Buckhalter v. City of Vacaville

District Court, E.D. California·Decided December 10, 2019·No. 2:17-cv-02072·Unknown

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 10 11 NICK C. BUCKHALTER, Civ. No. 2:17-cv-02072-KJM-AC 12 Plaintiff, 13 v. FINAL PRETRIAL ORDER 14 DANIEL TORRES, in his personal capacity as a peace officer of Vacaville 15 Police Department, 16 Defendant. 17 18 This matter is proceeding on plaintiff’s Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment claims and 19 state law claim for battery against Officer Torres based on the manner and duration of plaintiff’s 20 handcuffing. 21 On November 6, 2019, the court conducted a final pretrial conference. Attorney Darryl 22 Yorkey appeared for plaintiff Nick C. Buckhalter, and attorneys Richard Osman and Sheila 23 Crawford appeared for defendant Daniel Torres. 24 After hearing, and good cause appearing, the court makes the following findings and 25 orders. 26 ///// 27 ///// 28 ///// 1 JURISDICTION/VENUE 2 Jurisdiction is predicated on 28 U.S.C. § 1331, as plaintiff alleges violation of his civil 3 rights under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Venue is proper under 28 U.S.C. § 1391. Jurisdiction and venue 4 are not contested. 5 JURY/NON-JURY 6 The parties jointly request a trial by jury; 7 jurors will be empaneled. 8 This case involves the alleged excessive force by a police officer as a result of allegedly 9 tight handcuffs. At the time of the incident, plaintiff Nick Buckhalter was a resident of the City 10 of Vacaville and defendant Daniel Torres was a police officer with the City of Vacaville Police 11 Department. On September 9, 2016, Buckhalter was arrested by Officer Torres. Buckhalter was 12 secured in handcuffs and transported to the Solano County Jail. Buckhalter alleges the handcuffs 13 were too tight and caused him injury to his right wrist and hand. Defendant denies plaintiff’s 14 allegations. 15 UNDISPUTED FACTS1 16 On September 9, 2016, plaintiff Nick C. Buckhalter and his wife were moving from their 17 home at 296 Madison Avenue in Vacaville, California to Georgia. A large 40–48-foot moving 18 truck was parked on the street in front of plaintiff’s home. Plaintiff owned numerous vehicles and 19 had moved six of his cars out of the garage and parked them on the street near the park located 20 across the street from his residence to allow the movers to pack and load the moving truck. 21 Plaintiff parked his Chevrolet Monte Carlo on the street, across from his residence, and three or 22 four houses down from his home. A large vehicle transport truck arrived at approximately 3:00 23 p.m. to move some of plaintiff’s cars to Georgia. The transport truck parked across the street 24 from plaintiff’s home. 25 At approximately 5:00 p.m., plaintiff went to move his Monte Carlo to the vehicle 26 transport truck. Plaintiff got into the Monte Carlo, started the car and put it in drive to pull out. 27 1 This section is taken essentially verbatim from the parties’ Joint Status Report, with minor 28 grammatical and stylistic edits. 1 At that time, off-duty Vacaville police officer Roger Canady was at the park with his 2 young child and he observed plaintiff driving the Monte Carlo and appear to do a “burn out” on 3 the street while children were on the adjacent sidewalk and in the adjacent park in violation of 4 California Vehicle Code section 23109 (speed contests and exhibitions of speed). Plaintiff then 5 parked the Monte Carlo behind the transport truck for loading. When plaintiff exited his vehicle, 6 Canady told plaintiff that the manner he drove the Monte Carlo was unlawful and irresponsible 7 and advised him that he faced being arrested for violation of section 23109. Plaintiff walked 8 towards Canady and Canady identified himself as an off-duty police officer and warned plaintiff 9 there were kids and other pedestrians nearby and that he should not be driving in the manner he 10 was. Plaintiff claims he did not believe Canady was an off-duty police officer. 11 A few minutes later, while Canady was seated at the park, he heard plaintiff yell, “I’ll be 12 back,” but he did not know if this was intended as a threat towards him. Canady called the 13 Vacaville Police Department and requested a uniformed officer to come to the scene and arrest 14 plaintiff for violating Vehicle Code section 23109. 15 Approximately five minutes later a police car pulled up, parked and a uniformed officer, 16 defendant Officer Torres, walked up to Canady and started talking to him. Plaintiff claims that he 17 believed they were talking about him so he went across the street towards the officers. As 18 plaintiff approached, Officer Torres said, “hold on a minute,” so plaintiff stopped and stood by 19 the back of the Monte Carlo, and then sat on the trunk of the car until Officer Torres came to talk 20 to him. Officer Torres recorded his interaction with plaintiff on his body worn camera that was 21 attached to his chest with a clip. Plaintiff admitted to Officer Torres that it was inappropriate to 22 be doing burn outs down the street in close proximity to the park and children. Plaintiff told 23 Torres that the tires spun out and he apologized for the tires spinning and jerking. Officer Torres 24 observed black tire tread marks on the roadway. 25 Officer Torres told plaintiff he was going to issue him a citation for his reckless driving, 26 and plaintiff became very angry. Plaintiff told Officer Torres that when he was done issuing the 27 citation, plaintiff was going to approach Canady and “knock him out.” Plaintiff then stated, 28 “You’re going to also have to arrest me, because I’m going to knock him out as soon as this is 1 over. If you run my record, you know, I don’t have no felonies, no warrants. I have a lot of 2 assaults and he’s going to get assaulted as soon as you leave.” Plaintiff motioned towards Canady 3 as he made these statements. 4 Officer Torres told plaintiff to sit on the curb but plaintiff became increasingly agitated, 5 refused to sit on the curb and said, “Why should I have to sit on the curb?” Plaintiff said he was 6 60 years old and was sitting on the car while talking to Officer Torres. Officer Torres twice asked 7 plaintiff to sit on the curb before plaintiff finally complied. Plaintiff got off the trunk of the 8 Monte Carlo and sat on the curb. Because of plaintiff’s aggressive and agitated behavior and his 9 threats to physically attack Canady, Officer Torres decided to place him in handcuffs due to 10 concerns for his own safety and the safety of Canady. Officer Torres ordered plaintiff to place his 11 hands on top of his head, but plaintiff did not comply. Plaintiff finally placed his hands on his 12 head after several orders. Plaintiff removed both of his hands from the top of his head and 13 brought them in front of his body, then moved them on top of his head again. 14 Officer Torres placed one handcuff on plaintiff’s right wrist while his hands were on top 15 of his head and proceeded to pull his arms behind his back to secure his left wrist behind his back. 16 While Officer Torres performed this maneuver, plaintiff said, “I got a rotator cuff, you see my 17 shoulder,” and he pulled his left hand out of Officer Torres’s grip and towards the front of his 18 body. Plaintiff’s movement of pulling his arm from Officer Torres’ grip caused the body worn 19 camera to fly off of Officer Torres’ body and onto the ground, which caused the video to stop 20 recording. Plaintiff admits he tried to hold his arms stiff so Officer Torres could not pull his arms 21 behind his body and he was pulling his left arm towards his body “the whole time” to avoid being 22 handcuffed. 23 Canady observed the interaction between plaintiff and Officer Torres and it appeared to 24 him plaintiff was agitated and arguing with Officer Torres.

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Buckhalter v. City of Vacaville, (E.D. Cal. 2019).

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