opposition to defendant flores' motion for summary judgment
DESCRIPTION
The opposition that defeated San Jose Police Officer Miguel Flores' (#3881) motion to dismiss the excessive force case pending against him, in which he states that the plaintiff doesn't "sound" like he incurred a shoulder injury when he was arrested (based on the recorded interview afterwards), and, therefore, doesn't have one. This opposition includes a shoulder X-ray, which showing that the plaintiff's shoulder was broken, and describes other injuries he incurred at the hands of Office Flores, specifically, a broken and shattered rib.TRANSCRIPT
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OPPOSITION PAGE 1 OF 17 09-cv-01024 (PR) RS
INTRODUCTION
Pursuant to Rule 56 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Plaintiff
files his Opposition to Defendants’ Flores and City of San Jose Motion for
Summary Judgment.
In this opposition, Plaintiff will show that, for the purposes of
determining whether Defendant Flores is entitled to qualified immunity,
Defendant Flores exercised the use of force during Plaintiff’s arrest that
was objectively unreasonable. Plaintiff will also show that a genuine
issue of material fact exists as to whether the amount of force used was
James Alan Bush (DWF967-08086698)885 North San Pedro AvenueSan Jose, California 95110
Plaintiff in pro per
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA
SAN FRANCISCO DIVISION
James Alan Bush,
Plaintiff,
v.
Officer Miguel Flores (#3881),
Defendant.
Case No. 09-cv-01024 (PR) RS
OPPOSITION TO DEFENDANTS’ MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT
[Fed. R. Civ. P., Rule 56]
Judge Richard Seeborg
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OPPOSITION PAGE 2 OF 17 09-cv-01024 (PR) RS
excessive and unreasonable.
FACTS
When the events at issue in this case took place, Plaintiff was in his
apartment, resting in bed while suffering from an acute sinus infection
for which he was under the care of a physician.
Shortly before Defendant Flores’ arrival, Plaintiff’s roommate, Mr.
Long Thang Cao, received a phone call from the defendant, which served
as a prearranged signal to him to open both the apartment and apartment
building doors. As Mr. Cao opened, and left open, both doors, Defendant
Flores yanked Mr. Cao outside and then entered the apartment building
hallway.
According to Mr. Cao’s testimony in a related criminal proceeding,
Defendant Flores yelled to plaintiff to exit his apartment, which
plaintiff did immediately. At no time did plaintiff yell at Defendant
Flores, nor did Defendant Flores knock on or request that plaintiff
open his already open apartment door, nor did Defendant Flores identify
himself or announce his intention to arrest the plaintiff -- all facts
corroborated by Mr. Cao under oath, and, in part, by Defendant Flores in
the same proceeding.
Plaintiff, who had been sleeping as a result of an illness, and who was
awakened suddenly by the shouting of the defendant and the brandishing of
guns, which left him in a confused and disoriented and intimidated state,
asked the defendant to identify himself, due to the fact that the lights
in the apartment building hallway were turned off and flashlights were
shown directly in plaintiff’s eyes, rendering plaintiff unable to ascertain
visually the identity of the defendant as a police officer.
Without complying with plaintiff’s request, and without warning,
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OPPOSITION PAGE 3 OF 17 09-cv-01024 (PR) RS
Defendant Flores deployed his Taser at point-blank range, which caused
plaintiff’s rib to shatter, Defendant Flores then ordered plaintiff to lay
face-down on the ground and put his arms behind his back, which plaintiff
did.
Defendant Flores, after turning on the hallway lights, ground his knee
into plaintiff’s back with such force as to break plaintiff’s rib while
applying the handcuffs. After the plaintiff was secured, Defendant Flores
yanked plaintiff to his feet by his left arm, causing the avulsion of a
shoulder bone.
Defendant Flores’ abuse of the plaintiff continued during an
interrogation in a hospital emergency room approximately an hour later,
where Defendant Flores repeatedly ordered the plaintiff to sit up in his
hospital bed, even though plaintiff had a Taser prong embedded in his rib
and ha suffered multiple fractures at the hands of the defendant only an
hour prior.
LEGAL ARGUMENT
Contrary to the legal argument presented in Defendants’ Motion for
Summary Judgment, the standard of reasonableness for the purposes of a
determination of qualified immunity in an excessive force case is distinct
from the standard of reasonableness embodied in the Fourth Amendment. A
court hearing an excessive force claim must ask first whether the facts,
when taken in the light most favorable to the plaintiff (versus the
officer), would establish a violation of the Fourth Amendment, and only
if the answer is affirmative should the court address the immunity issue,
which focuses on whether the law was clearly established at the time of
the incident (see Section III.). [Robinson v. Solano County, 278 F.3d 1007
(2002)].
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OPPOSITION PAGE 4 OF 17 09-cv-01024 (PR) RS
I. DEFENDANT FLORES USED EXCESSIVE AND UNREASONABLE FORCE DURING THE
COURSE OF PLAINTIFF’S ARREST
The question as to whether the use of force is objectively
reasonable for the purposes of an excessive force claim is
determined by analyzing the severity of the crime at issue, whether
the suspect posed an immediate threat to the safety of the officer
or others, whether he actively resisted arrest or attempted to evade
arrest by flight, whether the physical force applied was of such an
extent as to lead to an injury, the possibility that the plaintiff
was violent or dangerous, the duration of the action, whether the
action takes place in the context of effecting an arrest, the
possibility that the plaintiff was armed, and the number of persons
with whom the officer must contend at one time [Brown v. Rinehart,
575 F. Supp. 2d 620 (D. Del. 2008); Estate of Smith v. Marasco, 430
F.3d 140 (3d Cir. 2005); Leopardi v. Township of Maple Shade, 363 N.J.
Super. 313, 832 A.2d 943 (App. Div. 2003)].
II. PLAINTIFF COMMITTED NO CRIMES PRIOR TO HIS ARREST NOR WAS HE
SUBSEQUENTLY CONVICTED OF CRIMES FOR WHICH HE WAS ARRESTED
Defendant Flores did not have a reasonable suspicion of any crime
prior to plaintiff’s arrest; moreover, all charges filed by Defendant
Flores against the plaintiff were either dropped or dismissed.
Furthermore, Plaintiff had not committed any crime in the presence
of Defendant Flores, and, thus, no exigent circumstances existed to
support the use of force or the degree of force used.
Finally, Plaintiff has never been arrested for arson or any other
offense that involved knives or needles. Plaintiff also has never
been convicted or any violent crime.
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OPPOSITION PAGE 5 OF 17 09-cv-01024 (PR) RS
In Bailey v. Kennedy, 349 F.3d 731 (4th Cir. 2003), it was
established that the amount of force used by police officers in
subduing the plaintiff, who had not committed any crime and had
incurred shoulder injuries, was excessive for Fourth Amendment
purposes, especially considering that the plaintiff was bound hand
and foot and lying face-down on the floor, and, therefore, there was
no reason to believe that the plaintiff was a danger to himself or
others, including the officer.
III. PLAINTIFF POSED NO THREAT TO THE SAFETY OF DEFENDANT FLORES OR
OTHERS DURING AND AFTER HIS ARREST
Plaintiff, the only person who was present besides the officers
involved and the only person subjected to arrest, was outnumbered
4 to 1. The police officers involved, including Defendant Flores,
were armed, whereas Plaintiff was not; moreover, per Defendant
Flores’ testimony in a related criminal proceeding, Plaintiff was
not suspected of having any weapons at the time of his arrest, and,
because the plaintiff was wearing only a pair of tight-fitting jeans
with no bulging pockets, the fact that plaintiff had no weapons was
immediately discernible to Defendant Flores.
Plaintiff exhibited no violent or dangerous behavior before
or after he was secured and under the control of the defendant,
especially afterwards, when the majority of Plaintiff’s injuries
occurred. The act of exiting Plaintiff’s apartment and of facing the
defendant as instructed, which was described by Defendant Flores as
the squaring of Plaintiff’s shoulders, could not have been reasonably
interpreted as a threatening gesture, especially considering the
size, age and weight of each of the four officers relative to that
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OPPOSITION PAGE 6 OF 17 09-cv-01024 (PR) RS
of the plaintiff, and considering that this act could not have been
interpreted as active resistance or an attempt to flee.
Plaintiff contends that Defendant Flores’ behavior and conduct
upon entering the plaintiff’s apartment building was of such a
nature to make the plaintiff fear for his life. Without warning to
the plaintiff, and without identifying themselves, Defendant Flores,
with gun drawn and shouting, made a motion as though he was about
to discharge a firearm, and, accordingly, it is sufficient that the
apprehension suffered by the plaintiff was that of a reasonable man
under the same circumstances. After all, Plaintiff had committed no
crime in the presence of the defendant or any crime for which he
subsequently convicted, making it unreasonable for him to assume
he was under arrest. Thus, the acts of Defendant Flores in making
the arrest should not have been done in a threatening and menacing
manner.
Furthermore, Plaintiff’s alleged failure to immediately comply
with Defendant Flores’ orders to lay on the ground should not be
considered a threatening gesture or active resistance. In Brown
v. City of Golden Valley, 534 F. Supp. 2d 984 (D. Minn. 2008), it
was clearly established at the time of the arrest, that a city
police officer’s tasering of a nonviolent arrestee without warning
constituted an unreasonable exercise of force, and thus an officer
was not entitled to qualified immunity from the arrestee’s § 1983
claim for excessive force under the Fourth Amendment; the arrestee
was nonviolent, was not fleeing or resisting arrest, and was suspected
of only a minor, nonviolent crime, having disobeyed two orders to get
off the telephone with a 911 operator.
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OPPOSITION PAGE 7 OF 17 09-cv-01024 (PR) RS
IV. DEFENDANT FLORES EXERCISE OF FORCE CAUSED SIGNIFICANT PHYSICAL INJURY
TO PLAINTIFF AND CONTINUED TO USE FORCE FOR UP TO ONE HOUR AFTER
PLAINTIFF WAS SECURED
Any use of serious physical force by a police officer, especially
force substantial enough to cause a significant injury, after
plaintiff was handcuffed, is objectively unreasonable for the
purposes of a police officer’s qualified immunity defense to an
excessive force claim arising from an arrest [Polk v. Hopkins, 129
Fed. Appx. 285, 2005 FED App. 0336N (6th Cir. 2005)].
According to plaintiff’s medical records (see related note below),
Defendant Flores deployed a Taser at plaintiff at point-blank range,
which caused plaintiff’s rib to shatter due to Defendant Flores’
proximity to the plaintiff and the velocity at which a Taser prong
travels when deployed.
As plaintiff lay face-down on the ground with his hands behind
his back, Defendant Flores ground his knee into plaintiff’s back
directly above the Taser prong with enough pressure and force to
cause a second, distinct injury, namely, a broken rib.
After securing plaintiff with handcuffs, Defendant Flores yanked
plaintiff’s arm with such force as to cause an avulsion to a shoulder
bone. (See Exhibit “A”.)
Per Dr. Cazmo J. Lukrich, M.D., plaintiff’s physician, all of
the aforedescribed injuries were sustained exactly as plaintiff
describes.
In Weigel v. Broad, 544 F.3d 1143 (10th Cir. 2008), the court held
that a police officer’s application of substantial or significant
pressure on a suspect’s back while that suspect is in a face-down,
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OPPOSITION PAGE 8 OF 17 09-cv-01024 (PR) RS
prone position after being subdued and/or incapacitated constitutes
excessive force under the Fourth Amendment requirements. Also,
in Byrd v. Clark (1986, CA11 Ga) 783 F.2d 1002, a court held that
evidence in a Title 42 U.S.C.A. § 1983 action involving injuries
received by a plaintiff during a scuffle with police at a police
station was sufficient to preclude summary judgment on the issue of
excessive force, where the evidence showed that, while there may
have been some justification for the officer’s use of force against the
plaintiff, there was a dispute as to whether the force was applied
after the plaintiff ceased to resist the officer, and whether the
injuries were sufficiently serious to the plaintiff’s shoulder, since
the severity of the injury, while not a determinative factor in
assessing whether or not a constitutional violation has occurred, is
certainly probative of the amount of force used. {See Section III.]
An hour later, while plaintiff was in the emergency room,
Defendant Flores repeatedly ordered the plaintiff to sit up while he
and another investigator interrogated him, even though the plaintiff
had just sustained multiple fractures at the hands of Defendant
Flores.
A note about proof of plaintiff’s injuries:
Plaintiff intended to offer answers to interrogatories from Dr.
Cazmo J. Lukrich, M.D., an employee of Defendant Santa Clara County
Department of Correction, in order to prove the continued and
excessive use of force by Defendant Flores after the plaintiff was
retrained and to establish which injuries sustained by the plaintiff
resulted directly and only from a use of force that was clearly
excessive; however, because the Clerk failed to properly serve the
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OPPOSITION PAGE 9 OF 17 09-cv-01024 (PR) RS
aforementioned defendant, Plaintiff was precluded from obtaining an
order compelling an answer to the aforementioned interrogatories,
which was denied on the ground that Santa Clara County Department of
Correction is not a named defendant.
Should the Court had still considered denying Plaintiff’s Motion
to Compel Answer to Interrogatories even if the aforementioned
defendant had been properly served, Plaintiff cites Crawford-El v.
Britton, 118 S. Ct. 1584 (U.S. 1998), in which the court state that a
trial judge should give priority to discovery concerning issues that
bear upon the qualified immunity defense asserted by a government
official, such as actions that the official actually took, since that
defense should be resolved as early as possible.
This case law citation also could be applied to the denial of
Plaintiff’s Motion to Compel Discovery against Defendant Flores,
which sought an order compelling Defendant Flores to answer
interrogatories which sought information relevant to overcome the
defense of qualified immunity. The Court denied Plaintiff’s motion on
the ground that Defendant Flores answered 25 interrogatories already,
and that, when Plaintiff propounded a set of interrogatories upon
Defendant Flores, which are erroneously described as additional, that
the plaintiff exceeded the 25-question limit. In fact, Defendant
Flores never answered any interrogatories propounded upon him, and
has thus far failed to demonstrate otherwise; rather, Defendant
Flores filed objections to a set of interrogatories propounded upon a
different defendant in a separate case in which he is not a party,
taking advantage of an error by the Clerk, who misdirected the
interrogatories, in order to avoid answering incriminating questions.
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OPPOSITION PAGE 10 OF 17 09-cv-01024 (PR) RS
//
//
V. DEFENDANT FLORES IS NOT ENTITLED TO QUALIFIED IMMUNITY STANDARD FOR
DETERMINING QUALIFIED IMMUNITY
The standard of reasonableness for the purposes of a determination
of qualified immunity in an excessive force case is distinct from the
standard of reasonableness embodied in the Fourth Amendment. [See
Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 818, 102 S. Ct. 2727, 73 L. Ed. 2d
396 (1982); Robinson v. Solano County, 278 F.3d 1007.] The process for
determining qualified immunity was explained by the Supreme Court in
Saucier v. Katz, 533 .S. 194, 121 S. Ct. 2151, 150 L. Ed. 2d 272 (2001),
which held that a court required to rule upon the qualified immunity
issue in an excessive force claim must first ask whether “the facts
alleged show the officer’s conduct violated a constitutional right”
when taken in a light most favorable to the plaintiff. [Id. at 201,
121 S. Ct. 2151.] Second, the court must determine whether the right
was clearly established so that it would be “clear to a reasonable
officer that his conduct was unlawful in the situation he confronted.”
[Id. at 201-02, 121 S. Ct. 2151.]
Courts have typically applied Saucier using a three-part test
in which they inquire (1) whether the claimant has alleged the
deprivation of an actual constitutional right; (2) whether the right
was clearly established at the time of the alleged action; and, if
both of these questions are answered in the affirmative, (3) whether
an objectively reasonable officer would have believed that the action
taken violated that clearly established constitutional right.
To support his claim that the defendant violated the plaintiff’s
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OPPOSITION PAGE 11 OF 17 09-cv-01024 (PR) RS
Fourth Amendment right to be free from the use of excessive force
during the course of an arrest, Plaintiff must define what constitutes
excessive force under the Fourth Amendment, and, then, how that
the defendant employed force that was unreasonable under the
circumstances in order to establish that a Fourth Amendment violated
based on excessive force occurred.
When determining whether the force used to effect a particular
seizure is reasonable, there must be careful attention to the facts
and circumstances of the arrest, including the severity of the crime
at issue, whether the plaintiff posed an immediate threat to the
safety of the defendant or others, and whether the plaintiff actively
resisted arrest or attempted to evade arrest by flight. [Graham v.
Connor, 490 U.S. 386, 395, 109 S. Ct. 1865, 104 L. Ed. 2d 443 (1989).]
VI. PLAINTIFF SUFFICIENTLY ALLEGES A CONSTITUTIONAL VIOLATION
The facts alleged in Plaintiff’s complaint show that the defendant
violated a constitutional right, in that, Plaintiff alleges that,
after his hands were cuffed behind his back and while he was lying
face down on the ground, the defendant pinned the plaintiff to
the ground and broke a rib, and, then, after having been notified
of an existing injury to his left shoulder by the plaintiff, the
defendant, instead of using the plaintiff’s right arm, as suggested
by the plaintiff, pulled the plaintiff to his feet using his left arm
with enough force to break the plaintiff’s shoulder. (Amendment, at
¶ 17.) At the time the aforementioned injuries occurred, Plaintiff
was neither attempting to flee or actively resisting arrest. (Id. at
¶ 16.) In fact, Defendant states that, after he deployed his Taser,
the plaintiff “was apprehended without further incident.” (Report,
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OPPOSITION PAGE 12 OF 17 09-cv-01024 (PR) RS
at page 4); moreover, Defendant admits that he “was responding to a
relatively minor complaint that Plaintiff had shut off the lights of
a building” in which Plaintiff was living. {MSJ, at page 7.)
In Smith v. Mattox, 127 F.3d 1416 (11th Cir. 1997), qualified
immunity was denied to a police officer accused of breaking the
plaintiff’s arm while putting on handcuffs. After the plaintiff
“docilely submitted to arrest,” the officer bent the plaintiff’s arm
in a way that caused discomfort, When the plaintiff complained, the
police officer, “with a grunt and a blow,” broke his arm so severely
that it required surgery for multiple fractures. (Id.) The court
concluded that such use of force was excessive and that the officer
was not entitled to qualified immunity. Id.
In Jennings v. Jones, 499 F.3d 2 (2007), the court denied qualified
immunity to a police officer who increased the pressure on the
plaintiff’s ankle several seconds after the plaintiff stopped
resisting arrest and stated that the pressure already applied was
hurting his previously injured ankle, stating that an objectively
reasonable officer would have believed that his conduct violated a
clearly established constitutional right to be free from unreasonable
force, especially when considering that the increased use of force
resulted in a broken ankle. (Id.}
In Aceto v. Kachajian, 240 F. Supp. 2d 121 (D. Mass. 2003), the
court stated that, at the time police allegedly injured arrestee by
handcuffing her behind her back, it was clearly established, for the
purposes of qualified immunity, that when a non-threatening, non-
flight risk, cooperating arrestee for a minor crime tells the police
she suffers from an injury that would be exacerbated by handcuffing
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OPPOSITION PAGE 13 OF 17 09-cv-01024 (PR) RS
her arms behind her back, the arrestee has a right to be handcuffed
with her arms in front of her, even if the injury is not visible.
In Ference v. Township of Hamilton, 538 F. Supp. 2d 785 (D.N.J.
2008), the court held that the officer was not entitled to the
defense of qualified immunity on an excessive force claim based
on allegations that he painfully twisted the arms of handcuffed
arrestee, and that it was clearly established that such conduct was
not within the bounds of appropriate police responses.
In Schreiber v. Moe, 445 F. Supp. 2d 799 (W.D. Mich. 2006), the
court held that the police officer did not have qualified immunity
from a § 1983 claim that he used excessive force, when the officer
allegedly kicked arrestee in his ribs five times after he was
handcuffed, and, that it was clearly established that the application
of force to a secured arrestee was illegal. Based on the above, the
factual scenario presented in Plaintiff’s claim permits a common
sense determination by this Court to conclude that, for the purposes
of qualified immunity analysis, the defendant violated the plaintiff’s
right to be free from unreasonable seizures, as it is unreasonable
and thus a violation of the Fourth Amendment for a police officer to
use physical force on a citizen who has been arrested and restrained,
and is securely under police control, and is not attempting escape.
VII. THE LAW WAS CLEARLY ESTABLISHED
Whether the constitutional right was clearly established at the
time of the plaintiff’s arrest such that it would “be clear to a
reasonable officer that his conduct was unlawful in the situation he
confronted,” as required per Saucier, 533 U.S. at 201, 121 S. Ct. 2151,
is determined by whether existing case law gave the defendant “fair
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OPPOSITION PAGE 14 OF 17 09-cv-01024 (PR) RS
warning that [his] conduct violated the plaintiff’s constitutional
rights.” [Suboh v. Dist. Attorney’s Office of Suffolk, 298 F.3d 81, 93
(1st Cir. 2002).]
Although the aforementioned cases emphasize the obvious
unconstitutionality of increasing the use of force used on a
restrained arrestee to such a degree that broken bones result, they
also effectively demonstrate that the law protecting the plaintiff
form the defendant’s continued use of force was clearly established,
and the Court should conclude that both materially similar cases
and general Fourth Amendment principles gave the defendant fair
warning that it was unconstitutional for the defendant to apply force
to an arrestee who was placed in control of the defendant and was
complicit in the orders given by the defendant [Amendment, at ¶ 16],
and, particularly, after the plaintiff warned the defendant that he
was hurting a previously injured shoulder [Complaint, at ¶ 4, page
6].
(The Court should note that, in Chelios v. Heavener, 520 F.3d 678
(7th Cir. 2008), it was held that, with regard to an excessive force
claim, the defense of qualified immunity may be defeated by (1)
pointing to a clearly analogous case that established a right to be
free from the type of force the officer used on the arrestee; or (2)
showing that the force was so plainly excessive that, as an objective
matter, the police officers would have been on notice that they were
violating the Fourth Amendment.)
VIII. IT WAS OBJECTIVELY UNREASONABLE FOR DEFENDANT FLORES TO BELIEVE THAT
HIS CONDUCT VIOLATED A CLEARLY ESTABLISHED CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT
Even though the Court can conclude that the law was clearly
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OPPOSITION PAGE 15 OF 17 09-cv-01024 (PR) RS
established against the increased use of force on a suspect who
is subdued and cooperating, “the unlawfulness of such conduct is
readily apparent without clarifying case law.” [Brady v. Dill, 187
F.3d 104 (1st Cir. 1999) (citing Wilson, 526 U.S. at 613, 119 S.Ct.
1692).]
While it is true that police officers are often forced to make
split-second judgments about the amount of force that is necessary in
a particular situation—especially in circumstances that are tense,
uncertain, and rapidly evolving—the situation in which the defendant
was placed did not require an immediate choice between alternative
courses of conduct. After having placed plaintiff securely under
his control, the defendant was neither in imminent anger nor was
he facing an unusual and unexpected situation when he broke the
plaintiff’s shoulder and rib. Rather, Defendant Flores clearly had
a choice as to whether to use the plaintiff’s right or left arm to
pull him to his feet, and, instead of using the plaintiff’s right arm
after having been informed of an existing injury to the plaintiff’s
left shoulder, deliberately jerked the plaintiff’s left arm with such
force as to result in further damage to the plaintiff’s shoulder.
The question, therefore, becomes whether the defendant’s
deliberate act was such an obvious violation of the Fourth
Amendment’s general prohibition on unreasonable force that a
reasonable officer would not have required case law on point to be
on notice that his conduct was unlawful, thereby constituting a
genuine issue of material fact to be determined by the jury, and
thus precluding summary judgment based on the defense of qualified
immunity.
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OPPOSITION PAGE 16 OF 17 09-cv-01024 (PR) RS
IX. A GENUINE ISSUE OF MATERIAL FACT EXISTS AS TO WHETHER THE AMOUNT OF
FORCE USED WAS EXCESSIVE
A. THE QUESTION OF THE AMOUNT OF FORCE USED IS DETERMINED BY THE
JURY
In Davidson v. Allan (1925) — Va. —, 130 S.E. 245, the Court
ruled that the question of the amount of force used is one for
the jury. Similarly, in Coles v. McNamara (1924) 131 Wash. 377,
230 Pac. 430, the Court stated that “[i]t is the general rules
that the jury is the arbiter of the amount of force.”
B. PLAINTIFF’S INJURIES SHOW THAT THE AMOUNT OF FORCE USED WAS
EXCESSIVE
Although an officer may use such force as is reasonably
necessary to effect the arrest, the degree of force necessary
is an issue for the jury if there is a demonstrable physical
injury as a result of the officer’s action. (Id.)
While the use of the Taser by Defendant Flores had an
appreciable impact on the plaintiff, Plaintiff does not
necessarily claim that Defendant Flores’ use of a Taser, on
its own, was excessive; rather, the use of a Taser was simply
a part of a whole course of unnecessary and improper conduct.
Defendant Flores not only shattered plaintiff’s rib by deploying
the Taser at point-blank range, but fractured plaintiff’s
rib by pressing his knee of plaintiff’s back, and also
broke plaintiff’s shoulder by hyperextending it (see Exhibit
“A”), even though the plaintiff was unarmed, subdued and in
handcuffs, and never attempted to harm the defendant or anyone
else in any way. Regardless of whether Defendant Flores was
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OPPOSITION PAGE 17 OF 17 09-cv-01024 (PR) RS
reasonably mistaken about the legality of using some force to
secure the plaintiff when he first arrived on the scene, he had
adequate time to assess the situation and to conclude that the
plaintiff posed no safety or flight risk after the handcuffing;
and, even if the plaintiff had initially resisted Defendant
Flores’ efforts to detain him, this fact does not warrant the
amount of force used, in that Defendant Flores continued to
exert force against the plaintiff even after he was handcuffed.
CONCLUSION
For the reasons stated above, the relief requested by Defendant Flores
should be DENIED.
Dated: August 25th, 2010
James Alan BushPlaintiff in pro per
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EXHIBIT A PAGE 1 OF 2 09-cv-01024 (PR) RS
Plaintiff hereby submits Exhibit “A”, in support of his Opposition
to Defendants’ Officer Flores and City of San Jose Motion for Summary
Judgment, which shows an avulsion to the plaintiff’s shoulder, proving
significant injury thereby.
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James Alan Bush (DWF967-08086698)885 North San Pedro AvenueSan Jose, California 95110
Plaintiff in pro per
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA
SAN FRANCISCO DIVISION
James Alan Bush,
Plaintiff,
v.
Officer Miguel Flores (#3881),
Defendant.
Case No. 09-cv-01024 (PR) RS
EXHIBIT A
Judge Richard Seeborg
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EXHIBIT A PAGE 2 OF 2 09-cv-01024 (PR) RS