J. J. v. City of San Diego

42 F.4th 990
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedNovember 15, 2021
Docket20-55622
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 42 F.4th 990 (J. J. v. City of San Diego) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
J. J. v. City of San Diego, 42 F.4th 990 (9th Cir. 2021).

Opinion

FOR PUBLICATION

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

J. K. J., individually, and successor No. 20-55622 in interest to the Deceased Aleah Jenkins, by and through his D.C. No. guardian-ad-litem Jeremy Hillyer, 3:19-cv-02123- Plaintiff-Appellant, CAB-RBB

v. OPINION CITY OF SAN DIEGO, a public entity; DAVID NISLET, in his individual capacity and official capacity as Police Chief of the San Diego Police Department; LAWRENCE DURBIN, an individual; JASON TAUB, an individual; DOES, 1–10, Inclusive, Defendants-Appellees,

and

NICHOLAS CASICOLA, Defendant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of California Cathy Ann Bencivengo, District Judge, Presiding

Argued and Submitted July 6, 2021 Pasadena, California 2 J. K. J. V. CITY OF SAN DIEGO

Filed November 15, 2021

Before: D. Michael Fisher, * Paul J. Watford, and Patrick J. Bumatay, Circuit Judges.

Opinion by Judge Fisher; Dissent by Judge Watford

SUMMARY **

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. ** This summary constitutes no part of the opinion of the court. It has been prepared by court staff for the convenience of the reader. 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

COUNSEL

Kaveh Navab (argued), Navab Law APC, Marina Del Rey, California, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Seetal Tejura (argued), Chief Deputy City Attorney; George F. Schaefer, Assistant City Attorney; Mara W. Elliott, City Attorney; Office of the City Attorney, San Diego, California; for Defendants-Appellees.

OPINION

D.M. FISHER, Circuit Judge:

Aleah Jenkins 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. Because we conclude that J.K.J. failed plausibly to allege a constitutional violation, and that the officers, alternatively, did not violate clearly established law and are protected by qualified immunity, we affirm.

BACKGROUND

I. Factual History

We accept as true all factual allegations in the amended complaint, construing them in the light most favorable to J.K.J., the non-moving party. Fields v. Twitter, Inc., 881 F.3d 739, 743 (9th Cir. 2018). We also draw on a bodycam video that J.K.J. incorporated into the amended complaint by reference. See Tellabs, Inc. v. Makor Issues & Rts., Ltd., 551 U.S. 308, 322 (2007). 6 J. K. J. V. CITY OF SAN DIEGO

On November 27, 2018, San Diego police officers Nicholas Casciola and Jason Taub stopped a Cadillac with an expired registration. A third officer, Lawrence Durbin, arrived to provide backup. Inside the Cadillac sat three people: two men in the front, and Jenkins in the back. The two men had prior convictions for drug offenses. The officers knew or became aware of these prior convictions as they investigated.

Durbin questioned Jenkins, who spoke coherently and showed no signs of distress. When the officers discovered that she was subject to arrest based on a warrant involving a prior methamphetamine offense, they handcuffed her and put her in Durbin’s cruiser.

With all three passengers secured, the officers searched the Cadillac.

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