Aasylei Loggervale and her two teenage daughters had been driving all night. They set out at 10 p.m. from Loggervale's Las Vegas home in September 2019 to complete the nine-hour trip to California's Berkeley City College in time for Loggervale's older daughter to take a statistics exam the next day.
They made an early morning stop in Castro Valley, Calif., where Loggervale pulled into a Starbucks parking lot. She and her daughters planned to use the bathroom and get coffee before driving the final 30 minutes to Berkeley.
Then a deputy from the Alameda County Sheriff's Office knocked on her window.
In a confrontation captured on body-camera footage, the deputy, Steven Holland, told Loggervale that he was investigating car break-ins in the area. He then asked to see Loggervale's identification. Loggervale refused. She said she hadn't done anything wrong and asked why she was being questioned.
Holland ordered all three family members out of the car and detained them, video shows. Officers handcuffed them and held them in a patrol car without citing them for a crime.
On Wednesday, a jury awarded the Loggervales $8.25 million in damages, concluding a years-long lawsuit against Alameda County, Holland and another deputy who assisted in handcuffing the family members. Craig Peters, one of the attorneys representing the Loggervales, said the sum was increased by a California law, the Bane Act, that allows juries to quadruple damages awarded in cases involving a violation of constitutional rights.
"They're a rather private family," Peters told The Washington Post. "But they felt that what had happened was really wrong, and so they were willing to file the lawsuit and try to hold the sheriff's office accountable."
The Alameda County Sheriff's Office and an attorney representing the defendants did not respond to requests for comment.
The parking lot confrontation derailed what should have been a celebratory week for the Loggervales, Peters said. The family had planned a road trip, stopping first in the Bay Area to allow Loggervale's older daughter, then 19, to complete her exam before traveling down to the San Diego area to celebrate her younger daughter's upcoming 18th birthday at Legoland.
Loggervale's older daughter was a straight-A student who hoped to transfer from community college to UCLA, Peters said.
Instead of driving her daughter to her exam, Loggervale was questioned by Holland as she sat parked outside of Starbucks.
In Holland's body-camera footage, he can be heard telling Loggervale that there had been several car break-ins at the parking lot on previous mornings before asking what the family was doing. Loggervale said they were visiting Starbucks after having driven through the night.
Holland then asked to see Loggervale's ID. Loggervale asked why. When Holland said she had no choice, Loggervale told her daughter to start recording Holland on her phone.
"I got to have protection," Loggervale said when Holland questioned why that was necessary. "Because I don't know where this is about to go."
Loggervale continued to protest that she had done nothing wrong, and Holland continued to ask for her ID, video shows. Loggervale asked Holland to call a supervisor, but he refused. Loggervale then attempted to call 911 on the deputy. One of her daughters exited the car to use the restroom, prompting Holland to stop her.
"Okay, everyone in this car is detained," Holland can be heard telling Loggervale's daughter. "You can go back in the car and wait, or you can go in handcuffs and go in my car."
Holland then opened Loggervale's door and grabbed her arm while ordering her out of the car, video shows. Loggervale complied and told her daughters to stay calm. Officers handcuffed all three family members and placed them in patrol vehicles, then searched Loggervale's car before eventually releasing the family.
Holland wrote in his report on the detentions that, in response to reports of car break-ins, officers had been on alert for young Black males in a silver vehicle like the one Loggervale was driving, according to Peters, who reviewed Alameda County Sheriff's Office documents for the case.
But Holland's report was wrong, Peters said. A report of a car break-in from the previous day described a Black male and a Latino male driving a two-door, dark gray hatchback as suspects who broke into a victim's silver SUV.
"Maybe he would have done the same thing if it was a carload of White women," Peters said. "But that seems unlikely to me."
Even if the Loggervales matched the description of the suspects, that wouldn't have been enough justification to detain them, Peters said. In testimony, an Alameda County officer confirmed that a similar scenario in the department's racial-profiling training instructs officers that observing a loitering individual who matches the age and race of a suspect is not sufficient evidence to detain them.
Daniel Brodie, a captain in the Alameda County Sheriff's Office who conducted an internal investigation into the incident, testified in court last month that he believed the family's detention was lawful but said he did not interview the deputies involved in the incident or the Loggervales, according to court transcripts.
According to Peters, the Alameda County Sheriff's Office did not discipline the officers involved. Both Holland and the other deputy named in the lawsuit were later promoted to captains, Peters said.
The Alameda County Sheriff's Office did not respond to an inquiry asking if both officers are still employed there.
Peters said Loggervale's older daughter arrived to her statistics test 40 minutes late and scored a C, bringing her grade in the class down to a B - the only dip in her transcript. The family, shaken by their encounter, also called off their visit to Legoland, he added.
