Mario Garcia v. County of Riverside

817 F.3d 635, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 6572, 2016 WL 1392326
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedFebruary 3, 2016
Docket13-56857
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 817 F.3d 635 (Mario Garcia 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
Mario Garcia v. County of Riverside, 817 F.3d 635, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 6572, 2016 WL 1392326 (9th Cir. 2016).

Opinion

ORDER

The opinion filed on February 3, 2016, and published at 811 F.3d 1220, is hereby amended as follows:

1. Slip op. at 18-19 [811 F.3d at 1229-30], delete “These statutes do not shield Defendants from liability under state law because Plaintiff is not asserting claims “arising out of an[ ] arrest” or against the arresting officer. See Cal. PemCode § 847(b). According to these statutes’ text, they apply only to arresting officers. Moreover, these statutory immunities are premised on reasonable beliefs, and the crux of Plaintiffs claim is that it was unreasonable for officers to believe that he was the person who was described in the warrant without- greater investigation.” Replace deleted text with “These statutes do not shield. Defendants from liability under state-daw because their application is premised on -reasonable beliefs, and the crux of Plaintiffs claim is that it was uni-reasonable for officers to believe that he was the person who was described in the warrant without greater investigation.”

With this amendment, the panel has voted to deny the petition for rehearing. Judge Gould and Judge Berzon have voted to deny the petition for rehearing en banc, and Judge Zouhary has so recommended. The full court has been advised of the petition for rehearing eh banc, and no judge has requested a vote on whether to rehear the matter en banc. Fed. R.App. P. 35. The petitions for rehearing and rehearing en banc are DENIED. No future petitions for rehearing or rehearing en banc will be entertained.

OPINION

GOULD, Circuit Judge:

Los Angeles County, LA County Sheriffs Department (LASD), and former LA Sheriff'Lee Baca appeal the district court’s denial of qualified immunity, absolute (quasi-judicial) immunity, and immunity under two California statutes in this suit by Plaintiff Mario A. Garcia. Plaintiff asserted claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, the California -Constitution, and state tort law, alleging that he was wrongfully incarcerated by LASD based on the misapplication of a felony warrant issued in 1994 for Mario L. Garcia, who has the same date of birth as Plaintiff. For the reasons that follow, we affirm.'

*638 I

Plaintiff was arrested for driving under the influence in Riverside County, California, on November 26, 2012. He was booked' in a Riverside County jail. A booked individual -is electronically fingerprinted through a system called “Lives-can.” The Livescan image is then sent to the California Department of Justice (CDOJ), which responds in one of two ways. If the arrestee’s fingerprints are already on file, the subject’s criminal identification and information (CII) number and criminal history are sent to the arresting agency. If the arrestee’s fingerprints are not on file, a new CII number is assigned. This number is linked tp finger-, prints, name, birth date, address, and other identifiers such as Social Security number. Los Angeles County agencies also assign a fingerprint-based “LA Main” number to their warrants. CII and LA Main numbers are often used to generate an arrestee’s criminal history, which can include the subject’s full name, birth date, residential addresses, and Social Security and driver’s license' numbers. The numbers are also searched in a warrant database, such as the LA-based Countywide Warrant System (CWS) or the statewide Wanted Persons System (WPS), to determine whether the arrested individual has an outstanding warrant.

When Riverside County Sheriffs Department (RCSD) officers searched for Plaintiff “Mario Garcia” in WPS, they found a felony warrant for Mario L. Garcia issued by the Los Angeles Superior Court in 1994.. The warrant described Mario L. Garcia using only his first and last name, date of birth, height, and weight. • The first and last name and birth date matched Plaintiffs own. But Plaintiff alleges that when RCSD contacted LASD personnel to report the “hit,” LASD did not forward information on Mario L. Garcia’s biometric identifiers, middle name, or criminal record, all of which differed from Plaintiffs. RCSD matched Plaintiff to the warrant and told, him that he would be detained, despite Plaintiffs protests that he was not Mario L. Garcia and that, he had been mistakenly detained before based on the same warrant.

The next day Plaintiff was transferred to an LA County jail, where he alleges that he repeated his complaints to LASD officers. Plaintiff contends that LASD knew or should have known that he was not Mario L. Garcia for several reasons: (1) their middle names do not match; (2) their height and weight differ considerably (Mario L. Garcia is listed as 5'1", 130 lbs. Plaintiff is 510", 170 lbs.); (3) Plaintiffs biometric identifiers, including fingerprints and CII number, did not match the subject’s; and (4) Plaintiffs criminal history, which was linked in' the system to his fingerprints, did not match the subject’s. Plaintiff contends that it is the policy of LASD to ignore CII numbers for identification purposes, to ignore prisoners’ complaints of misidentification, and to accept an outside agency’s determination that an arrestee is the subject of a warrant rather than conduct an independent identity check upon booking in LA County.'

Plaintiff sued under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging violations of the Fourth Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment by LASD, LA County, Baca, and several Doe defendants. He also brought state-law claims against LASD and LA County. 1 The district court denied Defendants’ motion to dismiss Plaintiffs section 1983 claim of wrongful incarceration in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment Due Pro *639 cess Clause, concluding that Plaintiff had alleged detention beyond the point when LASD officers should have known to release him. The district court denied Baca’s request for qualified immunity and Defendants’ request for quasi-judicial immunity and state-law. immunity. Defendants appealed via 28 U.S.C. § 1291.

II

Plaintiff contests jurisdiction over Defendants’ appeals from denial of immunity. He concedes that we have jurisdiction over Baca’s appeal of denial of qualified immunity. See Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 530, 526, 105 S.Ct. 2806, 86 L.Ed.2d 411 (1985). Baca may only assert qualified immunity in his individual capacity, not in his official capacity. See Eng v. Cooley, 552 F.3d 1062, 1064 n. 1 (9th Cir.2009); Owen v. City of Independence, Mo., 445 U.S. 622, 638, 100 S.Ct 1398, 63 L.Ed.2d 673 (1980). However, we hold that Baca in his individual capacity may appeal denial of absolute quasi-judicial immunity, for the same reasons he may appeal denial. of qualified immunity in his individual capacity. See Mitchell, 472 U.S. at 526-27, 105 S.Ct.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
817 F.3d 635, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 6572, 2016 WL 1392326, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mario-garcia-v-county-of-riverside-ca9-2016.