{"id":432878,"date":"2026-08-14T15:54:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T15:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/432878\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T15:54:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T15:54:09","slug":"two-deputies-paralyzed-a-homeless-man-in-2019-now-a-sheriffs-oversight-board-isnt-yet-closing-its-case-san-diego-union-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/432878\/","title":{"rendered":"Two deputies paralyzed a homeless man in 2019. Now, a sheriff\u2019s oversight board isn\u2019t yet closing its case. \u2013 San Diego Union-Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

The civilian board that oversees the San Diego Sheriff\u2019s Office has deferred a decision on whether to close the case of a homeless man who died after being paralyzed by deputies investigating an illegally parked van.<\/p>\n

The Citizens\u2019 Law Enforcement Review Board, or CLERB, put off adopting the staff recommendation to close the case after a parade of speakers urged it members to do more to investigate the 2023 death of Randal Tanner, findings posted online<\/a> show.<\/p>\n

Instead, after hearing from Tanner\u2019s brother and a host of other critics at the public hearing, the board returned the case to investigators for further review. It was not immediately clear when a new recommendation might come forward.<\/p>\n

Tanner died in 2023, four years after two sheriff\u2019s deputies<\/a> forced him to the ground and broke his spine while they were making arrangements to impound the broken-down van he was living in over its expired registration.<\/p>\n

CLERB originally reviewed the case in the months after the 2019 encounter that left Tanner paralyzed. The board at that time ruled there was no use of excessive force by deputies.<\/p>\n

But Tanner\u00a0died years later as a result of his injuries \u2014 a death the Medical Examiner\u2019s Office ruled a homicide<\/a>. The review board reopened the case in 2024 but last week\u00a0recommended closing it, citing a\u00a0lack of new evidence.<\/p>\n

Despite its age, the case was unreported until last week, when The San Diego Union-Tribune reported details of the 2019 encounter, Tanner\u2019s death and CLERB\u2019s plan to close the case.<\/p>\n

When the review board convened, numerous speakers urged the civilian oversight board to look more closely at the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was deeply struck by the thoughtful comments of these strangers and it made me hopeful that perhaps this time the system will finally do a proper investigation,\u201d Richard Tanner, Randal\u2019s older brother, told the Union-Tribune.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe I will finally be able to get all the information I am legally allowed to have about the last years of his life after these deputies spotted that his car registration was expired, which is what started all of this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

CLERB\u2019s executive officer Brett Kalina did not respond to requests for comment this week on the board\u2019s decision to revisit his recommendation to close the case.<\/p>\n

Last week he said there was not enough new information to reconsider the deputies\u2019 actions.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough CLERB opened the case out of an abundance of caution, it was determined there was no new evidence regarding the original complaint of excessive force,\u201d Kalina said last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cNor did the M.E.\u2019s report produce any new evidence of the use of force, and therefore CLERB cannot revisit the original findings,\u201d he added. \u201cWithout new and substantial evidence of the use of force, CLERB does not have jurisdiction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tanner disagreed with that conclusion.<\/p>\n

He said the sheriff\u2019s video made clear that deputies wrongly slammed his brother to the ground and then ignored his cries that he could not move.<\/p>\n

Evidence also shows deputies wrongly pushing and jostling Tanner even though he had serious injuries, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do think the way deputies moved my brother around after the take-down, after he was cuffed and after he was saying he needed a doctor and could not move, are crucial facts that nobody seemed to have noticed,\u201d Tanner said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI also think there must be a fair amount of video\/audio evidence which was not put into the publicly released video,\u201d he added. \u201cI want to see the whole video from each of the cameras at the scene.\u201d<\/p>\n

Richard Tanner was not the only person to say the review board should revisit the Tanner case in the wake of the medical examiner\u2019s homicide ruling.<\/p>\n

Former CLERB executive officer Paul Parker criticized the recommendation last week, saying the medical examiner\u2019s report alone was enough new evidence to recommend the oversight board revisit its earlier findings.<\/p>\n

The review board voted 7-1 to defer any decision on Kalina\u2019s recommendation to close the Tanner case. It was not clear which volunteer CLERB members voted for and against the delay, because neither the video nor minutes from the meeting have been posted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The civilian board that oversees the San Diego Sheriff\u2019s Office has deferred a decision on whether to close…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":432879,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[138,181,23,100,74,76,75,1696,10586],"class_list":["post-432878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-top-stories-sdut","tag-watchdog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}