J. J. v. City of San Diego, No. 20-55622 (9th Cir. 2021)
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Officers stopped a Cadillac with an expired registration. Jenkins, a passenger, showed no signs of distress. When the officers discovered that Jenkins was subject to an arrest warrant, they handcuffed her and put her in a cruiser, where Jenkins vomited. Officers called for paramedics and asked Jenkins if she was detoxing. Jenkins responded: “No … I’m pregnant.” The call for paramedics was then canceled. During transport, Jenkins groaned and screamed for help. After fingerprinting Jenkins at the police station, officers returned her to the cruiser. Several minutes later they found her unconscious, called for paramedics, and began CPR. Jenkins fell into a coma and died nine days later.
The Ninth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a 42 U.S.C. 1983 lawsuit. The district court validly exercised its discretion in choosing to review a bodycam video that was incorporated by reference into the amended complaint and did not assign the video too much weight. The complaint did not plausibly allege that any city policy or custom “was the moving force” behind the alleged constitutional violations but suggested that that the moving force was the officers’ failure to heed their training. The complaint failed to establish either objective unreasonableness or objective deliberate indifference by individual officers. The alleged violative nature of their conduct, in failing to recognize and respond to Jenkins’ serious medical need, was not clearly established in the specific context of this case, so the officers were entitled to qualified immunity.
Court Description: Civil Rights The panel affirmed the district court’s dismissal of an action brought pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 alleging constitutional violations by police officers in their treatment of Aleah Jenkins, who was arrested at a traffic stop, fell ill while in police custody, and died nine days later. When officers discovered, after stopping the car, that Jenkins was subject to arrest based on a warrant involving a prior methamphetamine offense, they handcuffed her and put her in defendant Durbin’s cruiser. Inside the cruiser, Jenkins vomited, and defendant Taub called for paramedics but cancelled the call after Jenkins said she was pregnant and not detoxing. On several occasions during the transport to the police station, Jenkins groaned and screamed for help. After fingerprinting Jenkins at the police station, as she lay * The Honorable D. Michael Fisher, United States Circuit Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, sitting by designation. J. K. J. V. CITY OF SAN DIEGO 3 on her side, defendants placed her back in the cruiser. About eleven and a half minutes later they found her unconscious, called for paramedics, and began CPR. Jenkins fell into a coma, and died nine days later. The panel first held that the district court validly exercised its discretion in choosing to review a bodycam video that plaintiff had incorporated by reference into the amended complaint. Second, the district court did not assign the video too much weight. Lastly, to the extent the district court found that the video contradicted anything in the amended complaint, it rejected plaintiff’s conclusory allegations regarding whether the officers’ conduct met the legal standard of a constitutional violation. The panel held that the district court did not err in dismissing the amended complaint. Addressing the municipal liability claim brought under Monell v. Dep’t of Soc. Servs. of City of New York, 436 U.S. 658, 690 (1978), the panel held that the complaint did not plausibly allege that any City policy or custom “was the moving force” behind the constitutional violations Jenkins allegedly suffered. Rather the allegations suggested that that the moving force behind the alleged constitutional violation was not a failure to train, but the officers’ failure to heed their training. Addressing the claims against the individual officers, the panel held that the amended complaint failed to allege facts that would demonstrate either objective unreasonableness or objective deliberate indifference by either officer. Considering all the facts in the amended complaint and the incorporated video, the panel could not say that it was objectively unreasonable—much less an instance of objective deliberate indifference akin to reckless disregard—for the officers to conclude that paramedics were 4 J. K. J. V. CITY OF SAN DIEGO not needed at the traffic stop. The panel further concluded that the alleged violative nature of the officers’ conduct, in failing to recognize and respond to Jenkins’ serious medical need, was not clearly established in the specific context of this case. Defendants were therefore also entitled to qualified immunity under the second prong of the qualified immunity test. Dissenting in part, Judge Watford stated that the majority opinion offered a truncated and highly sanitized account of the events giving rise to this lawsuit, at least as alleged by the plaintiff. Although at this stage of the case the panel was required to accept the plaintiff’s factual allegations as true, the majority opinion ignored most of the facts alleged in the complaint. The complaint also expressly incorporated by reference the contents of a publicly available body camera video that captures many of the relevant events, yet the majority opinion turned a blind eye to most of what that video depicted as well. The plaintiff’s complaint plausibly alleged that Jenkins, a young African-American woman, died in police custody because the officer responsible for transporting her to police headquarters took no action when she experienced an acute medical emergency. Judge Watford would reverse the district court’s dismissal of the claims against Officer Durbin and remand for further proceedings. J. K. J. V. CITY OF SAN DIEGO 5
The court issued a subsequent related opinion or order on August 2, 2022.
The court issued a subsequent related opinion or order on February 17, 2023.
The court issued a subsequent related opinion or order on November 27, 2024.
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