Gelhaus
Estate of Lopez v. Gelhaus
Opinion
Lead Opinion
Hamilton, J.
ORDER GRANTING IN PART AND DENYING IN PART MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT
Defendants’ motion for summary judgment came on for hearing before this court on December 9, 2015. Plaintiffs Estate of Andy Lopez, Rodrigo Lopez, and Sujay Cruz (“plaintiffs”) appeared through their counsel, Arnoldo Casillas. Defendants Erick Gelhaus-and County of Sonoma (“defendants”) appeared through their counsel, Steven Mitchell. Having read the papers filed in conjunction with the motion and carefully considered the arguments and the relevant legal authority, and good cause appearing, the court hereby rules as follows.
BACKGROUND
On October 22, 2013, at approximately 3:15pm, 13-year-old Andy Lopez (“Andy”) was walking along a sidewalk in Sonoma County, carrying a toy rifle. See Second Amended Complaint (“SAC”), ¶ 20. According to defendants, the rifle was designed to look like a real AK-47 assault rifle, and the orange tip used to distinguish toy rifles had been removed. See Dkt. 63 at 6-7.
Two Sonoma County Sheriffs deputies, Erick Gelhaus and- Michael Schemmel, were patrolling the area at the time. Though the deputies had not received any réports about an individual carrying a weapon, they noticed…