by Mick Rhodes | editor@claremont-courier.com and Andrew Alonzo | aalonzo@claremont-courier.com

A pretrial conference date has been set for a civil case that names former Claremont Police Department officer Gabriel Arellanes, the City of Claremont, and 10 city employees, alleging sexual battery and civil rights violations and seeking up to $25 million in damages.

The October 4, 2024 civil complaint, filed in United States District Court Central District of California, is brought by a 38-year-old Highland, California woman referred to as “Jane Doe” in legal filings. It accuses Arellanes and 10 City of Claremont employees of unlawful or unreasonable seizure, use of unreasonable force, and violation of substantive due process, all violations of 42 United States Code section 1983 under the Fourth Amendment. The complaint also alleges violations of California Civil Code Section 1708.5 which covers sexual battery, the Tom Bane Civil Rights Act, also known as California Civil Code Section 52.1, and includes accusations of battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

On April 7, the court set a final pretrial conference hearing for May 20, 2026, with a jury trial beginning as soon as June 8, 2026.

A March 28 joint rule 26 scheduling conference report by attorneys for Arellanes, the City of Claremont, and the plaintiff, set a March 11, 2026 deadline for completion of settlement conferences, preferably through private mediation.

“Plaintiff believes that the range of provable damages is from $3,000,000.00 to $25,000,000.00,” according to the report. “The City of Claremont is permissibly self-insured pursuant to California Government Code Section 990. Gabriel Arellanes is being defended by the City of Claremont.”

“The City does not have a role in deciding whether to defend Mr. Arellanes,” Claremont Public Information Officer Bevin Handel wrote in an email. “This is up to the City’s insurance carrier — the California Joint Powers Insurance Authority (CJPIA). At this time, CJPIA has retained separate legal counsel to defend the City and Mr. Arellanes. It will be up to CJPIA to decide if they will continue to provide a defense to Mr. Arellanes.”

Claremont learned of the allegations on March 18, 2024, when a liability claim was filed. Arellanes, 32, was then placed on administrative leave and his peace officer powers were suspended. He remained on paid leave while under investigation and resigned on January 29. The city paid Arellanes $76,574, during the near 11 months he was on paid leave.

The City of Claremont, through attorneys Mark Rutter and Kimberly Sarmiento of Carpenter, Rothans and Dumont LLP, answered the October 4, 2024 complaint on November 15, 2024, denying the allegations and demanding a jury trial.

On January 15, the attorney representing Arellanes — Konrad Rasmussen, of McCormick, Mitchell & Rasmussen— also denied the allegations and demanded a jury trial.

The civil suit alleges Arellanes questioned Jane Doe shortly before midnight February 16, 2024 after discovering her “engaged in romantic activities” with a man in the back seat of a car parked off Mt. Baldy Road in Claremont. That encounter led to Doe being arrested for misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia, a methamphetamine pipe.

“JANE DOE was told that she would be taken to the Pomona station to be searched by a female officer because there were no females at” the Claremont Police Station, read the complaint. (CPD has seven sworn female officers and 34 male officers.) The complaint alleges Arellanes stopped his patrol car several times on the way to the Pomona Police Station and assaulted her, “… essentially feeling her up and groping her in a sexually assaultive manner.”

After being searched at the Pomona station, Arellanes drove the woman to the Claremont police station, where she was booked, according to the complaint. It goes on to allege that after being released she accepted Arellanes’ offer of a ride to the Montclair Transcenter, where the officer parked in a “dark and remote areas of the parking lot.”

The complaint is explicit in its allegations: “Defendant ARELLANES then walked around from the driver’s seat / side of the patrol car to the passenger side of the patrol car, with his erect penis protruding out of his pants, and grabbed JANE DOE’s head and physically forced JANE DOE’s head down onto his penis and physically forced her to orally copulate him, all while JANE DOE was looking at defendant ARELLANES’ pistol; scaring her to not resist her head being pulled down onto ARELLANES’ penis, and scared not to orally copulate him, due to his power over her as a police officer, and scared that under the circumstances, ARELLANES would physically harm her for any refusal, resistance of failure to orally copulate him,” reads the complaint. “After defendant ARELLANES ejaculated into and onto JANE DOE, he then left JANE DOE at the Montclair Transcenter.”

Accounts from both the City of Claremont and Arellanes state Arellanes arrested the woman for possession of drug paraphernalia, transported her to Pomona PD to be searched by a female officer with no issues, then transported her to CPD, where she was booked and released with a citation.

On April 7, presiding Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong set a May 22 deadline to hear a motion to amend pleadings or to add parties. The judge granted a motion to stay civil proceedings for six months as a separate criminal case against Arellanes proceeds.