King City to pay $1.2 million to settle car-towing lawsuit.

The city of King City will pay $1.2 million to settle a class-action lawsuit filed in 2014 on behalf of people whose cars were allegedly towed and impounded under false pretenses as part of a scheme at the King City Police Department. 

The city estimates "well in excess" of 200 people were victims of the towing scheme, according to the settlement documents, filed in federal court in San Jose Feb. 19. 

Victims of the towing scheme will receive a payment of $3,902.84 each. The attorneys who represented them are seeking $306,250 in fees and another $16,000 in expenses, or 26 percent of the total settlement amount. (Their fees will be paid out of the settlement fund.) 

"This settlement agreement is the result of hard-fought, arms-length negotiations," according to court papers. 

The lawyers reviewed thousands of pages of documents in connection to King City's towing policy, and towing records for specific vehicles. 

The plaintiffs include Sergio Munoz, Jesus Garcia, David Alejandro Gutierrez, Maria Solis and Blanca Lilia Bonilla. 

According to court papers, Garcia was driving through King City in 2012 when a police officer pulled him over. He was cited for a minor traffic infraction, and within minutes, a tow truck showed up. 

Nobody told him why his car was being towed. They did tell him he could retrieve his car after 30 days—if he paid towing, impound and storage fees and charges. 

But Garcia never saw his car again: It had been sold or given away by the tow company and police officers. 

The plaintiffs sued just days after about a third of KCPD was arrested, several of them in connection to the tow scheme, in which officers allegedly targeted poor, marginalized drivers and towed their cars. Officers arranged for Brian Miller—the brother of Bruce Miller, a former police captain and acting chief—to impound the bulk of those cars at his business, Miller's Towing. Victims of the scheme would then have to pay unfair fees to reclaim their vehicles, or, as Garcia tells it, never see them again. 

Six of the seven arrested in February 2014 (the Millers, along with five other police officers) have taken plea deals.

Bobby Carrillo, the only defendant from KCPD who has not accepted a plea deal, is scheduled to go to trial on March 21.

For more of the Weekly's coverage of this ongoing story, visit www.mcweekly.com/kingcitycorruption.