Derrick Sanderlin v. Jason Dwyer

Background A. Factual History On May 29, 2020, at around 2:00 p.m., a protest started at San Jose City Hall. Police officers patrolling the scene initially reported that the crowd remained peaceful for the first hour or so. The crowd eventually marched from City Hall down Santa Clara Street onto Highway 101, temporarily blocking both northbound and southbound lanes. Additional officers were dispatched to assist in the response, as some members of the crowd began engaging in violent behavior, including smashing vehicles with rocks and throwing objects at officers from an overpass. When Officer Panighetti arrived on the scene at around 3:30 p.m., he was equipped with a 40mm launcher, capable of firing foam baton rounds. According to then-existing San Jose Police Department (SJPD) policy, SJPD officers had blanket authority to use 40mm foam baton rounds throughout the protests as defensive weapons against “specific individuals who posed a threat of serious injury to the officers or others.” At about 4:30 p.m., officers issued dispersal orders to the crowd. The crowd then began to make its way back toward City Hall, westbound on Santa Clara Street. Panighetti was with a group of…