Protester shot in face by deputy projectile awarded over $3 million

A Los Angeles filmmaker and his daughter were awarded more than $3 million after a jury found Los Angeles County negligent for injuries the man sustained when a sheriff’s deputy shot him in the face with a non-lethal projectile during a protest against police brutality in 2020.

Cellin Gluck, 67, alleged in a lawsuit filed the following summer that the county and a number of unnamed sheriff’s deputies committed negligence and battery, violated Gluck’s civil rights and falsely imprisoned both him and his daughter Caroline, 28.

A Los Angeles County Superior Court jury determined earlier this month that the deputy — whose identity was never determined — used unreasonable force to control the crowd of protesters when firing the projectile and harmed the elder Gluck. It also found that witnessing the incident caused Caroline to “suffer serious emotional distress,” according to the complaint.

The director, producer and actor — who has worked for decades on films including “Transformers” and “Remember the Titans” — said he did nothing wrong during a protest in L.A.’s Fairfax District on May 30, 2020, less than a week after George Floyd was killed by police in Minneapolis.

Gluck alleged he was unarmed, facing away from the deputies during a peaceful protest and was “not posing a reasonable threat to anyone’s safety when deputies decided to fire their weapons in his direction,” according to the complaint.

The Glucks were trying to help another protester who had been shot in the face with a bean bag, when the deputy shot Gluck with the projectile and “blood beg[an] rushing down his cheek,” the complaint said.

The “impact fractured his face, embedded shrapnel in his nasal cavity … left him with permanent disfigurement, vision problems, and severe emotional trauma,” according to a statement by the Glucks’ attorneys.

The jury announced it was awarding Gluck $3.5 million and Caroline $300,000 at the conclusion of an approximately five-hour hearing in Los Angeles on Aug. 20.

Gluck praised the verdict during an interview with The Times.

“Justice was found because they are going to be held accountable,” he said.

“Anything can be lethal, but it’s … the person with the finger on the trigger who’s ultimately got to be held accountable.”

But the jury determined that both he and the crowd were also negligent in the incident, according to court records; Gluck was 20% responsible for the harm done to him, and the crowd was 15% responsible. As a result, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael Shultz’s “court will reduce the amount of the jury’s award by 35%: to $2.275 million for Cellin Gluck and $195,000 for Caroline Gluck,” the Los Angeles Office of County Counsel said in a written statement.

However, Glucks’ attorneys said in an interview that it is not entirely clear whether that will happen. The office of county counsel said in an email that it ”is exploring all of its options in this case, including the possibility of an appeal.”

Cellin Gluck stands for a portrait at his home on Sunday, Aug. 24, 2025 in Santa Monica.

(Juliana Yamada/Los Angeles Times)

“Although a different administration is in place now than in 2020, we recognize the importance of thoroughly reviewing and evaluating what occurred at that time to identify lessons that can help us improve our service to the community,” the Sheriff’s Department said in an emailed statement.

Carl Douglas, an attorney for the Glucks, said the fact that a jury awarded more than $3 million to yet another victim of unreasonable force “should outrage county taxpayers,” who have paid many millions of dollars to protesters and others harmed by sheriff’s deputies in recent years.

“What the case showed is that training is only as good as the officers who follow the training. In this case we believe the officers failed to follow their training,” Douglas said. “The only way to stop these kinds of payouts is if deputies are held accountable.”