Venegas v. Wagner
| Decision Date | 09 November 1987 |
| Docket Number | Nos. 86-6043,86-6044 and 86-6409,s. 86-6043 |
| Citation | 831 F.2d 1514 |
| Parties | Juan Francisco VENEGAS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Kenneth B. WAGNER; James A. Borsos; John R. Prchal; Ronnie J. Skaggs; Carthel S. Roberson; Douglas E. Bostard; Robert M. Bell; Michael Z. Whalen, Defendants-Appellees. Juan Francisco VENEGAS, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Kenneth B. WAGNER; James A. Borsos; John R. Prchal; Douglas E. Bostard; Robert M. Bell; Michael Z. Whalen, Defendants, and Ronnie J. Skaggs and Carthel S. Roberson, Defendants-Appellants. Juan Francisco VENEGAS, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Ronnie J. SKAGGS and Carthel S. Roberson, Defendants-Appellants. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit |
Michael S. Bromberg, Sag Harbor, N.Y., for plaintiff-appellant.
John R. Calhoun and Robert E. Shannon, Long Beach, Cal., for defendants-appellees.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California.
Before TANG, SCHROEDER and BEEZER, Circuit Judges.
Juan Francisco Venegas appeals from the district court's granting of a judgment notwithstanding the verdict (JNOV) and from the conditional granting of a new trial, as to defendant Douglas Bostard, on Venegas' 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 and Sec. 1985(3) claim that defendants conspired to deny him a fair trial. Venegas contends that substantial evidence supports the verdict of the jury with respect to defendant Bostard such that the court erred in granting a JNOV and abused its discretion in conditionally granting Bostard's motion for a new trial. Defendants Ronnie Skaggs and Carthel Roberson appeal from the jury verdict and from the judgments awarding damages and attorney fees. We affirm the judgment of the district court in all respects.
On Christmas Day, December 25, 1971, William Staga was murdered in his apartment in Long Beach, California. The coroner's report indicated death was caused by blows to the head inflicted with a blunt instrument. In addition to the head wounds, Staga's corpse bore multiple lacerations Following investigation, the Long Beach police compiled a strong case against Reyes, who was ultimately convicted of first degree murder. At the murder trial, Reyes confessed to the killing of Staga and exonerated Venegas. Venegas, named as Reyes' accomplice and prosecuted as his co-defendant, was also convicted of first degree murder.
on his wrists, back, lower abdomen and genitals. Because the lacerations were shallow, uniform in length, and "incise" rather than "defense" wounds the coroner concluded they were intentionally inflicted while the victim was either unconscious or physically restrained in such a manner as to prevent him from writhing in response to the pain. One-half hour after the murder, the plaintiff-appellant, Juan Venegas, was arrested in company with Lawrence Reyes approximately two blocks from the scene of the crime.
Venegas' conviction was reversed by the California Supreme Court in People v. Reyes, 12 Cal.3d 486, 526 P.2d 225, 116 Cal.Rptr. 217 (1974) based on insufficiency of the evidence. Reyes' conviction was affirmed over his contentions of legal error. Id.
On October 28, 1977, Venegas filed this action under 42 U.S.C. Sections 1983 and 1985(3) alleging that defendant officers conspired to deny him a fair trial by tampering with witnesses and knowingly presenting false evidence and perjured testimony to the criminal jury. The district court granted summary judgment to the defendants on the ground that the action was barred under the applicable statute of limitations. That judgment was reversed and remanded for trial in Venegas v. Wagner, 704 F.2d 1144 (9th Cir.1983).
Defendants Roberson and Skaggs of the Long Beach Police Department were the primary homicide investigators on the Staga murder. They were assisted by Long Beach detectives Douglas Bostard and Robert Bell. Roberson interviewed a number of witnesses, including Marilyn Stoeltje, Emily Mallas, Henry Meade and Melba Penn. At the criminal trial, the prosecution relied on the testimony of Mrs. Penn to demonstrate the presence of Venegas at the scene of the crime. At trial, however, Mrs. Penn was unable to identify Venegas or Reyes, though she thought Venegas more closely resembled the man she saw that morning. Two of the other witnesses, Mrs. Mallas and Mrs. Stoeltje, positively identified Reyes as the man who fled Staga's apartment carrying a television, and a third witness, Meade, testified he was certain Venegas was not the man and he suspected Reyes was. Meade also testified that he heard two voices which he did not recognize coming from Staga's apartment.
Sargeants Roberson and Skaggs also interviewed John Sanderson, a bartender at the Royal Cuckoo Bar. At the criminal trial, Sanderson testified that on the morning of the murder, Reyes and Venegas entered his bar on Daisy Avenue shortly after 7:00 a.m. and stayed for ten or fifteen minutes. In Venegas' section 1983 action, however, the deposition testimony of Sanderson was introduced wherein Sanderson stated he had perjured himself in the earlier trial, and that in fact, Venegas was not in his bar that morning. Sanderson stated that he had been intimidated by two Long Beach detectives, later identified as Skaggs and Roberson, into falsely testifying. The credibility of Sanderson's deposition testimony was impeached by the testimony of William Kaeler, a fellow bartender, Sanderson's son, James, and Gerald Desmond, a Deputy City Attorney from Long Beach. Each of these witnesses testified to out-of-court statements by Sanderson in which he affirmed his original version of the facts.
Long Beach Police Officer Douglas Bostard interviewed Venegas on the morning of December 25, 1971. Venegas alleged he was physically abused by Bostard during the interview. Sgt. Bostard also had a telephone conversation with Venegas' sister, Terry Hayward, on the morning of December 25 in which he told her Venegas did not need a lawyer. Bostard attended the autopsy of William Staga and made a narrative report of what he observed.
Two of the originally named defendants, Officers Borsos and Wagner, who arrested Venegas, were dismissed at the end of On February 27, 1986, the jury returned a verdict in favor of Venegas and against defendants Skaggs, Roberson and Bostard in the amount of $2 million compensatory damages and $40,000 each in punitive damages. The jury found Officer Bell was not liable to Venegas. The district court denied the motions of defendants Skaggs and Roberson for directed verdict, JNOV, and for new trial. It further granted defendant Bostard's motion for JNOV, and conditionally granted his motion for a new trial. On August 14, 1986, the court awarded attorneys' fees pursuant to 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1988 as against defendants Skaggs and Roberson, in the total amount of $117,000.
plaintiff's case on defendants' motion under Fed.R.Civ.P. 50(a). Defendant Michael Whalen was dismissed prior to the commencement of the trial.
This court reviews the propriety of a JNOV under the same standard that is applied by the district court. Peterson v. Kennedy, 771 F.2d 1244, 1252 (9th Cir.1985), cert. denied, 475 U.S. 1122, 106 S.Ct. 1642, 90 L.Ed.2d 187 (1986). A JNOV is proper when the evidence permits only one reasonable conclusion as to the verdict. Id. The jury's verdict must be supported by substantial evidence in order to stand. Mosesian v. Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co., 727 F.2d 873, 877 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 932, 105 S.Ct. 329, 83 L.Ed.2d 265 (1984). We view the evidence in the light most favorable to the non-moving party and draw all reasonable inferences in favor of that party. Peterson, 771 F.2d at 1252. A JNOV is improper if reasonable minds could differ over the verdict. Id.
In the jury trial below, verdict was rendered against defendants Skaggs, Roberson and Bostard. The primary evidence introduced against Skaggs and Roberson was the deposition testimony of John Sanderson who, at the time of trial, was deceased. According to the district court, without the deposition testimony of Sanderson, the jury would have been unable to find defendants liable. Given this testimony, however, the district court held that a jury could reasonably find Skaggs and Roberson liable, and accordingly, denied their motions for directed verdict and JNOV.
In his deposition, Sanderson stated that he had been interviewed by two Long Beach police officers who indicated they wanted him to testify that the two Mexicans were together in the bar around 7:00 a.m. because he "was the only guy who could do it" and "they were having trouble putting the case together." Although Sanderson knew he would be lying, he allegedly agreed to testify in the state criminal trial in return for protection and out of fear of police harassment.
Viewed in the light most favorable to Venegas, the record contains evidence sufficient to support a jury verdict that defendants Skaggs and Roberson had procured false testimony from Sanderson, thereby denying Venegas a fair trial. Venegas' presence at the bar with Reyes on December 25, 1971 was at least a material fact and considered with the other evidence presented at the criminal trial, could have resulted in conviction. The evidence on the issue of Sanderson's credibility was sharply disputed, but it is the function of the jury, not this court, to resolve the conflict. See, e.g., Walker v. KFC Corp., 728 F.2d 1215, 1223 (9th Cir.1984); Garter-Bare Co. v. Munsingwear, Inc., 723 F.2d 707, 713 (9th Cir.), cert. denied 469 U.S. 980, 105 S.Ct. 381, 83 L.Ed.2d 316 (1984). The district court's denial of Skaggs and Roberson's motion for JNOV is affirmed.
The district court concluded that the record was critically deficient of that minimum quantity of evidence from which a jury might reasonably find that ...
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