Evans

—This case stems from the detention of plaintiff, Joe Evans, by defendants, City of Bakersfield (City) and Police Officer Joseph Bianco, which ultimately resulted in Evans’s hospitalization for a broken neck. The City appeals from a verdict in favor of Evans for state tort causes of action and federal civil rights violations.

We will reverse, holding that a person subjected to an unlawful detention does not have the right to use reasonable force to resist such detention and that in giving the “Coffey instruction to the jury, the trial court committed reversible error.

Statement of Facts

Evans and Bianco are disparate in size (Evans is six feet, nine inches tall, two hundred seventy pounds, while Bianco is five feet, eight inches tall, one hundred eighty pounds), and their recollections of the events transpiring at 10 p.m., February 16, 1989, vary substantially.

It is necessary to recount both of the conflicting accounts given by Evans and Bianco. However, it is uncontroverted the encounter did occur while Bianco was on patrol in the City and that Bianco was previously familiar with Evans.

Evans’s Testimony

Evans testified that he had spent the earlier part of…