Ronald E. Bemis Brenda E. Bemis v. Tim Edwards Leo Lotito Perry Aldrich City of Bend

Appellant Ronald E. Bemis brought a civil rights action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against police officers Tim Edwards, Leo Lotito, Perry Aldrich, and the City of Bend, Oregon (“Appellees”) in which he claimed that the police had used excessive force against him. In his appeal from a jury verdict for the Appellees, Bemis argues that the trial judge improperly excluded from evidence portions of a tape recording of 911 emergency calls made on the night of his arrest. Specifically, he contends that the recorded statements of a citizen caller and of police officers should have been admitted as (1) nonhearsay, (2) present sense impressions, or (3) excited utterances. He also asserts that the recording of a call by Bemis’ companion, James Kates, requesting medical assistance because he, too, had been beaten by the police, was admissible either to show a city policy of “deliberate indifference” to excessive force, or as a prior consistent statement by Kates. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 , and we affirm.

I. Factual Background

On April 29,1989, Bemis and Kates argued with each other as they drove home from a tavern. At a park near his home in Bend, Oregon, Bemis pulled a…