Smith v. City of Hemet

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

The facts of the encounter between Smith and the police are not seriously disputed. To the extent that there is a difference between the parties, however, we look to the version most favorable to the plaintiff, the non-moving party. On the night of August 16, 1999, Smith’s wife placed an emergency phone call to the Hemet Police Department (“Department”) report- ing that her husband “was hitting her and/or was physical with her.” Mrs. Smith informed emergency personnel that her hus- band did not have a gun, there were no weapons in the house, and he was clad in his pajamas.

Officer Daniel Reinbolt was the first officer to arrive at the house in order to investigate the incident. He observed Smith standing on his front porch and “noticed Smith’s hands in his pockets.” The officer announced himself and instructed Smith to remove his hands from his pockets. Smith refused, responding with expletives and directing Officer Reinbolt to come to him. Officer Reinbolt informed Smith that he would approach, but only after Smith removed his hands from his pockets and showed that he had no weapons. Smith again refused to remove his hands from his pockets…

Opinion by Judge REINHARDT; Dissent by Judge SILVERMAN.

We took this case en banc to clarify the law regarding whether, under Heck v. Humphrey, 512 U.S. 477 , 114 S.Ct. 2364 , 129 L.Ed.2d 383 (1994), a § 1983 action for excessive force is necessarily barred by a plaintiffs conviction under California Penal Code § 148(a)(1) for willfully resisting, delaying, or obstructing a peace officer in the performance of his duties. We also take this occasion to bring our circuit into line with the others with respect to the definition of “deadly force.”

Thomas Smith appeals the district court’s order granting the defendants’ summary judgment motion in his § 1983 action for excessive use of force. We reverse and hold that Smith’s § 1983 action is not barred by Heck because the excessive force may have been employed against him subsequent to the time he engaged in the conduct that constituted the basis for his conviction. In such circumstance, Smith’s § 1983 action neither demonstrates nor necessarily implies the invalidity of his conviction. We also hold that in this circuit “deadly force” has the same meaning as it does in the other circuits that have defined the term, a definition that…

with whom KLEINFELD and CALLAHAN, Circuit Judges, join, dissenting:

By analyzing separately every single second of the approximately five-minute encounter between Smith and the Hemet police, the majority misses the forest for the trees. Here’s the forest: From the moment the police arrived and told Smith to remove his hands from his pockets, until the police finally handcuffed him, the police were trying to subdue and detain Smith, and he resisted. The undisputed facts show that this was one continuous, uninterrupted sequence of events. The majority gets off the track by focusing on how many different ways Smith might have violated the law after the police arrived at the scene. It does not matter. What matters is that Smith’s actions, however numerous, culminated in one arrest. He was then convicted, by guilty plea, of resisting an officer. In California, a conviction for resisting arrest establishes that the force used to effect the arrest was not excessive. People v. White, 101 Cal.App.3d 161, 164 , 161 Cal.Rptr. 541 (1980). That is why Smith’s § 1983 excessive force lawsuit is barred by Heck. If his lawsuit were successful, the civil judgment in his favor would be inconsistent…