San Francisco is preparing to pay $825,000 to a domestic violence survivor and mother of six after a police officer slammed her against a wall during a jaywalking stop in the Richmond District two years ago. Christiana Porter suffered a separated shoulder and a concussion in the July 2024 encounter, injuries she says have kept her out of work ever since.
The proposed settlement, detailed by The San Francisco Standard, stems from an arrest that began when Porter was leaving an Office Depot after printing court documents for her own domestic violence case. SFPD Officer Josh McFall stopped her for crossing Geary Boulevard at 2nd Avenue, and according to surveillance footage and court filings reported by CBS News, Porter still had roughly eight seconds left on the countdown signal when he intervened. McFall then drove against traffic on the one-way street, blocked her path on foot, and drew his mace and firearm before pulling her hands behind her back and pushing her into a wall when she reached into her purse for identification.
A Lawsuit Alleging Excessive Force and an Illegal Stop
Porter filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in March 2025 against the City and County of San Francisco and Officer McFall, seeking damages for what her attorneys describe as civil rights violations. The case, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California and assigned to Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín, carries case number 3:25-cv-02155-AMO, according to court records reviewed by PacerMonitor. Her lawyers argue that McFall used excessive force and that the detention itself was illegal.
Porter is represented by attorneys Treva R. Stewart, Lateef Gray, Patrick Buelna, and Adante Pointer of the Oakland civil rights firm Pointer & Buelna, LLP. The legal team has publicly stated that SFPD regulations strictly prohibit officers from stopping or citing pedestrians for jaywalking unless an immediate collision hazard exists, a standard that traces back to California's Freedom to Walk Act. The San Francisco District Attorney's Office reviewed Porter's case after her arrest and declined to file any criminal charges against her, as the local outlet Mission Local reported.
Injuries That Kept Her From Working and Caring for Her Family
Porter has six children, including a 4-month-old infant at the time of the arrest, and she has said her injuries left her unable to work and unable to return to her job since. Speaking about the toll of the incident, Porter said, “I'm very happy” about the proposed settlement, while also saying that her experience happens to many other citizens and that SFPD should hold officers who harm citizens accountable. She has said she plans to use the settlement money to provide for her children and, separately, to make a film about her experience.
An Officer With a Prior Force Complaint
Officer McFall remains a city employee, and the San Francisco Police Department did not respond to a request for comment about whether he was disciplined following Porter's arrest. McFall was previously involved in a 2018 arrest of an unhoused man for trespassing that left the man with two broken arms, a case first reported by Mission Local and later detailed by The San Francisco Standard in its own coverage of the Porter case.
California decriminalized jaywalking on January 1, 2023, under Assembly Bill 2147, the Freedom to Walk Act authored by San Francisco Assemblymember Phil Ting. The law amended the state Vehicle Code to bar peace officers from stopping or ticketing pedestrians for jaywalking unless a reasonably careful person would perceive immediate danger of a collision. Lawmakers pushed the change after statewide Racial and Identity Profiling Act data showed Black Californians were up to 4.5 times more likely than white pedestrians to be stopped for jaywalking, according to the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area.
Community Response and a Regional Pattern of Payouts
Days after Porter's arrest, civil rights attorneys submitted a formal administrative claim to the city, and the SF NAACP Youth Council joined the Harriet Tubman African-American Democratic Club and the SF Business and Professional Women's Club in publicly condemning the arrest. The settlement also lands amid a broader pattern of costly police liability cases tied to minor pedestrian stops in the Bay Area. In a separate case, San Mateo County agreed in 2024 to pay $4.5 million to the family of Chinedu Okobi, a Black man who died after being tased and beaten by sheriff's deputies during a 2018 jaywalking stop in Millbrae, according to KTVU.
What Happens Next at City Hall
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors must approve the settlement before it becomes final. The city introduced File #260814 on July 28, authorizing the $825,000 payment to Porter, and referred it to the Board's Government Audit and Oversight Committee, which has scheduled a public hearing for September 3. A spokesperson for the City Attorney's Office said settlements sent to the board are typically approved. Hoodline previously covered a similar excessive-force jaywalking lawsuit elsewhere in the country, underscoring how such minor pedestrian stops have repeatedly escalated into costly legal battles for police departments.
