A San Francisco traffic stop that began with an officer entering the wrong license plate number spiraled into a smashed car window, a forceful arrest, criminal charges and the loss of the driver’s vehicle, according to attorney John Bryan and San Francisco Public Defender Brian Cox.
The driver, Matthew Ludwig, was not in a stolen car. Yet bodycam footage reviewed by Bryan on his legal YouTube channel The Civil Rights Lawyer shows officers dragging Ludwig from his Honda, forcing him onto the pavement and pepper-spraying him before realizing they had checked the wrong plate.
Ludwig fought the resulting criminal case for more than a year before the charges were ultimately dismissed. Fourteen months after the July 4, 2024, stop, he was found dead in Kentucky in what Bryan described as an apparent suicide.
Bryan argues that the encounter and everything that followed played a major role in destroying Ludwig’s life, although the video does not establish a direct causal finding between the police incident and his death.
A Wrong Plate Number Starts Everything
Bryan said San Francisco Police Department officers Jonathan Zepeda and Vinesh Govindbhai were near Larkin and Grove streets when they noticed Ludwig’s Honda Accord.
Zepeda checked the license plate but, according to Bryan, entered the wrong number.
That incorrect search came back associated with a different vehicle, a Toyota, leading the officers to believe something was wrong with the Honda.
Rather than simply checking the plate again, Bryan said the officers followed Ludwig until his car stopped behind traffic at a red light.
Govindbhai then pulled the patrol vehicle directly behind the Honda, effectively boxing it in.
Bryan emphasized that the officers had not activated their emergency lights to conduct a normal traffic stop.
Instead, bodycam footage shows Govindbhai rushing to the driver’s side and striking Ludwig’s window four times with a baton until it shattered.
That is the first point where a simple clerical error became something far more serious. Typing one digit incorrectly may be an understandable human mistake; failing to verify the plate before escalating to force is much harder to dismiss as routine error.
Ludwig Is Dragged Out And Pepper-Sprayed
After breaking the glass, Govindbhai pulled Ludwig from the vehicle and took him to the pavement.
On the passenger side, Zepeda ordered the other occupants out at gunpoint.
Bryan argued that neither officer had a valid reason for using that level of force at that stage.
Ludwig can be heard repeatedly telling officers to relax as they restrain him.
“It’s incredibly weird and strange when a person that is targeted by police has to actually deescalate the cops,” Cox told Bryan.
Govindbhai later said Ludwig was tensing his arm and pulling away, while Zepeda joined the restraint because one of Ludwig’s arms was trapped beneath his body near his waistband.
The officers then pepper-sprayed Ludwig at close range while holding him down.
In the footage, Ludwig repeatedly says he cannot breathe.
Only after he was handcuffed did the officers discover that the license plate number they had originally entered was wrong.
Yet the situation did not end there.
Police Still Arrest Him After Learning The Mistake
Bryan said Ludwig was taken to jail even after officers realized his Honda was not stolen.
His car was towed and impounded.
Ludwig could not afford the impound fees, according to Bryan, and the Honda was ultimately sold at auction.
He never got it back.
Prosecutors also moved forward with charges of resisting arrest and reckless driving.
Bryan said Ludwig was offered diversion, an option that might be attractive to someone simply trying to make a criminal case disappear, but Ludwig refused because he maintained he had done nothing wrong.
Cox described the decision to continue prosecuting him as deeply troubling.
“The system was punishing Mr. Ludwig,” he said.
Cox argued that prosecutors had access to the police report and bodycam footage and still chose to support the charges.
That is arguably the most disturbing part of the case. The original plate error happened in seconds, but the criminal case continued long after everyone had time to slow down, review the evidence and reconsider what had happened.
Oversight Agency Sustains Multiple Complaints
Cox helped prepare a misconduct complaint that was submitted to San Francisco’s Department of Police Accountability in May 2025.
The agency later substantiated nearly all of the allegations, according to Bryan.
Its findings said Govindbhai used excessive force when he smashed Ludwig’s window without first making a normal attempt to conduct the stop.
The report also found that Govindbhai improperly used pepper spray, including firing it from closer than the minimum distance allowed under department policy.
Zepeda was found to have violated policy by drawing his gun during the encounter without sufficient justification.
The agency further concluded that Ludwig had been cited without proper cause and that the stop itself never should have happened because the officers had no reasonable suspicion once the actual plate was considered.
Bryan also highlighted a finding involving the officers’ supervisor, who was faulted for failing to properly address the use of force.
According to Bryan, the report undercut the officers’ claim that Ludwig had been reckless enough to justify what followed.
The officers said Ludwig had sped and run a red light, but Cox questioned that account because the bodycam did not capture the alleged driving and the officers never initially discussed reckless driving while pulling Ludwig out.
“To me, when I looked at it, I didn’t see anything that justified that level of force,” Cox said.
Public Defender Says He Lost Nearly Everything
Cox said Ludwig’s car was particularly important because losing transportation can devastate someone already living close to the financial edge.
He described a vehicle as the “economic engine” of a person’s life.
Once the Honda was gone, Ludwig had to continue dealing with court appearances, legal uncertainty and the broader disruption caused by the arrest.
Cox said Ludwig showed considerable determination in refusing to accept a deal for conduct he denied.
The criminal case was eventually dismissed.
Bryan said Ludwig was later found dead in a park in Morehead, Kentucky, about 14 months after the stop.
Cox declined to discuss private details about what happened afterward, saying only that Ludwig’s death was a tragedy.
Bryan went further, arguing that the arrest, prosecution and loss of Ludwig’s vehicle played a significant role in the collapse of his life.
That conclusion remains Bryan’s assessment rather than a formal finding, but the timeline makes the human cost impossible to ignore.
Questions Remain About Officer Discipline
Bryan asked Cox whether the officers had faced discipline after the misconduct findings.
Cox said that information remained confidential at the time of the interview.
He explained that California law can eventually make some records involving excessive force or illegal searches public after a final disciplinary decision, but that process may take years.
The Department of Police Accountability will make recommendations to either the San Francisco Police Department or Police Commission, Cox said, with possible consequences potentially including serious discipline.
For now, however, the public does not know what happened internally.
Cox argued that this lack of transparency is itself a problem.
“The public has a right to know who was policing them,” he said.
He stressed that police wield extraordinary government power and therefore deserve unusually high levels of public scrutiny.
Bryan made a similar point, saying the case should concern people regardless of their politics because Ludwig was not a criminal fleeing police or driving a stolen car.
He was a man stopped at a red light whose plate had been entered incorrectly.
The mistake itself took only seconds.
What followed lasted far longer: broken glass, pepper spray, jail, a lost car, months of prosecution and an accountability process that is still not fully public.
That is what makes Ludwig’s case so difficult to reduce to a simple typo. The incorrect plate may have started it, but every decision after that gave someone another opportunity to stop the damage from spreading.
Raised in a small Arizona town, Kevin grew up surrounded by rugged desert landscapes and a family of hunters. His background in competitive shooting and firearms training has made him an authority on self-defense and gun safety. A certified firearms instructor, Kevin teaches others how to properly handle and maintain their weapons, whether for hunting, home defense, or survival situations. His writing focuses on responsible gun ownership, marksmanship, and the role of firearms in personal preparedness.
