Galzinski v. Somers
Annotate this CaseIn February 2011, plaintiff Harald Mark Galzinski filed a citizen’s complaint to the Sacramento Police Department against three of the department’s officers related to the taking of biological samples from him following his arrest in December 2003. In July 2014, the department’s internal affairs division notified Galzinski that the division had “reviewed [his] complaint” but “no further action” would be taken on it because, “[b]ased upon the information [Galzinski] provided, the issues [he] raised pertain[ed] to points of law which should have been litigated during [his] criminal trial in 2005. Therefore, the proper venue for resolving [his] complaint would be through the appeals process.” Galzinski sought a writ of mandate from the superior court to compel defendant Samuel D. Somers Jr., Chief of the Sacramento Police Department, and three sergeants in the department’s internal affairs division to “properly investigate” his complaint and to “make official findings as to the validity of [his] allegations.” The superior court denied Galzinski’s petition, concluding that the department had “essentially” found the officers Galzinski accused of misconduct were “ ‘exonerated’ ” and that, in any event, the department did not abuse its discretion “in responding to the complaint in the way that it did.” After its review, the Court of Appeal concluded the trial court erred in denying Galzinski’s petition: the procedure for addressing citizen complaints the department established and published obligated the department to conduct an investigation into the allegations of the complaint was sufficient to allow the Chief of Police to make one of four possible findings. Defendants did not comply with these obligations, and Galzinski was entitled to a writ of mandate compelling defendants to perform their ministerial duty to satisfy the obligations imposed by the department’s published procedure.
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