Jack Bruce was 21 years old and driving home from his grandmother's house in Hercules when he suffered his first grand mal seizure, veering off the road and crashing into a small embankment. What happened next, captured on police body camera video, has cost the city $1.35 million: officers Tased him three times, punched him in the face, and dragged him from the vehicle while he was still too disoriented from the seizure to understand their commands.
The settlement, confirmed to KTVU by Bruce's attorney Craig Peters, resolves a federal excessive force lawsuit Bruce filed in 2025 after the April 1, 2024 incident. The city of Hercules will pay $1.25 million on behalf of itself and officers Angel Garcia, Michael Thompson and Joshua Goldstein, while the Rodeo-Hercules Fire Protection District will contribute $100,000 alongside paramedic Daniel Collyer, according to the same report. The deal, reached May 4 in U.S. District Court in Oakland, heads off a trial that had been looming over the case.
Two bystander drivers who stopped after seeing Bruce's car go off the road told 911 dispatchers he appeared to be having a seizure before any officer arrived on scene, according to the Richmond Standard. Despite that warning, responding officers ordered Bruce out of his car, and when he did not comply, they forced him out, Tased him three times, and punched him in the face, per the KTVU report and Bruce's lawsuit. Bruce alleged excessive force, battery, false arrest, negligence, defamation and a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
A Medical Emergency Officers Treated as Resistance
Bruce could not comply with police orders to exit his car because the seizure had left him unable to comprehend what officers were asking of him, according to the lawsuit. Medical standards cited in the legal filings, as reported by Courthouse News, describe a post-ictal state after a grand mal seizure marked by confusion and a period of recovery, during which people may react instinctively to physical contact. Bruce reported a lacerated lip and alleged a physical assault, the outlet reports, and Bruce said his memory cut off when he left his grandmother's house.
Those medical realities are reflected in the California Commission on Police Officer Standards and Training's own guidelines, which advise officers not to physically restrain seizure victims and warn that post-seizure confusion or agitated behavior should not be read as intentional hostility, per Courthouse News. Despite that guidance, Hercules officers recommended charging Bruce with driving under the influence and resisting arrest after the crash. The charges were later dropped, the outlet notes.
According to the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training, its Basic Course Training System includes Learning Domain 34, “First Aid, CPR, and AED,” covering basic emergency medical care. According to an October 2023 California POST report, current law requires field training officers who instruct the field-training program to complete at least eight hours of crisis-intervention training.
A Prosecutor's Office With a Personal Connection
Bruce's father, John Bruce, works as a senior inspector for the Contra Costa County District Attorney's Office, the same agency that reviewed and rejected the police-recommended charges against his son, according to the Richmond Standard. Hercules Police Chief did not return an email from KTVU seeking comment on the settlement, and Bruce's family declined to comment as well.
Bruce's attorneys had originally sought $10 million in damages when the lawsuit was filed, according to court records cited by KTVU. The final $1.35 million settlement, drawn from the city and the fire district, marks a steep discount from that initial demand but still represents a significant payout for a Bay Area municipality over a single Taser incident.
Community Anger and a Regional Pattern
The release of the body camera footage was followed by local backlash, with Hercules city officials holding a public town hall after the incident, according to KTVU's earlier coverage of the meeting. The anger echoed a similar case just across the bay: in April 2026, the Central Marin Police Authority agreed to pay $3.15 million to settle a federal civil rights lawsuit after officers Tased and arrested 64-year-old financial advisor Bruce Frankel while he was suffering a grand mal seizure, a case that likewise involved officers mistaking post-seizure disorientation for deliberate defiance.
Together, the two settlements point to a pattern of costly civil liability for Bay Area police departments when officers respond to medical emergencies as if they were criminal encounters. In Bruce's case, the disconnect between what 911 dispatchers were told and how officers on scene actually behaved sits at the center of the legal claims, an operational gap that state training standards were designed to prevent.
According to the California Department of Justice’s 2024 draft executive summary, the Board analyzes RIPA stop data.
