J. J. V. CITY OF SAN DIEGO, No. 20-55622 (9th Cir. 2022)
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Plaintiff’s mother was arrested at a traffic stop and fell ill in police custody. Tragically, she died nine days later. Her minor son, J.K.J., brought constitutional claims against the City of San Diego and two officers who participated in the traffic stop. The District Court dismissed J.K.J.’s amended complaint with prejudice. The district court dismissed J.K.J.’s amended complaint with prejudice.
The Ninth Circuit filed (1) an order granting a petition for rehearing, denying as moot a petition for rehearing en banc, and amending the prior opinion and dissent; and (2) an amended opinion affirming the district court’s dismissal of an action brought pursuant to 42 U.S.C. Section 1983 alleging constitutional violations by police officers in their treatment of Plaintiff’s mother.
The court 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 court held that the district court did not err in dismissing the amended complaint. The court further held that the alleged violative nature of the officers’ conduct, in failing to recognize and respond to the woman’s serious medical need, was not clearly established in the specific context of this case.
Court Description: Civil Rights. The panel filed (1) an order granting a petition for rehearing, denying as moot a petition for rehearing en banc, and amending the prior opinion and dissent; and (2) an amended opinion affirming 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, * 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 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 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. The panel held 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. None of the cases cited by 4 J. K. J. V. CITY OF SAN DIEGO Jenkins presented circumstances where an officer had to grapple with how to handle a detainee who exhibited signs of medical distress but explained them away. Defendants therefore did not violate clearly established law and were 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
This opinion or order relates to an opinion or order originally issued on November 15, 2021.
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