Wins $17M settlement for being beaten unconscious

Woman beaten unconscious by Calif. deputies as kids watched wins $17M settlement

By Olivia Hebert

A roadside stop in the city of Dixon that ended with a Solano County woman beaten unconscious by deputies as her young family members watched in the back seat will now cost the county $17 million.

Four years after Nakia Porter and her family filed a federal civil rights lawsuit, court filings show a deal was finalized earlier this year, as her attorney announced to the press this week.

In January 2024, a federal judge separately approved a portion of the settlement set aside for Porter’s daughters and niece, who had witnessed Porter’s arrest. Additional agreements were placed under seal in May 2025, Porter’s attorney, Yasin Almadani, told SFGATE. The county did not admit wrongdoing as part of the settlement. “There was no admission of liability,” he said.

Although the settlement offers some relief, he noted it cannot account for the “immeasurable loss” Porter and her family endured. “We can never restore what Ms. Porter really lost, but at least we can try to prevent it from happening somewhere else,” Almadani said. “Putting this to bed is going to help with the healing process itself.”

Solano County spokesperson Matthew Davis told SFGATE that the decision to settle came after the county evaluated the expense, length and uncertainty of continued litigation. He noted that by reaching an agreement, the county avoids the unpredictability of a jury trial and is able to focus on moving forward alongside the community.

Davis emphasized that the county disputes the underlying facts of the case but takes such matters “very seriously” and remains “firmly committed [to] the highest standards of public safety.” He said that officials continuously review training, policies and practices “to strengthen community trust and prevent future incidents.”

On the night of Aug. 6 2020, Porter and her father, Joe Berry Powell, were driving from Oakland to Sacramento with Porter’s two daughters, ages 3 and 4, and her niece, 6, when they pulled over in Dixon to switch seats. As Porter and her father made the change, two Solano County sheriff’s deputies, one male and the other female, approached the family, the complaint said.

Deputies later said they approached the car because of a mismatched license plate. However, the complaint noted that the rear plate, which displayed the state of Maryland, had already been checked and confirmed as matching the vehicle, and there were no reports of the car having been stolen. Porter had recently moved to California and had yet to change her registration. 

In the complaint, Almadani argued deputies forced Porter away from the patrol car’s dash camera and beat her, striking her in the head, neck, back and stomach. Before the blows led her to collapse unconscious, Porter allegedly cried out, “God, bless me! Bless me, God!” She remained unconscious for more than five minutes, which her lawyers argued was consistent with a severe, “Grade III” concussion.

“As the officers dragged me away and beat me, all I could think of was my children. I thought I was going to die and never see them. I struggled for my life, praying to God to save me. Then everything went black,” she said in a 2021 news release. When she regained consciousness, Porter found herself handcuffed inside a sheriff’s car, noting her head was spinning and her body hurt.

Meanwhile, Porter’s father, Powell, was detained at gunpoint and allegedly forced to walk backward more than 30 feet with his hands on his head as his granddaughters sat alone in the back seat of the car. Powell would later describe the events as “torture.” 

“As a father and grandfather, every bone in my body wanted to jump out of that vehicle and save my daughter. But I knew if I got out, they might shoot her and me,” he said in the release. “We did everything right and they still violated our dignity.” 

Deputies booked Porter into Solano County Jail overnight based on reports that she had “slipped the cuff” and “punched” the male deputy. In her deposition, the female deputy acknowledged that her only basis for saying that Porter had struck the male deputy was that he had told her “after the fact.” The district attorney later declined to file charges against Porter. 

Almadani noted that body camera footage played a pivotal role in exposing what happened. 

“When things move from protection into abuse of power, that’s when things go awry,” Almadani said. “Officers are given tremendous authority and power under the law … but when there’s not a need and they’re overstepping their bounds, the body camera gives you some very powerful evidence of that.” 

He said that broader change requires a culture where officers hold themselves and their colleagues accountable.

“What we hope is that other law enforcement pay attention to this case and then train their officers so that this doesn’t happen again, because it was entirely preventable just by following the law.”