The damage he suffered is not worth $23 million
In California at least you can’t get punitive damages against the government. The purpose of punitive damages is the make the defendant hurt for what they’ve done. So the theory is the government can’t be hurt because it’s the taxpayers who have to pay the judgment. I don’t know but I’d be surprised if that wasn’t a fairly universal concept. If that was the case, I wonder if the puntives aren’t against his supervisors in ther individual capacities.