Orange County pays $195,000 to teen threatened at gunpoint by off-duty deputy

The Orange County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved a $195,000 settlement in a lawsuit filed by the son of a retired Orange County sheriff’s sergeant who said that an off-duty deputy pulled a gun on him in a skate park two years ago.

In the lawsuit, Max Chance III — the son of former Orange County sheriff’s Sgt. Max Chance Jr. — said he was listening to a band perform in October 2019 at Ralphs Skate Court in San Clemente with a friend when Deputy Michael Thalken confronted the gathering about the noise.

Thalken — described as “angry and possibly intoxicated” in court documents — had been at a nearby Little League field before accosting the group, according to the lawsuit.

When one teen in the crowd began mocking Thalken, the off-duty deputy confronted him, but Chance intervened, telling the other boy to take a step back, the lawsuit says.

Read more: https://www.latimes.com/socal/daily-pilot/news/story/2021-07-14/orange-county-settles-lawsuit-with-teen-threatened-by-deputy