CHP to pay $10M for paralyzing Salinas man high on meth, armed with gun

By Lisa Fernandez

SALINAS, Calif. (KTVU) - The California Highway Patrol agreed to pay $10 million to a mother after a jury found two of its officers violated her son's constitutional rights by shooting him nearly 45 times and paralyzing him, even though he was high on methamphetamine, armed at times with a gun and later convicted of assaulting police, stealing a car, hit-and-run and DUI. 

$10M CHP award 

A federal jury on May 28 returned the unanimous verdict finding damages of $9.2 million in the case of Ari Gold of Salinas. 

The settlement, which includes paying father-and-son attorneys Walter and Jeff Walker of San Francisco, was agreed to on Tuesday in the San Francisco courtroom of U.S. District Court Judge Rita Lin. The jury found that the CHP officers used excessive force, were negligent and assaulted Gold. 

The jury did not find that the CHP officers' supervisors were negligent, and they also assigned roughly 20 percent of the blame to Gold himself, according to the verdict. 

Gold's mother, Liza Gold, filed the complaint in 2020. Her son was paralyzed by the CHP shooting in 2019, and died in January 2023. 

"Ari Gold certainly made some mistakes on that day," said one of his attorneys, Jeff Walker. "But by the time he actually encountered police officers, he was hiding in his grandmother's bathroom waiting for someone to come help him feel safe. Even though our society seems to be trending in a law-and-order direction, that law-and-order also applies to the police officers that enforce that." 

Walker said the jury was ultimately swayed by the fact that the CHP fired "blindly," firing 44 times in all at a 24-year-old man, even if he was high and armed. 

"It means something that our society recognizes that people can make mistakes and just because you've made mistakes does not mean the police get to shoot you," Walker added. 

Liza Gold added that she feels her son was painted in a "harsh light," but he was a kind and respectful young man with a lot of friends.

She said he struggled with mental health issues and drug addiction. 

"I mean, he was my best friend," she said. "My protector." 

The CHP did not immediately respond for comment. 

Meth, stolen truck 

The case stems from what happened on July 23, 2019, in Salinas, when two CHP officers investigating a non-injury hit-and-run of a car went into a home with their guns drawn and found Gold hiding in his grandmother’s bathroom.

Gold was high on methamphetamine and was having delusions, both prosecutors and his attorneys said. 

He had also stolen a truck from a family friend who had left the keys inside and driven it recklessly across town to get to the safety of his grandmother’s house in the Toro Park neighborhood, his attorneys acknowledged.

Just before turning down his grandmother’s street, he had hit a parked car and nearly hit a car occupied by the wife and daughter of CHP Officer Christopher Weaver.

When Gold got to his grandmother's house, he grabbed his uncle's gun and took it into his grandmother’s bedroom, where he locked the door and hid in the bathroom, his lawyers said. 

Meanwhile, Weaver’s wife called her husband and told him she had nearly been hit by a truck, which was now parked in a driveway on a cul-de-sac.

Weaver immediately got on his motorcycle and rode to where the truck was parked.

CHP Officer Kristi Cho joined Weaver, after getting 911 calls from neighbors who had witnessed the hit-and-run.,  

As Weaver and Cho were walking around the house, Gold's grandmother arrived.

CHP ‘clears’ house

The officers told her they thought someone might be inside and asked if she wanted them to "clear" the house, according to court records.

She gave them the key and they went inside.

Neither Weaver nor Cho had ever cleared a house before, Gold's lawyers said, but went inside at the grandmother's request.

While searching the house, the officers forced open the locked door to the master suite and then split up inside the house. 

Weaver went to the bedroom and Cho made her way to the bathroom, which was behind a large Jacuzzi, according to evidence presented at trial. 

Police and prosecutors at the time said the officers requested a K-9 unit but were told there was none available or in the immediate area.

Blood and shattered glass are seen on the floor of the bathroom after Ari Gold was shot by the CHP. Photo: Attorney Jeff Walker

Bathroom shooting

During a search of the home, Cho found Gold hiding behind a shower curtain in the master bathroom, while Weaver was just outside the bathroom.

Both officers ordered Gold to get down on the ground, authorities said.

Without warning, Gold reached behind the shower curtain, grabbed a loaded semiautomatic .45 caliber model 1911 handgun, and pointed it at Cho, police said. 

The handgun had a live round in the chamber, the thumb safety was off, and the hammer was cocked, both prosecutors and Gold's lawyers said. 

"Had Gold pulled the trigger, the firearm would have fired a round at Cho who was standing six feet away," the Monterey County District Attorney said at the time. 

Cho began firing at Gold and as she backed out of the bathroom entrance, she fell to the ground, police said. 

Weaver, hearing the shots and seeing Cho fall to the ground, began firing through the wall of the bathroom, believing that his partner had been shot, police said.

From a distance of less than five feet away, Cho shot 16 times and missed every shot, Gold's lawyers said.

She put bullets in the ceiling, the floor, the Jacuzzi and various windows in different parts of the house.

Weaver began firing through walls, shooting 28 times without knowing what was on the other side of the walls, Gold's attorneys said.

(L-R) Liza Gold and son Ari Gold. Photo: Family 

Shots rendered Gold a quadriplegic

One of his shots hit Gold in the shoulder and traveled into his spinal cord, rendering him a quadriplegic.

Gold never fired a shot. 

His mother and his attorney both contend that he tossed his gun the moment Cho entered the bathroom, and so, wasn't technically armed when police came inside. 

Gold testified in his own defense during a subsequent criminal trial that he was sitting on the toilet when Cho opened the bathroom door. Gold testified that upon seeing the officer, he immediately threw his firearm to her, and the officers started shooting at him.

"We feel strongly that the jury verdict is a vindication of Ari Gold's story," Walker said. 

Jury convicts 

The Monterey County District Attorney charged Gold with brandishing a gun at an officer and assaulting an officer.

In 2022, a Monterey County jury found him guilty of assault with a semiautomatic firearm on a peace officer, brandishing a firearm in the presence of a peace officer, driving under the influence of a drug, and hit-and-run.  

Before trial, Gold pleaded no contest to a felony violation of vehicle theft. The jury also found that Gold personally used a firearm when he assaulted the peace officer.

Gold dies 

Gold died five years after he was convicted.

Attorneys Walter Walker, Jeff Walker and Clarissa Kearns of the San Francisco firm of Walker, Hamilton & Kearns, took on the civil case, charging Cho and Weaver with constitutional violations, assault, battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and negligence.

Gold's lawyers said that during two court-ordered settlement conferences, the CHP offered $0 to settle the case. 

Other multi-million CHP awards

In recent years, the CHP has paid out several multimillion-dollar awards.

The highest was $24 million in 2023 after officers pinned Edward Bronstein down while trying to draw his blood at a traffic stop in Altadena. He later died. 

That same year, the CHP paid $7 million after officers fatally shot Erik Salgado and wounded his girlfriend during a 2020 traffic stop in Oakland.