Fresno County Jury Awards $800,000 After Deputies Enter Home Without Warrant and Fatally Shoot Family Dog

On a June 2018 afternoon in southeast Fresno, sheriff's deputies arrived at a South Lind Avenue residence with weapons drawn while the occupants were inside eating ice cream. The deputies were investigating a vandalism complaint involving less than $500 in damage to a car. They handcuffed the residents at gunpoint and moved through the home without a warrant.

Veronica Ordaz Gonzalez and her boyfriend, Jose Ramos Santiago, had asked the deputies to produce a warrant. The deputies did not. One of them concluded he had consent to enter based on Ordaz Gonzalez meeting him at the back door, a position the family disputed throughout the litigation. While deputies searched the property, Scooby, a 4-year-old dog the family had raised from a puppy, worked free from where he had been restrained and ran into the backyard. There, Deputy Cervantes shot and killed him. The deputy claimed Scooby had bitten a K9 unit, but examination found no bite marks on the police dog.

Attorneys Warren Paboojian and Nolan Kane filed suit against Fresno County on the family's behalf, alleging unconstitutional search and seizure and a violation of California's Bane Act, which prohibits interference with civil rights through threats or coercion. Before trial, the county offered $7,500 to settle. The family declined.

After days of deliberation, the twelve-person jury found Deputy Cervantes liable for the unjustified shooting of Scooby and Sgt. James Dunn liable, as to Ordaz Gonzalez, under the Bane Act. The jury returned a total verdict of $800,000. A Fresno County Superior Court judge subsequently awarded Ordaz Gonzalez nearly $830,000 in attorney fees in August 2023.

Fresno County appealed, arguing errors in jury instructions and that the damages were excessive. California's Fifth District Court of Appeal rejected both arguments and upheld the verdict in its entirety in April 2025. Attorney Nolan Kane estimated the county's total exposure, including the verdict, the original attorney-fee award, and the fees generated during the appeal, would exceed $2 million.