Santos v. Gates

287 F.3d 846 Kam SANTOS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Daryl GATES; Willie Williams; Bernard Parks; City of Los Angeles; Edith Perez; Jacqueline Boyer, LAPD Sergeant; Kim Allen, LAPD Officer; James Lee, LAPD Officer, Defendants-Appellees. No. 00-56114. United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. Argued and Submitted December 6, 2001. Filed April 23, 2002. Stephen Yagman, Yagman, Yagman & Reichmann, Venice, CA, for appellant. Janet Bogigian, Office of the Los Angeles City Attorney, Los Angeles, CA, for appellees. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California; Florence-Marie Cooper, District Judge, Presiding. D.C. No. CV-98-04113-FMC. Before: REINHARDT and TALLMAN, Circuit Judges, and DAMRELL, District Judge. * REINHARDT, Circuit Judge. 1 On December 12, 1997, appellant Kam Santos encountered two Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers, Kimberly Allen and James Lee. Shortly thereafter, he was diagnosed with a broken back. Santos brought this action against the officers pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 , alleging that his injury was caused by the police officers' use of excessive force. A three-day trial was held, and at the conclusion of…