San Bernardino Pays Local Woman $300,000 for False Arrest

Hit and run victim who called police from accident scene and filed collision Report with San Bernardino police falsely arrested for hit and run

Newport Beach, CA, January 17, 2025

Livier Coronel Case Press Release Photo 1-17-24On the morning of October 5, 2021 a San Bernardino woman involved in a traffic collision called 911 and reported the collision to the San Bernardino Police Department after the other motorist left the collision scene on foot (later to return to scene). 

After waiting an hour, the San Bernardino Police Department failed to show-up at the collision scene, so after her van was towed away Livier Coronel filed
an Online Traffic Collision Report with the San Bernardino Police Department about the October 5, 2021 hit and run collision.

That report Online Traffic Collision Report, filed less than two hours after the Collision, reported that the other motorist: “ . . . tried to leave the scene but his car would not start so he took off on foot then came back. I was able to get a name because he had it on his working shirt at the moment. I have provided my witnesses.”

Later that same day the other motorist who had initially fled the accident scene went to the San Bernardino Police Department and reported that it was Livier Coronel who fled the scene of the collision without exchanging driver and insurance information.

Thereafter, without checking the Dispatch Printout of the October 5, 2021 incident that showed that Livier Coronel was the motorist who called the San Bernardino Police Department to report the collision, and ignoring the Online Collision Report filed by Livier Coronel less than two hours after the collision, the San Bernardino Police Department procured the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office to file criminal charges in December of 2021 against her for Misdemeanor hit and run.

In January of 2022, Livier Coronel called the San Bernardino Police Department inquiring why they had not contacted her about her Online hit and run report about the motorist who initially fled the scene, and when they were going to contact her and her witnesses regarding the same.

The San Bernardino Police Department played dumb and acted like they were investigating Livier Coronel’s reported allegations when they already knew that the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office had already filed criminal charges against her and that there was a warrant for her arrest that issued from that criminal case filing against Ms. Coronel.

By April of 2022, the San Bernardino Police Department police had already contacted Livier Coronel’s witnesses shown in her Online Collision Report, who told them that the other motorist, not Livier Coronel, was the party who fled the scene of the collision. They also told Livier Coronel to come to the San Bernardino Police Department to pick up a copy of the police report that she had been repeatedly requesting from them for months.

When Livier Coronel went to the San Bernardino Police Department station anticipating that she was finally going to get the police report for her hit and run collision they arrested her and took her to jail, knowing that she was innocent and the hit and run victim.

When the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office finally saw the statements of Livier Coronel’s witnesses, they dismissed the criminal hit and run case against her.

Livier Coronel’s lawyer, Newport Beach Police Misconduct Attorney Jerry L. Steering commented:

JLS in Courtroom cropped 2“What the San Bernardino Police Department did to  Livier Coronel was cowardly, dishonest and cruel. They knew that they had procured the criminal prosecution of an innocent hit and run crime victim. They knew that an arrest warrant had issued for Livier Coronel’s arrest based on that bogus criminal hit and run case filed against her that was filed due to their incompetence.

Nonetheless, the San Bernardino Police Department did not have the decency to tell Livier Coronel that they made a terrible mistake, and instead lured her to the police station to arrest her by telling her that the police report in her case was now ready for her to come and pick up. When she arrived at the police department they arrested her and confined her in jail. They should be ashamed of themselves.”

Livier Coronel still has an active case against the other motorist involved in the hit and run collision for malicious prosecution in federal court. See, Second Amended Complaint in Livier Coronel v. City of San Bernardino, et al.; United States District Court, Central District of California Case Number 5:23-cv- 01030-JGB-SP.