Robert Morris v. Christopher Long

MEMORANDUM

Plaintiff-Appellant Robert Morris (Morris) appeals the district court’s entry of judgment in favor of Defendant-Appellee Officer Christopher Long (Long) following a jury verdict rejecting Morris’ claim that Long engaged in excessive force in violation of the Fourth Amendment. We affirm.

1.The district court acted within its discretion when it denied Morris’ proposed theory of the case jury instruction because the instructions given by the court “fairly” covered Morris’ Fourth Amendment excessive force claim and enabled the jury to consider Morris’ theory of the case. Gantt v. City of Los Angeles, 717 F.3d 702, 707 (9th Cir.2013) (“In evaluating jury instructions, prejudicial error results when, looking to the instructions as a whole, the substance of the applicable law was not fairly and correctly covered....”) (citation and alteration omitted); Dang v. Cross, 422 F.3d 800, 809 (9th Cir.2005) (“It is not error to reject a theory-of-the-case instruction if the other instructions in their entirety cover the case theory ...”) (citation and alteration omitted).

2. The district court acted within its discretion when it excluded evidence of Long’s alleged dishonest conduct…