Johnson v. City of Vallejo

ORDER GRANTING DEFENDANTS’ MONELL MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT

This action arises from a police shooting incident that occurred on September 2, *1214 2012 in Vallejo, California that resulted in the death of Mario Romero (“Decedent”) and the injury of Joseph Johnson (“Johnson”). Two complaints were filed separately but later consolidated by this Court (Doc. #2, 19). Defendants the City of Vallejo (“the City”); Joseph Kreins (“Kreins”), Chief of the Vallejo Police Department (“VPD”) at the time of the incident; and VPD Officers Dustin Joseph (“Joseph”) and Sean Kenney (“Kenney”) (collectively “Defendants”) filed five separate motions for summary judgment (Doc. # 63-67). A hearing on these motions was held on April 8, 2015. This Order addresses only the fifth motion for summary judgment (which the Court took under submission) (“the Monell MSJ”), in which Defendants specifically challenge the Plaintiffs’ claims under Monell v. Dep’t of Soc. Servs., of City of New York, 436 U.S. 658, 691-95 , 98 S.Ct. 2018 , 56 L.Ed.2d 611 (1978) (“Monell”).

At the hearing, Plaintiffs N.R., Ahn Khe Harris, Ahn Loc Harris, and Cynquita Martin (“the Martin and Harris Plaintiffs”) all conceded that as a…