Allen

The defendants have appealed from a judgment rendered against them pursuant to a verdict which was returned in a suit for false imprisonment.

In response to a message by telephone from the sheriff of Sacramento County to arrest two men and a woman belonging to a. well-known criminal organization known as the “Weston Gang”, who were fleeing in an automobile, the Sheriff of Yuba County sent Merrill Le Boeuf, a city police officer, out to intercept them. The officer stopped the car in Marysville about 10:30 P. M., Saturday, October 8, 1932. It contained the three fugitives. Upon a command to surrender, the men got out on opposite sides of the machine. Armed with a rifle, one of them walked around the rear end of the car and commanded the officer on penalty of death for refusal to do so to get into the rear seat of the automobile. He complied with the order.. The bandits promptly re-entered the car, and fled with the police officer as their prisoner. One of the men sat by his side armed with a loaded rifle. During the brief flight which followed, his life was repeatedly threatened. There is little doubt he was in serious danger of being killed. The fugitives drove north toward…