Liston v. County of Riverside

120 F.3d 965, 97 Daily Journal DAR 9229, 97 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 5742, 1997 U.S. App. LEXIS 18962, 1997 WL 403988
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedJuly 21, 1997
DocketNos. 94-56584, 94-56615
StatusPublished
Cited by222 cases

This text of 120 F.3d 965 (Liston v. County of Riverside) 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
Liston v. County of Riverside, 120 F.3d 965, 97 Daily Journal DAR 9229, 97 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 5742, 1997 U.S. App. LEXIS 18962, 1997 WL 403988 (9th Cir. 1997).

Opinions

Opinion by Judge REINHARDT and Judge HALL; Dissent by Judge REINHARDT.

REINHARDT, Circuit Judge (except as to Section B.3); CYNTHIA HOLCOMB HALL, Circuit Judge (as to Section B.3).

Early in the morning on March 29, 1991, law enforcement officers armed with a search warrant raided a small, single-story private residence at 8293 Saddlecreek Drive, Glen Avon, California. The intended target of the search was James “Rocky” Hill, whom investigators believed to be involved in a large-scale methamphetamine manufacturing and distribution network. Unfortunately, for everyone involved, at the time the warrant was executed Hill no longer resided at the Sad-dlecreek Drive address. Plaintiffs-appellants, Jim and Venice Liston, had bought the house from him and, with their three minor children, Danny, Andrew, and Elishia, had moved into it three days earlier. According to the Listons, the officers who conducted the search broke down the front door with a battering ram, tackled and injured Jim Liston, ransacked the house and yard, willfully destroying property, and detained the entire family for approximately an hour and a half, well beyond the time when it had become apparent that they had made a serious mistake.

The Listons brought an action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, Bivens,1 and state law, alleging constitutional deprivations resulting from the conduct of the officers in obtaining and executing the search warrant. A number of individual defendants moved for summary judgment on the ground of qualified immunity. The district court first granted summary judgment as to all moving officers, excluding Federal Task Force Officer David Pike, and subsequently granted summary judgment in Pike’s favor as well. The Listons appeal from both of the orders. Because we conclude that genuine issues of material fact preclude an award of summary judgment to most of the defendant officers, we reverse as to them, affirm as to the others, and remand to the district court for further proceedings.

I. FACTS

A. Obtaining the Warrant

Beginning approximately in December of 1989, officers from several law enforcement agencies, under the control of the Federal Drug Enforcement Agency, formed a joint narcotics task force and began an investigation into a large-scale methamphetamine manufacturing and distribution network in the San Bernardino and Riverside counties area. This extensive investigation, covering a wide geographical area and involving numerous suspects, continued into March of 1991. Relying on information obtained by the task force, Magistrate Judge Charles Eick issued a warrant on March 26, 1991, authorizing officers to search thirteen separate locations, including 8293 Saddlecreek Drive.

Defendant Danny Scaturro, a senior deputy with the San Bernardino Sheriffs Department, served as lead investigator on the task force. In that capacity, he was responsible for obtaining and compiling information from all other team members. In addition, it was Deputy Scaturro who prepared the affidavit and the request for the search warrant at issue in this case. The task force had linked Hill to the methamphetamine network through direct officer surveillance, financial records, and the reports of a number of citizen informants. Accordingly, Scaturro’s warrant application sought authorization to search 8293 Saddlecreek Drive, the address at which Hill resided during at least some portion of the time in question.2 In his [969]*969affidavit, Deputy Scaturro offered the following evidence linking Hill to the Saddlecreek Drive address:

Through utility records, surveillance conducted [sic] members of my team, and through Department of Motor Vehicles [sic], I have determined that JAMES ROCKY HILL lives at 8293 Saddle Creek Drive, Glen Avon, California. HILL has been followed from Highland Towing to this location on several occasions, and have [sic] also been followed from this location to Highland Towing.

The affidavit contains no further information linking 8293 Saddlecreek Drive to the activities under investigation by the task force, and provides no dates on which any of the investigative activities or observations set forth above occurred.

According to the declaration he submitted in support of defendant’s motion for summary judgment, at some point prior to preparing and presenting the warrant application Deputy Scaturro drove by the Sad-dlecreek residence in order to verify the address and to get a description of the premises to guide the officers executing the search.3 Scaturro included the following description in his search warrant affidavit:

This is a single story residence located on the south side of Saddle Creek Drive, southwest of the intersection with Galena Street. The structure is further described as being tan in color with blue trim and having a brown in color composition shingle roof. The number “8293” are stenciled on the curb in front of the residence in four inch high black letters on a white background. The front door is oriented toward the north and is directly to the left of an attached two-car garage. The front of the garage is finished in imitation stone that is tan in color.

The Listons, in the declarations they filed in opposition to defendants’ summary judgment motions, contend that a “large and typical real estate ‘for sale’ sign,” had been posted on the lawn for at least ninety days before they moved into their new home. The Listons further assert that for at least thirty days before they moved in, a “Sold” sign was affixed to the “For Sale” sign. Scaturro did not mention either the “For Sale” sign or the attached “Sold” sign in the affidavit that accompanied the warrant application. In his subsequent summary judgment declaration, Scaturro admitted that while he was at the [970]*970Saddleereek address, he observed a “For Sale” sign in the front yard. However, he rejected entirely the Listons’ contention that there was a “Sold” sign: “I also observed a ‘For Sale’ sign in the front of the residence, but there was no ‘Sold’ notice on it.” On March 26, the same day on which Jim and Venice Liston and their three minor children moved into their new home at 8293 Saddle-creek Drive, after a lengthy escrow period that commenced when the escrow was opened in mid-December, Magistrate Judge Eick issued the search warrant.

B. Executing the Warrant

According to evidence offered by the defendants in their declarations and not disputed by the Listons, on the morning of March 29, 1991, Federal Task Force Officer David Pike attended a briefing session at the San Bernardino Sheriffs office concerning the drug enforcement operation that was about to commence. At the session, Pike was given a copy of the search warrant for 8293 Saddle-ereek Drive and was assigned to execute the warrant. More important for present purposes, at the briefing Pike was provided with information regarding the intended target of the search, James Rocky Hill. He was informed that Hill was connected to a methamphetamine drug trafficking and precursor chemical brokering operation throughout San Bernardino, Riverside, and Los Angeles counties.

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Bluebook (online)
120 F.3d 965, 97 Daily Journal DAR 9229, 97 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 5742, 1997 U.S. App. LEXIS 18962, 1997 WL 403988, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/liston-v-county-of-riverside-ca9-1997.