, 19, was unarmed when he was shot by two police officers on June 25, 2016 in the parking lot of a gas station/convenience store in east Fresno. His last moments were captured by police-worn body camera.

Both sides were gearing up for an intense trial next year because the video showed Noble lying wounded on the ground beside his truck. He had been shot twice, but was still alive when a Fresno police officer fired a shot toward him. Fourteen seconds later, Noble was struck by shotgun blast, according to the video.

Fresno police Chief Jerry Dyer and District Attorney Lisa Smittcamp have said the shooting was justified. Dyer said the two officers believed Noble could be armed, and body camera footage showed Noble reached toward his waistband and moved toward officers.

Because Noble refused to show his hands “and his continued non-compliance with the officers’ clear and concise orders, the officers reasonably believed that he had a weapon in his waistband,” Smittcamp said in December 2016.

“Even after he was wounded on the ground, his actions were consistent with someone that was retrieving a weapon from concealment,” Smittcamp said. “Because of these actions, he continued to pose a threat to the officers and public safety.”

The city’s Office of Independent Review ruled that the shooting “not within policy.”

The Fresno County Coroner’s Office reported that Noble died of massive internal injuries from three bullets and nine buckshot pellets from a single shotgun shell. The report did not specify which shot, if any, was determined to be the fatal one.

The Fresno County Sheriff’s Office has said a toxicology analysis showed Noble had a blood-alcohol level of 0.12 percent, above the state’s legal driving limit of 0.08. The analysis also found trace amounts of the chemical benzoylecgonine, a metabolite of cocaine.

In the aftermath of the shooting, Noble’s parents, Darren Noble and Veronica Nelson, filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the Fresno Police Department, the city and the two officers who shot Dylan — Raymond Camacho and Robert Chavez.

Nelson was represented by Fresno attorney Stuart Chandler. Fresno attorney Warren Paboojian represented Darren Noble, The city was represented by Los Angeles firm Manning & Kass.

After months of acrimonious legal fighting, court records say, both sides began working toward a settlement, starting in late April this year. The case docket gives this account:

On April 16 this year, Chandler informed the court about a dispute over the city’s redacted evidence. Two week later, both sides informed the court that they were “tying to work matters out.”

Then on May 10, both sides talked with Boone, the judge in charge of the case, about establishing ground rules for settlement talks. In a stipulation to the court, both sides agreed to meet on July 18 for settlement talks. They also agreed that Chavez and Camacho would not attend the meeting with Boone because “their presence is likely to upset the parents of the decedent and could forestall negotiations,” court records say.

The case was not settled on July 18, so Boone scheduled another meeting on July 27, which ended up being successful, prompting the judge to vacate the trial.

On Thursday, Chandler, Paboojian and Assistant City Attorney Francine Kanne did not return messages that asked them for comment about the settlement.