The family of a Lake Stevens man killed by police in 2023 alleges delays in obtaining a court-ordered mental health evaluation led to his death and has sued the state, the city and the officer who killed him in federal court.
The civil rights lawsuit alleges the state violated the law by not providing a timely evaluation for James Blancocotto, who it claims suffered from “readily observable drug and mental health issues,” and accuses the police officer who killed him of negligence and excessive force for leaving her patrol car open and unattended.
Police said Blancocotto, 30, was shot by Officer Kerry Bernhard as he tried to drive away in her cruiser.
The shooting followed a short pursuit of a van Blancocotto had reportedly stolen from a parking lot at a Lake Stevens shopping center after assaulting its owner. After colliding with parked vehicles and driving erratically from the shopping center, he abandoned the van on Highway 9 and ran with police in pursuit, according to news reports.
One of the officers was Bernhard, and the lawsuit alleges she “attacked (Blancocotto) when he entered her police vehicle,” which had been left unlocked with the keys in the ignition, the lawsuit said.
“James Blancocotto could have safely driven the vehicle without injury or imminent risk of injury to any LSPD officer nearby had he not been shot,” the lawsuit states.
Edward Moore, the family’s Seattle attorney, said Blancocotto’s death “resulted from a series of circumstances that could easily have been avoided had he received the help he needed.”
The event that set it off, he said, was the state’s inability to provide mental health evaluations to people incarcerated in jail charged with state crimes. It’s an issue that has plagued the state’s Department of Social and Health Services for a decade and has led to attempts at sweeping — and expensive — reforms of a system that continues to struggle under crushing caseloads and lack of resources.
Counsel representing the city of Lake Stevens and the state of Washington did not return emails seeking comment. Both have denied liability in court filings.
Blancocotto had been in jail since June 2022 awaiting trial on robbery charges, according to The Daily Herald in Everett. Most of that time had been spent in solitary confinement because of his behavioral problems, which led his attorney and the court to question whether he was capable of standing trial.
On Oct. 25, 2022, Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Anita Farris ordered the state to conduct a mental health competency evaluation for Blancocotto at Western State Hospital.
By law, the state has 14 days to conduct such a hearing in cases where a charged defendant is awaiting trial. As the deadline approached in Blancocotto’s case, Western State Hospital alerted the court that its beds were full and he could not be admitted.
After a back and forth with the court and county prosecutors, all concerned that Blancocotto might pose a risk to himself or others, he was released into the custody of a nonprofit facility on Dec. 23, 2022. That facility, the Hands Up Project, released Blancocotto on Jan. 12, the day before the shooting, according to news reports.
“James Blancocotto was released without the needed mental health evaluation and treatment,” says the lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle in March. Moore said it would have been “clear to anyone” that he was suffering from a mental health crisis and that efforts to de-escalate the situation should have been made.
“The LSPD and (the state of Washington) failed to reasonably accommodate James Blancocotto’s emotional and mental disability in a public forum,” the lawsuit states.