A Los Angeles Superior Court judge has ordered the parties into private mediation in a lawsuit claiming a protester was struck in the head by a police-fired 40-millimeter rubber projectile during the June 14, 2025, No Kings Day demonstration. Plaintiff Jack Kearns alleges that the impact left him concussed, required intensive care, and that officers handcuffed and questioned him instead of immediately calling for medical help. The court has set a status hearing for April 7, 2027, and penciled in a trial date of July 31, 2028, if the case does not settle.
Judge Gary Roberts instructed both sides to begin private mediation and to file a report on their settlement efforts at least a week before the April 7 status hearing, according to MyNewsLA. The complaint, filed Dec. 18, 2025, seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.
According to the lawsuit, Kearns had been handing out water at City Hall when he tried to leave a police skirmish line and "was hit in the rear of his head by a 40-millimeter rubber bullet at about 6:30 p.m. on First Street." The complaint says officers then "got on top of Kearns and handcuffed him as blood spilled onto his shirt and hat" and initially interrogated him instead of taking him to a hospital. Kearns says he suffered a concussion, spent two nights in intensive care, and missed work because of persistent headaches and trauma, according to MyNewsLA.
Body-camera footage later released shows an officer firing a "less-lethal" round and Kearns collapsing to the pavement, and the LAPD told reporters the shot came after what it described as Kearns breaking through a police skirmish line. Kearns told ABC7 he was hospitalized for three days and had bleeding on the brain, an account that differs in some details from the civil complaint.
Why the 40mm rounds matter
The LAPD's use of 40-millimeter and 37-millimeter projectiles has already drawn multiple lawsuits, and a federal judge has limited their deployment to properly trained officers and barred aiming at the head, torso, and groin, as reported by the Los Angeles Times. That legal backdrop, combined with the city's history of multimillion-dollar payouts in protest-injury cases, gives both sides a clear incentive to see if mediation can head off a lengthy trial.
What happens next
Mediation is set to move ahead before the court's April 7, 2027, status hearing, with the July 31, 2028, trial date still on the books if talks fall apart. If the case does go to trial, discovery will likely feature body and officer-camera footage along with testimony about crowd-control tactics and any warnings given before projectiles were fired. For now, the litigation remains active, and the judge will review the parties' settlement report next spring.
