Officer takes selfies of himself with dying man.
The City of West Covina and Exodus Recovery, Inc. have paid the parents of a 37-year-old West Covina man a total of $10,500,000.00[1] for his death from being deprived of his asthma inhaler during his Civil Protective Custody Arrest on September 25, 2023.
Plaintiffs Theresa Chavira’s and Richard Alexander Herrera’s son, Richard Alexander Herrera, Jr., died in the custody of the West Covina Police Department after plaintiff Richard Alexander Herrera, Sr. called that agency to take Richard Alexander Herrera, Jr., into Civil Protective Custody pursuant to Cal. Welf & Inst Code § 5150. Richard Herrera, Jr. had been suffering a mental health crisis.
Richard Herrera, Jr. suffered from a rare medical condition known as ectodermal dysplasia; a genetic condition affecting the development of ectodermal tissues, which include skin, hair, nails, and sweat glands. It’s characterized by a range of symptoms, but often involves sparse or missing teeth, thin or sparse hair, and reduced or absent sweating[2].
In Richard Herrera, Jr.’s case, he had stunted growth (4’ 11” tall), he had no hair or teeth at all and no sweat glands, all along with deformed facial features. He also had severe asthma and carried an inhaler with him; something that he had on his person when he was arrested on September 25, 2025.
When the West Covina Police Department responded to Richard Herrera, Sr.’s 9-1-1 phone call, instead of taking Richard Herrera, Jr. to a psychiatric facility, the responding West Covina Police Department police officers, including and mainly the lead officer on the call for service, defendant Officer Michael Chang, they decided to make a regular criminal arrest of Richard Herrera, Jr. for assaulting his father, and took him to the West Covina Police Department Jail and booked him for menacing a 30-inch aluminum baseball bat at his father, while Richard Herrera, Jr. was suffering from a paranoid delusion.
According to defendant West Covina Police Department police officer
Michael Chang, while Richard Herrera, Jr. was at the West Covina Police Department Jail he feigned suicide by supposedly attempting to strangle himself with his shirt while he was in a holding cell during the booking process.
Richard Herrera, Jr.’s mother, Theresa Chavira, called the West Covina Police Department and spoke directly with the West Covina Police Department Jailer and a supervisor, explicitly informing them of her son’s critical medical needs, as he had no sweat glands and had severe asthma. She emphasized that he required lots of water and carbonated beverages, needed his inhaler, and should be taken to a hospital immediately[3]. The officers assured her they would transport him to a hospital after the booking process and told her to call back at 6:00 p.m.
According to West Covina Police Officer Michael Chang, after Richard Herrera, Jr. feigned suicide at the West Covina Police Department Jail, he decided to take him to a psychiatric facility pursuant to Cal. Welf & Inst Code § 5150[4].
What followed was a cruel odyssey across Los Angeles County that would prove fatal. Officer Chang drove Richard Herrera, Jr. to Emanate Health Inter-Community Hospital in Covina. When he was not admitted at Emanate[5] Officer Chang drove him all the way to LAC-USC Medical Center in Los Angeles – a significant distance away. Even there, Officer Chang again refused to seek medical treatment for Richard Herrera, Jr., instead driving him approximately 50 minutes to the Exodus Martin Luther King Jr. Urgent Care Center on Wilmington Avenue in Los Angeles. The trip from the police station to the various hospitals and eventually to MLK Exodus Recovery Urgent Care hospital was close to two hours.
Officer Chang admitted that Richard Herrera, Jr. was complaining that he could not breathe during the entire route from the police station, to Emanate Hospital, to LAC-USC Medical Center and then to MLK Exodus Recovery Urgent Care hospital.
By the time they arrived at MLK Exodus Recovery Urgent Care hospital, Richard Herrera, Jr.’s condition had deteriorated dramatically. He was suffering from a severe asthma attack, visibly gasping for every breath. Officer Chang kept Richard Herrera, Jr. handcuffed behind his back in the entrance hallway at MLK Exodus Recovery while he completed a 5150 psychiatric hold declaration form; completely ignoring the medical emergency unfolding before him.
When Officer Chang finally held the inhaler up to Richard Herrera, Jr.’s face, he did so for only about eleven seconds. When Richard Herrera, Jr., struggling to breathe and in obvious distress, initially hesitated to use it in that moment, Officer Chang coldly placed the inhaler in a storage box just a few feet away.
Richard Herrera, Jr. then jumped out of his chair and began desperately begging Officer Chang for the inhaler, apologizing for not taking it immediately and pleading for his life. His breathing was becoming increasingly labored and was obvious to anyone. However, Officer Chang’s response was “I already put it away. I’m done playing games.”
As Richard Herrera, Jr. began scooting and crawling on the floor, begging for his inhaler, and telling Officer Chang that he could not breathe, Officer Chang then watched him suffer for approximately seven minutes before offering any assistance.
As Richard Herrera, Jr.’s panic increased and his breathing became more labored, he attempted to run to the window, looking from the Entrance Hallway into the Security/Admissions Desk to cry for help from Medical and Security staff in the facility. Officer Chang physically grabbed Richard Herrera, Jr. and took him down to the floor, preventing any possibility of rescue or intervention by the hospital staff.
Richard Herrera, Jr. continued to crawl on the floor, gasping for air and begging for his inhaler, while Officer Chang stood over him, unmoved by his obvious medical emergency.
In perhaps the most disturbing aspect of this entire incident, as Richard Herrera, Jr. lay dying at Officer Chang’s feet, struggling for each breath, Officer Chang reached not for the life-saving inhaler that was just feet away, but for his cellphone and began taking ‘selfies” on his cellphone; with Richard Herrera, Jr. lying on the floor in the background in the photograph, squirming on the floor and slowly dying[6].
Richard Herrera, Jr. then stopped breathing and lay unresponsive at Officer Chang’s feet.
Officer Chang made no effort to alert medical staff, to begin CPR, or provide any form of life-saving intervention. Instead, he allowed several minutes to pass before asking a hospital Security Officer to help move Richard Herrera, Jr.’s nonresponsive body into the hospital Security / Admissions area.
Officer Chang then attempted to avoid responsibility for causing Richard Herrera, Jr.’s nonresponsive state, by summoning the MLK Exodus Recovery Security Officer, telling him that Richard Herrera, Jr. was faking unconsciousness, and asking him to drag Richard Herrera, Jr.’s lifeless body from the Hospital Entrance Hallway into the Security / Admissions area of the Hospital.
Officer Chang and the MLK Exodus Recovery Urgent Care Security Officer then literally dragged Richard Herrera, Jr.’s lifeless body from the Hospital Entrance Hallway area into the Security / Admissions area, with Officer Chang knowing that Richard Herrera, Jr. was nonresponsive, and telling the Security Officer that Richard Herrera, Jr. was faking.
Officer Chang and the Security Officer then placed Richard Herrera, Jr.’s nonresponsive body in a chair in the Security / Admissions area and propped-up his body in a seating position like “Weekend at Bernie’s”., and telling the Security / Admissions staff there that Richard Herrera, Jr. was faking; “playing games”. Officer Chang continued to hold Richard Herrera , Jr.’s upright in a seated position for several more minutes, until he finally let go of his shoulder, resulting in Richard Herrera, Jr.’s head to drop-down between his knees. Officer Chang continued telling Security and Admissions staff that the Richard Herrera, Jr. was “playing games”, continuing to cause them not to seek or to administer emergency medical care for him; emergency medical care that could have very well revived him and saved his life.
The MLK Exodus Recovery Urgent Care Nurse eventually came into the intake area to check Richard Herrera, Jr.’s vitals so he could be properly admitted to the mental health facility. When the nurse discovered that Richard Herrera, Jr. was not breathing, she immediately told Officer Chang to remove the handcuffs. Only then, more than ten minutes after Richard Herrera, Jr. had become nonresponsive did Officer Chang and the nurse finally place Richard Herrera, Jr.’s body on the floor and began chest compressions.
Those efforts were futile as Richard Herrera, Jr. had suffered a cardiac arrest far too long before those efforts began, making resuscitation impossible. Richard Herrera, Jr. died because Officer Chang failed to provide Richard Herrera, Jr. his asthma inhaler; first, on the two-hour trek from the West Covina Police Department station to MLK Exodus Recovery Urgent Care, and then at that hospital, and thereafter by sadistically withholding his asthma inhaler that could have, and most likely would have saved his life. Richard Herrera, Jr. had suffered cardiac arrests from oxygen deprivation due to his asthma condition in the past, and had been revived by emergency medical personnel with defibrillators and chest compressions.
Officer Chang transformed a routine medical emergency into a fatal power struggle, using Richard Herrera, Jr.’s desperation as entertainment while documenting the young man’s final moments on his phone with “selfies” with the dying man on the floor, gasping for his last breaths.
Plaintiffs Theresa Chavira and Richard Alexander Herrera’s lawyer in this case, Jerry L. Steering[7], has commented on the $10,500,000.00 case settlement:
“In my 42 years of suing police officers, I have never seen such cruelty and malice by a police officer against a fellow creature. I have seen police shootings and smothering’s, the use of force as torture, and even extreme cases of psychological torture by police officers. However, I have never seen or even heard of conduct by a police officer so depraved, and frankly, so evil.”
“The $10,500,000.00 settlement amount of this case reflects an understanding by the City of Whittier that if they had taken this case to trial, that Officer Chang’s outrageous behavior very well could have resulted in a verdict much higher.”
“The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office found that Richard Herrera’s death was the result of methamphetamine overdose; something untrue. That finding was the result of Officer Chang lying to the Medical Examiner’s Office’s Investigator about when and where Richard Herrera, Jr. collapsed. He told them that he was sitting with Richard Herrera, Jr. in the Security / Admissions area, when he suddenly keeled over and collapsed. We know that was not so. We know the truth.”
Jerry L. Steering, Esq.
Theresa Chavira v. City of West Covina, et al. Case No. 2:24-cv-08464-SB-PVC & Theresa Chavira v. Exodus Recovery, Inc. et al. Case No. 2:25-cv-09201-SB-PVC
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[1] The City of Whittier’s portion of the settlement was $9,950,000.00, and Exodus Recovery, Inc.’s portion of the settlement was $550,000.00.
[2] Ectodermal Dysplasia, National Library of Medicine, July 24, 2023.
[3] When Richard Herrera, Jr. was arrested, defendant West Covina Police Department Michael Chang found an asthma inhaler in his pants pocket.
[4] Cal. Welf & Inst Code § 5150(a) provides: When a person, as a result of a mental health disorder, is a danger to others, or to themselves, or gravely disabled, a peace officer, professional person in charge of a facility designated by the county for evaluation and treatment, member of the attending staff, as defined by regulation, of a facility designated by the county for evaluation and treatment, designated members of a mobile crisis team, or professional person designated by the county may, upon probable cause, take, or cause to be taken, the person into custody for a period of up to 72 hours for assessment, evaluation, and crisis intervention, or placement for evaluation and treatment in a facility designated by the county for evaluation and treatment and approved by the State Department of Health Care Services.
[5] Allegedly because it was full and that they would have to wait several hours
[6] Officer Chang claimed he was trying to find cellphone service. However, the hospital Security Officer Supervisor testified that cellphone service in the entrance hallway was perfectly adequate.
[7] Along with Gregory Peacock.
