Estate of Lopez ex rel. Lopez v. Torres

105 F. Supp. 3d 1148, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 56276, 2015 WL 1942741
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. California
DecidedApril 29, 2015
DocketCase No. 15-CV-0111-GPC-MDD
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 105 F. Supp. 3d 1148 (Estate of Lopez ex rel. Lopez v. Torres) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Estate of Lopez ex rel. Lopez v. Torres, 105 F. Supp. 3d 1148, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 56276, 2015 WL 1942741 (S.D. Cal. 2015).

Opinion

ORDER VACATING HEARING AND GRANTING DEFENDANT TORRES’S MOTION TO DISMISS

GONZALO P. CURIEL, District Judge.

INTRODUCTION

Presently before the Court is a Motion to Dismiss filed by Defendant Lou Torres. (ECF No. 12.) The parties have fully briefed the motion. (ECF Nos. 14, 15.) Pursuant to Civil Local Rule 7.1(d)(1), the Court finds the matter suitable for adjudication without oral argument. For the following reasons, the Court GRANTS Defendant Torres’s Motion to Dismiss.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

This case arises from the shooting death of Angel Lopez (“Lopez”) on January 17, 2013. Plaintiffs allege that shortly after 8:00 a.m. on January 17, 2013, a heroin dealer and police informant named Alec Pojas (“Pojas”) placed a telephone call to [1153]*1153Defendant Lou Torres (“Agent Torres”), a parole agent employed by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. (ECF No. 1, Compl. ¶¶ 9, 14, 29, 30.) Pojas refused to provide his name, but told Agent Torres that Lopez and his father, Alex Lopez, had kidnapped Pojas and held him prisoner in Apartment 58 of 5444 Reservoir Drive, San Diego, California, for over four weeks. (¶¶31, 33-35.) During that time, Lopez and his father allegedly tortured Pojas, leaving his blood on the floor. (¶¶ 36-37.) Pojas informed Agent Torres that Lopez and his father possessed an AK-47 and that Lopez always carried a .25 caliber pistol on his person. (¶¶ 40-41.) Pojas claimed he had finally escaped the night before by jumping from a third floor balcony. (¶ 38.)

Plaintiffs allege that Agent Torres provided the information he learned from Po-jas to Andrew Mills, a captain in the Eastern Division of the San Diego Police Department (“Captain Mills”). (¶ 46.) Captain Mills and Agent Torres then relayed the information to Lieutenant Leos (“Lt. Leos”) and Sergeant Scott Holslag (“Sgt. Holslag”), also of the San Diego Police Department. (¶¶ 11, 13, 47.) According to Plaintiffs, instead of investigating the reliability and accuracy of the information provided by Pojas, Sgt. Holslag, with Captain Mills’s concurrence, contacted the San Diego Police Department’s SWAT unit. (¶ 48.) The SWAT officers allegedly were told that a kidnap victim likely was still present in Apartment 58 and was being held by “cartel” members who were armed with AK-47s. (¶ 57.)

Pojas contacted Agent Torres several more times during the morning of January 17, 2013, once informing Agent Torres that he knew Lopez and his father were planning to leave Apartment 58 within forty-five minutes because Pojas had scheduled a meeting with them. (¶¶ 58, 60.) Plaintiffs allege that Captain Mills, Lt. Leos, and Sgt. Holslag, “in joint venture with Torres and [Defendant Steve] Riddle,” conveyed this information to the SWAT unit and asked them to seize and arrest Lopez. (¶¶ 59, 62.)

Later that morning, SWAT units arrived at 5444 Reservoir Drive. (¶ 64.) At 12:56 p.m., a car occupied by Lopez and Xavier Lenyoun, the lessee of Apartment 58, left the parking lot. (¶ 66.) The SWAT unit maneuvered to stop the car and then pointed machine guns at the occupants. (¶¶ 66-7.) Lopez and Xavier Lenyoun fled back into the building. (¶¶ 67, 69.) SWAT officers entered the building and Officer Kristopher Walb (“Officer Walb”) encountered Lopez in a third floor hallway. (¶¶ 68-9.). Officer Walb shouted at Lopez to get down, and Plaintiffs allege that Lopez complied and was in a kneeling position when Officer Walb shot him twice in the back and once in the back of the head with a MP-5 submachine gun. (¶¶ 69-70.) Officer Walb later explained in a statement to other police officers that he remembered being told earlier that day that the suspect was always armed with a .25 caliber pistol and that thought went through his mind just before he shot and killed Lopez. (¶ 72.) Plaintiffs allege that SWAT officers did not administer first aid to Lopez because they believed persons armed with AK-47s were in nearby Apartment 58. (¶ 74.)

Subsequent investigation revealed that Lopez was not armed, no one was in Apartment 58, there were no AK-47s in the apartment, and Pojas’s blood was not on the apartment floor. (¶¶ 71, 77.) None of the neighbors in the apartment building had ever heard any unusual noises or screaming coming from Apartment 58. (¶ 51.) Further, the balcony of Apartment 58 was observed to be approximately 23 to 25 feet above the ground, making it exceedingly unlikely that Pojas could have [1154]*1154jumped without sustaining a broken leg or worse. (¶ 54.) Plaintiffs allege that Pojas relayed all of this false information to Agent Torres in order to obtain revenge against Lopez for not paying Pojas for some heroin. (¶¶31-2, 77.) Pojas knew Lopez was on parole and wanted for a parole violation and sought to manipulate police into harming Lopez. (Id.) Police officers did not locate and identify Pojas until the next day. (¶ 89.)

PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

; On January 16, 2015, Plaintiffs filed the instant case, alleging various claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, as well as wrongful death pursuant to California Code of Civil Procedure § 377.60 et seq.. 1 (ECF No; 1.) On' January 29, 2015, the Court low-num-' bered the related case of The Estate of Angel Lopez, et al v. City of San Diego, et al., 13cv2240-GPC-MDD, in which this Court’s Order Granting in Part and Denying in Part Defendants’ Motion for Summary Judgment is under review with the Ninth Circuit. (See 13cv2240-GPC-MDD, ECF. Nos. 59-60.)

On February 17, 2015, Defendant Torres moved to dismiss the Complaint. (ECF No. 12.) Plaintiffs timely opposed the motion on March 27, 2015 (ECF No. 14), and Defendant Torres filed a reply on April 10, 2015 (ECF No. 15).

LEGAL STANDARD

A motion to dismiss under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) tests the sufficiency of a complaint. Navarro v. Block, 250 F.3d 729, 732 (9th Cir.2001). Dismissal is warranted under Rule 12(b)(6) where the complaint lacks a cognizable legal theory. Robertson v. Dean Witter Reynolds, Inc., 749 F.2d 530, 534 (9th Cir.1984); see also Neitzke v. Williams, 490 U.S. 319, 326, 109 S.Ct. 1827, 104 L.Ed.2d 338 (1989) (“Rule 12(b)(6) authorizes a court to dismiss a claim on the basis of a dispositive issue of law”). Alternatively, a complaint may be dismissed where it presents a cognizable legal theory' yet fails to plead essential facts under that theory. Robertson, 749 F.2d, at 534. While a plaintiff need not give “detailed factual allegations,” a plaintiff must plead sufficient facts that, if true, “raise a right to relief above the speculative level.” Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007). “To survive a motion to , dismiss, a complaint must contain sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to ‘state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.’ ” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S., 662, 678, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009) (quoting Twombly, 550 U.S. at 570, 127 S.Ct. 1955).

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105 F. Supp. 3d 1148, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 56276, 2015 WL 1942741, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/estate-of-lopez-ex-rel-lopez-v-torres-casd-2015.