Roberto Jose Cota v. Santa Ana Police Department

District Court, C.D. California·Decided November 23, 2021·No. 8:21-cv-01774·Unknown

Opinion

ROBERTO JOSE COTA, ) Case No. 8:21-CV-01774-MWF-JDE ) Plaintiff, ) ) ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE WHY ) v. ) CASE SHOULD NOT BE ) DISMISSED DEPARTMENT, et al., ) Defendants. ) )

)

I. On October 25, 2021, Plaintiff Roberto Jose Cota (“Plaintiff”), a pretrial detainee at Orange County Jail, proceeding pro se and seeking to proceed in forma pauperis (“IFP”), filed a Complaint under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (“Section 1983” or “§ 1983”) against Defendants Santa Ana Police Department (“SAPD”), David Valentin, Gallardo, John Doe, and Gus Morroyoqui. Dkt. 1 (“Complaint”); Dkt. 2 (“IFP Request”). Because Plaintiff, a detainee, seeks redress in the Complaint against government officials and entities, and because Plaintiff seeks leave to proceed IFP, under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1915(e)(2)(B) and 1915A, the Court must, as soon as practicable, review and dismiss the Complaint if it is frivolous or malicious, fails to state a claim on which relief may be granted, or seeks monetary damages from a defendant immune from such relief. II. On May 28, 2018, Plaintiff, a tow-truck operator, was in a parking lot in Santa Ana, California when he heard what he believed to be gun shots coming from a nearby parking lot. Complaint ¶¶ 11-13. Plaintiff drove to the nearby parking lot and observed a group of bystanders surrounding an injured victim. Id. ¶14. Plaintiff then began rendering aid to the victim until the Fire Department arrived a few minutes later, at which point Plaintiff returned to his parked vehicle. Id. ¶¶ 15-16. Shortly thereafter, officers from the SAPD arrived at the parking lot and began conducting witness interviews. Id. ¶ 17. Plaintiff approached Defendant Gallardo, an SAPD officer, and notified him that Plaintiff’s vehicle had a dash camera that may have captured relevant footage. Id. ¶ 18. Defendant Gallardo indicated to Plaintiff he would be interested in interviewing Plaintiff, and asked Plaintiff to “wait for a few minutes,” which Plaintiff obliged. Id. Defendant Gallardo briefly interviewed Plaintiff, and at 10:15 p.m., before completing the interview, instructed Plaintiff to move his vehicle and to turn it off as to not waste gas. Id. ¶ 20. Plaintiff alleges he felt “compelled” to comply with Defendant Gallardo’s orders and accordingly moved his vehicle and believed he “couldn’t leave.” Id. ¶ 21. Plaintiff claims Defendant Gallardo never told Plaintiff he was permitted to leave and never provided Plaintiff with an explanation for his detention. Id. ¶ 22. Later that night, Defendant John Doe, an SADP crime scene investigator, approached Plaintiff and requested to inspect Plaintiff’s dash camera, which Plaintiff obliged. Id. ¶ 25. Defendant Doe also requested to review the footage stored on Plaintiff’s dash camera, but Plaintiff denied the request. Id. ¶ 25. Upon returning the dash camera to Plaintiff, Defendant Doe “ordered” Plaintiff to call Plaintiff’s boss and notify him that the police officers would not “let [Plaintiff] go until the detective is done interviewing everyone.” Id. ¶ 26. Plaintiff then sat in his vehicle and waited “for a few hours” until Defendant Morroyoqui, an SADP detective, arrived at the parking lot and began interviewing the present witnesses, including Plaintiff. Id. ¶ 27. Following his interview with Plaintiff, Defendant Morroyoqui requested to examine Plaintiff’s dash camera, but Plaintiff informed Defendant Morroyoqui he was unable to locate the dash camera. Id. ¶ 28. At 2:12 a.m. the following morning, Plaintiff was “allowed to leave” the parking lot and went home. Id. Plaintiff alleges Defendants violated his Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures by detaining him for over three hours without probable cause or reasonable suspicion of any wrongdoing. Id. ¶¶ 29, 53-54. Plaintiff generally claims that Defendant David Valentin “allows his officers and detectives to engage in unlawful searches and seizures,” and further alleges Defendants Gallardo, Morroyoqui, and Doe acted wantonly, maliciously, and willfully. Id. ¶¶ 51-52. Plaintiff seeks :(1) a declaratory judgment that Defendants violated his Fourth Amendment rights; (2) an injunction enjoining Defendants from engaging in unlawful detentions of Santa Ana residents; and (3) nominal and punitive damages. Id. ¶ 55. In Count 1, Plaintiff alleges Defendants violated his Fourth Amendment rights by seizing him without probable cause or reasonable suspicion. Id. ¶ 53. In Count 2, Plaintiff alleges Defendants violated his Fourth Amendment rights by prolonging his unlawful detention in an effort to gain access to Plaintiff’s dash camera without informing Plaintiff that he had a right to leave. Id. ¶ 54. As noted, under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1915(e)(2) and 1915A, a district court must dismiss a complaint in this circumstance if it fails to state a claim on which relief may be granted. See Calhoun v. Stahl, 254 F.3d 845, 845 (9th Cir. 2001) (per curiam) (finding that the provisions of 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2)(B) are not limited to prisoners but includes pretrial detainees). A complaint may be dismissed for failure to state a claim due to a lack of a cognizable legal theory or insufficient facts alleged under a cognizable legal theory. Balistreri v. Pacifica Police Dep't, 901 F.2d 696, 699 (9th Cir. 1990). When reviewing a complaint to determine whether it states a viable claim, the Court applies the same standard as it would when evaluating a motion to dismiss under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure (“Rule”) 12(b)(6). See Rosati v. Igbinoso, 791 F.3d 1037, 1039 (9th Cir. 2015) (citation omitted). Rule 12(b)(6), in turn, is read in conjunction with Rule 8(a) . Zixiang Li v. Kerry, 710 F.3d 995, 998 (9th Cir. 2013). Under Rule 8, a complaint must contain a “short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief.” Rule 8(a)(2). While Rule 8 does not require detailed factual allegations, at a minimum a complaint must allege enough specific facts to provide both “fair notice” of the particular claim being asserted and “the grounds upon which [that claim] rests.” Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555 (2007) (citation and quotation marks omitted); see also Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 (2009) (observing that Rule 8 pleading standard “demands more than an unadorned, the-defendant-unlawfully-harmed-me accusation”) (citing Twombly, 550 U.S. at 555). Thus, to survive a review here, a complaint must “contain sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.” Nordstrom v. Ryan, 762 F.3d 903, 908 (9th Cir. 2014) (citations and quotation marks omitted). A claim is “plausible” when the facts alleged in the complaint would support a reasonable inference that the plaintiff is entitled to relief from a specific defendant for specific misconduct. Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 678 (citation omitted); see also Gauvin v. Trombatore, 682 F. Supp. 1067, 1071 (N

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