Casey

BACKGROUND

We take the facts from the complaint. On February 10, 2010, plaintiff Traci Casey arrived at a Rite Aid store owned by defendant Thrifty Payless, Inc. (hereafter Rite Aid) with written authorization to pick up prescription medication for a patient. Forewarned by a Rite Aid employee, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies were waiting, dressed as Rite Aid employees. After Casey obtained the medication, deputies arrested her on suspicion of drug trafficking, ignoring the documentation authorizing her to obtain the medication and her request that they phone the physician who had prescribed the medication or the patient to whom it was to be delivered. Sheriff’s deputies later released her, apparently without charging her.

2 Casey sued Rite Aid and the Sheriff’s Department for defamation, false imprisonment, negligence, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. In the complaint, she alleged a Rite Aid employee, acting maliciously and without probable cause, instigated her arrest by giving false and defamatory statements to the Sheriff’s Department that she was trafficking in a controlled substance. The Sheriff’s Department prevailed on its demurrer to the complaint…