Rafael Gonzalez v. City of Anaheim

We must decide whether police officers used excessive force in a struggle that led to the death of a person suspected of possessing illegal drugs.

I

A

On September 25, 2009, at 2:00 AM in the morning, Officers Daron Wyatt and Matthew Ellis, members of the Anaheim Police Department, were responding to a routine call to check on a transient. While turning left at an intersection they were *768 cut off by a van driven by Adolf Anthony Sanchez Gonzalez. Gonzalez made an illegal left turn in front of them and pulled into a gas station. The officers, had to brake aggressively to avoid a collision, but they continued on their way to complete the call. Unable to locate the transient, the officers headed back the way they came only a minute or two later, and noticed that Gonzalez’s van was still at the gas station.

Their suspicions raised by the near collision, the officers ran the van’s plates through the mobile data terminal in their patrol car and discovered that the van had been involved in a prior narcotics stop. According to Wyatt’s testimony, the officers decided to follow the van for a short way to see if any law enforcement action was necessary. A few blocks later,…

dissenting:

“Deadly force cases pose a particularly difficult problem,” we have observed, “because the officer defendant is often the only surviving eyewitness.” Scott v. Henrich, 39 F.3d 912, 915 (9th Cir.1994). This is one of those cases. Rafael Gonzalez is dead and cannot speak for himself.

That does not mean that the court can or should speak for him, but it does mean that we must examine the evidence presented by the defendants with a critical eye. As we held in Scott , “the court may not simply accept what may be a self-serving account by the police officer. It must also look at the circumstantial evidence that, if believed, would tend to discredit the police officer’s story, and consider whether this evidence could convince a rational factfinder that the officer acted unreasonably.” Id.

There is a glaring inconsistency in the story told by the police officers here. The main thrust of their testimony might be correct, and it might be the case that their use of deadly force was justified, but we are reviewing a summary judgment and we cannot properly conclude that there is no genuine issue of material fact as to what led to the fatal shooting. As a result, I respectfully…

FOR PUBLICATION

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

RAFAEL GONZALEZ, individually and No. 11-56360 as successor in interest to Adolph Anthony Sanchez Gonzalez, D.C. No. Plaintiff, 2:10-cv-04660-

PA-SH

and

F.E.V., a minor, individually and as OPINION successor in interest to Adolph Anthony Sanchez Gonzalez, by and through her Guardian Ad Litem David Vasquez; ANTOINETTE SANCHEZ, individually and as successor in interest to Adolph Anthony Sanchez Gonzalez, Plaintiffs-Appellants,

v.

CITY OF ANAHEIM; DARON WYATT;

MATTHEW ELLIS,

Defendants-Appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California Percy Anderson, District Judge, Presiding Argued and Submitted February 7, 2013—Pasadena, California

Filed May 13, 2013

Before: Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain, Stephen S. Trott, and Richard R. Clifton, Circuit Judges.

Opinion by Judge O’Scannlain; Dissent by Judge Clifton

SUMMARY*

Civil Rights

The panel affirmed the district court’s summary judgment in a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action in which plaintiffs alleged that police officers used excessive force in a struggle that led to…