Klor v. Hannon

Decision Date19 December 1967
Docket NumberNo. 65-1302.,65-1302.
Citation278 F. Supp. 359
CourtU.S. District Court — Central District of California
PartiesRobert A. KLOR, Plaintiff, v. Terrance W. HANNON, Terry D. Pierce & Ronald Keller, Defendants.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Edwin M. Rosendahl, Beverly Hills, Cal., for plaintiff Klor.

Roger Arnebergh, City Atty. of Los Angeles, John A. Daly, Asst. City Atty., and Nowland C. Hong, Deputy City Atty., Los Angeles, Cal., for defendants Hannon, Pierce and Keller.

DECISION FINDINGS OF FACT and CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

HAUK, District Judge.

The complaint herein adequately states a claim under Section 1 of the Civil Rights Act of 1871, 42 U.S.C. § 1983,1 because it alleges facts which show that the defendants: (1) while acting under color of state statute, ordinance, regulation, custom or usage, (2) subjected, or caused to be subjected, a person within the jurisdiction of the United States to the deprivation of rights, privileges or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws of the United States. Cohen v. Norris, 300 F. 2d 24, 30 (9th Cir. 1962); Marshall v. Sawyer, 301 F.2d 639, 643 (9th Cir. 1962); Lucero v. Donovan, 354 F.2d 16, 19-20 (9th Cir. 1965); Lucero v. Donovan, 258 F.Supp. 979, 980 (C.D.Cal. 1966).

Moreover, the complaint sufficiently sets forth a claim under Section 2 of the Civil Rights Act of 1871, 42 U. S. C. § 1985(3)2 because it alleges the necessary two additional elements: (1) that the defendants conspired or acted jointly or in concert; and (2) that overt acts were done pursuant to the conspiracy which damaged plaintiff. Hoffman v. Halden, 268 F.2d 280, 294 (9th Cir. 1959); Cohen v. Norris, 300 F.2d 24, 27-28 (9th Cir. 1962). It follows that this Court has jurisdiction by virtue of 28 U.S.C. § 1331(a), the Federal question jurisdiction;3 and under 1343 (1),4 1343(3),5 1343(4),6 which give District Courts original jurisdiction of civil actions to recover damages and secure redress by way of equitable and other relief for deprivation of Constitutional and civil rights, whether resulting from conspiracy or direct acts. Cohen v. Norris, 300 F.2d 24, 26 (9th Cir. 1962); Monroe v. Pape, 365 U.S. 167, 169, 81 S.Ct. 473, 474, 5 L.Ed.2d 492, 495 (1961); Lucero v. Donovan, 258 F.Supp. 979, 980 (C.D. Cal.1966).

Plaintiff alleges that the defendant police officers, under color of State law, conspired to interfere and deprive Plaintiff of his civil rights and in furtherance of the conspiracy while possessed with a warrant for his arrest unlawfully searched for and seized personal property of the Plaintiff, assaulted his person and thereafter intentionally and maliciously damaged and mutilated said personal property, all of which acts were in violation of the United States Constitution and particularly the First and Fourth Amendments.

The trial concluding on September 22nd, 1967 the Court now makes its Decision, Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law in favor of the police officer Defendants Hannon, Pierce and Keller.

On September 1st, 1964, two women went to the Hollywood Police Station to complain that while employed to pose for nude photographs for the Plaintiff herein, they believed contrary to the terms of their employment with him that he had taken photographs of their private parts and that such photographs might be considered lewd and obscene. A report of these complaints was made by Defendant Hannon, a sergeant of police assigned to the vice detail, and he assigned Defendants Pierce, Keller and Officer Wade, not a defendant in this action, to investigate the complaints.

In order to locate and discover the whereabouts and other information on the Plaintiff, the records of the Police Department were consulted. An address was found along with an outstanding traffic warrant and with this information an attempt was made to contact the Plaintiff. On the afternoon of September 4th, 1964, Plaintiff was found at his apartment where Defendants Pierce, Keller and Officer Wade identified themselves and were asked into the premises by the Plaintiff. He was informed of the warrant and it was explained to him. Thereafter, Plaintiff was told that a complaint was made regarding his making lewd or obscene motion pictures.

Plaintiff denied the accusations of the complaint by the women and voluntarily escorted the three policemen about his entire apartment, opening cupboards and drawers containing a large volume of slides of naked women and motion pictures he produced and sold in his business. Following this, Defendant Hannon was called to the premises to view several slides which Defendant Keller felt may have been obscene.

Defendant Hannon was also voluntarily given a tour by Plaintiff of his premises and observed two boxes bearing the first names, "Candy" and "Lorrie", of the two complaining women and at the conclusion of the inspection led by Plaintiff, Defendant Hannon asked if he could see some films and obtained four boxes of films, which included those bearing the names of the two women, from a cupboard in the kitchen above the range without any protest or objection by Plaintiff.

The Plaintiff agreed to show the films and proceeded to run them on a projector he had in the apartment. After viewing the films "Candy" and "Lorrie" Defendant Hannon asked if he could take the two films and have the City Attorney of Los Angeles view them. Plaintiff agreed and told the Defendant Hannon that he should inform the City Attorney that these films as yet were unedited. The films were viewed by the City Attorney's Office which was informed of the Plaintiff's claim that the films were unedited. That Office being of the opinion that the motion pictures were obscene, a warrant for Plaintiff's arrest was obtained from the Municipal Court for violation of Penal Code Section 311.2.

Possessed with a copy of the warrant on September 10th, 1964, Defendant Pierce and Officer Wade, without Defendant Keller, sought to serve the warrant on Plaintiff. They waited at his post office box for a time and went to his apartment several times. Finally, after knocking on the Plaintiff's door he was observed coming from a nearby elevator.

Plaintiff approached the two policemen who were in plain clothes and greeted them. Defendant Pierce informed Plaintiff they wished to speak to him and Plaintiff stated they could not go into his apartment because the maid was there. Defendant Pierce then told Plaintiff the maid had just left, whereupon Plaintiff walked past the two police officers and opened the apartment door, went in and stated, "come on in", or words to that effect.

Once inside the apartment the police officers informed Plaintiff they had a warrant for his arrest and showed him a copy of the warrant. He replied that he had expected the officers and had removed all the most incriminating films and that he was not going to allow the officers to take anything from his apartment.

Due to the Plaintiff's state of agitation and hostility a uniformed policeman was called to the apartment since it had been the experience of the policemen that this had a calming effect upon people. Additionally, Defendant Hannon was called to the scene. He then had a civilian photographer photograph the interior of Plaintiff's apartment to establish the fact that the motion pictures of "Candy" and "Lorrie" had been photographed there. Various props used in those films such as pillows and a tapestry were seized and taken, along with numerous motion picture films, slides of nude women, photographs of the two complaining women in clothed and unclothed conditions, ledger books, check books, certificates of business, a lease of the premises, a motion picture camera, a photostatic copy of a post office box application, envelopes containing mail order advertising and mail orders from customers.

During the seizure of the ledger books Plaintiff, seated on a swivel chair, attempted to prevent the officers from taking these items and in doing so Plaintiff fell over backwards with Defendant Pierce on top of him. Plaintiff then agreed not to interfere any further so that he would not be handcuffed.

At Plaintiff's request, he was permitted to copy down all the orders that had been mailed to him, and all the police personnel left in small groups. Further, as Plaintiff also asked, he was not handcuffed and was accompanied by just two plain clothes officers to the unmarked police car in order to be inconspicuous and avoid embarrassment with his neighbors. On the way to the police station Plaintiff was allowed to attempt to cash a check at a market by his apartment to make bail.

Plaintiff was later tried for violation of California Penal Code, Section 311.2 in Municipal Court and convicted. Defendants Hannon, Pierce and Keller testified at that trial. Officer Wade who was present on both occasions at Plaintiff's apartment did not testify and was not made a defendant in this action. Thereafter, upon Writ of Habeas Corpus, Plaintiff was discharged by the California Supreme Court from the custody imposed by the judgment of the Municipal Court. In re Klor, 64 Cal.2d 816, 822-823, 51 Cal.Rptr. 903, 907, 415 P.2d 791, 795 (1966).

In the Municipal Court prosecution and trial certain motion pictures were returned to the Plaintiff by Order of that Court and delivered to him by Defendant Hannon. Plaintiff claims that these films had been damaged and mutilated, but the short answer to this is that, after inspecting the films, Plaintiff signed a document which specifies his admission to the contrary:

"All above items returned to the Defendant in substantially the same condition as they were when taken into custody by the police. Items were returned to Defendant on October 21st, 1964, at 8:30 p. m.

ROBERT A. KLOR"

This Court is confronted with deciding whether the three police officers, Hannon, Pierce and Keller violated the Plaintiff's Civil Rights under the provisions of 42 United States Code, Sections 1983 and 1985. In particular, the questions here...

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5 cases
  • Klim v. Jones
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — Northern District of California
    • July 17, 1970
    ...280 F. Supp. 929, 934 (N.D.Ill.1967), app. dism. per curiam, 393 U.S. 220, 89 S.Ct. 455, 21 L.Ed.2d 392 (1968); Klor v. Hannon, 278 F.Supp. 359, 362-363 (C.D. Cal.1967); Lucero v. Donovan, 258 F. Supp. 979, 980-981 (C.D.Cal.1966). This approach is presumably based on the view that the phras......
  • United States v. Lopez
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — Eastern District of New York
    • May 14, 1971
    ...685 (1969) (arrest and search for forged checks but altered draft cards discovered and used to obtain conviction); Klor v. Hannon, 278 F.Supp. 359, 367 (C.D.Calif.1967); Hill v. California, 401 U.S. 797, 91 S.Ct. 1106, 28 L.Ed.2d 484 (1971) (arrest for narcotics, evidence of bank robbery di......
  • State v. Damon
    • United States
    • Arizona Court of Appeals
    • November 21, 1972
    ...557, 89 S.Ct. 1243, 22 L.Ed.2d 542 (1969); Harris v. United States, 331 U.S. 145, 67 S.Ct. 1098, 91 L.Ed. 1399 (1947); Klor v. Hannon, 278 F.Supp. 359 (C.D.Calif.1967). The seizure of the narcotics was Affirmed. HATHAWAY, J., and J. RICHARD HANNAH, Judge of Superior Court, concur. NOTE: Jud......
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    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Louisiana
    • January 25, 1968
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