Lopez

BACKGROUND

Plaintiff/appellant Emiliano Lopez, an inmate, sued defendants/respondents Lisa Green, Michael Yraceburn, and the County of Kern for breach of contract, fraud, defamation, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. He specifically accused Yraceburn, a supervising district attorney, of (1) reneging on a conditional plea agreement; (2) concealing and falsely misrepresenting the material facts of the agreement; (3) publishing false and unprivileged statements; and (4) causing “the loss of society and companionship with his estranged daughter … and his family ….” Lopez further alleged Green, the district attorney, and the County of Kern were vicariously liable under the doctrine of respondeat superior. In his civil complaint, Lopez claimed he agreed to plead “to gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated” in an earlier criminal case “on the condition that he be paroled at the completion of the minimum term of imprisonment ….”2 John Ramirez, a deputy district attorney, “confirmed the deal in open [c]ourt” on April 15, 2005, and Judge Lee Felice “approved the plea deal on May 12, 2005[,] pursuant to Penal Code section … 1192.5.” Lopez quoted a portion of a…