NINTH CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEAL STAMPS OUT LAWSUIT FILED BY ROGUE LOS ANGELES SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT DEPUTIES AGAINST SUPERVISORS
This case truly belongs in the "You've Got To Be Kidding" category. Here goes...
FACTS:
A bunch of Los Angeles Sheriff's Deputies sued Sheriff Leroy Baca and a bunch of supervisors for violations of their Fourth, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment rights.
The deputies claimed they were improperly detained at the station house and later punished through involuntary shift transfers after refusing to give non-privileged statements in connection with an IA investigation of their own police brutailty. They say this behavior by their supervisors "shocked the conscience" and they should be compensated pursuant to the federal civil rights statutes.
So, here's how it goes....A citizen (maybe a suspect) ends up in the hospital with head and back injuries due to batons, or maybe flashlights, or maybe some other hard objects employed only by cops, landing on his head and back over and over and over again. Don't tase me bro. The victim of these blows was a bystander during the execution of a search warrant.
Sheriff's IA does an investigation and tells deputies at the scene not to leave after work. They were under investigation for both civil and criminal violations of law. LASO policies state that cops have an affirmative duty to cooperate in IA investigations.
Unlike my clients, who are boxed into small rooms without water for hours on end and no bathroom in sight, these cops got to go to the bathroom unescorted, had a water fountain to drink from, no one asked them to relinquish their guns, tasers, batons, flashlights, or anything else they beat people with....All was good.
Hey, and they got paid overtime. After their interviews, they were free to leave the station with their guns, batons, tasers and other things they used to beat people with. And they got overtime!
But they were reassigned which, gee whiz, was a complete harship to them because, in part, they couldn't get as much overtime. Shucks.
The statements were eventually turned over to the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office for possible criminal prosecution. As usual, the DA declined to punish the guys who use their batons, tasers, flashlights and other paraphernalia to beat bystanders. The cops were all exonnerated by Internal Affairs, too, and sent back to do what they do best...
COMPLAINT:
The deputies complained that the "detention" at the station was an unlawful search. This is the first time the Ninth Circuit has ever dealt with the issue of whether or not a cop is "seized" when asked to stay after shift to answer questions.
DISCUSSION
Check back tomorrow for more on the discussion of the majority and Kozinski's dissent.
