SFPD looking like he wants to chase John Connor down the LA River. Creative commons.
The department remains tight-lipped about the case of 48-year-old Matthew Ludwig, who was wrongfully arrested by officers Jonathan Zepeda and Vinesh Govindbhai on July 4, 2024. The officers mistook Ludwig’s Honda Civic for one reported stolen, then tailed him through the Tenderloin and intercepted the suspect. Then they shattered Ludwig’s window, dragged him from the vehicle, and discharged a canister of pepper spray into his eyes. Zepeda and Govindbhai realized their mistake with ample time to correct it. They booked Ludwig regardless. The following year, he was dead.
Now, a year later, questions surrounding Ludwig’s tragic death go unanswered, though maybe not for long.
When the cops are the criminals
It began with an error presumed true. Officers on duty entered a license plate number into their database incorrectly. Matthew Ludwig drove past soon after. A match, so it seemed. They followed his Honda Civic through the Tenderloin. That’s when they reportedly saw Ludwig exceed the posted speed limit and run stoplights. They intercepted him on O’Farrell Street, per the Public Defender’s complaint. An officer believed to be Govindbhai can be seen on body-camera footage running up to Ludwig’s Honda Civic. The officer then shatters his window using a baton and forcibly opens the door to drag him out onto the street.
An SFPD officer raises his baton to a protestor during the Delano grape strike of 1965. Creative commons.
The body-cam footage reveals all this and more, and it is disturbing. The first officer, presumably Govindbhai, orders a shocked and disoriented Ludwig to put his hands behind his back. Ludwig tries righting himself, saying, “Man, I wasn’t doing nothing,” aggravating an already unreasonable cop. The second officer—Zepeda, deductively—enters the fray, pinning Ludwig’s legs to keep him still while the other cop pepper-sprays Ludwig’s face. Not one burst nor even several passes, but a jet directly in the eyes from mere inches away. SFPD forbids officers to discharge pepper spray less than 4½ feet from their target.
Only then did either Zepeda or Govindbhai double-check their database and piece together their grave mistake. They booked him anyway. And then the District Attorney’s Office got involved, charging him with reckless driving and resisting arrest.
The Dept. of Police Accountability’s report adds: “the officers [Zepeda and Govindbhai] admitted ‘never attempting a traffic stop of the driver.’” Per Mission Local, they did not activate their sirens, lights, or indicate in any way to Ludwig that they were in pursuit.
“The officers involved in this have no idea the harm their actions caused.”
The Public Defender’s office filed a complaint for Ludwig, saying officers used excessive force against him. But in 2025, before he could see justice, Matthew Ludwig passed away. Although his cause of death is still confidential, it stands in grim proximity to the crimes against him by the SFPD. The months between his wrongful arrest and untimely death point to a series of related tragedies.
Deputy Public Defender Brandon Coleman personally represented Ludwig while he was alive. He also attributes the arrest to his client’s downturn. While Ludwig was in police custody, his Honda Civic, misidentified as stolen, was impounded and auctioned off. Soon after, a third and final blow to his morale: the motorhome he and his girlfriend shared got towed. “The officers involved in this have no idea the harm their actions caused,” said Coleman.
When you see hyper-militarized cops like this guy on city streets, do you feel safer? From what?
The District Attorney’s Office dropped his felony charges, much too late to make a difference. It’s unbelievable that anything about Ludwig’s response to getting abducted and assaulted by SFPD warranted serious felony charges. “As a result of this, he lost virtually everything that he owned,” said Coleman. “He told me that he felt like this world lacked compassion for human life and that he had never been given a fair chance in life.”
Zepeda and Govindbhai still work for the SFPD. Their families can still talk with them, hug, hold, and celebrate them on birthdays and holidays. They walk free while Ludwig’s life is over, and they’re getting paid for it. According to Transparent California, Zepeda and Govindbhai made $238,824 and $296,140 respectively in 2024.
