Koch v. Lockyer

340 F. App'x 372
Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit·Decided July 15, 2009·No. No. 06-56220·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinions

MEMORANDUM *

Plaintiff-Appellant Jack R. Koch seeks damages and injunctive relief under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for actions taken against him while he was incarcerated by the State of California. He appeals the district court’s grant of Appellees’ motion to dismiss and summary judgment motion. We review de novo a Rule 12(b)(6) dismissal. Terracom v. Valley Nat’l Bank, 49 F.3d 555, 558 (9th Cir.1995). Additionally, we review de novo the district court’s grant of summary judgment. Fed.R.Civ.P. 56; Dietrich v. John Ascuaga’s Nugget, 548 F.3d 892, 896 (9th Cir.2008).

Koch alleges that California state officials (Appellees) violated his constitutional rights — including his Fourth Amendment right to be free of unreasonable searches and seizures — when they forcibly collected his DNA without a warrant, without any suspicion that he had committed additional crimes, and in excess of their statutory authority under California Penal Code § 296. As the facts and procedural history are familiar to the parties, we do not recite them here except as necessary to explain our disposition.

1. Statutory Authority for Koch’s Compulsory DNA Collection

Appellees argue that Koch was convicted under California Penal Code § 243, which is a qualifying offense under § 296. Although Appellees made this argument for the first time in their Supplemental Answering Brief, we consider the argument because it meets the requirements of United States v. Patrin, 575 F.2d 708, 712 (9th Cir.1978): (1) the issue is purely legal because it does not involve a dispute of fact and (2) its consideration does not affect the record. See id.

Not all crimes of felony battery under § 242 also involve punishment under, or otherwise implicate, § 243. See, e.g., People v. Butler, 2007 WL 603356, at *1 (Cal.Ct.App. Feb.28, 2007) (unpublished dispo[374] sition) (noting that “[defendant was charged with one count of battery in violation of section 242” and that the “information included a special ‘hate crime’ allegation that defendant also violated section 422.7,” but not mentioning charge or conviction under § 243). Here, Koch was convicted of violating § 242, and his applicable punishment derived from California Penal Code §§18 and 422.7, not from § 243. Moreover, none of Koch’s conviction documents mention § 243. Therefore, Koch’s offense was not “under” § 243. As a result, because none of Koch’s offenses of conviction were qualifying offenses under § 296, Appellees lacked state statutory authorization to seize Koch’s DNA.

2.Fourth Amendment Violation

Prisoners have diminished privacy rights, and as such, limited freedom against searches and seizures of their body, including the collection of them DNA. Cf. United States v. Kriesel, 508 F.3d 941, 947 (9th Cir.2007). However, even the limited security right Koch had against forcible extraction of his DNA outweighs the government’s interest in obtaining his DNA, since the state legislature had not expressed such an interest at the time his DNA was collected. Cf. United States v. Kincade, 379 F.3d 813, 839 & n. 39 (9th Cir.2004) (en banc) (upholding compulsory DNA collection from certain federal violent criminal offenders in absence of individualized suspicion that they had committed additional crimes, where the legislature expressed a legitimate governmental interest in that DNA collection and “the evenhandedness of [the] statute contribute^] to its reasonableness” (quoting Rise v. Oregon, 59 F.3d 1556, 1561 (9th Cir.1995))).

In this case, given the absence of individualized suspicion, probable cause, a legislative act endorsing this type of DNA collection, or “special needs” to justify that collection, Appellees’ forcible collection of Koch’s DNA was unreasonable. Cf. United States v. Knights, 534 U.S. 112, 118, 122 S.Ct. 587, 151 L.Ed.2d 497 (2001) (holding that “the reasonableness of a search is determined ‘by assessing, on the one hand, the degree to which it intrudes upon an individual’s privacy and, on the other, the degree to which it is needed for the promotion of legitimate governmental interests” (quoting Wyoming v. Houghton, 526 U.S. 295, 300, 119 S.Ct. 1297, 143 L.Ed.2d 408 (1999))). Therefore, Appellees violated Koch’s Fourth Amendment rights by forcibly taking his DNA under these circumstances.

3. Qualified Immunity

While the compulsory DNA collection violated Koch’s Fourth Amendment rights, Appellees are entitled to qualified immunity against damages. Given the complexity and novelty of the issues presented here— particularly the effect of § 296 and Virginia v. Moore, 553 U.S. 164, 128 S.Ct. 1598, 170 L.Ed.2d 559 (2008), on Koch’s Fourth Amendment rights — reasonable officials could not have understood that them actions violated Koch’s constitutional rights. See Pearson v. Callahan, — U.S. -, 129 S.Ct. 808, 818-23, 172 L.Ed.2d 565 (2009) (modifying Saucier v. Katz, 533 U.S. 194, 201, 121 S.Ct. 2151, 150 L.Ed.2d 272 (2001)); see also Moore, 128 S.Ct. at 1606 (holding that heightened state law protections against search and seizure do not alter federal constitutional search and seizure analysis).

4. Other Claims

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Koch v. Lockyer, 340 F. App'x 372 (9th Cir. 2009).

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