What’s next for Rushing family after public records ruling

CHICO — With the judge’s ruling firm, Scott Rushing sets off for the next step in his ongoing court battle with the city of Chico and the Chico Police Department.

Earlier this week it was announced that Judge Stephen Benson ruled in favor of Rushing’s camp in a Public Records Act request dating back to late 2022. Rushing received a tip from one of his sources that there was a PowerPoint presentation that may have information relating to the death of his son, Tyler Rushing.

Tyler Rushing was shot by police and died on July 23, 2017 and the Butte County District Attorney’s Office ultimately ruled the shooting as justified. Since then, Scott Rushing has been working toward a civil lawsuit against the officers involved. His journey eventually led to the information he received regarding the training PowerPoint as well as the names of the officers that made up the crisis negotiation team at the time of Tyler Rushing’s death.

“Initially, I didn’t even know if it was real,” Rushing said. “I just got a tip that I should investigate this training material because it involved Tyler. The tactics as well.”

After some time Rushing received a notice from the attorney’s office representing the city of Chico denying his request.

“That at least confirmed that it existed,” Rushing said.

Bensen’s ruling stated that the city would need to turn over the requested information, including an unredacted copy of the PowerPoint presentation within 60 days. Rushing said he’s not sure what to expect exactly from the presentation.

“When my team receives it, we’ll look at it, and we can answer that question but right now we just don’t have that knowledge,” Rushing said.

To prepare for the lawsuit, Rushing said he hired Aaron Field, an attorney out of Oakland who specializes in public records lawsuits.

It’s still unclear if the lawsuit’s outcome will affect how Chico handles public records requests going forward. Chico City Attorney John Lam said Thursday he had no comment on the matter.

Civil suit

In the longer-term, Scott Rushing and his team are working toward a civil lawsuit against the officers involved. The jury trial is set to begin on October 7.

While Rushing acknowledges that the officers will never be convicted in criminal court, he hopes for some form of justice in the civil trial.

“I want the officers convicted for using unreasonable force when they killed Tyler,” Rushing said. “My hope is that the jury will rule that the officers are guilty of using unreasonable force. They won’t go to jail, the officers themselves will not lose one dollar, they don’t have to pay any award — that will come from the taxpayers of Chico. What I’m saying is the officers really have nothing at stake. They won’t go broke, they won’t lose their homes. It’s strictly for damages. But we need a conviction.”

Rushing and his wife Paula have been fighting the battle since 2017. A lot has happened in that time. The judge originally on the case was Morrison England but has since changed to Dale Drozd. Rushing’s former trial attorney Mark Merin died of cancer, prompting him to bring in new counsel.

“Most parents would be angry if someone hurt their child,” Rushing said. “That’s a very normal parental response. You’re going to want to know the details of someone hurts your kids. That’s how Paula and I feel. We’ve wanted to know everything we can possibly know.”