Omar Sharrieff Gay v. Amy Parsons, et al.

District Court, N.D. California·Decided June 23, 2026·No. 3:16-cv-05998·Unknown

Opinion

OMAR SHARRIEFF GAY, Case No. 16-cv-05998-JCS Plaintiff, v. ORDER GRANTING IN PART AND DENYING IN PART MOTION TO AMY PARSONS, et al., EXCLUDE DEFENDANTS’ EXPERT Defendants. Re: Dkt. No. 185

Defendants have proffered Dr. Craig Lareau as an expert in this case. Presently before the Court is Plaintiff’s Motion to Exclude Defendants’ Expert Dr. Craig Lareau (“Motion”). A hearing on the Motion was held on June 10, 2026. For the reasons set forth below, the Motion is GRANTED in part and DENIED in part.1 Plaintiff filed the complaint in this case on October 17, 2016, when he was a prisoner at California State Prison, Solano (CSP – SOL).2 He brought the case under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 alleging that in September 2015, while he was incarcerated at the Correctional Training Facility in Soledad, Board of Parole Hearings (“BPH”) psychologists Amy Parsons and Gregory S. Goldstein interviewed him for a psychological diagnostic evaluation in preparation for a subsequent parole suitability hearing and on account of his being African-American and Muslim, assessed him as high risk for future violence in their 2015 Comprehensive Risk Assessment (“2015 CRA Report”

1 The parties have consented to the jurisdiction of a United States magistrate judge pursuant to 28 or “Report”). The Court summarized the 2015 CRA Report in its May 4, 2018 summary judgment order (“May 4, 2018 Order”) as follows: The September 2015 risk assessment report prepared by Defendant Goldstein and reviewed by Defendant Parsons before plaintiff’s subsequent parole suitability hearing included a section entitled “Assessment of Risk for Violence.” Compl. Ex. B (ECF No. 1-2) at 11. In that portion of the report, defendants wrote that “Mr. Gay presents with several factors in the historical domain which have been associated with future risk for violence.” Id. They noted that plaintiff had a history of violent crime and other antisocial behavior that began at a young age, and increased in severity until he was convicted in 1989 of the attempted murder of a police officer. According to defendants, “Mr. Gay’s history of violence and other antisocial behavior are highly relevant risk factors for future violence.” Id. at 11-12. Plaintiff’s antisocial behavior included the following: Substance Abuse: The report notes that the records indicate that plaintiff’s substance abuse history involved the use of alcohol, marijuana and PCP. Plaintiff also was engaged in the selling narcotics and “associated violence related to that lifestyle.” Id. at 12. As a result, “Mr. Gay’s history of substance use and his involvement in selling narcotics is a relevant factor in his risk for future violence.” Id. Negative Relationships and Violent Attitude: During his interview with defendants, plaintiff “noted that his father was involved in organized crime and acknowledged that his father extorted money from businesses in their area.” Id. He also explained that his father “instilled early in him that he should not accept the police’s authority, the government, or the rule of law.” Id. At a young age, plaintiff sought out negative peers, became a gang member, pursued a criminal lifestyle and engaged in ongoing violence. Plaintiff also made a targeted attack on a police officer with the intent to commit murder. As a result, defendants concluded that plaintiff’s “history of negative relationships and violent attitude, each present as highly significant factors in his risk for future violence.” Id.

History of Employment Problems: The report also noted that plaintiff did not have a consistent work history as an adult in the community. Plaintiff “chose to forgo legitimate employment and instead engaged in gang warfare and criminal behavior for financial gain.” Id. And during his incarceration, plaintiff’s work history had not been especially strong. In 2013, plaintiff received “Counseling Chronos” for “failure to report to work and not performing his assigned task,” and in 2012, he was written up by correctional staff who suspected he was faking an injury in order to avoid his work assignment. Id. According to defendants, plaintiff’s “choice to forgo legitimate future violence.” Id. Defendants’ report also recounted that plaintiff, who attributed his behavior as a young adult to his father’s teachings, was now a devout Muslim, “and has accepted Islamic law as his moral compass, guiding his beliefs and actions.” Id. at 14. But according to defendants, plaintiff did not “appear to have insight as to why he wholly embraced his father’s value system, Islamic law, or any other system he chooses to embrace in the future.” Id. They added that plaintiff’s “total commitment to whatever cause he sees fit in the future, and his lack of insight as to why he totally commits himself to that cause as he did on the day he committed the life crime, is a highly significant factor in Mr. Gay’s future risk for violence.” Id. In the final section of the report, defendants concluded that “based upon an analysis of the presence and relevance of empirically supported risk factors, case formulation of risk, and consideration of the inmate’s anticipated risk management needs if granted parole supervision (i.e., intervention, monitoring), Mr. Gay represents a High risk for violence.” Id. at 16 (emphasis in original). They noted that plaintiff had not programmed well during his incarceration and added the following observation:

Overall, Mr. Gay has not spent a great deal of time while incarcerated attending self-help programming and his level of understanding of his antisocial personality characteristics which predispose him to violence is lacking. Furthermore, Mr. Gay’s continued oppositional attitude toward authority does not appear to be well contained and continues to be a highly relevant factor in his risk for future violence at this time. Lastly, Mr. Gay has not communicated an understanding of his total commitment to a particular belief system such as that of his father, his Islamic faith, or any other system he may adopt in the future. And this lack of understanding makes his susceptibility to possible negative influences unpredictable. Id. May 4, 2018 Order at 2-3 (emphasis in original). In the May 4, 2018 Order, the Court found that “[u]nder the facts presented in the September 2015 risk assessment report, no reasonable jury could find that defendants’ decision that plaintiff posed a high risk for violence was motivated by plaintiff’s status as an African- American Muslim. Id. at 6 (citation omitted). On the other hand, based on Plaintiff’s allegations relating to the interview that led to the issuance of the 2015 CRA, the Court found that a reasonable jury could “find by a preponderance of the evidence that defendants’ decision that he posed a high risk for violence was motivated at least in part by his status as an African-American follows: In his sworn and verified complaint, plaintiff alleges that during the psychological diagnostic evaluation with defendants he “explained in detail his earliest childhood benefits, introduction, and positive experiences and beliefs from his father’s Black Nationalistic and Pseudo Islamic belief system.” Compl. ¶ 16.

Plaintiff actually elaborated to Defendants, when asked, how Plaintiff’s father was a member of a pro-Black Nationalist organization having Pseudo-Islamic beliefs and practiced the social and economic upliftment [sic] of African Americans through ‘Black free enterprise, the establishment of Black- owned, Black-operated businesses in the African American communities to the full exclusion of the Jewish business monopoly in the African American communities at that time in the nineteen fifties and nineteen sixties.

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Omar Sharrieff Gay v. Amy Parsons, et al., (N.D. Cal. 2026).

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