Monzon v. City of Murrieta

• Decision Date: 27 October 2020
• Docket Number: No. 19-55164,19-55164
• Citation: 978 F.3d 1150
• Parties: Neftali MONZON, individually, as Personal Representative of the Estate of Junef Ragadio Monzon; Marylou Monzon, individually, as Personal Representative of the Estate of Junef Ragadio Monzon, Plaintiffs-Appellants, and Jerico Reyes, Plaintiff, v. CITY OF MURRIETA, a governmental entity ; Scott Montez ; Chris Zeltner; Kyle Mikowski; Zack Bradley; Blake Williams ; Does, 1–10, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

978 F.3d 1150

Neftali MONZON, individually, as Personal Representative of the Estate of Junef Ragadio Monzon; Marylou Monzon, individually, as Personal Representative of the Estate of Junef Ragadio Monzon, Plaintiffs-Appellants,

and

Jerico Reyes, Plaintiff,

v.CITY OF MURRIETA, a governmental entity ; Scott Montez ; Chris Zeltner; Kyle Mikowski; Zack Bradley; Blake Williams ; Does, 1–10, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 19-55164

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

Argued and Submitted March 31, 2020 Pasadena, California

Amended July 22, 2020

Decided October 27, 2020

Marcel F. Sincich (argued) and Dale K. Galipo, Law Offices of Dale K. Galipo, Woodland Hills, California; Cameron Sehat, The Sehat Law Firm PLC, Irvine, California; for Plaintiffs-Appellants.

Daniel P. Barer (argued) and Anna L. Birenbaum, Pollak Vida & Barer, Los Angeles, California; Peter J. Ferguson and Allen Christiansen, Ferguson Praet & Sherman, Santa Ana, California; for Defendants-Appellees.

Before: Consuelo M. Callahan, Kenneth K. Lee, and Lawrence VanDyke, Circuit Judges.

ORDER AND AMENDED OPINION

VANDYKE, Circuit Judge:

ORDER

The panel unanimously voted to deny Appellants’ Petition for Rehearing En Banc (ECF No. 41). The full court has been advised of the petition and no judge has requested a vote on whether to rehear the matter en banc. Accordingly, the petition is DENIED. No future petitions for rehearing en banc or petitions for panel rehearing will be entertained.

The opinion filed on July 22, 2020 and published at 966 F.3d 946 is AMENDED by the opinion filed concurrently with this Order.

After leading police officers on a high-speed chase, Junef Monzon turned down a dead-end street. He stopped at the end of the road, and the police officers parked and exited their cruisers behind him. Monzon turned the van around, pointing it generally toward the officers. As the van accelerated in an arc toward and eventually between the officers, they commanded Monzon to stop and fired on him when the van moved in their direction and in the direction of their fellow officers. Monzon crashed into a police cruiser, pushing that cruiser into one of the officers, and the officers continued to fire. Monzon sustained multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene.

In granting summary judgment for the City of Murrieta ("the City"), the five police officers, and Does 1 through 10 (collectively "defendants"), the district court found that the officers’ use of deadly force was reasonable. Monzon's parents, Neftali and Marylou Monzon (hereinafter "plaintiffs" or "Monzon's parents"), appeal the ruling. We hold that the officers’ use of deadly force was objectively reasonable in this dynamic and urgent situation, where officers were faced with the immediate threat of significant physical harm.

BACKGROUND

On October 22, 2016, at about 1:45 a.m., Officer Chris Zeltner ran the license plate of a Kia van and discovered the van was reported stolen. Monzon was driving the van, and, unknown to Zeltner, Jerrico Reyes sat in the back of the van. Zeltner informed dispatch that he planned to make a felony stop, and dispatch sent additional officers to assist him. Zeltner attempted to pull Monzon over, but Monzon kept driving, leading Zeltner on a car chase. Officers Scott Montez, Kyle Mikowski, Zack Bradley, and Blake Williams joined Zeltner in the pursuit. Williams and Montez shared a cruiser, while Bradley and Mikowski drove separately. The officers testified that Monzon swerved back and forth on the freeway, drove at varied speeds up to 100 miles per hour ("mph"), exited and reentered the freeway, and ran stop signs and stoplights.

At about 1:57 a.m., Monzon turned onto a dead-end street with no lights. The five officers in four vehicles turned in behind him. They were alerted over the radio that the street came to a dead-end and to use precautions. The following chain of events occurred over an approximately two-minute period after the officers pulled onto the dead-end street behind Monzon.

Monzon stopped the van at the end of the street, and Zeltner stopped his cruiser behind Monzon near the van's rear bumper. Bradley staggered his vehicle behind Zeltner on the right side of the road. Mikowski stopped on the left side of the street behind Bradley. Williams and Montez staggered their vehicle behind and to the right of Mikowski's vehicle. Zeltner and Mikowski had activated the red and blue lights on their vehicles in addition to their headlights.

Shortly after the officers parked, Monzon engaged in a multi-point turn so that his vehicle was pointing back up the street he had just driven down, and generally in the direction of the five officers and their four parked vehicles. He ran into a fence post while turning, but it didn't stop him. While Monzon was turning, Zeltner exited his vehicle, presented his firearm, and shouted for Monzon to stop and put his hands in the air. Reyes, the passenger in the van, testified that Monzon put his hands in the air at this point, but Reyes agreed that the van continued to turn and move forward. When the van was about 10 to 15 feet away from Zeltner, arcing near and around him in a counterclockwise motion, Zeltner fired his first shot at Monzon. As the van continued to move past Zeltner and toward the officers behind him, Zeltner fired five more shots at Monzon, aiming through the driver's side window. The van passed to the left of Zeltner and his cruiser, headed in the general direction of the other officers and their vehicles.

Bradley had also exited his vehicle and moved toward the rear of Zeltner's cruiser as Monzon was turning his van around. About a second after Zeltner stopped shooting and the van accelerated past Zeltner and Bradley, the van continued turning toward Mikowski and Williams, who were now on foot on the driver's side of the third cruiser. Bradley fired multiple shots at Monzon when he saw the van driving toward Mikowski and Williams. The van turned so that, at least at one point, it was headed directly toward Mikowski and Williams, and then was headed for the gap between the second (Bradley's) and third (Mikowski's) cruisers. Missing the gap, the van struck Mikowski's cruiser, pushing it into Williams, who was standing near the rear driver's side window of the cruiser. The crash occurred with such force that Williams's arm went through the cruiser's window, injuring him. Williams fired 10 shots at Monzon. Mikowski also fired seven shots at Monzon aiming through the passenger side window and front windshield. Stopped, the van's engine revved and its tires spun. Believing the van could drive over Mikowski or Williams, Bradley fired one more shot. Montez also fired.

The entire time from when Monzon started moving toward the officers to when the van crashed into the cruiser was 4.5 seconds. During that brief period, the van accelerated repeatedly, with the accelerator pedal pushed from 84 to 99 percent, and reached a maximum speed of 17.4 mph. Although no officer gave a deadly force warning, it is undisputed that at least Officer Zeltner yelled "Stop!" before firing.

Once the van's engine stopped revving, it slowly rolled backwards until Zeltner stopped it by jamming a skateboard under its tire. The officers again commanded Monzon to show his hands. When Monzon did not respond, Mikowski deployed a canine. The dog jumped into the van and bit Monzon on the head and right arm before being disengaged by Mikowski. About 20 seconds elapsed between the time that the canine was deployed and disengaged. The officers then discovered Reyes in the back of the van. They called for medical assistance and performed chest compressions on Monzon until the paramedics arrived. Monzon, who had been shot eight times, was pronounced dead at the scene.¹

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Monzon's parents and Reyes filed suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, contending that the officers and Does 1 through 5 violated Monzon's and Reyes’ respective Fourth Amendment rights by using excessive force resulting in an unreasonable seizure and by denying Monzon medical care.² They also sought to hold Does 6 through 10 and the City liable for failing to train their employees and for ratifying an unconstitutional custom, practice, or policy.³ Defendants filed a motion for summary judgment on each of these claims, as well as pendent state-law claims of battery, negligence, and a violation of the Tom Bane Civil Rights Act ("Bane Act"), California Civil Code Section 52.1.

The district court granted the motion for summary judgment on all claims, finding that the use of deadly force was objectively reasonable under the circumstances. Monzon's parents appealed the district court's order. Reyes did not appeal. As a result, our attention centers on the officers’ conduct toward Monzon.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

This Court reviews de novo a district court's grant of summary judgment. United States v. Phattey , 943 F.3d 1277, 1280 (9th Cir. 2019). In reviewing a grant of summary judgment, we view genuinely disputed facts "in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party." Scott v. Harris , 550 U.S. 372, 380, 127 S.Ct. 1769, 167 L.Ed.2d 686 (2007) (citing Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c) ). We also determine "whether the district court correctly applied the relevant substantive law." Phattey , 943 F.3d at 1280 (quoting Devereaux v. Abbey , 263 F.3d 1070, 1074 (9th Cir. 2001) (en banc)). To avoid summary judgment, the plaintiffs "must establish that there is a genuine issue of material fact" disputed by the parties. Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co., Ltd. v. Zenith Radio Corp. , 475 U.S. 574, 585, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 89 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986).

DISCUSSION

Because the officers have raised the affirmative defense of qualified immunity, plaintiffs cannot prevail on their federal claims unless the officers violated a clearly established constitutional right. Pearson v. Callahan , 555 U.S. 223, 231, 129 S.Ct. 808, 172 L.Ed.2d 565 (2009) ("[Q]ualified immunity protects government officials from liability for civil damages...