Former Modesto officer suing DA’s Office for charging him in 2020 fatal shooting.

A former Modesto police officer who was charged with voluntary manslaughter in a fatal December 2020 shooting is suing prosecutors, alleging that he never should have been charged and that his civil rights were violated.

Joseph Lamantia’s lawsuit was filed July 10 in Stanislaus County Superior Court against former District Attorney Birgit Fladager, District Attorney Jeff Laugero and the county.

Lamantia is represented by the California Legal Institute, which did not respond to requests for comment. The institute is near Palm Springs.

The lawsuit alleges the District Attorney’s Office failed to follow the law regarding the use of force in evaluating Lamantia’s Dec. 29, 2020, shooting of Trevor Seever and disregarded the report from a use-of-force expert it had hired, who concluded the shooting was justified.

The expert, retired Bay Area officer Jeffrey Martin, testified on Lamantia’s behalf at his preliminary hearing. The lawsuit also alleges the District Attorney’s Office conducted its own flawed investigation, which resulted in Lamantia being wrongly charged.

The lawsuit seeks unstated financial damages, attorneys fees and other costs associated with the litigation.

In March 2021, the Modesto Police Department fired Lamantia and the District Attorney’s Office charged him in Seever’s death. Lamantia fatally shot Seever on the grounds of a west Modesto church. Seever, 29, was running away and unarmed when Lamantia shot him.

Seever family members have said they were concerned about his mental state when one of them called 911. Seever had texted them that he had purchased a gun and called his mother to tell her that he was coming to the house and they needed to leave and call 911.

Lamantia told an Internal Affairs investigator who interviewed him that he believed Seever was armed and intent on killing his family. Once he got to the church, Lamantia has said he believed Seever was trying to ambush him. He also was aware of Seever’s dead-cop wishes on social media.

Stanislaus County Superior Court Judge Carrie Stephens in July 2023 dismissed the manslaughter charge against Lamantia at the conclusion of his preliminary hearing, ruling a reasonable officer might have done just what Lamantia did.

The killing of Trevor Seever was Lamantia’s fourth fatal officer-involved shooting since 2010 as a Modesto officer. He was cleared in the three previous ones. Lamantia, 38, started his law enforcement career with Modesto in 2008.

The Bee reported in January that Lamantia was seeking an arbitration hearing to get his job back and that attorneys representing him and the city were attempting to select an arbitrator. The arbitrator’s decision would be final, based on the labor agreement between the city and the Modesto Police Officers Association.

An arbitrator still has not been selected.

“... The status remains the same,” the city said in a statement. “No arbitrator has been selected at this time, and no date has been set for any hearing. The city has been and remains ready to move forward with arbitration. As previously stated, the city stands by its termination decision and will see the process through.”

Lamantia’s attorney did not respond to requests for comment regarding the status of arbitration.

DA’s Office spokesman Wendell Emerson said former DA Fladager and her successor, Laugero, would not comment for this story and referred questions to the County Counsel’s Office. County Counsel Tom Boze said in an email that his office does not comment on pending litigation.

Lamantia’s shooting of Seever sparked outcry and anguish in Modesto and came during heightened scrutiny and questions nationwide about law enforcement after the May 2020 death of George Floyd. Seever’s death was a catalyst in Modesto forming a civilian police review board and hiring an independent police auditor.

Modesto settled a lawsuit brought by Seever’s family for $7.5 million in April 2023.

Lamantia’s shooting of Seever also was a rare instance in which prosecutors charged an on-duty officer in an officer-involved shooting. Emerson could not recall of another on-duty shooting in which an officer was charged in his roughly quarter century with the DA’s Office.