{"id":4611,"date":"2026-07-15T21:40:02","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T21:40:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=4611"},"modified":"2026-07-15T21:40:02","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T21:40:02","slug":"we-will-continue-this-fight-yolanda-ramirezs-death-ruled-accident-as-brentwood-cops-take-the-stand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=4611","title":{"rendered":"‘We will continue this fight’: Yolanda Ramirez’s death ruled ‘accident’ as Brentwood cops take the stand"},"content":{"rendered":"
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MARTINEZ \u2014 A coroner\u2019s inquest jury has ruled that last year\u2019s death of 72-year-old Yolanda Ramirez resulted from an accident after Brentwood police officers left her handcuffed in the back of a car as she deteriorated and went unconscious, a determination that runs afoul of two dueling autopsy reports.<\/p>\n

Read more San Jose police seek assistance in locating dognapped Frenchie<\/a><\/p>\n

The jury\u2019s non-unanimous decision came after a Wednesday coroner\u2019s inquest that included testimony from two officers who arrested Ramirez last year on suspicion of misdemeanor resisting arrest and one of two forensic pathologists who performed an autopsy, and determined she died from a stroke brought about by pre-existing medical conditions, like high blood pressure and diabetes. A second autopsy, contracted by Ramirez\u2019s family, ruled her death a homicide.<\/p>\n

The inquest was held in response to public outcry over the controversial death, and Ramirez\u2019s family and friends packed the Martinez courtroom. As members of the public filed out, Ramirez\u2019s son loudly called for \u201cjustice.\u201d After the hearing, her widower, Rudolf \u201cRudy\u201d Ramirez, called the verdict a \u201csmall win\u201d but said the police investigation amounted to, \u201cwe investigated ourselves and we found that we did nothing wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not the case,\u201d said Rudy Ramirez, Yolanda\u2019s husband of 49 years. His family has retained a lawyer and sued the Brentwood police department, accusing them of killing her and injuring her head during the arrest.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will continue this fight for Yolanda, and to make sure that we\u2019re a thorn in their side,\u201d he added, \u201cAnd we need support.\u201d<\/p>\n

Members of the jury were seen weeping in court as they watched lengthy videos from police body camera footage and inside a cop car, showing Ramirez calling for help and begging someone to contact her husband before she slumps over, limp and unresponsive. The Brentwood officers who arrested Ramirez, Danielle Tjhia and Aaron Peachman, gave brief testimony, answering a handful of questions by stating she appeared fine when they put her in the car and that they were trying to arrest her with \u201cas little force as possible\u201d after she started \u201cresisting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their body cameras show Ramirez audibly refused to get into a car after police attempted to detain her during an argument at her sister\u2019s home, where she allegedly knocked over a potted plant. Minutes after being carried and placed into the back of the car, Ramirez seems to realize she\u2019s in distress. She calls out for police to take off her handcuffs and give her water, but a man can be heard telling, \u201cno, you can get that stuff when you\u2019re in jail.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ramirez died Oct. 3, 2025, after a seven-day hospital stay, and Brentwood police didn\u2019t publicly acknowledge her death until weeks later, after this news organization reported about it. The two arresting officers testified they were never sequestered after Ramirez went unresponsive, failure that Brentwood\u2019s police chief attributed to the weeklong delay between the arrest and Ramirez\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

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Dr. James Caruso, the forensic pathologist hired by Contra Costa County to do Ramirez\u2019s autopsy, testified that he reviewed CT scans and other documents from her hospital stay, and ultimately looked at the body camera footage from police. He said there was nothing in the footage to explain Ramirez\u2019s brain bleed, roughly two-and-a-half inches long, and that it was most likely due to a stroke.<\/p>\n

Read more Review: The message, not messenger, is true star of record-setting concert<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a tough video to watch,\u201d Caruso said of the footage inside the police car. \u201cWe\u2019re actually watching somebody have a stroke.\u201d<\/p>\n

The jury did not hear from Dr. Matthias Okoye of the Nebraska Institute of Forensic Sciences, who conducted an autopsy after Ramirez\u2019s family reached out to him. The autopsy, funded through an initiative started by former NFL player Colin Kaepernick, determined Ramirez died of \u201cmultiple blunt force trauma and asphyxiation\u201d due to physical \u201crestraint\u201d by police. Caruso rebutted that determination on the witness stand, calling it \u201cpretty hard to comprehend\u201d how a doctor could draw that conclusion.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce I read the report, it became obvious to me that I did not miss anything,\u201d Caruso said, adding that the asphyxia determination was particularly questionable given Ramirez died days after the initial incident.<\/p>\n

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Outside of court, Rudy Ramirez mocked police officials who touted \u201ctransparency\u201d inside court but didn\u2019t call Okoye to speak. Yolanda\u2019s son, Rich Ramirez said the officers involved in the incident failed to de-escalate the situation said the \u201cbiased\u201d hearing officer didn\u2019t ask certain questions submitted by the family.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, there was only one manner of death, which was at the hands of another, because the police used excessive force on a 72-year-old woman for a $12 coffee cup, allegedly that she broke for not giving her information.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coroner\u2019s inquests used to be held for all police-related deaths. That ended in 2025, when the county\u2019s police chief\u2019s association quietly voted to end the practice, announcing their decision in a two-page document posted to the county\u2019s website. The justification was that technological \u201cadvancements in transparency\u201d make the hearings obsolete.<\/p>\n

When they were standard, inquests resulted in the involved officers giving sworn testimony, pathologists testifying, and jurors sometimes watching footage of the incidents, all in a hearing open to the public. The jury would rule whether the death was a homicide, suicide, natural, or accidental, a decision that carries no criminal or civil liability but holds as the official manner of death. Melissa Nold, the lawyer hired by Ramirez\u2019s family, said it was \u201clegally significant\u201d that the jury found Ramirez died of an accident.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt changes it from where the situation was a natural cause, there\u2019s no kind of liability for that,\u201d she said. \u201cIf it\u2019s an accident that is caused by somebody else. There\u2019s a possibility of liability for the negligence that led up to her death, which we now see a lot more of.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Redwood City: Police seeking driver who struck, killed person on foot<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Members of the jury were seen weeping and drying their eyes with tissue as a lengthy video played out showing 72-year-old Yolanda Ramirez call for help and go unconscious in the back of a police car.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4610,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n‘We will continue this fight’: Yolanda Ramirez’s death ruled ‘accident’ as Brentwood cops take the stand - Next City Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=4611\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"‘We will continue this fight’: Yolanda Ramirez’s death ruled ‘accident’ as Brentwood cops take the stand - 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