The parents of Diego Rios filed a federal civil rights lawsuit on Sept. 16 against police corporal Benjamin Alba, officer Joshua Orona, the City of Claremont and 10 unnamed city employees. Alba and Orona killed Rios on Nov. 28, 2025, in a use-of-force incident during a traffic stop, as Rios was experiencing a mental health crisis.
The family’s attorney, Arnoldo Casillas, announced the development in a Sept. 17 press conference in South Pasadena, alongside Rios’ brother Victor Rios Jr., and their parents Zarela Boza and Victor Rios Sr. Rios’ relatives, concerned citizens and several Claremont students gathered to hear about the lawsuit, which includes five formal complaints for damages.
In the first two claims, the lawsuit contends that Alba and Orona used excessive force against Rios, and that Orona failed to intervene to prevent this unconstitutional conduct. Additionally, the suit contends that the City of Claremont has municipal liability for the officers’ conduct. The final two complaints contend that the actions of Orona, Alba and the city of Claremont resulted in the wrongful death of Rios, and that the homicide of their son violated Rios and Boza’s 14th Amendment rights.
“The coroner’s office determined that he died of, essentially, a heart attack, cardiovascular, and that it was temporal to their restraint,” Casillas said. “And the coroner’s office has determined that this was a homicide. This wasn’t an accident. This certainly, certainly wasn’t a suicide. This was homicide. The officers killed him.”
The Los Angeles Department of Medical Examiner ruled the death a homicide in February 2026.
The press conference began at approximately 1 p.m. with a statement from Casillas, who then turned it over to Diego’s brother, Victor Rios Jr. Casillas then played a clip from the body camera footage. Diego’s parents sat with Rios Jr. and Casillas, later providing an interview to ABC7 in Spanish.
In an interview with TSL, Casillas stated that the lawsuit does not seek an explicit monetary amount in compensation from the defendants.
“The outcome is going to be the same whether or not we put a dollar figure in the lawsuit,” Casillas said. “That’ll come later, and it’s important, [but] it’s secondary, truly, to [putting] the police officers in front of a jury, and to subject them to very aggressive, hard cross-examination, and to show that they’re lying, and to show that they violate policies.”
Casillas cited the District Attorney’s office’s failure to charge the officers as an incentive for the family to pursue civil action against both the City of Claremont and the individual officers.
“The district attorney’s office has had this case for almost a year,” Casillas said. “We haven’t heard a peep from them. I personally have no expectation that they’re going to file charges, and it’s a shame. Shame on the District Attorney’s office that they’re keeping this family in limbo.”
In the body camera footage, Alba visibly places Rios in a chokehold, before placing his knee on Rios’ back, pressing him into the ground. The family’s lawsuit notes that under California law, specifically Government Code §7286.5(a)(1) and §7286.5(a)(2), law enforcement agencies shall not authorize the use of a carotid restraint, choke hold or methods that involve a “substantial risk” of positional asphyxia. Positional asphyxia occurs when one is situated “in a manner that compresses their airway and reduces the ability to sustain adequate breathing.”
The family’s decision to include the City of Claremont in the lawsuit, in addition to Alba and Orona, stems from a conviction that the city failed to adequately train officers to follow California law, as it pertains to chokeholds and positional asphyxia.
“To put something in your polices without having some meaningful training, that’s window dressing,” Casillas said. “And this is window dressing.”
Rios Jr. recalled how his brother “was a gentle soul,” and condemned the excessive response.
“If those cops had the slightest smidgen of sympathy and empathy as human beings, they would have seen that all it would have taken was a simple 30-second conversation, a human-to-human conversation to de-escalate that situation,” he said.
Following the press conference’s formal proceedings, many attendees lingered to speak with the family.
Jocelyn “Joz” Sida, who is running to replace Acquanetta Warren as mayor of Fontana, attended the press conference and expressed concern about Alba’s role on Fontana’s Parks, Community, and Human Services Commission, as well as Warren’s failure to remove him.
The commission comprises five members appointed by the Fontana City Council for a one-year term. The commission’s website indicates that Alba served a term from April 2025–2026, and city council records state that he was reappointed on December 9, 2025, 11 days after Rios’ death.
“It was a homicide, and [Alba] was one of the parties responsible,” Sida said in an interview with TSL, adding that Alba should be given his due process, and in the meantime be removed from the commission.
“It’s not the time to cover up or protect anyone …” Sida said. “Somebody lost a son, a brother.”
Georgia Stettner PO ’27, a member of the 5C Prison Abolition Collective – known on campus as “PrisAb” – attended a Fontana City Council meeting last semester to advocate for Alba’s removal from the commission. She also spoke to how students had gotten involved in the Justice for Diego campaign in the spring.
“The student body and different organizations at Claremont have been helping us, you know, for, like, you know, almost a year since December of last year now,” Rios Jr. said. “And it seems like a long time, but this thing is actually just getting going.”
Stettner said that she was showing up to the majority of city council meetings last semester. “The family wanted students to come give public comment to show that students were on their side and were equally up in arms about the brutality and misconduct of Claremont police, which is not a new thing, and has happened in many instances, many instances in the past,” she said.
Rios Jr. said that the Justice for Diego campaign will continue hosting events, including one to commemorate one year since Rios’ death.
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