The City of Chico has paid $325,000 to settle a lawsuit over police Sgt. Mark Bass’ berating and manhandling of a 95-pound,17-year-old drunken driving suspect whose right arm was healing from surgery.
The settlement was paid in June to Lilly Rush, who was a minor identified in court papers only as “L.R.” when the excessive force suit was filed in June 2023 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California.
Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey’s office charged Rush in juvenile court with a DUI and resisting arrest after the March 2023 incident, according to her mother, Kona Koshak, who was Kona Rush at the time. All charges were ultimately dismissed, and Rush emerged not only with a six-figure settlement but with a clean juvenile record, Koshak said.
Ramsey said he is prohibited by law from discussing Rush’s juvenile charges but described the usual course in such cases: a juvenile delinquency petition, six months of court-granted diversion and, if a probation-designed rehabilitation program is completed, dismissal and sealing of the case.
Rush did not respond to a request for comment.
Koshak has said her daughter’s civil attorney told her it is common for prosecutors to bring resisting arrest charges to thwart excessive force claims against police. Rush’s confrontation with Bass, captured on multiple cell phone cameras, was covered in an in-depth ChicoSol video report that explored Bass’ checkered past.
Rush’s complaint claimed Bass and other officers caused her “excruciating” pain by twisting her recovering arm during handcuffing. About four months prior, Rush had a metal plate surgically implanted into her arm and pins placed into three fingers after being injured in an auto accident.
On the night of March 8, 2023, Rush was driving with friends when pulled over by Chico PD officer Juan Valencia on Nord Avenue a mile away from a turn she had made. Officers told her she was stopped for failing to signal and because her truck was suspected — wrongly, as it turned out — of being one from which racial slurs had been shouted downtown.
Her passengers included her Latino boyfriend, Ramon Cortez, and three other teens, two of them Black. Five patrol cars stacked up behind her truck.
Asked to take a Breathalyzer test, Rush declined to do so until her mother arrived to advise her. When Koshak pulled up, Rush got out of her truck, believing she had permission from Valencia to go to her mom.
“The first time I saw Sgt. Bass, he came charging at me, saying, ‘Get on the floor! Get back in your car! Get on the floor!’” Rush said in the ChicoSol report.
Cortez was seated on the ground after being ordered out of Rush’s vehicle by police. When Bass grabbed Rush and kicked her legs out from under her, Cortez, in a video he recorded, shouts, “Hey! She’s got a broken arm! Sir, sir, sir, sir, she has broken arm!” Later, he pleads, “Dude, do not detain her! … She can’t bend her arm!”
Surprised to see her daughter suddenly on the ground and crying out, Koshak also pleaded with Bass, Valencia and officer Jose Mata.
“Please be careful with her arm. Please,” Koshak says in a video she shot. “Please be careful. It’s got a metal plate in it.”
At one point Bass walks over to Koshak and says Rush has “been acting a fool. … You need to get in your car and go away.” Koshak declined, saying she was observing from a safe distance.
When Rush tries to explain to Bass about her arm, he leans over, gets in her face and berates her. “Guess what? Guess what?” he says in a video shot by Koshak. “Sit down and it doesn’t happen! Do you understand me?”
Rush eventually agreed to a sobriety test. Her blood alcohol content was 0.10, said her mother — above the 0.08 threshold for adult drivers and 10 times the 0.01 limit California sets for drivers under 21.
Chico Police Chief Billy Aldridge referred questions about the Rush settlement to the city manager’s office. “I was never involved in this settlement and even if I was, I can’t comment on any litigation or settlements,” Aldridge said.
City Council to discuss separate lawsuit in closed session today
Bass’ history includes involvement in two fatal shootings, including the killing of Gabe Sanchez, as well as multiple domestic violence allegations documented in court declarations and other records. Bass was suspended and investigated criminally after injuring his teenage son in a fight, according to records the city says it has but has refused to release. The DA’s investigation produced a report but no criminal charges.
Rush’s attorney, Stanley Goff of San Francisco, also represents the family of Sanchez in an active wrongful death suit against Bass and the City of Chico. The City Council is scheduled to discuss the Sanchez suit in closed session at its Aug. 18 meeting.
In 2020, then Police Chief Mike O’Brien, who is now a City Council member, selected Bass as Chico’s police officer of the year, calling him a “class act.” Bass shortly thereafter was promoted to sergeant and retired in 2024 after 25 years with the department.
Freelance journalist Dave Waddell is a longtime ChicoSol contributor. In December, he filed a California Public Records Act lawsuit related to Butte County police shootings. The defendants include Ramsey and Chico PD. Each side has appealed the trial court’s ruling.
2 Comments
Once more, I would like to thank the ChicoSol team for bringing out this stunning account of a cop who, as described by then Chico PD Chief and present Chico City Council member Michael O’Brain, was a “class act”. ……I want to give credit to investigative journalist Dave Waddell for educating the public about the shady side of Butte County law enforcement something that you won’t find in the other Butte County media outlets which seem to be influenced by law enforcement leaders.
Now get rid of FLOCK cameras