E.R. v. Jasso
| Decision Date | 30 November 2021 |
| Docket Number | EP-18-CV-00298-DCG |
| Parties | E.R., a minor, and Olga Alcantara, as E.R.’s next of friend and on her own behalf, Plaintiffs, v. Marco JASSO, #1888; Jose Rivas, #2985; and Ricardo Villagran, #2882, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Western District of Texas |
Conrad J. Benedetto, Pro Hac Vice, Law Offices of Conrad J. Benedetto, Philadelphia, PA, Madeline M. Sinkovich, Solomon M. Radner, Johnson Law, PLC, Detroit, MI, Brandon J. Grable, Grable Grimshaw Mora PLLC, San Antonio, TX, for Plaintiffs.
James (Jeep) O. Darnell, Jr., Cris Estrada, James O. Darnell, Jim Darnell, P.C., El Paso, TX, for Defendants Marco Jasso, Ricardo Villagran.
Eric M. Brittain, Windle Hood Norton Brittain & Jay LLP, El Paso, TX, for Defendant Jose Rivas.
It was around midday on a Thanksgiving weekend. A mother (Olga Alcantara) was helping her two minor daughters shower in her bathroom; no one else was inside her home. A male voice shattered the peaceful family time. Stepping out to see who that was, she saw two police officers, in uniform, standing in her dining room. The officers had entered her home through a backdoor, unlocking it with a key they found in a teenager's bra; that's the mother's third daughter; the daughter was held in handcuffs a block away from the home.
The mother brought this civil rights action, claiming that the officers violated her Fourth Amendment rights to be secure in her house against unreasonable searches. At this stage of the litigation, the officers request that the Court dismiss her claim—as a matter of law. And that is because, they say, they are entitled to "qualified immunity"—a judicially-created venerable doctrine that shields from liability, for money damages, all but the plainly incompetent officers. If their request is granted, that would deprive the mother of her day in court and the opportunity to learn what a jury of this community would think about these events.
More than two decades ago, the Supreme Court wrote the Fourth Amendment embodies the centuries-old principle that " ‘the house of every one is to him as his castle and fortress, as well for his defence against injury and violence, as for his repose.’ " Wilson v. Layne , 526 U.S. 603, 609–10, 119 S.Ct. 1692, 143 L.Ed.2d 818 (1999) (). As explained below, the officers’ entry into the mother's home was, clearly, an affront to that basic principle. Their request is denied. This mother gets to present her case to a jury.
The Court begins with an introduction of the relevant characters. Jose Rios (formerly known as Jose Rivas),2 Ricardo Villagran, and Marco Jasso (collectively, Defendants) are officers of the El Paso Police Department. At the relevant time, they had, respectively, three, five, and twenty years of experience as police officers.3 Since 2008, Jasso has been a police sergeant, and in that role, he supervises, on a daily basis, officers out in the field.4
Alcantara's three daughters are: Evelyn Ramirez or E.R.,5 who is also a plaintiff in this case (we will refer to her simply as Evelyn), L.A., and Z.A. At the relevant time, Evelyn was sixteen years old, a sophomore in high school, and an "A" and "B" student.6 L.A. and Z.A. were eleven and nine years old, respectively.7 Alcantara, who has a culinary school degree, supported herself and the daughters by selling foods that she made at home.8
At the time, Alcantara and the daughters lived at 830 Mission Road, El Paso, Texas.9 The property comprises a small home, a front yard facing Mission Road, a back yard, and a driveaway on one side of the home that stretches from the front to the back.10 At the end of the driveway, there is a gate to the back yard.11 The home can be entered through a front door from the front yard and a back door from the back yard.12 Inside the home, there are two bedrooms and one bathroom, which are located along a hallway.13 The daughters slept in one bedroom, and Alcantara in the other.14 The hallway leads to a living room, which is connected, and open, to a dining area in the back of the home, and at the end of the dining area is the backdoor for entry from the back yard.15
The events giving rise to this lawsuit occurred on November 26, 2016, a Saturday, two days after Thanksgiving day. Early in the morning of the 26th, Evelyn and her sisters cleaned the yards, picked up trash (such as candies and candy wrappers), and put them inside a trash can located in the back yard.16 The trash can was filled to the brim.17 That week, the city's trash collectors were late and had not yet come to pick up the trash because of the Thanksgiving holiday.18 On the day before, November 25, Alcantara's brother, cousins, and other members of her family came to the home for a family get-together; some of the adult guests consumed alcohol.19 Empty cans and boxes of alcoholic beverages were placed inside the trash can.20
Alcantara woke up around 7 a.m. (November 26).21 She had plans to attend a "Friendsgiving" event later that day at a friend's house.22 In the morning, she was making pumpkin pies, some for the Friendsgiving event and some to sell.23 She was going back and forth to her friend's house—a short drive away.24 She was in a "rush."25 Around 10 a.m., several friends of Evelyn came over to eat Thanksgiving leftovers.26 Evelyn and her friends were "chilling" inside the home.27 Sometime later, they went outside in the back yard.28 At no point did Evelyn or her friends consume any alcohol.29 At some point, Alcantara realized that she did not have whipped cream for the pies and left home to get some.30 When she left, Evelyn was outside in the yard.31 Alcantara testified, she took L.A. and Z.A. with her on her errand for the whipped cream.32
At around 1:45 p.m., according to the officers, Rios and Villagran were dispatched to 830 Mission Road in reference to a call made by an anonymous neighbor; the neighbor had called to report that several juveniles were causing riot at that place.33 At the time, the officers were unaware that Alcantara and Evelyn lived at that address. Upon arrival, the officers exited their marked car, heard voices in the back yard—"It was just kids talking loudly"—and walked along the driveway toward the back of the residence.34 They entered the back yard through the gate at the end of the driveway; it was "ajar ... just enough" to make an entry into the yard.35
In the back yard, Rios and Villagran found eight teenagers—five boys and three girls.36 At the time, the officers were unaware that the teenagers were Evelyn and her friends. Upon seeing the teenagers, the officers realized that no riot was in progress.37 They did not see any of teenagers holding or drinking any alcoholic beverage.38 No one—neither the teenagers, nor any other person—told the officers that any of the teenagers had engaged in drinking on that day.39 The officers, though, noticed the trash can in the vicinity of where the teenagers were standing and that it was full of empty cans and boxes of alcoholic beverages.40 This could be, Villagran thought, a case of possible underage drinking.41
According to Evelyn, the officer(s) told the teenagers that a call was made about the teenagers blasting music; but they were not.42 Rios asked who lived there, but none of the teenagers answered.43 Evelyn testified that she did not want to answer any question until her mother came home because she was a minor and anything she would say could be "switched up."44 She did not want to go inside the home because, she thought, the officers would knock on the door.45 She locked the back door with her key and walked away from the officers and the property; her friends went along with her.46 Neither Villagran, nor Rios told the teenagers to stop or not to walk away.47
The officers suspected that the teenagers did not have permission to be on that premises and were therefore committing a criminal trespass.48 They wanted to find out if someone was inside the home who might tell them whether or not the teenagers had permission to be there.49 According to the officers, Rios went to the front of the premises and knocked on the front door, and Villagran stayed in the back yard and knocked on the back door.50 As Evelyn was walking away, she heard the officer(s) knock on the back door.51 According to a police report which Villagran prepared near the time of the incident, he "heard movement inside," while he was knocking on the back door.52 No one inside responded to the officers’ knocks.
Believing that the teenagers had been trespassing on the property and potentially been involved in the initial riot call, Rios and Villagran got back in their patrol car and drove toward the direction in which the teenagers were walking.53 A few minutes later, the officers pulled the teenagers over on Pueblo Street, a block away from the home and had them sit on the curb of the street.54 Rios asked Evelyn for her name and date of birth.55 Evelyn felt that she needed her mother present before she could say anything because, again, she was a minor; she never felt comfortable with the police because of the cases she had seen in the news such as Black Lives Matter incidents.56 In response to Rios's question, she told him that "I plead the Fifth" and that she did not want to say anything until her mother was present.57 Rios reacted by "flick[ing] at [her] with his toe at [her] shin with his boot," though "he didn't use a great amount of force"; she was still sitting on the curb.58 Rios told her that she better give him her name.59
Moments later, Evelyn stood up and told Rios, "[i]f I'm being held here for no reason, I don't feel like I should be here."60 Because she was not told why she was being held, she started walking away.61 The parties’ accounts of what transpired next among Rios, Villagran, and Evelyn diverge. According to...
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