Gonzales v. Super. Ct.

STATEMENT OF THE CASE

I. Procedural Background

A. Trial Court According to the police report as described in the trial court’s written ruling, on September 22, 2022, “officers were dispatched to a call of a domestic violence incident involving two individuals.” Gonzales was not one of them but he “had been

3 We also allowed the filing of briefs by three amici curiae in support of

petitioner Gonzales. They are the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, Silicon Valley De-Bug, and Assemblymember Ash Kalra, the author of Assembly Bill 2542, the RJA. The People filed combined responsive briefing to the amici curiae filings and we have considered all briefing in the course of our review.

3 drinking with the two individuals involved” in the incident. “While the officers were conducting their investigation, [] Gonzales ran to the scene and refused to step aside … . [He] repeatedly approached the officers and one of [them] was forced to push him away. The officers attempted to get [] Gonzales to leave, but [he] kept antagonizing the officers, yelling racial slurs and obscenities at [them. He] told one officer, ‘Shut your bitch ass up, [n-word ending in er].’ At…