Vallejo settles excessive force lawsuit for $125,000

by John Glidden | glid24@protonmail.com | May 11, 2026

VALLEJO – Earlier this year, the city of Vallejo paid out $125,000 to settle an excessive force lawsuit filed by Angel Bagos, whose controversial 2018 arrest outside a Vallejo restaurant went viral.

Bagos’ August 2018 arrest outside of MOD Pizza generated criticism from the Vallejo community after a minute-long video shared on Facebook showed Bagos lying face down on the pavement while officers attempt to arrest the man. A Vallejo police officer is seen straddling Bagos, while a second officer strikes Bagos on his arm and back several times with a flashlight in an attempt to get Bagos to move his arm from under his body. Bagos’ blood can also be seen on the pavement.

The city later released body camera footage from the incident via SB 1421, a police transparency law that went into effect in early 2019. The law requires the release of records when an officer discharges their firearm, when an officer uses force that causes a death or great bodily injury, as in Bagos’ arrest, and any record relating to an incident in which a sustained finding was made by any law enforcement agency or oversight agency that a peace officer or custodial officer engaged in sexual assault involving a member of the public.

According to text placed at the start of the two videos, police stated that they responded to an area around Marshall’s “in order to locate an abducted juvenile allegedly being held by an adult male in a car. The juvenile was located but the male subject fled from officers.” Police said that Bagos ran toward MOD Pizza where he was tackled, falling into a glass door. Refusing to “obey commands to remove his hand from under his body,” Bagos was struck with a flashlight on his arm. According to police, Bagos received about 25 stitches and suffered a possible concussion.

Vallejo police officials told the Vallejo Times-Herald at the time that the “use of force appears appropriate for these circumstances.” Then-police Capt. Lee Horton said that the circumstances leading up to Bagos’ arrest began at about 9 p.m. when a 14-year-old female called 911 to report “that she was stuck in a man’s car and that he would not take her home.”

The lawsuit, filed on Bagos’ behalf by John Burris in January 2020, named former Vallejo police officers Michael Jones, and Nickolas Sloan as defendants. Former Vallejo Police Chief Andrew Bidou was also originally named as a defendant but was removed from the case in November 2020, court records show.

January’s settlement was reached between the city and Angel Bagos’ father, James Bagos, who served as Guardian ad Litem for Angel Bagos. In December 2024, the court allowed James Bagos to begin serving as Guardian ad Litem, which is a person appointed to either represent a child or an individual who cannot advocate for themselves in court.

Angel Bagos’ team alleged the Guardian ad Litem was necessary because he “sustained a head injury at the hands of law enforcement that caused him a form of mental incapacity. Plaintiff’s condition causes him to suffer from episodes of disorientation, depression, and general dissociation.”

For most of the time, the lawsuit was inactive as a criminal case made its way through Solano County Superior Court. However, six years after the incident, Superior Court Judge Stephen F. Houghton dismissed the criminal case in March 2024 “in the interest of justice.”

Monterrosa settlement

Two months after the Bagos settlement was reached, the city settled another high-profile case, agreeing to pay out $8.5 million to the family of Sean Monterrosa. Monterrosa, 22, was shot and killed outside a Vallejo Walgreens by Officer Jarrett Tonn during a night of unrest in June 2020 days after the shooting death of George Floyd in Minnesota.

Tonn, still employed with the city, shot Monterrosa from the backseat of an unmarked police vehicle in response to a break-in at the Walgreens. Tonn claimed he believed Monterrosa was armed with a weapon, however, it was actually a hammer that Monterrosa had been using to break into cabinets within the pharmacy area of the store.

The city attempted to terminate Tonn for his actions, but that decision was overturned by an arbitrator in August 2023 who ruled that city officials did not follow the proper procedure when attempting to fire Tonn.

Last year, Tonn was promoted to sergeant last year.