Luther Williams Lawsuit: Soledad Cell Raid and Race Claims

The Williams v. CDCR Soledad prison raid lawsuit is a federal class action alleging that California correctional officers targeted roughly 200 Black prisoners at the Correctional Training Facility in a July 20, 2020 predawn raid the agency internally called “Operation Akili,” beating them, restraining them for hours in a dining hall, interrogating them about Black Lives Matter, and later issuing gang validations based on their protected speech. Filed December 10, 2021 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California by lead plaintiffs Talib Williams and Dimario Pickford, the case remains open as of 2026.¹

What Happened at Soledad on July 20, 2020

Around 3:00 a.m., officers in full riot gear entered housing units at the Correctional Training Facility. The complaint says their nametags were covered with tape. They pulled roughly 200 Black prisoners from their beds, placed them in zip-tie restraints, and moved them to a dining hall, where they were held for about six hours, barefoot and largely unclothed.²

The lawsuit alleges officers used chokeholds, headlocks, and knee-on-neck restraints, punched and kicked prisoners, slammed some into walls, and pushed others down stairs. Men were subjected to visual cavity searches and forced to strip for photographs. Officers took legal documents, religious materials, and educational items from cells.²

Lead plaintiff Talib Williams said: “When I was violently snatched out of my sleep and slammed into the wall headfirst off the top bunk, I thought I was dreaming.”³

Why Plaintiffs Say Race Was the Reason

CDCR named the operation “Operation Akili,” from a Swahili word meaning “intelligence,” and said its purpose was to gather intelligence on alleged Black Guerrilla Family activity. The plaintiffs dispute that rationale. They say no Black gang activity had been recorded at the facility for years before the raid, and program status reports from the three prior years made no reference to any Black Security Threat Group activity at CTF.²

Only Black prisoners were targeted, according to the complaint. Officers allegedly questioned them about the Black Lives Matter movement, their support for it inside the prison, and any ties to the Black Guerrilla Family. The suit frames the raid as retaliation against Black prisoners during the nationwide protests that followed the killing of George Floyd in May 2020.³

Witnesses say officers used racial slurs. The complaint quotes officers saying “Black lives don’t matter,” “I hope you motherfuckers get COVID,” and, to one prisoner who asked why he was being abused, “You shouldn’t have been Black.”² An earlier state suit filed by different plaintiffs alleged a guard told prisoners, “By the time this ordeal is over, you niggers will have Covid-19.”⁴

CTF Warden Craig Koenig, a named defendant, was reportedly on scene and observed high-fiving officers and yelling “Good strike!”² Koenig said the day after the raid that the operation responded to ongoing gang activity and denied it was racially motivated.⁵

Gang Validations and COVID-19 Exposure

In the week after the raid, CDCR issued “validation packets” to an estimated 50 to 70 prisoners, designating them as suspects, associates, or members of the Black Guerrilla Family. The lawsuit contends these designations rested on protected speech and association rather than criminal conduct, and that items seized as supposed gang evidence included educational and religious materials. Williams says he was falsely validated as a gang member as a result of the raid.²

The operation happened during the height of the pandemic. Officers allegedly refused to let prisoners wear masks, and packing roughly 200 men into a dining hall for hours created what the lawsuits call a “superspreader event.” The earlier state complaint alleges the raid contributed to about 2,700 subsequent COVID-19 infections and 17 deaths at the facility. A November 2020 CDCR memorandum said all safety protocols were followed and no one was harmed.⁵

The Claims and Who Is Suing

Williams v. California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (No. 4:21-cv-09586) was filed December 10, 2021 in the Northern District of California. Talib Williams and Dimario Pickford brought the case, represented by Medina Orthwein LLP and Siegel, Yee, Brunner & Mehta. A January 2023 amended complaint added Reginald Glover and Roosevelt Payne as named plaintiffs.¹

It is a putative class action seeking to represent all of the roughly 200 Black prisoners affected by the raid, with a subclass for those who received gang validation packets. The claims include:

Race discrimination and equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act
First Amendment violations for punishing prisoners’ political views and support for Black Lives Matter
Fourth Amendment claims for unreasonable strip and cell searches
State law claims for battery and negligence based on the alleged physical abuse
Retaliation, on the theory that the gang validations were retaliatory rather than based on legitimate security concerns

The plaintiffs seek declaratory and injunctive relief, compensatory and punitive damages, and attorneys’ fees.¹

Attorney Jen Orthwein said “CDCR needs to be held accountable for permitting its officers to orchestrate attacks on Black men in its custody in response to the Movement for Black Lives and for exercising free speech surrounding Black liberation.”³

Where the Case Stands

The case was reassigned to Judge Jon S. Tigar in January 2022, and the defendants answered the amended complaint on February 6, 2023.⁶¹ No surveillance video of the raid exists, so the litigation turns largely on prisoner and officer testimony.⁷ As of June 2026, no settlement, dismissal, or trial date has been reported in the available record.

The Separate State Court Case

The federal Williams action is not the only lawsuit over the raid. On February 22, 2021, Shelton Adams, Terrence Brownlee, Antoine Keil, and Gary Lawless filed a separate suit in Monterey County Superior Court against Warden Koenig, CDCR, and two CDCR agents, alleging assault, negligence, and civil rights violations.⁴ That case involves different plaintiffs and different claims from the federal class action.

1
Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse. Williams v. California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
2
Davis Vanguard. Prisoners Sue California Prison System Following Targeted Raid Against Black People
3
SF Bay View. Soledad Raid: Black Prisoners Brutally Attacked, Targeted for Their Race, Speech and Associations, File Class Action
4
Monterey County Now. Black Prison Inmates in Soledad Sue Over a July 2020 Raid
5
Courthouse News Service. Adams et al. v. Koenig et al. Complaint
6
CourtListener. Williams v. California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Docket
7
Local News Matters. California Prisons Are No Longer a Secret World