McDonald v. County of Sonoma

CourtDistrict Court, N.D. California
DecidedDecember 11, 2020
Docket3:20-cv-04183
StatusUnknown

This text of McDonald v. County of Sonoma (McDonald v. County of Sonoma) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McDonald v. County of Sonoma, (N.D. Cal. 2020).

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 6 FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 7 8 LA'MARCUS MCDONALD, Case No. 20-cv-04183-CRB

9 Plaintiff, ORDER GRANTING IN PART AND 10 v. DENYING IN PART DEFENDANTS’ MOTION TO DISMISS FOR FAILURE 11 COUNTY OF SONOMA, et al., TO STATE A CLAIM 12 Defendants.

13 Plaintiff La’Marcus McDonald brings this private right of action against County of 14 Sonoma, Town of Windsor, Sheriff Mark Essick, Deputy Sheriff (“DS”) Travis Perkins, 15 Administrative Sergeant (“Adm. Sgt.”) Brent Kidder, and Deputy Gregory Clegg (collectively 16 “Defendants”) for various violations of California and Federal civil rights laws. See generally 17 First Amended Complaint (“FAC”) (dkt. 15). McDonald alleges that DS Perkins and Deputy 18 Clegg unlawfully arrested, used excessive force, and searched McDonald in violation of the 19 Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments, as well as article I, sections 7 and 13 of the California 20 Constitution. See id. ¶¶ 88–98. McDonald also alleges that Sonoma County, Town of Windsor, 21 Sheriff Essick, and Adm. Sgt. Kidder effectively acquiesced to and condoned ongoing 22 constitutional violations. See Opp. (dkt. 29) 8–15. Defendants now move to dismiss for failure to 23 state a claim. See generally MTD (dkt 21). After carefully considering the parties’ briefs and oral 24 argument, the Court hereby DENIES Defendants’ motion to dismiss, with the sole exception of 25 McDonald’s request for injunctive relief. 26 27 1 I. BACKGROUND 2 A. Factual Background 3 Around 8:34 PM on July 9, 2019, Sonoma County Sheriff Deputies, acting as contracted 4 officers for the Windsor Police Department, responded to a welfare check of La’Marcus 5 McDonald, a Black Sonoma County resident, sleeping alone in a parked car.1 See FAC ¶¶ 33–34. 6 Andrew Chambers drove past McDonald and called 9-1-1 to request that an officer check on 7 McDonald’s welfare—Chambers suspected that McDonald might have overdosed. See id. ¶ 33. 8 DS Perkins arrived on scene first and found McDonald asleep in the car with the door open. See 9 id. ¶ 32. The vehicle was legally parked, with the ignition off. See id. ¶ 34. DS Perkins prodded 10 McDonald awake and reached into the car to take a comb out of McDonald’s hair. See id. ¶¶ 35– 11 36. When McDonald woke up, DS Perkins asked him if he had consumed any alcohol or drugs. 12 See id. ¶¶ 34–38. McDonald stated that he had drank alcohol earlier that night. See id. ¶ 39. DS 13 Perkins then asked McDonald to step out of the car and turn around—McDonald complied. See 14 id. ¶ 40. 15 The parties dispute what occurred next. The Incident Report2 states that McDonald tensed 16 up after DS Perkins grabbed his right arm, at which point the officer employed a takedown 17 maneuver to bring McDonald to the ground. Id. ¶ 44 (citing FAC, Ex A (dkt. 15-2)). McDonald 18 alleges that DS Perkins, without warning, grabbed McDonald’s right arm in an effort to handcuff 19 McDonald. See id. ¶¶ 40–42. After DS Perkins grabbed McDonald’s arm, McDonald only 20 remembers “waking up bloodied, face first on the ground with pain in his head and mouth.” Id. ¶ 21 43. McDonald watched the body camera footage once in the presence of a police officer and 22 observed DS Perkins say “Don’t f*****g do that again,” just before he slammed McDonald 23 headfirst into the pavement rendering him unconscious and breaking several teeth. Id. ¶ 44 (citing 24 FAC, Ex A). 25

26 1 McDonald resided with his mother, but his mother was in the process of being evicted from her residence. See FAC ¶ 32. McDonald’s friend allowed McDonald to sleep in the friend’s car, after 27 McDonald’s mother’s landlord said that McDonald was too old to live in the development. See id. 1 Deputy Clegg and the paramedics arrived as DS Perkins attempted to handcuff McDonald 2 and witnessed DS Perkins slam McDonald to the pavement. See id. ¶ 46. Both officers then 3 searched McDonald and the car for contraband but found nothing.3 See id. The ambulance then 4 transported McDonald, handcuffed while wearing a spit hood, to the hospital. See id. ¶ 47. Over 5 the course of several hours, Deputy Clegg refused to provide McDonald with water. See id. After 6 being discharged from the hospital, the officers transported McDonald to the county jail without 7 telling McDonald that he was under arrest or charged with anything. See id. ¶ 48. On or around 8 July 12, 2019, the District Attorney refused to press charges against McDonald, yet McDonald 9 remained in jail until his relatives bailed him out. See id. ¶ 49.4 The officers also impounded the 10 car that McDonald slept in, and it remained impounded as of September 8, 2020. 11 McDonald requested the police body cam footage, but Sonoma County refused to provide 12 him with a copy. See id. ¶ 13. The County did permit McDonald to watch the footage in the 13 Sonoma County Sheriff’s office with presence of a police officer. See id. However, Sonoma 14 County recently released the footage to McDonald. See Opp. at 4. 15 B. Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss 16 McDonald requests general damages, special damages, punitive and exemplary damages, 17 attorneys’ fees and costs, statutory damages, costs incurred, prejudgment interest, and declaratory 18 and injunctive relief. See FAC ¶ 196. McDonald premises his requested relief on fifteen causes 19 of action: 20 Count I. Section 1983 Claim Against DS Perkins and Deputy Clegg for violations of 21 McDonald’s Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment Rights. See id. ¶ 88. 22 Count II. Section 1983 Claim Against All Public Entity Defendants (Sonoma and 23 Windsor counties) as a Monell Action, i.e., supervising the violations of 24 McDonald’s Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment Rights. See id. ¶ 99. 25 26

27 3 According to the incident report, the officers found several bottles of alcohol, including one 1 Count III. Section 1983 Against Supervisory Defendants Sheriff Essick and Adm. Sgt. 2 Kidder for violations of McDonald’s Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment 3 Rights. See id. ¶ 115. 4 Count IV. Claims Against all Defendants under Article I, Sections 7 and 13 of the 5 California Constitution. See id. ¶ 124. 6 Count V. Negligent Hiring and Supervision Claim Against Sheriff Essick. See id. ¶ 130. 7 Count VI. Negligence Claim Against DS Perkins and Deputy Clegg. See id. ¶ 137. 8 Count VII. Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress Claim Against DS Perkins. See id. 9 ¶ 141. 10 Count VIII. Battery Claim Against DS Perkins. See id. ¶ 147. 11 Count IX. False Arrest and Imprisonment Claim Against all Individual Officers. See id. ¶ 12 153. 13 Count X. Unreasonable Seizure of McDonald’s Car Against DS Perkins and Does 1–50. 14 See id. ¶ 160. 15 Count XI. Bane Civil Rights Act Claim, Cal. Civ. Code § 52.1, Against DS Perkins. See 16 id. ¶ 165. 17 Count XII. Bane Civil Rights Act Claim Against Sheriff Essick and Public Entities. See id. 18 ¶ 173. 19 Count XIII. Ralph Civil Rights Act Claim, Cal. Civ. Code § 51.7, 52(b), Against DS 20 Perkins. See id. ¶ 178. 21 Count XIV. Ralph Civil Rights Act Claim Against the Public Entity Defendants and Sheriff 22 Essick. See id. ¶ 187. 23 Count XV. Respondeat Superior State Law Claim, Cal. Gov. Code § 815.2(a), Against 24 Public Entity Defendants. See id. ¶ 192. 25 On September 19, 2020, County of Sonoma, Town of Windsor, Sheriff Essick, DS Perkins, 26 Adm. Sgt. Kidder, and Deputy Clegg filed a motion to dismiss several of McDonald’s claims. 27 See, e.g., MTD. 1 II. LEGAL STANDARD 2 Dismissal is proper where the complaint fails to “state a claim upon which relief can be 3 granted.” Fed. R. Civ. P.

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McDonald v. County of Sonoma, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcdonald-v-county-of-sonoma-cand-2020.