The family of a man who was stabbed to death in Salinas Valley State Prison has filed a civil rights lawsuit alleging negligence by the prison’s guards, they said at a press conference held Wednesday in Oakland.
Joseph Mendoza, 36, was serving a sentence in the prison in Soledad in Monterey County when he was stabbed almost 180 times by two other inmates in the day room on April 8, 2025, according to the suit filed against the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
The suit, filed on Dec. 1, 2025, alleges that prison guards did not intervene with reasonable force to stop the killing.
“As it pertains to those who are incarcerated, when someone is threatened with lethal force, it is mandated that officers intervene with the appropriate level of force,” said Bryan Harrison of the law firm Harrison Kristopher LLP, which has filed the suit — along with law firms Pointer & Buelna LLP and Kings Justice Law — on behalf of Mendoza’s family.
Harrison added, “They [prison officials] observed the incident while it happened and failed to timely and appropriately intervene. This wasn’t negligence, this was abandonment.”
Mendoza’s father Ismael Mendoza, mother Zina Kumetat, and wife Celina Mendoza, also spoke at Wednesday’s press conference held in the offices of Pointer & Buelna in West Oakland.
“My son, he made many mistakes, but he took accountability … he was there to do his time,” said Ismael Mendoza. “But being stabbed 180 times and guards with lethal weapons not doing anything? That will rip your heart in pieces. I believe that the CDCR has failed him.”
Soon after Mendoza’s death, a video of the attack was circulated online, said Harrison, and the video appeared to be a mobile phone recording of CCTV footage, indicating that someone from the prison staff had captured and then shared it publicly.
The suit calls this a violation of the Kobe Bryant Act of 2020, under which first responders could face misdemeanor charges if they capture photographic images of a crime for any reason other than law enforcement.
Zina Kumetat said that the dissemination of the video online caused significant trauma to her family as they grieved her son.
“They stripped him of his dignity by humiliating him and putting that video on all social media platforms,” she said amid tears. “I’m still stuck on the day he died because of that video … It’s already been 10 months, and for me, it’s still yesterday.”
The suit’s first court date will be within the next two months, said Harrison.