'A Horror Story': Woman Knocked Out by Solano County Sheriff’s Deputies Asks California Attorney General to Investigate

Supporters of a Black woman who says she was beaten by white Solano County Sheriff’s deputies a year ago are now calling on California’s attorney general to investigate the incident and remove Sheriff Thomas Ferrara from office.

At Wednesday’s press conference, on the steps of the state Capitol in Sacramento, Nakia Porter repeatedly broke down in tears as she described what happened to her on Aug. 6, 2020. She had pulled off the I-80 onto a small side road near the town of Dixon so her father could take over driving during their trip home from Oakland to Orangevale. Porter’s 3- and 4-year-old daughters, and her 6-year-old niece, were in the back seat.

The incident report, which KQED obtained through a public records request, indicates McDowell activated her camera three times that night, generating three different video files that were booked into evidence. KQED obtained one of these files of previously unreleased footage from McDowell’s camera. Although it does not capture the incident with Porter, it does show the deputy talking to Porter’s father, Joseph Powell, who also was detained and handcuffed while deputies searched the family’s car and ran the license plates.

That footage shows Powell, 61, handcuffed in the back of a police car.

“Man, y’all jumped her, why?” he asks the deputies.

McDowell tells him she didn’t know what Porter, his daughter, was doing. Finally, they remove Powell’s handcuffs and let him return to the car to look after the three little girls that have been left alone in the back seat.

The lawsuit states the deputies did not find any evidence of criminal activity in the car. Porter had moved from Maryland and forgotten to change the front plate, according to the suit. The police reports do not mention these details. The lawsuit also alleges that the reports stating that Porter “briefly lost consciousness” contradict videos that show her unconscious for five minutes.

“We did nothing wrong,” Powell said at Wednesday’s press conference. “My grandchildren should not have witnessed what happened to their mother.”

The family, at Wednesday’s event, was joined by members of the NAACP and local faith groups in calling for the state attorney general to investigate the incident. Betty Williams of the NAACP in Sacramento said her office has received multiple complaints from people who say they were harassed by law enforcement officers while driving through Solano County.

“If you’re going through Solano County, Black people be aware,” she said.

Williams also noted connections that some Solano County deputies have to the extremist, far-right group the Three Percenters, as was revealed in an Open Vallejo investigation earlier this year. Porter’s suit claims that McCampbell is also a part of that group. Ferrara, the sheriff, has denied his deputies are part of any extremist groups.

Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office said it is reviewing Porter’s request to investigate the case.

The Solano County DA’s office said in emails that the lawsuit was the first they had heard of any allegation of misconduct by the deputies and that the case is under review.

“Why did this happen?” Porter asked on Wednesday. “You know what? I don’t have all of the answers because there’s people in different positions that could do something about it, but they’re not. That’s why y’all are here. That’s why we’re all here. To put the pressure on those that have the positions to make the changes.”