Woods v. City of Hayward

BOBBIE ALLEN WOODS, Plaintiff, v. CITY OF HAYWARD, et al., Defendants.

No. 19-cv-01350-JCS

United States District Court, N.D. California

September 7, 2021

ORDER REGARDING MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT, MOTION TO EXCLUDE EXPERT TESTIMONY, AND ADMINISTRATIVE MOTIONS TO FILE UNDER SEAL

RE: DKT. NOS. 96, 100, 101, 104

JOSEPH C. SPERO CHIEF MAGISTRATE JUDGE.

I. INTRODUCTION

Plaintiff Bobbie Allen Woods brings various claims against Defendants the City of Hayward, the Hayward Police Department, Hayward Police Officer Brandon Tong, and Hayward Police Sergeant Ruben Pola^[1] based on a police search of Woods's home pursuant to a warrant. Defendants now move for summary judgment, and Woods moves to exclude certain expert opinion evidence. The Court held a hearing on September 3, 2021. For the reasons discussed below, Defendants' motion is GRANTED as to Woods's § 1983 and negligence claims against Tong and Pola, but DENIED as to his Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA") and negligence claims against the City of Hayward and the Hayward Police Department. Woods's motion to exclude is GRANTED in large part. His administrative motions to file under seal are GRANTED in part and DENIED in part, as discussed below.^[2]

II. BACKGROUND

A. Summary of Evidence

This section, intended for context and the convenience of the reader, summarizes relevant evidence generally in a light favorable to Woods, as is required in resolving Defendants' motion for summary judgment. It is not intended as a complete recitation of the evidentiary record and should not be construed as resolving any disputed issue of fact.

1. Overview of Search and Woods's Experience

Woods is in his seventies and requires a wheelchair due to Miyoshi myopathy, a form of muscular dystrophy that causes weakness, atrophy, and muscle pain. Acott Opp'n Decl. Ex. 9 (Label Report) ¶¶ 15, 21. His condition renders him particularly susceptible to muscle pain and cramping from exposure to cold. Id. ¶¶ 23-26. Woods also has post-traumatic stress disorder ("PTSD") as a result of his service with the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam War, which caused flashbacks and other symptoms after his return from the war, although his PTSD had become dormant before the events at issue in this case and did not affect his daily life. Acott Opp'n Decl. Ex. 8 (Grusd Report) ¶¶ 17, 21-23. In Vietnam, Woods was responsible for refueling airplanes, and was required to stop refueling when body bags containing dead soldiers were loaded or unloaded from the planes. Id. ¶ 33.

At the time of the events at issue, Woods lived in Hayward with three other people: his caregiver and tenant Nashi Alexander, ^[3] and Alexander's two minor sons. See Acott Opp'n Decl. Ex. 8 (Grusd Report) ¶¶ 25-26. Alexander's older son, along with other minors, was suspected of armed robbery and other crimes. Defendants obtained a search warrant for the house and an arrest warrant for the older son. Acott Opp'n Decl. Exs. 13, 14.

On March 15, 2018, Woods heard officers outside on a loudspeaker calling for the residents of his house to come outside, and he notified the other residents of his home. Acott Opp'n Decl. Ex. 1 (Woods Dep.) at 37:1-20. He also heard a sound like an explosion, which reminded him of his military service:

I know it was like combat, like I'm back in Vietnam or something; same kind of tactics, you know, we used, you know, with the loudspeakers and things like that, you know, the noise.

Id. at 38:19-22. Woods "tried to scurry out of the bed," but jammed his arms while catching his balance. Id. at 39:15-17. He was not able to put on clothes besides the light nightshirt and pants he wore to bed. Id. at 39:25-40:10.^[4]

A number of Hay ward police officers, including officers with rifles and other tactical gear, were positioned outside of Woods's home. Alexander came out of the house first, and her older son exited next and was placed in handcuffs. See Acott Opp'n Decl. Ex. 21 (body camera footage). Alexander identified the occupants of the house to the officers, who had incorrectly believed that her older son was her brother, and who did not appear to have been aware of Woods's existence, despite the fact that he owned the home, or that there was a five-year-old child in the home. Acott Opp'n Decl. Ex. 22 (body camera footage) at 7:30-8:35.^[5] Woods was not included on a list of possible residents of the house in an operations plan that Defendants prepared for the search. Acott Opp'n Decl. Ex. 2 (Tong Dep.) at 145:12-146:4. At least by the time that Alexander's son had been placed in handcuffs, the officers were discussing with Alexander and her son that Woods was in the house in a wheelchair, and that Alexander's younger son, who was five years old, was asleep in the house. See Acott Opp'n Decl. Ex. 21 at 10:40-11:10.

When officers ordered Woods to come out of the house with his hands raised, he responded that he had a disability that kept him from raising his arms, and they allowed him to come out of the house with his hands down. Acott Opp'n Decl. Ex. 1 (Woods Dep.) at 60:11-61:15. Woods exited the house while officers aimed their firearms at him. Id. at 42:4-11; see also Acott Opp'n Decl. Ex. 21 at 12:45-50 (footage of one officer stating "I got lethal" and aiming a rifle). A timestamp on the body camera recoding indicates Woods left the house around 5:56 AM. Acott Opp'n Decl. Ex. 21 at 13:14-40 (timestamp in "Zulu" time, indicating Greenwich Mean Time). Woods objected to the manner in which the officers conducted the search, and officers directed him to continue up the street. See Id. at 13:50-14:25.

Woods told the officers who escorted him up the street that he had a disability, and "that being dressed in the manner that [he] was dressed and [his] condition that [he] needed to return to [his] house or get some kind of blanket or something to cover [himself]," because he noticed that the officers were dressed warmly in gloves and jackets. Id. at 61:17-62:16. He made a similar request "several times," trying to space out his requests so as not to "appear to be too persistent," and to give the officers "ample time to respond." Id. at 62:17-64:3. Woods did not recall the exact sequence of events or words that he used, but he testified at his deposition that he was "pretty sure" he told the officers he had a disability that made him particularly sensitive to cold. id. at 56:10-16.

Woods testified that the officers guarding him "told [him] to stay right here, not to move," although he could not recall with certainty which officer told him that or the exact words the officer used. Acott Opp'n Decl. Ex. 1 (Woods Dep.) at 208:9-209:3, 209:24-210:7. When Woods asked on multiple occasions whether he could return to his home, he was told he could not, but that his "request ha[d] been relayed." Id. at 209:9-14. Woods did not ask if he could leave to go anywhere else, because he did not believe there was anywhere else he could go even if granted permission, but he did not feel that he "had the ability to just kind of wheel around while they were doing their work." Id. at 210:24-211:14. One of the officers who stood by Woods testified that he told Woods where to park his wheelchair, never told him he was free to leave, "would have asked him ... to not leave" if Woods had attempted to leave that location, and only left Woods's side when another officer took over standing next to him. Acott Opp'n Decl. Ex. 5 (Uribe Dep.) at 69:10-70:17.

Talking amongst themselves after Woods left the house, police officers appeared to agree that it was too cold outside for the clothing that Woods and the other occupants of the house were wearing:

[Unidentified officer:] If you guys ever served a search warrant at my house, I'll just tell you what I'm gonna get dressed first. I ain't coming out in my chonies, ain't freezing my own balls off.

[Second unidentified officer:] Hell no. I'd even go to my front door and be like, "I'm coming, but I'm gonna get dressed." "Don't go back inside your house." "Fuck you. I'm going back inside. I'm gonna go get dressed. Listen, if I wanted to shoot you I wouldn't have even came to the door."

Acott Opp'n Decl. Ex. 21 at 16:45-17:15.

At some point after Woods left the house-according to Woods, around half an hour afterwards, although video evidence suggests this occurred around six minutes after he left the house-an officer went across the street to get what Woods described as a "yellow body tarp bag" and offered it to Woods. Acott Opp'n Decl. Ex. 1 (Woods Dep.) at 52:17-53:9, 65:14-18. Woods testified that he knew it was a body bag because he "associated with them while in Vietnam, seeing service members being put into them, brought back, only they were black." Id. at 53:4-6. According to Woods, he told the officer he "couldn't wear it because it. . . would reset [his] PTSD, seeing body bags and stuff like that, being out in the cold." Id. at 53:11-13. Later in his deposition, Woods described the item as a "tarp" and a "body covering." Id. at 153:7-22. In the background of one officer's body camera recording, another officer can be seen unfolding a yellow sheet-like item-it is not possible from the video to tell whether it is a blanket, tarp, or body bag-while standing by Woods approximately six minutes after Woods left the house. Acott Opp'n Decl. Ex. 21 at 19:20-49. Near the end of that recording, the officer appears to be putting the item back in its bag, but the video ends before it is clear whether the officer put the item away or what happened to it. See id.

The officers who stood by Woods during the incident did not activate their body cameras. One of those officers, Jesus Uribe, did not remember whether Woods asked for anything to keep him warm, but said that hypothetically if Woods had made...