Smith v. Cnty. of Orange

678 F.Supp.3d 1182

Melanie SMITH, Plaintiff, v. COUNTY OF ORANGE; Orange County Sheriff's Department; Deputy Patrick Baek #3313;Deputy D. Packham #4758; Deputy Investigator C. Davis #08146;Deputy D. French #8378, and Does 1 through 10, Inclusive, Defendants.

Case No. 8:21-cv-00265-SPG-KES

United States District Court, C.D. California

Signed June 23, 2023

John Robert Cogorno, John R. Cogorno Law Offices, Westminster, CA, for Plaintiff.

Nicholas Robert Graham, Rada Feldman, Michael L. Wroniak, Collins and Collins LLP, Orange, CA, for Defendants.

ORDER GRANTING IN PART AND DENYING IN PART DEFENDANTS' MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT [ECF NO. 79]

SHERILYN PEACE GARNETT, UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

Before the Court is a motion for summary judgment from Defendants County of Orange, Orange County Sheriff's Department, and Deputies Patrick Baek, Daniel Packham, Chad Davis, and Denise French. (ECF No. 79). Plaintiff opposes. (Id.). The Court heard oral argument on May 24, 2023. Having considered the parties' submissions, the relevant law, the record in this case, and the arguments of counsel during the hearing on the motions, the Court GRANTS-IN-PART and DENIES-IN-PART Defendants' motion.

I. BACKGROUND

The following summarized facts are uncontroverted, unless otherwise stated. See (ECF No. 79-2 (Joint Appendix of Evidence ("JAE")); ECF No. 79-3 (Joint Appendix of Facts ("JAF"))).¹

On June 3, 2019, Deputies Baek, Packham, French, and Davis (together, the "Deputies")² conducted a probationary search³ on Zachary Chanoski. (JAF 1). At the time, Zachary resided with his mother, Plaintiff Melanie Smith, who was 67 years old. (JAF 2; JAE Ex. 19 ("Pls. Dep.") at 10:16-17). Deputies Baek, Packham, and French first arrived at Plaintiff's residence around 4:00 p.m. (JAF 5). Upon arrival, Plaintiff answered the door and allowed the Deputies inside. (JAF 6). Deputies Baek, Packham, French, and Lopez went upstairs to search Zachary's room according to the terms of his probation. (JAF 3, 6; JAE Ex. 23 ("Packham Dep.") at 78:11-15). Zachary was on his bed when the Deputies entered. (JAF 6). Deputy French observed signs and behaviors indicating that Zachary was under the influence of narcotics, so Deputy Baek handcuffed and escorted Zachary out of the bedroom. (JAF 7, 8). While Deputy Baek was bringing Zachary out of the residence, Deputy Davis arrived at the scene. (JAF 9).

A few minutes after Deputies Packham, Lopez, and French began searching Zachary's room, Plaintiff walked upstairs to videotape the Deputies who had already begun the search of Zachary's room. (Pls. Dep. at 27:1-11). When she arrived, Deputies Packham, French, and Lopez were in Zachary's room searching. (Packham Dep. at 78:11-15). While the Deputies searched Zachary's room, Plaintiff stood at the room's doorframe and began video recording the search on her cellphone. (JAF 10). Plaintiff was never told that she could not video record the search. (JAF 11).

Only one door of the double-door doorframe was left open. Plaintiff was told repeatedly to "step back" and that she was "in the way" of their search. (Pls. Dep. at 32:14-33:9, 35:1-5). According to Deputy Packham, Plaintiff "continually entered the room," so Deputies Packham, French, and Lopez "repeatedly had to tell her to exit the room and stay out, to stay out of our way and to stop interfering with us." (Packham Dep. at 78:17-21; JAF 12; JAE Ex. 20 ("Chanoski Dep.") at 22:15-21, 34:8-14; JAE Ex. 40 ("Plaintiff admits that the words 'stay out of the room' were used.")). Deputy Packham testified that it got to the point where he "had to stop searching" so that he could focus "solely on standing outside with [Plaintiff] and watching her, just to provide that safety for my partners who continued to search." (Packham Dep. at 79:1-7).

Plaintiff, on the other hand, denies that she ever entered the room. (Pls. Dep. at 32:12-13). Regardless of whether Plaintiff disobeyed the Deputies' orders by entering the room, it is undisputed that Deputy Packham felt as though he "had to stop searching" so that he could focus "solely on standing outside with [Plaintiff] and watching her, just to provide that safety for my partners who continued to search." (Packham Dep. at 79:1-7). When Plaintiff began her video recording, Deputy Packham had already stopped assisting Deputies French and Lopez with the probation check to stand by Plaintiff outside of Zachary's bedroom. (Id. at 79:7-11; JAE Ex. 6). Approximately 22 seconds into the recording, Deputy Davis, who was standing behind Plaintiff in the hallway, can be heard asking, "was that recording when the son was going apeshit?" (JAE Ex. 22 ("Davis Dep.") at 48:20-22; JAE Ex. 6). One of the deputies responded, "probably." (JAE Ex. 6).

From the Court's review of Plaintiff's video recording, it appears that while Plaintiff was recording Deputies French and Lopez searching Zachary's room, at approximately 57 seconds into the video, Plaintiff may have taken a small step into the room. (JAE Ex. 6). In response, one of the deputies told Plaintiff, "Ma'am, you need to stay out of the room." Plaintiff appears to have then taken a step back when she responded, "I'm not in the room." One of the deputies again asked Plaintiff to "back out of the room, there you go, you're in the way." Plaintiff was not told on the video, however, that she could not stand at the doorframe or that her standing at the doorframe interfered with their search.

The video further shows that Deputy French exited the room and was able to walk by Plaintiff by turning sideways and sliding by Plaintiff while Plaintiff stood at the doorframe. After Deputy French exited, Deputy Packham entered the room. As Deputy Packham entered the room, he can be heard saying, "can you just watch mom." (JAE Ex. 6). Then, near the end of the video, Deputy Davis, who was still standing behind Plaintiff outside the doorframe, reached his hand in front of Plaintiff to pull the door shut. Plaintiff immediately stated, "excuse me, you're not doing that." Davis replied, "oh yeah," as he continued to shut the door. Then, although from the Court's review of the video it does not capture Plaintiff allegedly resisting Deputy Davis's attempt to close the door by pushing the door back open, Plaintiff admitted in her deposition that she put her hands up and "pushed it back open." See (Pls. Dep. at 55:18-22, 80:20-81:7, 81:24-82:13). She also admitted in her personnel complaint that she "pushed the door open a little." (JAE Ex. 9). The camera then appears to fall out of Plaintiff's hands while both Deputy Davis and Plaintiff can be heard saying, "no, no, no, no." Then the video recording ends. The video lasted one minute and thirty-seven seconds. (JAE Ex. 6).

After the video ends, the Deputies and Plaintiff provide starkly different accounts of the incident. According to Deputy Davis, after the video, Deputy Davis grabbed Plaintiff's arm to prevent her from entering the room.⁴ (Pls. Dep. at 41:24-42:1; JAE Ex. 2). According to Deputy Davis, Plaintiff resisted his attempt to grab her arm. (JAF 18; JAE Ex. 2). Then, Deputy Packham assisted Deputy Davis to grab and control each of Plaintiff's arms to "keep them under control and to place her into a handcuffing position." (Packham Dep. at 47:7-18; Ex. 1; Ex. 2). Deputy Packham testified that Plaintiff "was trying to pull away" from them while they were attempting to place her in handcuffs. (Packham Dep. at 49:11-19). While Deputies Packham and Davis were controlling Plaintiff's arms, Deputy French came back upstairs, grabbed Deputy Packham's handcuffs, and handcuffed plaintiff. (JAE Ex. 21 ("French Dep.") at 78:17-25; JAE Ex. 1).

Then, according to Plaintiff, while she was already in handcuffs, she was forcefully taken to the ground. (Pls. Dep. at 19:42:2-43:2). In her words, "somebody jumped on top of me or pushed me very hard and I ended up on the floor." (Id. at 40:1-16); see also (Id. at 59:1-2 ("The officer jumped on me forcefully, and it resulted in me being thrown to the ground.")). According to each of the Deputies who witnessed the arrest—French, Baek, Davis, and Packham—Plaintiff's body purposely went limp, and she fell to the floor after she was placed in handcuffs. See (French Dep. at 80:1-3; Packham Dep. at 49:2-4; JAE Ex. 1; Ex. 2; Ex. 4). While Plaintiff was seated in handcuffs, the Deputies asked her to stand up so they could escort her out of the home and conclude their search. (Pls. Dep. at 43:3-7). Plaintiff refused to stand up. (JAE Ex. 24 at 19:25; French Dep. at 90:2-5). Plaintiff recounts that she could not stand because of the "excruciating pain" in her hip, pelvis, and back. (Pls. Dep. at 43:3-7). Plaintiff said she told the Deputies "several times" that she could not stand up, but they ignored her and were acting like she "was just not cooperating or something." (Id. at 43:3-15; French Dep. at 79:20-25). Plaintiff testified that she "tried" to stand up but "couldn't." (Pls. Dep. at 43:16-20). Plaintiff admitted that she was effectively "dead weight" as she was on the ground in handcuffs. (Id. at 43:21-25). Because she would not stand, Deputies Packham and French held onto Plaintiff from underneath each of her arms to carry her down the stairs. (Davis Dep. at 69:12-14). According to Plaintiff, the Deputies "dragged" her down the stairs and bumped her spine "several times as [she] went down the wooden stairs." (Pls. Dep. at 44:17-21). Later in her deposition, Plaintiff said the Deputies were "carrying"—not dragging—her down the stairs when her spine was bumped because it was not properly lifted. (Id. at 44:14-45:4). Plaintiff's other son, Luke, witnessed Plaintiff being carried down the stairs. According to Luke, he did not see Plaintiff's back hit the stairs as she was being carried down. (Chanoski Dep. at 43:8-13). The only body part Luke saw hit the ground was Plaintiff's feet. (Id. at 43:14-16).

Once Plaintiff was brought outside, she was arrested for allegedly resisting, delaying, and...