City of Sacramento pays $10M to woman after employee allegedly crashed into her

The city of Sacramento paid a $10 million settlement to a woman after a city employee allegedly ran a red light and crashed into her vehicle.

In January 2022, Jennifer Channell, a city animal control officer, ran a red light and crashed into the vehicle of Alexcia Ceja, alleged a 2023 lawsuit filed in Sacramento Superior Court. The crash occurred near the intersection of El Camino Avenue and Lexington Street in North Sacramento.

In addition to Ceja, the suit names two minors as plaintiffs. The suit names the city and Channell as defendants.

City spokesperson Jennifer Singer said Channell remains employed as a city senior animal control officer. Singer declined comment on the settlement, and declined to disclose whether the city disciplined Channell for the alleged crash, saying the city does not comment on personnel matters.

Channell referred comment on the settlement to a different city spokesperson Ryan Hinderman, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Sacramento Bee received the settlement agreement, signed in February, through a California Public Records Act request.

It’s the largest known settlement the city has signed since 2023 when the city paid developer Paul Petrovich $26 million, including $18.5 million to buy his downtown building — a building the city is now exploring selling. That payout settled a suit that alleged the city did not give a fair public hearing to Petrovich’s proposal to add a gas station to his retail and residential Crocker Village development in Curtis Park.