Rodriguez v. Cnty. of L. A., 13-56292

Citation891 F.3d 776
Decision Date30 May 2018
Docket NumberNo. 13-56292, No. 14-55374,13-56292
Parties Heriberto RODRIGUEZ ; Carlos Flores; Juan Carlos Sanchez; Erick Nunez; Juan Trinidad, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES; Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Defendants, and Daniel Cruz; Matthew Onhemus; Clayton Stelter; Justin Bravo; Herman Delgado; Adrian Ruiz ; Carlos Ortega ; Francisco Alonso ; Christopher Blasnek; Michel McGrattan; Kelley Washington; Alejandro Hernandez Castanon; Arthur Diaz, Jr.; Michael Frazier; Antonio Galindo ; Armando Gonzalez; Matthew Nowotny; Joseph Sanford; Hector Vazquez ; Ivan Delatorre; John McNicholas, Defendants-Appellants. Heriberto Rodriguez ; Carlos Flores; Juan Trinidad ; Juan Carlos Sanchez; Erick Nunez, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. County of Los Angeles; Daniel Cruz; Christopher Blasnek; Matthew Onhemus; Michel McGrattan; Kelley Washington; Clayton Stelter; Justin Bravo; Francisco Alonso ; Alejandro Hernandez Castanon; Michael Frazier; Joseph Sanford; Hector Vazquez ; Nicholas Graham; Blake Orlandos; Matthew Thomas; Javier Guzman; Andrew Lyons; Adolph Esqueda; Herman Delgado, Defendants-Appellants.
CourtUnited States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (9th Circuit)

David D. Lawrence (argued) and Jin S. Choi, Lawrence Beach Allen & Choi P.C., Glendale, California; Andrew C. Pongracz, Seki Nishimura & Watase LLP, Los Angeles, California; for Defendants-Appellants.

Caitlin S. Weisberg (argued), Barrett S. Litt, and Ronald O. Kaye, Kaye McLane Bednarski & Litt LLP, Pasadena, California; James S. Muller, Offices of James S. Muller, Glendale, California; for Plaintiffs-Appellees.

Before: William A. Fletcher and Sandra S. Ikuta, Circuit Judges, and Sarah Evans Barker,* District Judge.

OPINION

W. FLETCHER, Circuit JudgeIn 2008, corrections staff at the Los Angeles County Men’s Central Jail performed "cell extractions" in two high-security units in the course of quelling a disturbance. Appellees, five prisoners in the jail, were severely injured during the extractions. They brought suit in federal district court, alleging that appellants violated their rights under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. After a month-long trial, a jury found nineteen Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department ("LASD") employees and the County of Los Angeles liable for appellees’ injuries under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 or California Civil Code § 52.1, or both. The jury awarded $740,000 in compensatory damages and $210,000 in punitive damages. The court awarded more than $5 million in attorney’s fees.

We affirm.

I. Background
A. Factual History

Because this appeal follows a jury verdict in appellees’ favor, we relate the facts in the light most favorable to them. See Castro v. Cty. of Los Angeles , 833 F.3d 1060, 1064 n.1 (9th Cir. 2016) (en banc).

1. Cell Extractions

On August 25, 2008, there was a disturbance in Modules 3100 and 3300 of the Los Angeles County Men’s Central Jail, two high-security units in which prisoners were housed in single-person cells. Prisoners in the units lit fires, flooded toilets, shattered sinks, and threw shards of porcelain. Appellees described the disturbance as a "protest," organized in response to repeated uses of excessive force by jail officials. Appellants described it as a "riot." The district court instructed the parties to use the term "incident" in front of the jury.

To restore order, appellant Captain Daniel Cruz, unit commander, and appellant Lieutenant Christopher Blasnek, incident commander, planned a series of cell extractions. Under the stated terms of the plan, prisoners would have an opportunity to "cuff up" and leave their cells voluntarily. Prisoners who refused to cuff up would be forcibly extracted. Four LASD sergeants would lead four separate extraction teams of several deputies, with each deputy on a team having an assigned role. "Shield deputies," covered with protective gear and carrying a shield, would enter first to pin the prisoner against a wall or to knock him to the ground. "Capture deputies" would follow close behind to restrain the prisoner. In the event that these deputies were unable to subdue a prisoner, "taser deputies" would administer electric shocks in "stun mode" until the prisoner was subdued. Official LASD policy required extraction teams to use the "lowest possible level" of force to "overcome only that level of resistance confronting the team." Extraction teams were prohibited from using force to punish prisoners. Appellees were among those who were forcibly extracted.

Appellee Carlos Flores testified that, prior to his own extraction, he could hear cell extractions occurring in other cells. "[P]eople were crying out in pain, telling the deputies to stop. And I could hear the punching and kicking. And I could hear boots stomping. I could hear the deputies sometimes laughing." When deputies approached Flores’s cell, "they were all wearing ski masks, I couldn’t see their faces." A deputy shot into Flores’s cell with a 40 mm "block gun," but Flores was not hit because he was protecting himself with his mattress. Deputies then threw one or two concussion grenades into Flores’s cell. They entered the cell, and one deputy used his shield to push Flores down onto his back. Five or six deputies then landed on top of Flores and the deputy. Several deputies held Flores down while others punched and kicked him in his face, head, and body. Deputies took turns, alternating between hitting and tasing him. "I could feel them stomping on my legs, trying to twist my leg." As one deputy was hitting Flores, "he was just telling me, Mother-Fucker. Mother-Fucker.’ " "[T]hey were telling me to stop resisting, and ... I was trying to say, ‘I’m not resisting.’ " "[T]hat’s ... a thing that the deputies do at the jail .... [T]hey’ll beat inmates and say ‘Stop resisting, stop resisting.’ But it’s like they know you’re not resisting. ... They just want to beat you up." After one of the tasers quit working, a deputy used the butt of the taser to hit Flores in the face and head. The repeated blows from fists, boots, and the taser broke Flores’s nose and eye socket. "The last thing I felt before I woke up in the hospital room ... was the whole right side of my face, just I felt the bone break because he ... kept hitting me in the same spot." "It was the worst thing I ever felt ... It was so painful that I just blacked out from the pain." In the hospital afterwards, "the doctor explained to me that my nose had been broken pretty bad and that he had to go in there and ... cut off a piece of some cartilage in order to move the bone back in place or something like that." "[H]e explained to me ... how my cheek bone holds my eye into place, and ... the fracture to my ... cheek bone had kind of like made my eye sunk down out of the socket. So he had to go in there and ... put ... two metal plates or something, and some screws, and ... basically put my ... eye socket back together. So that way, ... my eye is not hanging at an odd angle out of my face."

Appellee Juan Carlos Sanchez testified that before his extraction began a deputy appeared on his tier and stated, "You guys are going to get your ass beat." When an extraction team came to Sanchez’s cell, a deputy shot at him with the block gun. He was not hit because he was protecting himself with his mattress. Deputies then threw a concussion grenade that exploded between his legs. Deputies entered the cell and threw Sanchez onto the floor on his stomach. A deputy handcuffed him with his hands behind his back. That deputy began "socking me in my face, punching me in my face, just punching me." Sanchez was struck in the face until he bled. Other deputies then came into the cell. "[T]hey come in and started kicking me, stomping me out, ... just jumping on my legs." They broke Sanchez’s left ankle. Deputies told Sanchez to "stop fighting," but "I wasn’t fighting." Deputies later told him to "stop resisting," even though he was not resisting. Sanchez was dragged out of the cell unconscious. Sanchez regained consciousness outside the cell, still handcuffed and lying on his stomach. Now outside the cell, deputies kicked Sanchez in the face and tased him repeatedly. They pulled down his pants and "tasered me on my butt." At the hospital afterwards, doctors put permanent metal pins in Sanchez’s broken ankle. Sanchez was in a wheelchair for three to four months, and was not able to walk without crutches or a walker for eight or nine months. At the time of trial four years later, Sanchez still walked with a limp. Sanchez had received a large "gash" above his right eye. The gash had healed by the time of trial, but it was "always tingling." Sanchez’s right eye was swollen shut for two weeks. At the time of trial, vision in that eye was blurred.

Appellee Erik Nunez testified that before entering his cell deputies shot him four or five times with large rubber or wooden bullets from a block gun. They then threw a concussion grenade into the cell. When they came into the cell, they pushed Nunez to the floor. Nunez "immediately ... began feeling blows." Deputies kicked him with "hard boot[s]" on his face, back, and sides. Deputies hit Nunez with their fists and jumped on his back. Nunez tried to cover his head to protect himself, but deputies grabbed his arms and continued to beat him. "I heard them saying ... the whole time I was on the floor, ‘Stop resisting’ until the moment I came out of the cell." Nunez testified that this was typical: "[Y]ou always hear them say, ‘Stop resisting," and [inmates] are not even resisting. ... That’s their justification." Deputies tased Nunez repeatedly. "I kept getting tasered, and I was hoping that I would pass out. But ... it was like ... I would come right back to it with the taser." "[A]fter the first tase, I was already out of it, ... and then he just kept tasing and tasing me." "This guy, he’s laughing, the guy that’s tasing me. He grabbed it, and he put it ... [b]etween my butt cheeks, and he’s tasing me,...

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