Jack Pelenty v. City of Seal Beach

MEMORANDUM

Plaintiffs Jack Pelenty and James Pe-lensky sued defendants City of Seal Beach and Officers Ron Lavelle and Gary Krog-man for conspiring to violate plaintiffs’ Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights. Plaintiffs seek damages under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 . Plaintiffs appeal the district court’s order granting defendants’ motion for summary judgment. We exercise jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and reverse.

“Whether defendants were involved in an unlawful conspiracy is generally a factual issue and should be resolved by the jury, so long as there is a possibility that the jury can infer from the circumstances (that the alleged conspirators) had a ‘meeting of the minds’ and thus reached an understanding to achieve the conspiracy’s objectives.” Mendocino Envtl. Ctr. v. Mendocino Cnty., 192 F.3d 1283 , 1301 (9th Cir.1999) (internal quotation marks omitted). The parties are familiar with the underlying facts and the evidence submitted to the district court; we mention only the most salient evidence from which we conclude a jury could infer that Officers Lavelle and Krogman conspired to violate plaintiffs’ constitutional rights.

First, plaintiffs submitted two photographs of…