Peace v. Wu

District Court, N.D. California·Decided September 13, 2022·No. 3:21-cv-01227·Unknown

Opinion

MICHAEL PEACE, Case No. 21-cv-01227-SI (PR) Plaintiff, ORDER GRANTING IN PART AND v. DENYING IN PART DEFENDANTS’ MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT; DEPUTY HARRY WU, et al., ADDRESSING PLAINTIFF’S PENDING MOTION; AND REFERRING MATTER Defendants. TO PRO SE PRISONER MEDIATION

Re: Dkt. Nos. 17, 23

Plaintiff Michael Peace, who is currently incarcerated at the San Francisco County Jail, filed a pro se civil rights action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Dkt. No. 1. He seeks monetary damages. Id. at 3.1 In his complaint, Peace named the San Francisco Sheriff’s Office (“SFSO”) and the following defendants from SFSO: Deputy Harry Wu (#2332) and Captain Stephen Tilton. Id. at 1. This action is now before the court for consideration of the motion for summary judgment filed by defendants and opposed by Peace.2 For the reasons discussed below, summary judgment will be granted in part and denied in part. The case will be referred to the Pro Se Prisoner Mediation Program.

1 Page number citations refer to those assigned by the court’s electronic case management filing system and not those assigned by the parties.

2 The court notes that Peace’s opposition was due on February 28, 2022. That deadline passed. Peace filed his opposition six months later—on August 1, 2022, see Dkt. No. 22, along with a “Motion to Reconsider,” in which he explains that he “ha[s] not gotten any response from prisoner legal services” about “how [to] respond to summary judgment . . . [and] that[’]s the reason why [he] is asking the courts to please reconsider the order on summary judgment,” see Dkt. No. 23 at 2. Because at the time his motion was filed the court had not yet ruled on the pending motion for summary judgment, Peace’s “Motion to Reconsider” is DENIED as premature. To the extent that Peace’s motion can be construed as a request for an extension of time to file his opposition, such a The events and omissions giving rise to this action occurred on May 15, 2020 at the San Francisco County Jail in San Bruno, California. Peace alleges two claims in his complaint. First, he alleges that Deputy Wu used excessive force during handcuffing. Second, Peace alleges that he was disciplined for the May 15, 2020 incident, and Captain Tilton violated his right to due process by causing him to be put in disciplinary housing without a sufficient evidentiary basis. Peace seeks monetary damages. A. Parties At the relevant time, Peace was housed in the jail as a pretrial detainee.3 Also at the relevant time, Deputy Wu was a San Francisco Sheriff’s deputy and Captain Tilton was a San Francisco Sheriff’s captain, and both were stationed at the jail. B. Peace’s Version The following background is taken from the court’s April 26, 2021 Order, which summarizes the claims from his complaint and states as follows:

At about 7:35 a.m. Deputy Wu woke up Peace and his cellmate, telling them that it was time for their “walk time”; Peace tried to explain that their “walk time” was during the swing shift. Docket No. 1 at 4. Deputy Wu said he would look into the matter and Peace went back to sleep. Peace was woken up again at 11:30 a.m. by Deputy Wu announcing over the intercom that it was time for their “walk time.” Peace and his cellmates exited the cell and tried to explain that their group walked on the next shift; Deputy Wu told them to shut up and walk. Peace tried to talk to another deputy, which led Wu to approach and argue with him before telling Peace to shut up and “take it in the house.” Id. Deputy Wu eventually told Peace to cuff-up. As soon as Peace turned around to cuff-up, Deputy Wu jumped on his back and put him in a head-lock. Id. at 5. Deputy Wu “wrestled [Peace] around which made [them] slam into the metal sink and wall,” even though Peace was attempting to allow himself to be handcuffed. Id.

Peace was taken to an interview room where he talked to captain Tilton and tried to explain what had happened. Captain Tilton told him that if there was any truth to what Peace was saying, he (Tilton) would see it on the pod’s camera and would review it. Id. Even though a deputy explained that what Peace said was true, captain “Tilton still let his deput[ies] send [Peace] to the hold for 30 days with loss of all [his] privileges.” Id. at 3. Peace thus lost canteen, phone privileges, and “walk time” for 30 days. Id. at 5. Also, a new charge was filed against him but later was dropped at the first court appearance. Id. Dkt. 3 at 1-2 (citing Dkt. No. 1 at 4-5).4 The complaint does not indicate whether Peace sustained any emotional, mental or physical injuries as a result of the alleged excessive force used by Deputy Wu. See Dkt. No. 1. However, in his deposition, Peace testified he suffered the following injuries: a bite to the inside of his lip which caused pain for “probably” a week, and pain in his back treated by mild pain relievers which is now resolved; and otherwise he was “okay.” Schroeder Decl., Ex. C (Peace’s Dep.) at 55:11-58:7, 60:8- 61:1. Peace also alleges he experienced anger and missed the opportunity to talk to his children during the thirty days of discipline in which he was not allowed phone privileges after the incident. Id. at 61:2-12. Peace claims that he exhausted his administrative remedies as to the claims in his complaint by filing “four different grievances” “all pertaining to what happened” on May 15, 2020. Id. at 70:16, 71: 11-13. Peace wrote the “first one after the incident happened.” Id. at 70:17-18. He claims that he “turned it into the pod deputy who was in the pod at the time.” Id. at 72:22-23. He claims that “six or seven days after [he] wrote the first one, they . . . rebooked [him] … [and] charged [him] . . . [with] charges pertaining to what happened.” Id. at 70: 20-24. He adds as follows:

on the second or the third [grievance] . . . since it . . . was supposed to be a criminal matter now. This was before I even did any lawsuit or anything like that. Since it’s going to be a criminal matter, I asked in 4 In his deposition, Peace adds that “when they did get me to the interview room, the slamming on the floor and putting me in the corner and making me slam by nose against the corner of the—the corner of the wall.” See Schroeder Decl., Ex. C at 51:10-13. However, such an allegation of this use of excessive force in the interview room is nowhere in either Peace’s complaint or opposition. See Dkt. Nos. 1, 22. Peace also seems to contradict himself in his complaint by stating “when back up was called it was no further problems,” Dkt. No. 1 at 5, and in his response to defendants’ request for documents, which states: “After slam[m]ing [me] into the sink in the pod, back up was called and I was then cuffed with no further problems,” Dkt. No. 17-19 at 5. Thus, the court need not discuss this additional claim, which again was only raised at his deposition. The scope of the action is defined by the operative pleading, which in this case is the complaint. The court will not grant that grievance that the tapes from the incident, everything be held, be put up since this is a criminal matter, since charges have been filed on me. Then since no grievances was being answered, I’m going to say I wrote another grievance based on I wasn’t getting no responses to the grievances that I wrote. Id. at 71:18 - 72:5.5 Peace states that he “got a response to one of [his grievances],” and “nothing ever happened after that.” Id. at 74:20-22. Peace is not sure for which grievance he got a response. Id. at 74:23-24. Peace elaborates more about the response to that one grievance in his complaint, stating as follows: “. . . I have only got[ten] a reply to one [grievance], which Captain Tilton said he talked to his deputy about his behavior. I appealed but still have not got[ten] a response almost a year later.” Dkt. No. 1 at 1.

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