Category: Jerry Steering Misc Cases in California

Cory Baima is awarded $208,000.00 for false arrest and beating by Deputy

Posted by Jerry L. Steering, Esq. on November 19, 2017

County Settles Lawsuit Pointing to

Deputy

February 11, 2004|Stuart Pfeifer | Times Staff Writer

The Orange County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to settle a lawsuit brought by a San Juan Capistrano man who said a sheriff’s deputy assaulted him and falsely accused him of a crime.

Neither the county nor the man’s attorney would immediately disclose terms of the settlement.

The controversy started in February 2001, when deputies were summoned to Cory Baima’s home in San Juan Capistrano to investigate a family disturbance. Deputies saw Baima drive away from the home, followed him and forced him to stop his truck.

Baima, 19 at the time, allegedly argued with one deputy before a second, George Kluchonic, arrived and forced Baima onto the hood of a car. Kluchonic pulled one of Baima’s arms behind his back, tugged on his fingers and then choked him “until he was almost unconscious, like a standing blackout,” said Baima’s attorney, Jerry Steering.

The deputies arrested Baima on suspicion of resisting a peace officer, an allegation Steering said was fabricated. The incident was videotaped from a camera attached to one of the deputies’ patrol cars.

Orange County prosecutors later charged Kluchonic with a misdemeanor attempt to destroy evidence by asking a sheriff’s employee to delete that videotape and a tape of a confrontation with another civilian. A jury deadlocked in that case, and it was dismissed after Kluchonic agreed to quit the force.

Steering said he could not discuss the settlement until both sides signed legal documents next week. “It’s very satisfactory to my client,” he said.

County officials said they would not disclose terms of the settlement until both sides formally agreed to it.

O.C. Deputy’s Arrest Fouls Other Cases

Probe: Prosecutors drop efforts against 2 suspects whom the lawman was to testify against. He’s accused of trying to erase patrol tapes.

May 06, 2001|STUART PFEIFER | TIMES STAFF WRITER

The arrest of an Orange County sheriff’s deputy for allegedly trying to erase patrol-car videotapes has prompted prosecutors to dismiss two cases in which he was expected to testify, and the Public Defender’s Office is reviewing other cases involving the deputy.

Prosecutors contend Deputy George Kluchonic asked a civilian employee to erase videotapes of his dealings with crime suspects, including one he allegedly cursed at and shoved onto the hood of a car.

The misdemeanor charges of attempted evidence destruction could present credibility problems for Kluchonic in future trials and could lead to appeals on behalf of suspects who were convicted because of his testimony, defense lawyers and legal experts said.

“If he’s a critical witness with little or no corroboration, then the prosecution will have significant problems,” said Brent Romney, a professor at Western State University College of Law in Fullerton and a former Orange County prosecutor.

Orange County Public Defender Carl Holmes said his staff will likely take the unusual step of serving a subpoena on the Sheriff’s Department for a list of every arrest Kluchonic has made and then consider appealing convictions that were based on his testimony.

Already, the charges against Kluchonic, 43, have prompted the dismissal of two criminal cases.

One case (not on the videotape in question) involved the Oct. 23 arrest of a Trabuco Canyon man accused of methamphetamine possession. Kluchonic testified at a preliminary hearing that the suspect dropped a cigarette pack containing a small amount of the illegal drug. But because of the charges against Kluchonic, who would have been a witness, prosecutors dismissed the case April 27.

The second case involved a youth who allegedly resisted arrest when Kluchonic tried to detain him after a family dispute. Prosecutors dropped a resisting arrest charge after viewing a tape that showed Kluchonic cursing and shoving suspect Cory Baima.

This week, attorney Jerry Steering filed a claim on Baima’s behalf against the department, seeking damages for false arrest and assault.

The confrontation with Baima, 19, started with a family dispute about a loud stereo. Baima drove off when a deputy arrived but eventually stopped his car. Baima asserted in an interview that Kluchonic threw him onto the car and threatened to kill him.

“I’m no threat at all. His arms are probably bigger than my neck,” Baima said. “He was choking me out, squeezing so hard I couldn’t breathe.”

A video camera attached to the deputy’s car recorded the confrontation. Kluchonic allegedly asked a technician to delete the tape, but the employee reported the incident to supervisors, sparking an internal investigation–and ultimately the criminal charges.

Kluchonic, who has denied wrongdoing, is on paid administrative leave. He is a 15-year department veteran, a former U.S. Army military police officer and past recipient of the South Orange County deputy of the year award.

The deputy’s lawyer blamed the charges on a misunderstanding and said another sheriff’s employee disputes that Kluchonic sought to erase the tapes.

Still, attorneys at the Public Defender’s Office expressed concern over the allegations and said they would seek to challenge his credibility if he were called as a witness in any pending trials.

“The fact that he has previously tried to suppress evidence which may have been helpful to a defendant raises serious issues about his credibility and whether the evidence he has procured is accurate,” Public Defender Holmes said.

If a judge approves a subpoena of all Kluchonic’s arrests, public defender lawyers would launch an investigation that could lead to appeals, Holmes said.

“If there’s evidence that a sheriff’s deputy may have attempted to hide evidence or have it suppressed, we have an obligation to see whether he did the same thing with people we represented,” Holmes said.

Romney, the law professor, sees a parallel in larger police corruption probes like the Los Angeles Police Department’s Rampart investigation, which resulted in inmates being released from prison after revelations about framed suspects and fabricated evidence.

“The obvious inference is if he tampered with evidence in one case, he can’t be trusted in others,” Romney said.

Kluchonic could invoke the 5th Amendment if questioned about the allegations by defense attorneys, crippling prosecutions of defendants he arrested, Romney said. Although the most significant impact will be in upcoming trials, defense attorneys could use the allegations to appeal convictions.

“If a defendant was convicted based primarily on this officer’s testimony, with little or no corroboration, that might be grounds for granting” a new trial, Romney said.

Family gets $2.1 million in jail death

Posted by Jerry L. Steering, Esq. on November 19, 2017

Family Gets $2.1 Million in Jail Death. Jason Gomez was deprived of his psych meds and was given a “Palestinian Hanging” by deputies.

By Tony Saavedra | tsaavedra@scng.com | Orange County Register

July 1, 2011 at 12:52 pm

Family of S

Jason Gomez died in the custody of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department from Oxygen deprivation (“Palesinian Hanging”)

The family of an Orange County jail inmate who died in 2008 after an altercation with deputies will receive a $2.1 million settlement from the county.

The death of Jason Jesus Gomez on April 1, 2008, generated headlines because he was among several inmates who died or were injured after being shot with a Taser by deputies.

The incidents led to a new department policy that Tasers could not be used on inmates who had been handcuffed or otherwise subdued.

An autopsy showed Gomez died from “hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy,” meaning that oxygen was cut off to his brain. Jerry Steering, his family’s attorney in the federal lawsuit, said deputies placed Gomez in a physical position that prohibited him from breathing.

“He said, ‘I can’t breathe,’ several times. They said, ‘If you can talk you can breathe,’ ” Steering said.

Gomez, 35, was in jail on a 90-day misdemeanor probation violation. He had gone five days without his medication for a psychiatric condition when the altercation occurred March 25, 2008, according to Steering.

Gomez’s mental health had deteriorated to the point where he was placed in the jail’s psychiatric ward. When the nurse finally arrived to give him medication, Gomez fractured her arm, Steering said.

Deputies responded and attempted to place Gomez in a straitjacket, but he threw soapy water on the floor of the cell, so deputies would slip, Steering said.

Gomez also threw his mattress against the bars, hoping to prevent deputies from initially shooting him with Taser darts. Gomez fought and spat at deputies, biting one jailer on the finger. He eventually was overcome and handcuffed on the floor outside his cell.

He was placed in leg irons, put in a wheelchair and fitted with a spit mask.

“One of the deputies pressed the back of his head down, apparently causing problems with Jason Gomez’s breathing,” said a written statement by Steering.

After 20 minutes, deputies noticed Gomez had stopped breathing and had no pulse. Attempts to revive him at the jail were unsuccessful. He was rushed to the hospital and placed on life support, which was unplugged April 1, 2008, Steering said.

Sheriff’s Cmdr. Steve Kea said he could not comment on the Gomez case, but stressed that several reforms have been made to make deputies more accountable when they use force. Such incidents are more scrutinized under the new review system, Kea said.

In fact, Steering praised Sheriff Sandra Hutchens and her staff for “attempting to reform the culture of violence and cruelty practiced by jail deputies” under the former administration.

Family of Slain OC Jail Inmate Wins $2.1 Million From County

By Nick Schou Fri., Jul. 1 2011 at 4:02 PM

Breaking News

On March 25, 2008, Jason Jesus Gomez, 35, who was in custody for a probation violation and had been off his medication for several days, began attacking jail employees. As he was being restrained, Gomez repeatedly claimed he couldn’t breath. Deputies soon realized Gomez was right when he literally stopped breathing. He died several days later at a hospital when he was taken off life support.

Now, according to a story in today’s Orange County Register, his family has won a $2.1 million legal settlement from the county.

Gomez was just one of several inmates to be injured or who died inside Orange County jails after being tasered while already handcuffed or otherwise restrained. Specifically, Gomez perished after being placed in a wheelchair used to restrain uncooperative prisoners, apparently because one of the guards was pushing his head down. “He said, ‘I can’t breathe,’ several times,” claims the family’s attorney, Jerry Steering. “They said, ‘If you can talk you can breathe.”

From the Register story, it’s easy to see why the guards placed Gomez in the chair. The fracas started when Gomez, who had just been transferred to the jail’s psychiatric unit for evaluation, broke a nurse’s arm. When deputies tried to place him in a straitjacket, he fought them off by throwing soapy water on the floor and using a mattress as a shield. “Gomez fought and spat at deputies, biting one jailer on the finger,” the Reg reports. He eventually was overcome and handcuffed on the floor outside his cell. He was placed in leg irons, put in a wheelchair and fitted with a spit mask. “

Because of Gomez’ death and others, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department later prohibited the use of tasers against prisoners who have been handcuffed or otherwise restrained. “Steering praised Sheriff Sandra Hutchens and her staff for “attempting to reform the culture of violence and cruelty practiced by jail deputies” under the former administration,” the paper concluded, a reference to disgraced ex-sheriff Mike Carona, now serving time in federal prison.

Deputy can be sued for excessive force for shooting a suspect and then stomping on his head

Posted by Jerry L. Steering, Esq. on November 13, 2017

In a landmark ruling that going against the trend, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals holds that a police may terminate threat but not person.

By Tony Saavedra | tsaavedra@scng.com | Orange County Register

PUBLISHED: November 2, 2017 at 5:53 pm | UPDATED: November 3, 2017 at 1:04 am

An Orange County Sheriff’s deputy who won the department’s medal of valor after shooting a knife-wielding, delusional man 18 times and repeatedly stomping on his head can be sued by the suspect’s mother, a federal appellate court ruled.

A 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel Wednesday revived an excessive force suit against Deputy Michael Higgins, who was credited with saving the life of another deputy stabbed twice on the arm by suspect Connor Zion, 21. The suit was previously quashed by a lower court.

The three-justice panel, led by Alex Kozinski, said, “like forced stomach-pumping, head-stomping a suspect curled up in the fetal position is bound to offend even hardened sensibilities.”

A sheriff’s video of the September 2013 altercation showed the shooting and Higgins stomping three times on the fallen man’s head, something not taught or condoned in police training for use of force.

“I don’t believe anyone would tell you that kind of continuation of force is appropriate after having put a

Orange County Sheriff’s Deputy Michael Higgins shakes hands with Sheriff Sandra Hutchens as he accepts the Medal of Valor

suspect down with a firearm,” said Ron Lowenberg, dean of the police academy at Golden West College.

Larry Rosenthal, a law professor at Fowler School of Law at Chapman University, had a stronger reaction.

“If an officer who engages in wholly unjustifiable conduct gets a medal, it boggles my mind,” Rosenthal said. “Why has the Orange County Sheriff’s Department not disciplined this guy?”

In a prepared statement, the sheriff’s department said, “We stand by the District Attorney’s July 2014 investigation into this officer-involved shooting, which concluded Deputy Higgins did not commit a crime. According to their review, he used justifiable force and saved the life of a fellow deputy (Juan Lopez) and potentially prevented injuries to others.”

The district attorney’s report called Higgins’ actions, “reasonable and justified.”

Appellate justices, however, said the first volley of nine bullets, which left Zion alive, might have been enough to stop him from hurting anyone else. Higgins went on to stand over Zion, who was on the ground but still moving, and shoot him another nine times.

“A reasonable jury could find that Zion was no longer an immediate threat, and that Higgins should have held his fire unless and until Zion showed signs of danger or flight,” said the appellate ruling.

“Or, a jury could find that the second round of bullets was justified, but not the head-stomping.”

Attorney Jerry Steering, representing Zion’s mother, Kimberly, summed up the panel’s ruling, “An officer has the right to terminate the threat, but not terminate the person.”

According to court records, the district attorney’s investigation and two sheriff’s videos, Zion had a history of seizures and was apparently in the midst of one when he cut his roommate and mother with a 12-inch, serrated kitchen knife. The sheriff’s department was called to the Laguna Niguel condominium.

Deputy Lopez was among the first to arrive. Zion, yelling “I’ll kill you,” attacked the deputy as he was getting out of his patrol car, stabbing him twice on the arm. Lopez fell to the ground and kicked at Zion to keep him away.

The video captures Zion running back to the condominium with Higgins firing nine times from about 15 feet away. Zion can be seen on the ground, still stirring. Higgins walks up and unloads nine more bullets into Zion from about four feet away.

Higgins then stomps on Zion’s head, walks away, returns and stomps again on his head, walks away, and returns for a third stomp, the video shows.

“I thought it was a movie. It was surreal. And then training kicked in,” Higgins said in an April 2014 article in the Orange County Register.

An autopsy shows that Zion was hit 11 times and died from his gunshot wounds. Methamphetamine and amphetamine were found in his bloodstream, according to the district attorney’s investigation.

Zion’s criminal history showed numerous arrests for being under the influence of a controlled substance, threat to kill, malicious mischief, assault and possession of dangerous weapons.

A delusional Zion told his mother earlier in the day of the incident that he would die at the hands of police.

In court proceedings Steering told justices, “I’ve been doing these police misconduct cases for 33 years and this is the first case I can say that I’ve actually seen what appears to be a police execution.”

Jurupa Valley Police Misconduct Attorney

Posted by Jerry L. Steering, Esq. on October 14, 2017

Jerry L. Steering, Esq. before 9th Cir. Court of Appeals, Pasadena, CA

Jerry L. Steering, Esq., is a Police Misconduct Attorney, serving, among other places, Riverside County, the City of Jurupa Valley and the other Riverside County cities shown below. Mr. Steering also litigates cases throughout California and out of state matters. Mr. Steering also practices in Los Angeles County, San Diego County, Riverside County and San Bernardino County.

Mr. Steering has been suing police officers, and defending bogus criminal cases of crimes against police officers since 1984. The majority of our firm’s law practice, is suing police officers and other government officials, for claims such as false arrest, police brutality / excessive force, malicious prosecution, and other “Constitutional Torts.”

False arrests by police officers are almost always the product of either sheer incompetence (i.e. the police arrest another for conduct that isn’t criminal), or of the police officer attempting to justify his unlawful conduct, by arresting and then framing their victim (i.e. false police reports, perjurous court testimony, false convictions) of his federal criminal (18 U.S.C. § 242), and otherwise tortious misconduct (i.e. if the police use unreasonable / unlawful force on a civilian, the use of force is almost always followed by a false arrest.)

Mr. Steering has been suing police officers, and defending bogus “resistance offense” criminal cases of crimes against police officers, since 1984.

Because of institutional pressures (i.e. “ratting out fellow officer not a good career move), and the obvious political and practical consequences of not backing-up the their fellow officers (i.e. false testimony and false police reports), the norm in today’s police profession, is for peace officers to falsely arrest, and procure the bogus criminal prosecution (i.e. to literally “frame”) of those civilians, whose Constitutional rights and basic human dignity have been violated. The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department is especially disgraceful when it comes to abusing civilians and framing them for crimes that they didn’t commit, to protect their deputy sheriffs from civil, disciplinary and criminal liability.

POLICE MISCONDUCT IN JURUPA VALLEY – RIVERSIDE COUNTY SHERIFF’S DEPARTMENT’S “SATURATION OPERATIONS”.

Under the leadership of Riverside County Sheriff Stan Sniff, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department has become one of the leading agencies for the beatings and their accompanying false arrests. Under Sheriff Sniff, Riverside County Sheriff’s Department deputy sheriffs routinely beat-up and falsely arrest any civilian who dares to challenge their authority (i.e. such as by telling the deputies that one knows their rights, or daring to ask the deputies why they are treating them this ugly way.) These deputy sheriff’s procure the bogus their victims’ false criminal prosecutions, to beat-down the innocents who’s constitutional. Sheriff Sniff’s Professional Standards Bureau (Internal Affairs) has become the “white wash” wing of that agency.

Under great political pressure, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department has just started using body cam recording devices. However, they are just clip on devices, and they can be made to not have been on or working when the Sheriff’s Department wants the recording to exist or not.

THE SHERIFF’S DEPARTMENT’S “SATURATION / ZERO TOLERANCE OPERATIONS” IN JURUPA VALLEY.

The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department Jurupa Valley station is almost indistinguishable from a criminal

The gang at the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department Jurupa Valley Station

street gang. They really don’t try to hid this.

These men have taken it upon themselves to administer beatings and false arrests for just about anyone who they see doing anything that the law proscribes; literally anything to justify a street encounter. These deputies flood an area of Jurupa Valley with deputies just itching to beat the stuffing out of someone. It is almost impossible for most normal law abiding civilians to really believe that this really happens. Well, it really does. These deputies really are out and about looking to beat, pepper-spray, tase and falsely arrest some civilian.

One example of the use of these “saturation / zero tolerance operations” is the case of James Holley.

On August 21, 2011, the boys from the Jurupa Valley Station were performing what they call a “saturation /

RCSD Deputy Sheriff Bryce Holmes; armed to the teeth for a little fun in Jurupa Valley

zero tolerance operation”. The “saturation operation” included making “proactive arrests” for anything that the law proscribes; anything; even the most arguable or trivial infraction. Deputy Bryce Holmes orchestrated, supervised and participated this particular “Saturation Patrol”. He and his pals at the Jurupa Valley station actually enjoy beating people. They just can’t get enough. Who knows; if they beat up and falsely arrest enough innocents they might make Deputy of the Year. That is no joke.

It’s those kind of active deputies who beat up many and make a lot of arrests who make Deputy of the Year. They usually are the best at lying under oath. You could hook these “pro-active policing” types (i.e. the cops commit the crimes) up to a polygraph and that line will stay straight. They can look a jury straight in the eyes and lie without any of the usual signs of lying (i.e. swallowing, red eyes, choked-up speech, excessive blinking, looking up and to the side, etc.) and deliver the goods; frame their victims for some bogus resistance offense.

James Holley, courtesy of the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department

Well, James Holley was standing in front of his parent’s home, holding a can beer and drinking the same, as were his brothers. They were not drunk or causing any problems. The deputies approached the Holley’s, claiming that they suspected the Holleys of being in violation of California Penal Code Section 647(f); public intoxication. It is not a crime in California to be drunk in public. It is only a violation of that section if one is basically so drunk / drugged that one is lying in a puddle of their own vomit on the sidewalk.

When the James Holley objected to the officers wanting to search him, they simple tased and jumped him, and false arrested he and his father, who came out and saw the deputies beating his son. James Holley was not criminally prosecuted. Neither were the men who should have been, the deputies.

Jerry L. Steering has successfully sued the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department over the years. Most recently, Mr. Steering has obtained settlements against the County of Riverside for wrongfully tasing a former Riverside County Sheriff’s Department Deputy Sheriff [Torres v. County of Riverside, U.S. District Court, Central District of California (Riverside)(2010), $500,000.00], and for using unreasonable force and falsely arresting a 64 year old man [Chynoweth v. County of Riverside et al., Riverside County Superior Court (2011), $750,000.00.]

Former Desert Hot Springs Police Department Sgt. Anthony Sclafani was sentenced to 4 years in federal prison for torturing prisoners. He is the one who supervised the beating of Edward Moore

Mr. Steering also obtained an $825,000.00 settlement at completion of trial from the Riverside County City of Desert Hot Springs, for unreasonable force and false arrest [Moore, et al. v. City of Desert Hot Springs, Riverside County Superior Court (2012).]

In 2013, Mr. Steering successfully obtained a jury verdict in federal court against Riverside County Sheriff’s Department deputies sheriffs for excessive force (punching a Lake Elsinore man in face) and for illegally searching his person property; resulting in a $250,000.00 ultimate settlement of the case, in Parnell v. County of Riverside.

Mr. Steering constantly sues the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department more and more often these days, because the simple truth is, that the Department is simply a morally bankrupt organization. When a Riverside County Sheriff’s Department deputy sheriff uses unreasonable force or falsely arrest civilians, the department encourages further constitutional transgressions, by defended the outrages against the public committed by the deputies. They don’t properly train their deputy sheriffs, and not only tolerate the use of unreasonable force and their accompanying false arrests and malicious criminal prosecutions, but, by case by case of backing the deputies, promote and encourage future constitutional violations. If you’re reading this article, you are probably a person who wouldn’t have believed these serious allegations, until they actually happened to you or your

In 2001 in Gardner v. AMR, U.S. Dist. Court (Los Angeles) Mr. Steering obtained a $650,000.00 settlement of

It took AMR ambulance 1 hour and 36 minutes to get to the scene of a heart attack called in on the 911 system

wrongful death, for failure to provide ambulance service. Although AMR is a private ambulance service Mr. Steering successfully argued that AMR was acting under the color of state law as they were the only ambulance service allowed to service the Hemet are of Riverside County.

Mr. Steering successfully argued to then United States District Court Judge Carlos Moreno (later to become Associate Justice Carlos Moreno of the California Supreme Court) that because under the California Emergency Medical Services Act the only ambulance that one can summons, American Medical Response, that the good citizens of Riverside County were constructively in the custody of AMR ambulance services when they are in need of an ambulance.

In Risk v. Cathedral City, U.S. District Court Central District of Cal. (Riverside)(2006) Mr. Steering obtained a $125,000.00 settlement for false arrest / excessive force.

In Torres v. County of Riverside, U.S. District Court, Central District of California (Riverside)(2010), Mr. Steering obtained a $500,000.00 settlement for unreasonable force (i.e. taser).

In 2016 in the case of Licitra v. County of Riverside (U.S. District Court – Riverside) Mr. Steering obtained a $300,000.00 settlement for false arrest / unreasonable force.

In Chynoweth v. County of Riverside et al.,Riverside County Superior Court (2011), Mr. Steering obtained a

RCSD Sgt. Ken Southern falsely arrests 64 year old stage 4 terminal cancer patient after beating him in front of a crowd at the Temecula Rod Run

$750,000.00 settlement for unreasonable force. 64 year old Mr. Chynoweth was showing his race car at the Temecula Rod Run. Mr. Chynoweth’s friend had driven his “hot rod” down the street and parked the same next to Mr. Chynoweth. His friend had a 1966 Chevelle with 1,000 horsepower and no muffler as did most of the hot rods at the Rod Run. His friend’s car made lots of noise but RCSD Sgt. Ken Southern was concerned with the friend having driven on the street after the Rod Run had begun.

While the 1,000 horsepower car was idling, Mr. Chynoweth, who could barely stand up and walked,and when he saw his friend arguing with Sgt. Southern, he yelled out for his friend not to argue with Sgt. Southern and just do what he says, otherwise he was going to be ejected, like others that day.

Sgt. Southern didn’t like Mr. Chynoweth’s attitude and told him to leave, so Mr. Chynoweth hobbled back to his car (the next rented show space over) and Sgt. Southern wanted him to left the entire event. Mr. Chynoweth protested that he paid $40.00 to rent that space for his car and that he shouldn’t have to leave.

When a large crowd saw Mr. Chynoweth verbally challenge Sgt. Southern, the good Sergeant slammed Mr. Chynoweth on the hood of his car, threw him down onto the grass and knee dropped him and arrested him; all in front of fifty people or so. Riverside County paid Mr. Chynoweth $750,000.00 for that transgression.

In 2012 Mr. Steering also obtained an $825,000.00 from the Riverside County City of Desert Hot Springs, for unreasonable force and false arrest (Moore, et al. v. City of Desert Hot Springs, Riverside County Superior Court;

In 2013 in Parnell v. County of Riverside (above), U.S. District Court (L.A.) Mr. Steering

David Parnell was beaten-up in his own home when RCSD Detectives arrested him in his home for a crime that he was innocent o

obtained $250,000.00 at award at trial for unreasonable force and unlawful search. RCSD Lake Elsinore Station detectives got a tip that someone was advertising a “Ditch Witch” construction drilling device on ebay, that was reported stolen in Colorado. The detectives dressed up as regular construction types, and told Mr. Parnell in him home that the Ditch Witch was stolen. Mr. Parnell had purchased the Ditch Witch at a legitimate drilling supply store and had the receipt with him.

In 2016 in Jones v. County of Riverside (U.S. District Court – Riverside) Mr. Steering obtained a $300,000.00 settlement for unreasonable seizure of person.

In 2014 Holley v. County of Riverside (U.S. District Court – Riverside) Mr. Steering obtained a $500,000.00 settlement for false arrest and unreasonable force.

SUING POLICE OFFICERS IN FEDERAL COURT FOR VIOLATING YOUR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS; ENFORCING THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT.

The keys to the federal courthouse is something call “federal question jurisdiction“. “Federal question jurisdiction” entitles a person whose federal constitutional rights were violated by persons acting “under the color of state law”, to sue under federal law, including in federal court itself, for redress. A typical situation involves a peace officer (i.e. deputy sheriff, police officer) violating the federal Constitutional rights of a civilian by using unreasonable force upon them and/or by falsely arresting them, and thereafter procuring their malicious criminal prosecution; today’s norm.)

The federal court venue was traditionally very important to the enforcement of the Fourteenth Amendment, because black persons of African descent couldn’t get a fair trial in Southern state Superior Courts following the Civil War (that ended in late April of 1865.) Although starting-out as a Post-Civil War Southern “social organization”, the “Ku Klux Klan” soon became the local Southern “Sheriff and his deputized posse”, who terrorized and murdered black persons of African descent while acting “under the color of state law”; under the authority of the Sheriff.

Imagine a “black widow” (not the spider type) suing the local Sheriff and his posse members for murdering her husband in a Post-Civil War Southern state Superior Court, where the judge and the jury members were either part of the murdering mob, or relatives and friends of those who were. Unless black persons had a remedy in a United States District Court, as a practical matter they had no remedy at all.

The 14th Amendment grants citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States,” including and especially former slaves who had been “freed” with the ratification of the 13th Amendment (abolishing slavery) by the states on December 6, 1865.

The 14th Amendment had been rejected by most Southern states, but was ratified by the required three-fourths of the states on July 28, 1868. Known as the “Reconstruction Amendment,” it makes any former slaves who were born in the United States, citizens, and forbids any state to deny any person (especially former slaves) “life, liberty or property, without due process of law” or to “deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

Thereafter, in response to a letter to Congress from President Ulysses S. Grant, complaining of the conditions in the Southern states, on April 20, 1871 Congress enacted the the statute that we sue police officers under to this very day; The Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871; 42 U.S.C.§ 1983. Also known as the “Third Enforcement Act”, Congress enacted Section 1983 to enforce the 14th Amendment; at that time to provide black persons of African descent with a civil remedy for damages in federal court against “the Sheriff” and his posse, who were ”acting under the color of state law” when they violated their victims’ federal constitutional rights (i.e. murdering black people in the South and otherwise terrorizing them. This is the very same law that we sue police officers under to this very day.

The Third Enforcement Act, also known as The Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 and 42 U.S.C. § 1983 provides:

“Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory or the District of Columbia, subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress, except that in any action brought against a judicial officer for an act or omission taken in such officer’s judicial capacity, injunctive relief shall not be granted unless a declaratory decree was violated or declaratory relief was unavailable.”

Although the original immediate class of persons that the 14th Amendment was ratified to protect were black persons of African descent, those protections of the 14th Amendment apply to all persons.

Mr. Steering has been suing police officers and deputy sheriffs under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 since 1984. When the state or local police violate your federal constitutional rights (that, by the way, are shrinking by the day), a Section 1983 action is your federal civil remedy, along with any state law remedies permitted in the state where the police abuse occurred.

DEFENDING BOGUS CRIMINAL RESISTANCE OFFENSE CASES.

Mr. Steering is also a Criminal Defense Lawyer; specializing in defending innocents in “resistance offenses”, such as resisting / obstructing / delaying a peace officer (words that mean everything and mean nothing; Cal. Penal Code § 148(a)(1)), Cal. Penal Code § 69 (the “turbo version” of Section 148(a)(1); interfering with duties of public officer via violence or threat thereof a felony), assault and battery on a peace officer (Cal. Penal Code §§ 240/241(c) & 242/243(b)), and even assault on a peace officer with a gun (Cal. Penal Code §§ 245(c) & 245(d).)

Almost every good old fashioned police beating is accompanied by some sort of bogus arrest; routinely for some variety of “Contempt of Cop” or “resistance offense.” The police are often successful in their attempt to shift the blame for their use of unreasonable force upon or their false arrest of innocents, by procuring the bogus criminal prosecution of their innocent victims, for a “resistance offense.”

Although the resistance offenses differ (i.e. [Penal Code 148(a)(1); resisting / delaying / obstructing officer], [Penal Code 240/241(c); assault on a peace officer, [Penal Code 242/243(b); battery on peace officer], [Penal Code 69; using / threatening to use violence to deter / prevent public officer from performing duty]), there is one common element among all of them; they all require that the alleged “victim officer” be lawfully engaged in the performance of his/her duties. Therefore, if you’re convicted for any such “resistance offense”, there has now been a judicial determination that the police officer was not acting unlawfully; that he wasn’t falsely arresting or wrongfully detaining you; that he wasn’t using unreasonable force upon you; that he didn’t unlawfully search you, etc. Such a prior judicial determination that the officer was acting lawfully usually now precludes a lawsuit by you that alleges unlawful actions by the officer (i.e. false arrest or unreasonable force.)

It’s important for the government that the police convict you for a “resistance offense”, because under the doctrine of issue preclusion (“collateral estoppel“) or “claim preclusion” (“res judicata“), if an issue of fact or law has been determined against you in a prior judicial proceeding, you can’t re-litigate that fact or law determination in a subsequent judicial proceeding. It’s kind of like the Rodney King civil case in federal court in Los Angeles. LAPD Officers Sgt. Stacey Koon and Laurence Powell were criminally convicted in federal court of violating Rodney King’s right to be free from the use of unreasonable force upon him under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Therefore, when it came time for Rodney King’s civil case against the LAPD Officers for money, the issue of whether LAPD Officers Koon and Powell had violated Rodney King’s right to be free from the use of unreasonable force was already “res judicata”; a thing decided. The only issue left for the civil jury to decide was how much money to give Rodney King.

Therefore, in your situation, if you’re convicted of a resistance crime (a crime that for one to be guilty of, the police had to have been acting lawfully, like not using excessive force, not unlawfully arresting or detaining one, not retaliating against persons for exercising their First Amendment rights), the issue of the lawfulness of the officer’s conduct has already been decided against you, so invariably, save very few exceptions, you cannot successfully sue the police; you’re precluded from doing so because of your conviction. That’s why the cop who violates your constitutional rights will almost always will try to frame you for a resistance offense. This is standard operating procedure for the police, and that’s not a joke.

Moreover, under the cloak of the unnecessary and morally opprobrious immunity afforded police officers under the “Heck Doctrine” (Heck v. Humphrey, 512 U.S. 477 (1994)), if you’re convicted of any crime, you usually cannot sue the cops at all; at least for false arrest. California adopted the Heck rule to bar civil rights claims in Yount v. City of Sacramento, 43 Cal. 4th 885 (2008.) So, under either federal or California law, if you plead guilty or even now no contest to anything, you can’t sue for your false arrest, even though the arresting officer may not have had sufficient probable cause to have arrested you when he did so.

These are policy decisions by the United States Supreme Court and the California Supreme Court, to limit many persons’ right to sue police for real violations of their constitutional rights, for no legitimate reason. These policy decisions are made by those same Justices who profess that they believe that the courts shouldn’t be “super legislatures”, that make any such policy decisions and that such decisions should be left to Congress and state legislatures.

Thus, because of these “policy decisions” by the United States Supreme Court, in the real world, the cops can beat you, falsely arrest you, and falsely and maliciously procure your bogus criminal prosecution; all while you’re the victim of abuse by the police, and all, in the real world, with very little chance of anything happening to themselves. How many people are willing to spend ten’s of thousands of dollars to defend themselves on bogus misdemeanor “resistance offense” charges, when they can avoid spending all of the time and money that it takes to prove your innocence, by pleading to a de minimis misdemeanor, or an infraction, like disturbing the peace? How many innocent souls have pleaded themselves out court on good, righteous and provable civil rights actions against the police, because they either pleaded-out or stay in jail awaiting trial?

This is normal. This is reality. This what probably happened to you if you’re looking for us. This is why the police do what they do. Because they usually can. Because if they literally provoke you into expressing verbal remonstrance that results in the cops beating the stuffing out of you and falsely arresting you; without any substantial chance of any real vocational or civil liability problems, they often do so. Internal Affairs Investigations do not take the word of civilians over than of an officer, and even when there’s some sort of audio or video recording of the incident that proves that the cop’s lying, the employing agency will almost always back their officer and find creative ways to justify it.

Let’s face it. Cal. Penal Code Section 148(a)(1) can mean almost anything, so young upstart Deputy District Attorneys who want to make a name for themselves by protecting the police and stomping their victims into submission (i.e. (a) overcharging innocents to keep them in jail on high bail, that often results guilty pleas to ”resistance offenses” to just get out of jail, that precludes the defendant-innocent from successfully suing the police; (b) abusing the ambiguity of “resistance offenses” such as Cal. Penal Code Sections 148(a)(1) (resisting / delaying / obstructing officer) or Section 69 (using or threatening violence to prevent or deter officer from performing their duties) to pursue groundless criminal proceedings against the innocent victims of police abuse, until they run out of money and capitulate by pleading to a crime that they are innocent of.)

If you get criminally prosecuted for a crime when you’re the real victim, the officers who violated your Constitutional rights get “two bites at the apple”. It’s like a Three Stooges coin toss; “Heads I win, tails you lose.”

HEADS THEY WIN, TAILS YOU LOSE; POLICE PROSECUTION OF POLICE MISCONDUCT VICITMS GIVES THE POLICE TWO BITES AT THE APPLE.

The police are not technically a “party” to your bogus criminal proceeding; “The State” or “The People of the State” is the other party. Because “issue preclusion” or “claim preclusion” generally requires a person sought to be bound by a prior judicial determination to have been a party to the prior proceeding and had the opportunity to fully and fairly litigate that issue, even if you somehow avoid being framed and are acquitted, that the finding of your innocence (“not guilty verdict”) is not binding on the police in a subsequent civil rights action against the same officers who tried to frame you.

However, if you had been convicted, since you were a party to the prior judicial action (the defendants), the issue of your guilt and all of the legal consequence flowing therefrom (i.e. basically can’t sue any more) have already and permanently been determined against you. So, for example, if a police officer unlawfully “seized” you cannot sue for your false arrest; not because your conviction adjudicated those issues of fact that go into the formulation of whether your arrest was lawful (i.e. whether the police had either a warrant or probable/reasonable cause to believe that you committed a crime); only because the Conservative Wing of the Supreme Court took it upon themselves to make-up a rule, a “policy decision”, that prohibits guilty people from being able to obtain damages for their truly false arrest. See, Heck v. Humphrey , 512 U.S. 477 (1994).

If the prosecution is able to convict you for a “resistance offense” (i.e. resisting / obstructing / delaying peace officer, battery on a peace officer, preventing public officer from performing a duty of his/her office), there has been a similar judicial determination that the police necessarily were acting lawfully. Accordingly, as one of the elements of these resistance offenses is that the peace officer was engaged in the lawful performance of his/her duties, and the jury must have found that to be so, generally you are also now precluded from suing for the use of unreasonable force upon you, or even that the police unlawfully searched you or your property; via the Heck bar (i.e. that you were convicted, and, therefore, can’t now successfully sue the police) and via the Doctrine of “Collateral Estoppel”. In other words, since there has now been a judicial determination that the officer was in the right, and that you were not, you lose in any subsequent lawsuit against the police. All police officers know this.

If somehow you don’t get convicted (of crime that you didn’t commit), the agency still backs them all of the way. It doesn’t matter whether the police agency knows that the officer violated the law and your rights. All that they’re concerned with is protecting the officer and the police agency; that’s it; even if (and especially) if their officer severely injured or actually murdered an innocent.

All the police merely have do is to create a bogus police report that accuses you of some “resistance offense”, and send it off to the District Attorney’s Office to procure your bogus criminal prosecution. If you believe that you live in a “free country”, you’re wrong. In the practical sense of the word, you really do live in a police state.” The police really can do what they want to do with you. They can point a gun at you, prone you out on the ground and handcuff you at their whim, without any repercussions. The police can also really murder anyone anytime that they want to, just by claiming that the unarmed decedent was reaching for his waistband. This is no joke. This too, is normal.

The Law Office Of Jerry L. Steering understands these dynamics of the government prosecuting the victims of government abuse, and understands how to deal with these cases in both state court criminal proceedings and federal court civil rights actions.

GENERAL CRIMINAL AND CIVIL RIGHTS PRACTICE.

Jerry L. Steering has been practicing criminal law since 1984 (in California since 1986.) He has tried and otherwise litigated hundreds of criminal cases, including murder cases, manslaughter cases, assault and battery cases, drug possession and drug manufacturing cases, DUI cases, vehicular homicide cases, white-collar investor fraud cases, mail fraud cases, sex-offender or drug offender registration cases, domestic violence cases, theft and embezzlement cases, towing industry cases, and the general spectrum of criminal violations. However, the overwhelming majority of Mr. Steering’s criminal law practice involves the defense of bogus criminal prosecutions for “resistance offenses” (i.e. resisting / delaying peace officer, battery on peace officer.) Unlike other areas of criminal law practice, almost every one of Mr. Steering’s resistance offense criminal case clients were factually and actually innocent.

Mr. Steering is an expert in defending your bogus criminal action, in a way to best protect, and to enhance, your ability to ultimately obtain some justice; reasonable compensation and redress, for your police beating, for your false arrest, for your unlawful search and seizure, and for your malicious criminal prosecution.

We have enough diligence and experience to nail the cops down on their stories in these criminal actions, that simply cannot be done in a regular civil action. When they’re on the stand in a criminal case, the cops don’t have their experienced civil lawyers to take them out in the hallway and tell them what to say, like they do in civil cases. Moreover, the Deputy District Attorneys who prosecute these bogus “Contempt of Cop” cases, don’t know enough, and often don’t care enough, about the intricacies of the Constitutional, legal and evidentiary issues, that are being somehow dealt with in the criminal case, that will have a marked effect on your prospects for redress for your being framed; a substantial monetary recovery; the only “redress” presently available to victims of Constitutional Torts.

In other words, we use the bogus criminal case, to shape the evidence and the primary “swing issues” in that case, to not only win your bogus criminal case, but to also dramatically improve the odds of your ultimately prevailing on your civil First Amendment retaliation claims, and Fourth Amendment unreasonable force, false arrest and malicious prosecution claims.

PUBLICATIONS.

Mr. Steering is also a published legal scholar, and has a published Law Review Article about a logical quandary of federal evidentiary law: the disparity in the use of “accomplice accusations” between Fourth Amendment (accomplice accusations sufficiently reliable to establish probable cause for the issuance of a search warrant), and Sixth Amendmentanalysis (accomplice accusations are so inherently unreliable, that Congress could not have meant to have included them with the ambit of the Declaration Against Penal Interest exception to the hearsay rule.) See, “The Application Of Sixth Amendment Tests For The Reliability Of Hearsay Evidence To Probable Cause Determinations, 16 Rutgers Law Journal 869 (1985.)

POLICE MISCONDUCT SPECIALIST; SUING BAD COPS AND DEFENDING BOGUS CRIMINAL CASES.

The Law Offices of Jerry L. Steering of Jerry L. Steering specializes in cases that are both bogus criminal actions (if the DA either believes the falsehoods by the police and files on you), and righteous civil rights actions, that we prosecute to vindicate your honor, your dignity and your injuries; both “general damages” (present and future physical, mental, emotional distress, pain and suffering), and “special damages” (i.e. present and future medical bills, bail costs, attorney’s fees, lost wages and other damages that can be calculated mathematically.)

IF YOU’RE THE VICTIM; YOU’RE THE ENEMY.

Moreover, the system, and the “players” and “politicians” in that system, now recognize you as their enemy. As a matter of political and institutional reality, you, the victim of constitutional violations by peace officers acting under the color of authority, are someone who poses a real threat to them. After all, the cops put you in the hospital, and you’re now being prosecuted for resisting or delaying or obstructing them handcuffing you while you were trying to cover your face from the blows (Cal. Penal Code § 148(a)(1); resisting / obstructing / delaying peace officer; the most vague, nebulous and the most misused and abused section in the California Penal Code.)

If they beat you up too badly, the D.A. will throw in a Count of battery on a peace officer (Penal Code Section 243(b)) or felony preventing public officer from performing duty by use or threat of force (Penal Code Section 69). In the real world, 99% of the time, battery on a peace officer is really battery by a peace officer. If this offends your personal belief system, I’m sorry to pop your cherry. This is the modern world of Fourth Amendment jurisprudence (i.e. the right of the police to search and seize you and you home and property). The law isn’t what’s in a book or on the internet. The law is what happens to real people in the real world. The law isn’t what it says; only what it does.

Yesterday you believed that police officers were basically honest, with a few deviants here and there. Yesterday, you didn’t feel threatened if a police officer was driving behind you, because you believed that since you don’t break the law (and or since you look like white and respectable type), that the police are not going to do anything bad to you. Yesterday is now gone. You still can’t believe that this really happened to you. You really didn’t do anything wrong, but you’ve been beaten-up and falsely arrested, and to boot, you are now being accused of a crime by the District Attorney’s Office; really to beat you down to protect the police from liability. That’s reality. Today is a new day in your life. You would not have believed what really happened to you if it had happened to another. That all being said, since the police beat you up, you either deserved it or you didn’t. So, how are the politicians going to handle your situation?

Just imagine a Chief of Police or a County Sheriff announcing at a Press Conference, that his agency took the word of independent civilian witnesses over that of a group of police officers and is firing the officer or deputy for either using unreasonable force upon or falsely arresting a civilian. What would the politicians say? We know that that will never happen.

Although we elect politicians and insist on them being totally honest with the public, we actually expect them to act in a dishonest and disingenuous way with the public. We expect the City Attorney to guard the City coffers, by denying that the police unlawfully committed a duty related activity (i.e. using force on an innocent arrestee, or simply falsely arresting an innocent), even if they know otherwise; even if the evidence is so overwhelming and moving that no reasonable person would deny (with a straight face) that the police acted wrongfully. So, on the civil side, the City or County is going to claim that you’re to blame; that it’s your fault.

Then, the D.A.’s office jumps in the fray, and attempts to get you to plead to any crime; a plea that will almost assuredly preclude you from obtaining redress for the wrongs perpetrated upon you. After all, the U.S. Supreme Court had upheld release – dismissal agreements; an agreement where the D.A.’s offices promises to drop the bogus criminal case against you and let you out of jail, in exchange for a promise not to sue. Newton v. Rumery , 480 U.S. 386 (1987.) Creepy, huh? Extortion? Sounds like it. MacDonald v. Musick , 425 F. 2d 373 (9th Cir. 1970)(conditioning dismissal of criminal DUI charge in exchange of promise not to sue police is felonious extortion under California law.) But so long the government is the extorting party, no crime, since no one is going to prosecute a Deputy District Attorney for making such a dismissal offer.

Even when it’s obvious that a public entity is going to have to most likely pay money to a victim of their officer, the agency will never admit fault. So, since they didn’t do anything wrong, you must have. Therefore, you’re the enemy, because you’re a potential threat to them; to their paycheck; to them being imprisoned (however remote that really is); to them being promoted in the future; to them being disciplined (i.e. reprimanded, suspended, demoted or terminated) and to them being exposed to obloquy and disgrace.

Most of our law firm’s Police Misconduct clients, were factually and actually innocent of anything; yet most of them where at the wrong spot at the wrong time, or had the audacity to question police authority.

When many of our clients questioned or challenged police orders to them, the officers routinely have claimed that they have now “resisted” them or have “delayed” the officer’s investigation of them, or of another (real or imaginary; the most common claim by officers in bogus “Contempt of Cop” cases), by asking the officer for further identification, or by asking why there was a red laser targeting spot on their chest, or by asking why the officer wanted them to get prone-out on the ground when they had no clue why the police were even engaging them at all. These actions by our clients, true innocents, have typically resulted in them getting “gooned” by the cops, and half of them getting criminally prosecuted for non-existent crimes, to protect the officers and the agency from civil liability and disgrace. In all of these situations, the cops were going to show our client’s who’s in charge, and it’s not the client. These are truly ego crimes; “Contempt of Cop” crimes.

WHY THE COPS TRY TO DESTROY YOU; TO PROTECT THEMSELVES.

The Police know that once they’ve crossed-over a clear and well-defined Constitutional boundary, such as your Constitutional right to be free from a sadistic police beating (U.S. Const. Amends. 4 and 14), that they must immediately take steps to shift the blame for their use of force upon you; for it certainly can’t fall upon them, lest they be considered monsters; “Bad Apples”. Their first step being to either immediately arrest you, or to restrain or confine your freedom to leave their presence. This is done as a matter of reflex, rather than a product of reflection, by police authorities. You’re not going anywhere until the police figure-out what to do with you. Hospital, Jail, or otherwise. It’s automatic for you to be taken to jail, even if you’re taken for a humiliating visit to the hospital (bloody and in handcuffs, being escorted by the police), on the way there. It doesn’t matter that you committed no crime. All that does matter at that time, is that they did (i.e. they beat you up; federal and state crimes), and they don’t plan on taking the blame for doing so. They justify their behavior, by accusing you of de minimis and vague criminal offenses; especially of California Penal Code Section 148(a)(1) (Resisting / Obstructing / Delaying a Peace Officer.)

If your sadistic police beating was bad enough to be actually kept in the hospital, or if it’s obvious to the Patrol Sergeant that the patient didn’t deserve what he got (and assuming that your Patrol Sergeant isn’t the truly creepy kind, you may be given a Citation to appear in Court, or you might even get “long formed”. Getting “long formed” is police lingo (in the real world), for not formally arresting you now, but nonetheless concocting a phony story about the event that resulted in you being in the hospital, and based upon the template of the bogus story, create phony reports to support that story, and conceal and destroy evidence that belies the concocted story, such a deleting an audio or video recording of the actual incident complained of, or a materially significant portion of any such recording. Usually, the officers create not all that serious allegations of criminality by you; not enough for you to realistically be exposed to any jail time, but serious enough to justify their conduct, and, most importantly, serious enough to get you criminally prosecuted.

The police really do create false and misleading police reports to shore-up the odds, that some young and ambitious Deputy District Attorney, will want to endear himself to a police agency, by protecting them from civil liability. The young and ambitious Deputy District Attorney files a criminal case against you for violation of California Penal Code Sections 148(a)(1) (Resisting / Obstructing / Delaying a Peace Officer), and Sections 240/241(c) and 242/243(b); Assault and Battery on a Peace Officer. Now what do you do? If you take a plea bargain, you can’t sue for the damages that you suffered from being falsely arrest and falsely prosecuted for a crime, and the mental and financial toll that being falsely arrested and falsely prosecuted takes on one (i.e. job loss, attorney’s fees.)

If, rather than take a plea bargain, and you stand your ground and defend yourself in court, you can pay many thousands of dollars for a lawyer, to defend you on a bogus criminal charge, that is usually a misdemeanor, and usually will result in no jail time, and a de minimis fine. What do you do? Do you spend the money on a lawyer and hope that things work about and that after you prevail on your criminal case, that you can sue and get pay-back and paid back? Mr. Steering has been contemporaneously defending these bogus Police Misconduct criminal actions, and prosecuting civil rights lawsuits for victims of police outrages, since 1984. He will know what to do in your particular case.

SUING THE POLICE FOR CONSTITUTIONAL VIOLATIONS AND OTHER TORTIOUS CONDUCT, WHEN NO CRIMINAL CASE HAS BEEN FILED AGAINST THE POLICE MISCONDUCT VICTIM.

In many cases, notwithstanding efforts by local police agencies to procure the filing of a bogus criminal case against the victim of their oppression, Deputy DA’s see the same reports from the same cops, that again and again and again, seek the criminal prosecution of persons for “resisting / obstructing / delaying a peace office in the lawful performance of his/her duties”, when the “suspect” always ends-up in the hospital. Therefore, many times, we can proceed to sue the officers in the appropriate court (usually federal court), without having to wait for the conclusion of underlying bogus criminal proceedings, since they will not be any.

If you want to know what do to if you’ve been falsely arrested, retaliated against for exercise of your constitutional rights, beaten-up by the police or maliciously prosecuted, please contact us at (949) 474-1849 or jerrysteering@yahoo.com. Thank you for visiting with us, and best of luck. Even if you have a legal question that’s important to you, and you just need lawyer input, we’ll be glad to answer your questions.

Thank you again for visiting with us.

Jerry L. Steering, Esq.

What to Do If You Have Been Falsely Arrested or Beaten-up by the Police – Click Here

Jerry L. Steering with Diane Sawyer, Co-counsel* Bob Dole,
and former partner** Melvin M. Belli

Suing Bad Cops And
Defending Bogus Criminal
Cases Since 1984

***The State Bar of California does not recognize a specialty in police misconduct
which is most of Mr. Steering’s law practice.
*In the District of Columbia only.
**In Beverly Hills Office only.

Click on “Home“, above, or the other pages shown, for the information or assistance that we can provide for you. If you need to speak with a lawyer about your particular legal situation, please call the Law Offices of Jerry L. Steering for a free telephone consultation.

Thank you, and best of luck, whatever your needs.

Law Offices of Jerry L. Steering

Jerry L. Steering, Esq.

Law Offices of Jerry L. Steering, 4063 Birch Street, Suite 100, Newport Beach, CA 92660; (949) 474-1849; Fax: (949) 474-1883; email: jerrysteering@yahoo.com

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Riverside County Cities Served:

City of Banning P.O. Box 998 City Manager: Andy Takata Phone: (951) 922-3105 Website: www.ci.banning.ca.us Banning CA 922200998 City Clerk: Marie A. Calderon Fax: (951) 922-3128 E-Mail: cityadministration@ci.banning.ca.us

City of Beaumont 550 E. 6th Street City Manager: Alan Kapanicas Phone: (951) 769-8520 Website: www.ci.beaumont.ca.us Beaumont CA 92223 City Clerk: Karen Thompson Fax: (951) 769-8526 E-Mail: cityhall@ci.beaumont.ca.us

City of Blythe 235 N. Broadway Avenue City Manager: David Lane Phone: (760) 922-6161 Website: www.cityofblythe.ca.gov Blythe CA 92225 City Clerk: Patti Whitney Fax: (760) 922-4938 E-Mail: use website

City of Calimesa 908 Park Avenue City Manager: Randy Anstine Phone: (909) 795-9801 Website: www.cityofcalimesa.com Calimesa CA 92320 City Clerk: Darlene Gerdes Fax: (909) 795-4399 E-Mail: dgerdes@cityofcalimesa.com

City of Canyon Lake 31516 Railroad Canyon Rd. City Manager: Richard Rowe, Interim Phone: (951) 244-2955 Website: www.cityofcanyonlake.com Canyon Lake CA 92587 City Clerk: Deborah Harrington Fax: (951) 246-2022 E-Mail: info@cityofcanyonlake.com

City of Cathedral City 68700 Avenida Lalo Guerrero City Manager: Donald Bradley Phone: (760) 770-0340 Website: www.cathedralcity.gov Cathedral City CA 92234 City Clerk: Pat Hammers Fax: (760) 770-0399 E-Mail: phammers@cathedralcity.gov

City of Coachella 1515 Sixth Street City Manager: David Garcia Phone: (760) 398-3502 Website: www.coachella.org Coachella CA 92236 City Clerk: Isabel Castillon Fax: (760) 398-8117 E-Mail:

City of Corona 400 S. Vicentia Avenue City Manager: Brad Robbins Phone: (951) 736-2400 Website: www.ci.corona.ca.us Corona CA 92882 City Clerk: Lisa Mobley, Chief Dep. Fax: (951) 736-2399 E-Mail: cityclrk@ci.corona.ca.us

City of Desert Hot Springs 65950 Pierson Blvd. City Manager: Rick Daniels Phone: (760) 329-6411 Website: www.desert-hot-springs.us Desert Hot Springs CA 92240 City Clerk: Cynthia Lugo Fax: (760) 288-3129 E-Mail: info@deserthotsprings.com

City of Eastvale 6080 Hamner Ave. City Manager: Robert L. Van Nort Phone: (951) 361-0900 Website: www.ci.eastvale.ca.us Eastvale CA 91752 City Clerk: Judy Haughney Fax: (951) 361-0888 E-Mail: rvannort@ci.eastvale.ca.u 8/17/2012 2

City of Hemet 445 East Florida Avenue City Manager: Mark Orme, Interim Phone: (951) 765-2300 Website: www.cityofhemet.com Hemet CA 92543 City Clerk: Sarah McComas Fax: (951) 765-3785 E-Mail: smccomas@cityofhemet.org

City of Indian Wells 44-950 Eldorado Drive City Manager: Greg Johnson Phone: (760) 346-2489 Website: www.cityofindianwells.org Indian Wells CA 922107497 City Clerk: Anna Grandys Fax: (760) 346-0407 E-Mail: use website email

City of Indio P.O. Drawer 1788 City Manager: Dan Martinez Phone: (760) 391-4000 Website: www.indio.org Indio CA 92202 City Clerk: Cynthia Hernandez Fax: (760) 391-4008 E-Mail: cityclerk@indio.org

City of Jurupa Valley 8304 Limonite Av., Suite M City Manager: Stephen Harding Phone: (951) 332-6464 Website: jurupavalley.org Jurupa Valley CA 92509 City Clerk: Vicki Wasko Fax: E-Mail: cityclerk@jurupavalley.org

City of La Quinta P.O. Box 1504 City Manager: Frank J. Spevacek Phone: (760) 777-7000 Website: www.la-quinta.org La Quinta CA 92247 City Clerk: Veronica Montecino Fax: (760) 777-7107 E-Mail: cityclerk@la-quinta.org

City of Lake Elsinore 130 S. Main Street City Manager: Tom Evans, Interim Phone: (951) 674-3124 Website: www.lake-elsinore.org Lake Elsinore CA 92530 City Clerk: Virgina Bloom Fax: (951) 674-2392 E-Mail: cityhall@lake-elsinore.org

City of Menifee 29683 New Hub Drive, Suite C City Manager: Bill Rawlings Phone: (951) 672-6777 Website: www.cityofmenifee.us Menifee CA 92586 City Clerk: Kathy Bennett Fax: (951) 679-3843 E-Mail: cityhall@cityofmenifee.us

City of Moreno Valley 14177 Frederick Street City Manager: Henry T. Garcia Phone: (951) 413-3000 Website: www.ci.moreno-valley.ca.us Moreno Valley CA 92553 City Clerk: Jane Halstead Fax: (951) 413-3750 E-Mail: contactus@moval.org

City of Murrieta One Town Square City Manager: Rick Dudley Phone: (951) 304-2489 Website: www.murrieta.org 24601 Jefferson Avenue Murrieta CA 92562 City Clerk: A. Kay Vinson Fax: (951) 698-9885 E-Mail: kvinson@murrieta.org

City of Norco 2870 Clark Avenue City Manager: Beth Groves Phone: (951) 735-3900 Website: www.ci.norco.ca.us Norco CA 92860 City Clerk: Brenda Jacobs Fax: (951) 270-5622 E-Mail: bjacobs@ci.norco.ca.us

City of Palm Desert 73-510 Fred Waring Drive City Manager: John Wohlmuth Phone: (760) 346-0611 Website: www.cityofpalmdesert.org Palm Desert CA 92260 City Clerk: Rachelle Klassen Fax: (760) 340-0574 E-Mail: info@ci.palm-desert.ca.us 8/17/2012 3

City of Palm Springs 3200 E. Tahquitz Canyon Way City Manager: David H. Ready Phone: (760) 323-8299 Website: www.palmspringca.gov Palm Springs CA 92262 City Clerk: James Thompson Fax: (760) 322-8332 E-Mail: cityclerk@palmsprings-ca.gov

City of Perris 101 North “D” Street City Manager: Richard Belmudez Phone: (951) 943-6100 Website: www.cityofperris.org Perris CA 92570 City Clerk: Judy Haughney Fax: (951) 943-4246 E-Mail: use website form

City of Rancho Mirage 69-825 Hwy. 111 City Manager: Randal K. Byder Phone: (760) 324-4511 Website: www.ci.rancho-mirage.ca.us Rancho Mirage CA 92270 City Clerk: Cynthia Scott Fax: (760) 324-8830 E-Mail: cscott@ranchomirageca.gov

City of Riverside 3900 Main Street City Manager: Scott Barber Phone: (951) 826-5311 Website: www.riversideca.gov Riverside CA 92522 City Clerk: Colleen J. Nicol Fax: (951) 826-5470 E-Mail: city_clerk@riversideca.gov

City of San Jacinto 595 S. San Jacinto Ave. City Manager: Tim Hults Phone: (951) 487-7330 Website: www.ci.san-jacinto.ca.us San Jacinto CA 92583 City Clerk: Dorothy Chouinard Fax: (951) 654-8021 E-Mail: info@sanjacintoca.us

City of Temecula P.O. Box 9033 City Manager: Bob Johnson Phone: (951) 694-6444 Website: www.cityoftemecula.org Temecula CA 925899033 City Clerk: Susan W. Jones Fax: (951) 694-1999 E-Mail: temecula@cityoftemecula.org

City of Wildomar 23873 Clinton Keith Rd., Suite 111 City Manager: Frank Oviedo Phone: (951) 677-7751 Website: www.cityofwildomar.org Wildomar CA 92595 City Clerk: Debbie Lee Fax: (951) 698-1463 E-Mail: dlee@cityofwildomar.org

Anaheim Police Brutality Attorney

Posted by Jerry L. Steering, Esq. on October 7, 2017

JERRY L. STEERING HAS BEEN REPRESENTING THE VICTIMS OF POLICE BRUTALITY SINCE 1984.

Mr. Steering’s law practice involves representing persons in Orange County, Los Angeles County, San Diego County, Riverside County, San Bernardino County and Ventura County, Kern County, Imperial County and otherwise throughout the United States pro hac vice. He is also a Member of the State Bar of California, the State Bar of Georgia and has also litigated cases in Alabama and the District of Columbia. Mr. Steering has also been a Member of the Bar of the United States Supreme Court since 1987. He is an expert in police brutality / excessive force and false arrest cases, and has been litigating these cases since 1984.

The great majority of Mr. Steering’s law practice is defending bogus criminal cases against the victims of abuse by the police and suing police officers and other government officials, for claims such as false arrest, police brutality / excessive force, malicious prosecution, and other “Constitutional Torts.”

MR. STEERING AND THE ANAHEIM POLICE DEPARTMENT.

He has been involved in these types of cases involving Anaheim Police Department officers since 1986. Anaheim Police Department officers are quite adept in planting evidence to frame innocents, falsely arresting innocents and even killing innocents for many years now; all with impunity.

Anaheim is rather unbiased in their treatment of civilians. No matter your race, color or creed, all are treated equally poorly and oppressively. Anaheim police officers learn early on that they literally can beat, falsely arrest and procure the filing of a bogus criminal action against those whom they abuse. This not some lefty propaganda or overstatement of the state of our country. It is reality. Anaheim PD was the leading agency that literally created the Orange County Snitch Scandal; a massive scandal involving Anaheim PD and using illegal jailhouse informants to obtained confessions from inmates at the Orange County Jails. They used real life former Mexican Mafia gang members, who were inmates in the jail and on the City payroll, to literally coerce and scare inmates into making incriminating statements; confessions that were often false, made simply to avoid violence by the Mexican Mafia.

Some police officers can handle the awesome power over civilians, and some cannot. The Anaheim Police Department has its share of those who cannot. Ergo, here come I.

Oliver v. City of Anaheim, U.S. District Court, Santa Ana; Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, 2012; (plaintiff won case in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on their unlawful arrest claim; false arrest as matter of law.) Plaintiffs obtained $400,000.00 for four hour false arrest of father (and son), for father telling police that he didn’t know of his son hit a opossum with a shovel (which isn’t a crime anyway),so busted the father for violation of Cal. Penal Code 32 (i.e. “accessory to crime”, for not incriminating his son, for something that isn’t a crime. See, Oliver v. City of Anaheim; Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Mr. Steering has also had many acquittals in Orange County Superior Court; especially in cases involving false arrests.

Norma Cortez v. City of Anaheim; Mr. Steering also obtained $300,000.00 from the City of Anaheim, for the use of police tactics that placed the plaintiff in a position of danger; a danger that did happen (i.e. non-lethal bystander gunshot wound); Norma Cortez et al. v. City of Anaheim, et al.; United States District Court for the Central District of California.

Mr. Steering also obtained $95,000.00 settlement for the seven minute long false arrest of an El Segundo Police Officer (Gregory Howden v. City of Anaheim.)

JERRY L. STEERING IS A POLICE MISCONDUCT ATTORNEY; BOTH CIVIL AND CRIMINAL.

“Civil”, meaning suing police officers and their employing agencies for violation of various federal

Constitutional and state law violations; otherwise known as “Constitutional torts.”“Criminal”, because when the police falsely arrest you or beat you up, they routinely attempt to justify their conduct, by procuring your bogus malicious criminal prosecution; usually for Contempt Of Cop / “resistance crimes”, such as violation of Cal. Penal Code § 148(a)(1) (resisting / obstructing / delaying peace officer; the most abused statute in the California Penal Code. If the police merely beat you a little, they will usually arrest you for violation of Cal. Penal Code § 148(a)(1). If they beat you severe enough that visible wounds show, they usually “turbo” the Section 148(a)(1) charge, to a violation of Cal. Penal Code § 69 (threat of force or violence or use of force or violence, to deter / prevent public officer from performing duty of office].)

LEGAL EDUCATION AND PUBLICATIONS.

University of Georgia School of Law (founded 1859)

Having attended the University of Georgia School of Law (J.D. 1984), and having taken and passed the February 1984 Georgia Bar Exam in his last semester of Law School (while Clerking at a law firm full time and attending law school full time), in June of 1984 Mr. Steering began defending criminal cases for the law firm of Scott & Quarterman, of Athens, Georgia; the same law firm that he clerked for, full-time, for.

Since 1984 (in California since 1986) he has tried and litigated hundreds of criminal cases, including murder cases, manslaughter cases, assault and battery cases, towing industry related auto-theft / extortion cases (i.e. drop fees), drug possession / drug manufacturing cases, vehicular homicide cases, white-collar investor fraud cases, sex-offender or drug addict registration cases, violations of court order cases, domestic violence cases, towing industry cases, and the entire spectrum of various criminal violations.

Mr. Steering is also a published legal scholar, and has a published Law Review Article about a logical

quandary of federal evidentiary law: the disparity in the use of “accomplice accusations” between Fourth Amendment scrutiny of “accomplice accusations” (i.e. typically deemed “reliable” enough to obtain search warrant or arrest warrant), and Sixth Amendment scrutiny of the very same statement (i.e. accomplice accusation generally held inherently unreliable for “Sixth Amendment Confrontation Clause” purposes. In fact, these statements have been held to be so inherently unreliable that Congress could not even have meant to have included them with the ambit of the Declaration Against Penal Interest exception to the hearsay rule [804(b)(3)].) See, “The Application Of Sixth Amendment Tests For The Reliability Of Hearsay Evidence To Probable Cause Determinations, Steering and Ponsoldt, 16 Rutgers Law Journal 869 (1985).

FOR MOST OF YOU, IF YOU ARE READING THIS ARTICLE YOUR VIEWS ABOUT POLICE OFFICERS HAVE RECENTLY DRAMATICALLY CHANGED.

For most of you, prior to the incident that caused you to read this article you believed that police officers don’t do bad things to people who don’t deserve it. You previously believed that most claims of brutality by police officers are more media hype than real unlawful and cruel police behavior.

Now you know differently; not from me or from the media, but from the unfortunate experience that you, your loved one or a friend or relative has just suffered. Chances are that you would not have believed what a police officer did to you or another, if you had not seen it or experienced it yourself. People believe what they want to believe and most of us do not want to believe that overall, if you are a good law abiding citizen, the chances of you getting beaten or shot by a police officer are greater than your chances of getting beaten by someone who is not.

What most normal good citizen types have a very difficult time truly believing, is that a substantial minority of today’s police officers actually enjoying beating, tasing, pepper-spraying and otherwise torturing civilians. Some of them actually go out on patrol hoping that they get an opportunity to shoot someone. That minority of police officers are out there, patrolling your streets and just craving for an opportunity to beat and terrorize the public. It is not a racial thing. After all, the police don’t wear thirty pounds of equipment on their bodies to dance with you. These routinely use for upon civilians as a real and legitimate part of their jobs. That’s okay. That’s what they are supposed to do. The problems arise when some of these officer actual start enjoying what they are paid to do to guilty and dangerous people, and start using unreasonable force upon innocents; especially those who may have questioned their authority.

POLICE SADISM IN THE UNITED STATES; IT ROOT AND CAUSES.

With all due respect to racial minorities, for the most part, today’s police officers do not care what color you are or where you came from. When you “fail the attitude test” with today’s police officers you probably will minimally be arrested for some “resistance offense“. If you continue to “mouth-off” to the officer (i.e. lawfully protest being falsely arrested or tell the cop they are acting unlawfully) you are begging for a police beating and there is a substantial probability that you will get one. This is no joke. No police or prosecutorial agency is going to fault a cop for beating you unless there is a clear video recording showing some black and white use of unreasonable force upon you by the officer. That is reality. Accordingly, as a real practical matter, the police soon learn that they usually can beat you with impunity.

Although one my lawfully non-forcefully resist an unlawful arrest or detention, and may with reasonable for resist the use of unreasonable force upon you by an officer (See, People v. Curtis, 70 Cal.2d 347 (1969) ) if you do resist or protest you are likely to be beaten and falsely prosecuted for some “resistance offense”.

Some of this is unlawful and outrageous police violence and downright police sadism a natural product of using force upon civilians every day for a living; even legitimately.The police walk around every day with a “Sam Brown Belt” with which they carry items such as: 1) a pistol, 2) a taser, 3) a baton (usually these days collapsible ones or “asps”), 4) peppery-spray, 5) bullets, 6) handcuffs, 7) police radio 8) recording device and 9) handcuffs. That is a lot of hardware. They also now usually carry AR-15 high powered rifles, rather than the traditional police shotguns. So, the average cop is armed to the teeth.

Some of this is the result of the United States being in a war in the Middle East since 2001. The United

States invaded Afghanistan in 2001 and invaded Iraq in 2003. Because many of the United States Military personnel serving in those wars were Reserves, and because many of those Reserves were and are police officers, many of today’s police officers act as if they were in a war zone. When they perceive a potential threat to them, real, imaginary or contrived, they often just “take out” that threat. Frankly, who can blame them. The use of police SWAT teams is prevalent in this country, even for de minimis threats to anyone. Half of the time that SWAT team is basically practicing (on you; again, for fun). Modern police equipment is often indistinguishable for military garb.

Surprising to most, some of this police sadism and run-away use of unreasonable force is the result of civil and criminal juries constantly siding with the police. Law Enforcement Agencies never admit fault. They never admit that there officer wrongfully shot someone or unlawfully beat someone, or even unlawfully arrested someone. When juries excuse police outrages, the police now may come to believe that such conduct is now permitted. If their agency isn;t going to fault them and the juries won’t either, that really can do just about anything they desire with you. As Lord Acton stated some time ago: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.”

William Rehnquist, Associate Justice 1971 – 1986, Chief Justice 1986 – 2005; the Justice who led the Criminal Procedure Counter-Revolution and took the Supreme Court over the edge; to allow the seizure of persons who are not suspected of anything, merely to enhance officer’s safety, in direct conflict with the clear language of the 4th amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

OFFICER’S SAFETY HAS REPLACED YOUR RIGHT TO BE FREE FROM UNREASONABLE SEARCHES AND SEIZURES OF YOUR PERSONS AND PROPERTY.

Police officers usually don’t go “hands on” any more unless the person is handcuffed, or there are multiple officers to beat the person, “in concert”. These days they usually don’t even use their batons. They either tase you or just shoot you. There are no real world consequences for police officers to even murder an innocent; that is so long as no one is lurking in the shadows with a cell phone who video recorded the murder in sufficient detail to not allow the police to make up some phony justification as to why the officer properly shot another. It is not coincidental that the largest Sheriff’s Department in the United States, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, does not have video recorders in their patrol cars, or video or audio recorders on their persons. They don’t record because the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is a truly brutal agency. It is really that simple. Again, however, if you had not seen or experienced the police outrage and you were just told about it by another, you just would not have believed it.

Moreover, thirty years ago if police officer pointed gun at a person’s head and ordered him to prone-out on the ground, the person was considered “under arrest”, not a mere “detention”. However, because judges in the real world are loathe to exclude incriminating from evidence from a criminal trials, they pervert the contours of those protections that at least used to be afforded to us by the United States Constitution. So, now pointing guns at persons heads and ordering them to prone themselves on the ground, and then kneeing them in their backs or necks or head, handcuffing them and placing them in the back of the police car, all as a precautionary measure for “Officer’s Safety”, is lawful; all because the Judge or Justices didn’t want to exclude the incriminating evidence found on the person when they are searched.

Here is an example. Say that a police officer gets call for a suspicious man wearing a red jacket at a park who is vandalizing park signs. When the police arrive at the scene they don’t have “probable cause” to arrest the man. They only have “reasonable suspicion” of criminality by man; sufficient to “detain” him to either confirm or dispel the officer’s suspicion that the man had vandalized park sign (know as an “investigative detention“).

When the police accost the man at the park point guns at his head, and order him to prone himself on the ground, and drop their knees down onto his back, handcuff him and place the man in the back seat of their patrol car; all as a precautionary measure for “Officer’s Safety”. As they place the man against the car before placing him inside, they entry out the mans pockets and find knife; a knife that happens to turn out to be the weapon that was used to rape and murder a little girl at the park. The police don’t even know that the man raped and murdered a little girl yet or even that there was a little girl murdered at all. The police arrest the man for carrying a concealed weapon and take him to jail.

After the police take the man to jail they learn that there was a little girl who was stabbed to death at the park that day. The police crime lab tests the knife and find a DNA match showing that the knife had the little girl’s blood on it.

The man is then charged with rape and murder by the District Attorney’s Office, and his criminal lawyer makes a motion to suppress (exclude) the knife from evidence at trial on the ground that the arresting officer didn’t have sufficient “probable cause” to have arrested the man at the park when they handcuffed him at gun point, proned him on the ground, kneed him in his back and placed him inside of the police car. Therefore, the full scale search of the man was unlawful because they only had ground to detain but not arrest him, and that knife should be excluded from evidence at trial because it is “the fruit of the poisonous tree“; evidence obtained in violation of the man’s fourth amendment right to be free from an arrest of one in the absence of “probable cause” to have arrested the man. If the knife is excluded from evidence the man will walk free. If the police restrained the man in a manner that exceeded that level of force allowed pursuant to an investigative detention, then he was technically “arrested” when the police pointed their guns at him, proned him on the ground, knee dropped him, handcuffed him and placed him inside of the patrol car.

What will the judge do? If the judge grants the motion to suppress the man walks free even though it is very clear that he was the rapist / murderer. Will the courts then find that the manner of restraint of the man exceeded that allowed pursuant to an investigative detention? Probably not. If they do then they must exclude the knife from evidence at trial and the man walks free, and the politicians (i.e Judges in this instance) are not inclined to do that. So, they usually will now declare that pointing guns at persons not suspected of violent crimes, proning them on the ground, handcuffing them, placing them in police cars and doing full scale searches of the persons and their property, is a reasonable manner of restraint for a detention.

The moral of our story is that case by case, issue by issue, year by year, the courts have allowed the police to use increasingly greater levels of force. Often because they don’t want to exclude evidence at criminal trials, and otherwise because Conservative Judges and Justices are bent on simply allowing the police to ignore longstanding search and seizure rights of the public in the name of officer safety.

San Bernardo County District Attorney Michael Ramos established his Crimes Against Peace Officer Unit (“CAPO”) to prosecute the victims of police abuse, to protect the police from liability for their outrages

POLICE BRUTALITY IS TOLERATED AND ENCOURAGED BY PUBLIC PROSECUTORS BY PROSECUTING INNOCENTS FOR RESISTANCE OFFENSES.

Ask any cop what percentage of Section 148(a)(1) cases (resisting / obstructing / delaying peace officer), Section 69 cases (prevent to deter public officer from performing duty of office via use or threat of violence) Section 243(b) and (c) cases (battery on peace officer) are legitimate, and off the record, they will tell you almost none; maybe one or two percent.

Section 69 is a “wobbler”; a charge that can be charged as a misdemeanor or a felony. So, when the police beat you badly, or even shoot you, they will often charge you with felony violation of Section 69, for several reasons: 1) it (falsely) makes your conduct look more threatening to the police, the judge and the prosecutor, so as to justify their use of severe violence upon you; 2) since Section 69 can be charged as a felony, the police can require that you post bail before going to court; something that helps drain you financially, and something that often results in the person who was beaten-up by the police, pleading guilty to a crime against the officer, just to get out of jail; a guilty plea that precludes them from suing the officers later-on; 3) if the Section 69 charge is filed by the District Attorney’s Office as a felony, they often are able to get complete innocents to plead guilty to the misdemeanor offense of violation of Section 148(a)(1), which also will more often than not, legally preclude the victim of police violence from being able to successfully sue the police for the beating that they gave their victims.

The police procure your bogus malicious criminal prosecution for those resistance crimes as well as the other favorites; violations of Cal. Penal Code §§ 242 / 243(b) (battery on a peace officer [i.e the suspect struck my fist with his chin], and Cal. Penal Code §§ 240 / 241(c) (i.e. the suspect took an aggressive stance and clinched his fists, so I punched in the face three times and knocked him out), to beat you down; psychologically, emotionally, and especially, financially. After all, if you hire a private lawyer to represent you in court, and the lawyer actually knows how to defend such bogus criminal actions (i.e. “resistance offenses”), you are going to have to shell-out thousands of dollars; to defend your honor, and to prevent the police from using a bogus conviction for a resistance offense to preclude you from being able to successfully sue them in court. So, because you had the audacity to ask the police officer what’s going on, and why he wants you to prone yourself out on the ground, you not only get “gooned” by the police, but you get criminally prosecute for “resisting / delaying / obstructing a peace officer, battery on a peace officer, or some other “resistance offense.”

Now, that you’re charged with a crime against a police officer, when you were the victim of his bad day disposition, you get it; 99.9% of allegations of battery ON a peace officer, are, in reality, battery BY a peace officer. This is not joke, and no exaggeration. The police routinely procure, or a attempt to procure, the filing of at least a misdemeanor Count of violation of Cal. Penal Code § 148(a)(1); resisting / obstructing / delaying a peace officer engaged in the lawful performance of his/her duties. Section 148(a)(1) is otherwise known in police circles as “Contempt Of Cop“; (i.e. maybe not getting on the ground fast enough, or failing to walk-over to the officer fast enough; some type of failing the attitude test), is in itself, vague, ambiguous and unintelligible. It is used every day to oppress those who voice their dissatisfaction with the police; more often than not, because of abusive and disrespectful conduct by the police.

THE COPS ARE OUT OF CONTROL.

These bogus arrests of victims for “resistance crimes” or “obstruction crimes”, has become a national phenomenon. In a nutshell, the police procurement of bogus criminal charges against the victims, in most cases in the real world, with real people who don’t have unlimited monies to muster a real criminal defense, works. It works if the cops can lie well enough in their reports, to shift the blame to you; the victim of a bully with a badge. It works if the cops can get the District Attorney’s Officer (or City Attorney’s Office or, the Attorney General’s Office), to file a criminal “obstruction offense” against you. It beats you down financially. It causes truly innocent people to plead guilty to crimes against police officers, when they were the victims; often because they can’t make bail, and they would have to spend many months locked-up in jail before their trials.

If you’re convicted of any crime against a peace officer that requires that the officer be lawfully engaged in the performance of his duties; you are often legally precluded from suing to vindicate the violation of your constitutional rights, such as the right to be free from the use of excessive force on your person. These “obstruction crimes” usually almost always include a base allegation of violation of Cal. Penal Code §148(a)(1) (resisting / obstructing / delaying peace officer), since almost any conduct or contact between a civilian and a peace officer can be creatively twisted into some sort of legally peverse claim for violation of that statute. Other “obstruction crime” favorites are battery on a peace officer, Cal. Penal Code §§ 242 / 243(b) (i.e the suspect struck my fist with his chin), Cal. Penal Code §§ 240 / 241 (i.e. the suspect took an aggressive stance and clinched his fists, so I punched in the face three times and knocked him out), Cal. Penal Code §§ 242 / 243(b), and the felony favorite if the cops really don’t like you and want you to have to spend thousands of dollars on bail; Cal. Penal Code § 69 (threat or use of force or violence to deter / prevent public officer from performing duty of office].) The legal theory of your preclusion is two-fold; 1) the doctrine of collateral estoppel, and 2) the policy decision of the Supreme Court to stick-it to you and me; the Heck v. Humphrey preclusion doctrine.

IT REALLY HAS BECOME THAT BAD; CASE EXAMPLE, THE DESERT HOT SPRINGS POLICE DEPARTMENT.

Case In Point; Desert Hot Springs PD:

In the mid-2000’s Desert Hot Springs (California) Police Department Lieutenant David Henderson used to bring two cans of pepper-spray with him during his duty shift, because one can of pepper-spray usually wasn’t enough. In order to get off of a new officer’s probationary period with Lt. Henderson and be a regular DHSPD police officer, one had to “engage”; to beat up someone; innocent or not, when no force was called for at all. They were usually handcuffed. Lt. Henderson eventually was convicted of torturing an arrestee with pepper-spray. He put red WD-40 straws on his pepper-spray cans and stuck the straw up the nose of his victim and then pull the trigger.

DHSPD Sgt. Anthony Sclafani was sentenced to federal prison for torturing prisoners

Lt. Henderson’s cohort, DHSPD Sgt. Anthony Sclafani was also convicted of torturing prisoners; a woman and a gangster. He stomped, pepper-sprayed and tased his victim and he ended up in federal prison. This was normal at DHSPD in the 2000’s.

DHSPD was so bad that in the Michael Sanchez in-custody death incident (a pursuit case by the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department), after the sheriff’s deputies were done beating Mr. Sanchez they watched Lt. Henderson kick a beating and handcuffed Mr. Sanchez in his testicles (“Like kicking a field goal through the uprights”), and watched Mr. Sanchez die from that kick within a minute. They did nothing about that and neither did the FBI or the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office, who both know the gory details of Mr. Sanchez’ murder in the desert by the police. This again is no joke. This really happened.

DHSPD was so bad that the department was divided into two camps; the “Meat Eaters” (used force for fun and glory) and the “Lettuce Eaters” (those who didn’t create excuses to beat and torture civilians). Two thirds of the agency were under FBI investigation.

DHSPD was once of the worst departments in the country, but the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department still to this day to not have either patrol car video recording systems, body cams, or even any policy requiring the deputies to audio record their detentions or arrests of civilians.

Other police agencies are not far behind, if at all, DHSPD.

Take the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. The certainly have DHSPD beat in sheer number of total police outrages committed.

There is a “Blue Code of Silence“between and among peace officers throughout the nation, and everyone knows this. This is no startling revelation. The County of Los Angeles has itself released a report Commissioned by the Board of Supervisors, acknowledging the existence of, and actually condemning, the Sheriff’s Department’s own rogue gangs of sadistic jailers at the Los Angeles County Central Men’s

Jail. See, The Citizens Commission on Jail Violence September 28, 2012. A retired Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Captain reported to the Los Angeles Times, that the L.A. County Men’s Central Jail was, essentially, a torture chamber, run by these jailer gangs (tattoos of their gang symbols on their ankles and all) of sadistic sociopaths. Discipline for beatings was not existent, and torturing inmates was actually required for jailer gang initiation. See, “L.A. County sheriff’s official tells of jail brutality”, LA Times, July 7, 2012. See also, “L.A. County jail violence sheriff’s fault, panel says“, LA Times, September 28, 2012. Rival Sheriff’s Department jailer gangs even got into a rumble between the “3000 Boys” (the third floor jailers) and the “2000 Boys” (the second floor jailers)at a Sheriff’s Department Christmas party.

THE LAPD’S MOTTO IS “WE’RE THE BADEST GANG IN

Los Angeles police beat a boy for skateboarding on the wrong side of the stre

TOWN”.

A recent study of the Los Angeles Sheriffs Department (LASD) that was commissioned by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors (“Report of the Citizens Commission on Jail Violence“) actually found that there is a culture within the Los Angeles Sheriffs Department of various “gangs of officers”, who routinely beat, torture, maim and kill members of the jails, and of the community, for fun; for the honor of the gang. Everybody is a scumbag, and have no rights.

One of those gangs was “the Vikings”, whose “colors” was the Minnesota Vikings Football Team log
tattooed on their lower legs. The Former Undersheriff, Paul Tanaka, was a Viking gang member when he was a Captain at the Lynwood Sheriff’s Station. The Vikings were found by United States District Judge Jesse Curits to be a Neo-Nazi / White Supremacist gang within the ranks of the Los Angles County Sheriff’s Department; See, Thomas v. County of Los Angeles, et al; 978 F.2d 504 (1992).

Some of the LASD gangs of these gangster deputies are: The 3000 Club (the deputies who worked the third floor of the L.A. County Men’s Central Jail), The Grim Reapers, The Little Devils, The Regulators, The Vikings and The Jump Off Boys.

Tattoo on member of the “3000 Club”; the gang of deputies who work on the third floor of the Los Angeles County Men’s Central Jail.

Out Boys. After the FBI had announced that it had infiltrated the Los Angeles County jail and can now prove that the LASD Men’s Jail was essentially a torture chamber, with gangs of sick and sadistic guards, Paul Tanaka still showed his grit, as an LASD “gansta”, by addressing the command staff of the sheriff’s department, about the LASD internal affairs bureau. He mentioned that their were 45 LASD Internal Affairs Bureau investigators, and that was 44 too many (you’re got to have at least one to have a bureau.)

In 2014, six LASD Deputy Sheriffs were convicted of obstructing the FBI’s investigation of the torturing of prisoners at the Los Angeles County Jails. That’s not the end of it. Former LASD Deputy Sheriff Noel Womack pleaded guilty in June of 2015 to federal charges of lying to the FBI about systemic LASD torturing and framing of inmates at the Los Angeles County Jails.

LASD Undersheriff Paul Tanaka following his conviction for obstruction of federal investigation

On May 13, 2015 former Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Undersheriff Paul Tanaka, along with a retired LASD Captain, were indicted on May 13, 2015 by a federal Grand Jury for Obstructing and Conspiring to Obstruct a federal Grand Jury investigation of the rampant torturing of inmates at the Los Angeles County Jail (See, Paul Tanaka Indictment of Ma y 13, 2015 .) Those Indictments also resulted in the resignation of Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, as Tanaka implicated Baca as having approved the LASD scheme to thwart the FBI investigation of tortures, beatings and murders of inmates by deputies at the L.A. County Jails.

On February 10, 2016, former Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca pleaded guilty to violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1001(a)(2); lying to FBI agents and federal prosecutors investigating the beatings of inmates and visitors at the Los Angeles County Jails. As part of a surprise plea deal with the U.S. attorney’s office, Sheriff Baca admitted that he took an active role in trying to stymie the federal probe into his deputies routinely beating and torturing inmates at the Los Angeles County Jails and in having his deputies hide an FBI informant – jail inmate from his FBI handlers. He admitted even approving a team of his deputy sheriff’s attempting to interfere with the government’s investigation by threatening an FBI agent at her home with arrest.

Thereafter, on April 6, 2016, former LASD Undersheriff was convicted by a jury of violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371 (conspiring to obstruct justice) and 18 U.S.C. § 1503(a) (obstructing justice), for not only obstructing an FBI investigation into years of beatings and torturing of inmates at the L.A. County Jail, but also Tanaka and other high ranking Sheriff’s Department officials threatening one of the FBI agents involved in that investigation, with arrest for continuing that investigation. In his trial, Tanaka admitted that he still had the Minnesota Vikings Logo tattoo on his leg; a tattoo that he described as a member in a club; the “Vikings”; a tatoo that the federal courts have held is the gang taoo for a “neo-Nazi white supremacists gang within the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. See, Thomas v. County of Los Angeles, 978 F.2d 504 (1992).

Thereafter, on July 18, 2016, United States District Judge Percy Anderson threw out a plea agreement that would have given former Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca a maximum of six months in prison, saying the sentence was too lenient considering Baca’s role in obstructing an FBI investigation into the county jails. Addressing a downtown courtroom packed with Baca’s supporters, U.S. District Court Judge Percy Anderson said the deal “would trivialize the seriousness of the offenses … the need for a just punishment [and] the need to deter others.”

On December 19, 2016 a mistrial was declared in that federal criminal corruption case against Sheriff Lee Baca. During the two-week trial, prosecutors from the U.S. attorney’s office tried to convince jurors that Baca had played a central role in a scheme carried out by a group of subordinates to thwart an FBI investigation into abuses and corruption by sheriff’s deputies working as jailers. Baca’s lawyers countered he had been unaware of the ploy unfolding beneath him. The panel deliberated for days, with all but one of the 12 jurors ultimately voting to acquit Baca. After the panel announced it was deadlocked, Anderson declared the mistrial.

On January 10, 2017, federal prosecutors announced that they would retry Sheriff Baca. Judge Percy Anderson also granted a request by the U.S. attorney’s office to allow prosecutors to include the charge of making false statements to federal authorities in the retrial. U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson previously split that charge from the obstruction and conspiracy charges Baca faced at his first trial.

On March 16, 2017 Sheriff Lee Baca was convicted for his role in a scheme to block an FBI investigation into mistreatment of inmates in his jails.

One might think, why are these cops acting like Nazis; literally, not metaphorically? Why is this allowed to persist? Things have gotten so bad at the LASD that now the United States Department of Justice Indicted 18 LASD Deputy Sheriffs and their Supervisors on charges ranging from Obstruction of Justice and torturing prisoners.

Nonetheless, the body politic tolerates the existence, and the perpetuation of an ongoing unwritten agreement among and between peace officers, to falsely report, and, if necessary, to thereafter conspire with officers who they may not yet even know, to falsely testify, about event(s), if the potential or apparent criminal, administrative and civil liability of a fellow officer is at stake. After all, in the primary category of cases that truly are “false arrests” in the most malevolent sense of the word, “Contempt of Cop cases”, the only reason that there’s an arrest of a civilian at all, is because the Constable has violated another (i.e. beaten-up / torture); usually to self-medicate rather frail and easily bruise-able egos.

POLICE BRUTALITY, FALSE ARRESTS AND MALICIOUS CRIMINAL PROSECUTIONS.

Wrongful police beatings, accompanied by their sister “false arrests”, are a common and every day occurrence. These beating / arrests are no longer limited to persons of color. Soccer Moms, airline pilots and school teachers, beware: because of the great (and ever expanding) powers being given to police officers by the Supreme Court, described below, in a very real way, you no longer have the right to question, protest or challenge police actions, since to do so usually results in your being physically abused and falsely arrested on trumped of charges of essentially, “Contempt Of Cop”; (i.e. maybe not getting on the ground fast enough, or failing to walk-over to the officer fast enough; some type of failing the attitude test.) These beatings of innocent by police officers is rampant and condoned and defended by the command structure of most, if not all, modern police agencies. See, Orange County Sheriff’s Department police torture videos, and other police beating videos throughout the Country. There is a “Blue Code of Silence” between and among peace officers throughout the nation, and everyone knows this. This is no startling revelation. The County of Los Angeles has itself released a public document, acknowledging the existence of, and actually condemning, the Sheriff’s Department’s own rogue gangs of sadistic jailers at the Los Angeles County Central Men’s Jail. See, The Citizens Commission on Jail Violence September 28, 2012.

IN CALIFORNIA, A POLICE OFFICER CAN BEAT-UP OR MURDER ANYONE THAT THEY WANT TO, ANY TIME THAT THEY WANT TO, WHILE ON-DUTY.

The use of unreasonable and unlawful force in America is so rampant, that in these modern times, at least in California, a police officer can murder anyone that they want to, any time that they want to. Juries are very reluctant to convict police officers for any sort of duty related actions, such as shooting civilians. In 2010, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Shot 15 Unarmed People To Death – “Perception Shootings”. See p. 56 of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department 30th Semi-Annual Report to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

All that the police officers need to say is the they were afraid for their lives because their shooting victim had his hands in his pockets, or that his hands were under his body and wouldn’t show them to the officer, or that he was reaching for his waistband area. The modern police line is that if an officer either can’t see your hands or if you reach for you waist or pockets, that it’s okay to shoot the person. This is no joke. None of the shootings of the fifteen unarmed people who were shot to death by the LA Sheriff’s Department in 2010 were found by the department to have violated department policy. Moreover, none of those deputies were criminally prosecuted for those shootings; even when witnesses have come forward and disputed the deputies’ claims as to what happened.

These homicides by police officer aren’t just limited to shootings. For example, on January 13, 2014, an Orange County, California, Superior Court jury acquitted two Fullerton Police Department officers of murdering / using unreasonable force on the mentally-ill son of a former Orange County Sheriff’s Department Deputy Sheriff; Kelly Thomas. The beating death was audio and video recorded, and no reasonable human being could have believed that the beating death was justified. The video recording shows two sadistic police officers, beat Kelly Thomas to death. However, the defense was able to show the jury two prior incidents that made the jury simply not care that Kelly Thomas was wrongfully beat to death; the testimony about his having previous struck his grandfather, and testimony about his mother obtaining a restraining order against him. Remember, this was a mentally ill young man, who had his moments. They were able to do this, because California Evidence Code Section 1103 permits a criminal defendants to show the character of the alleged victim of their crime, to prove that the victim has a certain character, and that the victim acted in conformity with that character during the incident complained of; the one that the criminal defendant is being prosecuted for.

Chief Charlie Beck never admits fault by the LAPD

The Los Angeles Police Departments (LAPD’s) motto is: Were the badest gang in town. One might think, why are these cops acting like Nazis? Why is this allowed to persist?

Nonetheless, the body politic tolerates the existence, and the perpetuation of an ongoing unwritten agreement among and between peace officers, to falsely report, and, if necessary, to thereafter conspire with officers who they may not yet even know, to falsely testify, about event(s), if the potential or apparent criminal, administrative and civil liability of a fellow officer is at stake. After all, in the primary category of cases that truly are “false arrests” in the most malevolent sense of the word, “Contempt of Cop cases“, the only reason that there’s an arrest of a civilian at all, is because the police officer has beaten-up / tortured another; usually to self-medicate rather their frail and easily bruise-able egos. If you’re reading this article, the odds are, that either you or a loved one or friend has been beaten-up by the police and are being criminally prosecuted for allegedly battering the officer or somehow “resisting” the officer.

Orange County, California had a Sheriff’s Department that was run by creepy Sheriff Mike Carona, who is presently in federal prison for witness tampering (instructing witness to lie to Grand Jury.) Until Sheriff Carona went to prison, Orange County was a fantasy assignment for those truly sadistic peace officers, who “get-off” on beating inmates and arrestees.

Modern police agencies are afraid of losing their “power” in, and over, a community. That “power” base (i.e. ability to influence the politicians and the public), is based in large part, on the public “supporting the police”. That popular support is based upon a belief by the body politic, that: 1) police officers are well trained and know and respect your Constitutional rights, 2) they’re basically honest, 3) that only a small percentage of them would commit perjury, 4) that the force that the police use on people is almost always justified (if not legally, then morally), and 5) that the police are capable of policing themselves. Although none of these beliefs are accurate, one cannot ignore the belief system of the majority of the white / affluent American populace, in understanding why police officers routinely, and without a second thought, falsely arrest civilians, and commit other outrages against innocents.

LEGALLY, WHAT IS EXCESSIVE / UNREASONABLE FORCE?

Prior to 1989, the federal courts looked to the substantive due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution to “pigeon hole” claims of excessive force by a peace officer against civilians. See, Johnson v. Glick, 481 F.2d 1028 (2nd Cir. 1973.) That standard was that the conduct of the police officer had to be “shocking to the conscience”; the standard still used for those uses of force by a police officer that don’t involve efforts by police to use force against civilians to seize them, such as arresting or detaining civilians. Johnson v. Glick involved the use of force by prison guards against a convict; not either a free civilian that an officer is trying to “seize” (detain or arrest), or a “pre-trial detainee“; someone who has already been “seized” (i.e. arrested, and in the County Jail; awaiting arraignment, other pre-trial proceedings, or trial.)

However, when it comes to a police officer using force to arrest or detain another, the standard for the use of force is decreed by the Supreme Court, to emanate out of the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures.

The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides:

“Amendment IV.

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

Thus, the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures is, since 1989, the legal standard by which to judge whether a police officer used excessive force when seizing a civilian.

What Is Excessive / Unreasonable Force?

The United States Supreme Court has defined “Excessive Force”as follows:

Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy; author of the Supreme Court’s Graham v. Connor Opinion that held that the use of unreasonable force by a police officer is an unreasonable seizure of a person under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1989

“Where, as here, the excessive force claim arises in the context of an arrest or investigatory stop of a free citizen, it is most properly characterized as one invoking the protections of the Fourth Amendment, which guarantees citizens the right “to be secure in their persons . . . against unreasonable . . . seizures” of the person . . . . . . . Determining whether the force used to effect a particular seizure is “reasonable” under the Fourth Amendment requires a careful balancing of ” ‘the nature and quality of the intrusion on the individual’s Fourth Amendment interests’ ” against the countervailing governmental interests at stake. Id., at 8, 105 S.Ct., at 1699, quoting United States v. Place, 462 U.S. 696, 703, 103 S.Ct. 2637, 2642, 77 L.Ed.2d 110 (1983). Our Fourth Amendment jurisprudence has long recognized that the right to make an arrest or investigatory stop necessarily carries with it the right to use some degree of physical coercion or threat thereof to effect it. See Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S., at 22-27, 88 S.Ct., at 1880-1883. Because “the test of reasonableness under the Fourth Amendment is not capable of precise definition or mecha ical application,” Bell v. Wolfish, 441 U.S. 520, 559, 99 S.Ct. 1861, 1884, 60 L.Ed.2d 447 (1979), however, its proper application requires careful attention to the facts and circumstances of each particular case, including the severity of the crime at issue, whether the suspect poses an immediate threat to the safety of the officers or others, and whether he is actively resisting arrest or attempting to evade arrest by flight. See Tennessee v. Garner, 471 U.S., at 8-9, 105 S.Ct., at 1699-1700 (the question is “whether the totality of the circumstances justifies a particular sort of . . . seizure”).” (See, Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386 (1989.))

“The “reasonableness” of a particular use of force must be judged from the perspective of a reasonable officer on the scene, rather than with the 20/20 vision of hindsight. See Terry v. Ohio, supra, 392 U.S., at 20-22, 88 S.Ct., at 1879-1881. The Fourth Amendment is not violated by an arrest based on probable cause, even though the wrong person is arrested, Hill v. California, 401 U.S. 797, 91 S.Ct. 1106, 28 L.Ed.2d 484 (1971), nor by the mistaken execution of a valid search warrant on the wrong premises, Maryland v. Garrison, 480 U.S. 79, 107 S.Ct. 1013, 94 L.Ed.2d 72 (1987). With respect to a claim of excessive force, the same standard of reasonableness at the moment applies: “Not every push or shove, even if it may later seem unnecessary in the peace of a judge’s chambers,” Johnson v. Glick, 481 F.2d, at 1033, violates the Fourth Amendment. The calculus of reasonableness must embody allowance for the fact that police officers are often forced to make split-second judgments in circumstances that are tense, uncertain, and rapidly evolving about the amount of force that is necessary in a particular situation.

As in other Fourth Amendment contexts, however, the “reasonableness” inquiry in an excessive force case is an objective one: the question is whether the officers’ actions are “objectively reasonable” in light of the facts and circumstances confronting them, without regard to their underlying intent or motivation. See, Scott v. United States, 436 U.S. 128, 137-139, 98 S.Ct. 1717, 1723-1724, 56 L.Ed.2d 168 (1978); See also, Terry v. Ohio, supra, 392 U.S., at 21, 88 S.Ct., at 1879 (in analyzing the reasonableness of a particular search or seizure, “it is imperative that the facts be judged against an objective standard”). An officer’s evil intentions will not make a Fourth Amendment violation out of an objectively reasonable use of force; nor will an officer’s good intentions make an objectively unreasonable use of force constitutional. See, Scott v. United States,supra, 436 U.S., at 138, 98 S.Ct., at 1723, citing United States v. Robinson, 414 U.S. 218, 94 S.Ct. 467, 38 L.Ed.2d 427 (1973).

In Graham, we held that claims of excessive force in the context of arrests or investigatory stops should be analyzed under the Fourth Amendment‘s objective reasonableness standard, not under substantive due process principles. 490 U.S., at 388, 394. Because police officers are often forced to make split-second judgments in circumstances that are tense, uncertain, and rapidly evolving about the amount of force that is necessary in a particular situation, id., at 397, the reasonableness of the officers belief as to the appropriate level of force should be judged from that on-scene perspective. Id., at 396. We set out a test that cautioned against the 20/20 vision of hindsight in favor of deference to the judgment of reasonable officers on the scene. Id., at 393, 396. Graham sets forth a list of factors relevant to the merits of the constitutional excessive force claim, requir[ing] careful attention to the facts and circumstances of each particular case, including the severity of the crime at issue, whether the suspect poses an immediate threat to the safety of the officers or others, and whether he is actively resisting arrest or attempting to evade arrest by flight. Id., at 396. If an officer reasonably, but mistakenly, believed that a suspect was likely to fight back, for instance, the officer would be justified in using more force than in fact was needed. (See, Saucierv. Katz, 533 U.S. 194 (2001), Kennedy, J.)

The federal courts have reduced all of this legal gobbledygook to jury instructions, that, supposedly, a person of regular intelligence can understand. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Jury Instruction for excessive force instructs the jury:

“Ninth Circuit Model Civil Jury Instructions

9.22 PARTICULAR RIGHTS—FOURTH AMENDMENT—UNREASONABLE SEIZURE OF PERSON—EXCESSIVE (DEADLY AND NONDEADLY) FORCE

In general, a seizure of a person is unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment if a police officer uses excessive force [in making a lawful arrest] [and] [or] [in defending [himself] [herself] [others]. Thus, in order to prove an unreasonable seizure in this case, the plaintiff must prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the officer[s] used excessive force when [insert factual basis of claim].

Under the Fourth Amendment, a police officer may only use such force as is “objectively reasonable” under all of the circumstances. In other words, you must judge the reasonableness of a particular use of force from the perspective of a reasonable officer on the scene and not with the 20/20 vision of hindsight.

In determining whether the officer[s] used excessive force in this case, consider all of the circumstances known to the officer[s] on the scene, including;

1) The severity of the crime or other circumstances to which the officer[s] [was] [were] responding;

2) Whether the plaintiff posed an immediate threat to the safety of the officer[s] or to other;

3) Whether the plaintiff was actively resisting arrest or attempting to evade arrest by flight;

4) The amount of time and any changing circumstances during which the officer had to determine the type and amount of force that appeared to be necessary;

5) The type and amount of force used;

6) The availability of alternative methods [to take the plaintiff into custody] [to subdue the plaintiff;]

7) Other factors particular to the case.]“

THE PROBLEM WITH GRAHAM’S “REASONABLE OFFICER STANDARD” IN THE REAL WORLD – THE WATCHMAN GETS TO MAKE HIS OWN RULES THAT REGULATE HIS OWN CONDUCT.

When asked about a 1974 Papal Encyclical by Pope Paul VI, condemning the use of contraception, former Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz stated: “He don’t play-a-da game; he don’t make-a-da rules.” In the police profession, they do play that “game”, and now they get to “make-a-da rules.” The problem with the description of how “excessive force” is defined, is not the Supreme Court’s strong emphasis on the officer’s conduct being based on an “objective” standard; they hypothetical reasonable officer in the abstract. The problem is, that the standards in the police profession for what is “reasonable” or otherwise proper police conduct in a given situation, are generally neither the creature of legislation (i.e. state law requiring the audio recording of custodial police interrogations) nor the product of any judicially created mandate, duty, or prohibition (i.e. Constitutional limits on conduct and judicially created “exclusionary rule”.) The conduct of “the objectively reasonable officer”; that standard that the Supreme Court attempted to describe in Graham v. O’Connor and Saucier v. Katz, is created by the very persons whose conduct the Fourth Amendment is supposed to impose limits on. Thus, in a very real sense, the Supreme Court has set the standard (“objectively reasonable officer”) that the Fourth Amendment requires, but has delegated the details of what’s reasonable or not, to the police.

It’s letting the regulated enact their own regulations. It’s like letting the local power company, set the rate of profit that they should make; set the formula for how the amount of profit is determined; set how much they can spend on public relations (since they’re a monopoly), and how, when, by whom and in what manner, they should be inspected, what they can and can’t do in their industry, and every other aspect of the business. If they want to all use tasers on civilians, then that’s reasonable. If they all want to pepper-spray persons because their hands in their pockets, then that’s reasonable. If they want to prone-out everyone at gun point that they detain, then that’s reasonable. At the end of the day, in the real world police world, if the technique, method, procedure, policy or practice reduces the danger level to the officer, you can bet that, eventually, they will find a way to justify such technique, method, procedure, policy or practice , and make such otherwise unreasonable behavior, “reasonable”, for no other reason than the police would prefer to act that way; Constitutional or not. You see the problem. The police have an old slogan: “It’s better to be judged by 12, then carried by 6.” It’s another way of saying, I’ll act in a way that is in my self interest; not yours, and if I happen to trample your Constitutional rights, so be it. My insuring my safety from any potential threat trumps any annoying Constitutional rights of yours.

THE PROBLEM OF QUALIFIED IMMUNITY, COMPOUNDS THE PROBLEM CREATED BY GRAHAM

In a nutshell, the Qualified Immunity is an immunity from a lawsuit (from being sued at all) for violation of a civilian’s Constitutional rights, when those rights were actually violated, but a reasonably well trained police officer could have believed that his conduct did not constitute a Constitutional violation. So, even if the police officer actually violated your Constitutional Rights, he/she may be immune from suit, because the law was not clearly established enough at the time of the violation, to hold a police officer liable for his conduct. This is a doctrine “contrived” by the conservative members of the Supreme Court (since 1981), to ensure that you can’t do anything about (or at least do a whole lot less about) your Constitutional Rights being trampled by the government.

The Perversion, Ad Nauseam, Of The Qualified Immunity Doctrine, To Protect Peace Officers From Civil Liability; “Reasonably Acting Unreasonably”

So, for example, if the police come-up with a whole new technique to restrain people, such as a with a taser, or pepper-spray, or pepper-balls, or water-balls, or hobbling (police hog tying), or a shock-belting, or stun-gunning, the officer may very well be entitled to qualified immunity from being sued for the misuse of any of the above-mentioned devices; not because its “reasonable”, but because the police just use those devices in such manners; thereby giving the Courts an excused to relieve the police officer from liability for the damage caused by his violation of the Constitutional Rights of civilians:

William Rehnquist
Associate Justice 1971 – 1986, Chief Justice 1986 – 2005

“Qualified immunity is an entitlement not to stand trial or face the other burdens of litigation. Saucier v. Katz,533U.S. 194, 200 (2001) (quoting Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 526 (1985)) . . . Accordingly, we must resolve imm unity questions at the earliest possible stage in litigation. Pearson, 129, S.Ct.at 815.

An officer will be denied qualified immunity in a 1983 action only if (1) the facts alleged, taken in the light most favorable to the party asserting injury, show that the officers conduct violated a constitutional right, and (2) the right at issue was clearly established at the time of the incident such that a reasonable officer would have understood her conduct to be unlawful in that situation. Saucier, 533 at 201-02; Liberal v. Estrada, 632 F.3d 1064, 1076 (9th Cir. 2011.) To assist the development of constitutional precedent, we exercise our sound discretion to follow Saucier’s conventional two-step procedure and address first whether the Torres Family has alleged the violation of a constitutional right. See, Pearson, 129 S.Ct. at 818.

The qualified immunity analysis involves two separate steps. First, the court determines whether the facts show the officers conduct violated a constitutional right. Saucier v. Katz, 533 U.S. 194, 201 (2001.) If the alleged violate a constitutional right, then the defendants are entitled to immunity and the claim must be dismissed. However, if the alleged conduct did violate such a right, then the court must determine whether the right was clearly established at the time of the alleged unlawful action. Id.

A right is clearly established if a reasonable official would understand that what he is doing violates that right. Id., at 202. If the right is not clearly established, then the officer is entitled to qualified immunity. While the order in which these questions are addressed is left to the courts sound discretion, it is often beneficial to perform the analysis in the sequence outlined above. Pearson v. Callahan, 129 S.Ct. 808, 818 (2009.) Of course, where a claim of qualified immunity is to be denied, both questions must be answered.

When determining whether there are any genuine issues of material fact at the summary judgment stage, the court must take all facts in the light most favorable to the non-moving party. In the context of qualified immunity, determinations that turn on questions of law, such as whether the officers had probable cause or reasonable suspicion to support their actions, are appropriately decided by the court. Act Up!/Portland v. Bagley, 988 F.2d 868, 873 (9th Cir. 1993.)

However, a trial court should not grant summary judgment when there is a genuine dispute as to the facts and circumstances within an officers knowledge or what the officer and claimant did or failed to do. Id. (Saucier v. Katz, supra.)”

QUALIFIED IMMUNITY IS A SELF-FULFILLING POLICY; THE COURT’S DON’T PROVIDE EITHER REASONABLY DISCERNIBLE GUIDELINES, OR CLEAR BORDER TYPE RULINGS.

The problem with the description of how “excessive force” is defined, is not the Supreme Courts strong emphasis on the officers conduct being based on an objective standard; the hypothetical reasonable officer in the abstract. The problem is, that the standards in the police profession for what is reasonable or otherwise proper police conduct in a given situation, are generally neither the creature of legislation (i.e. state law requiring the audio recording of custodial police interrogations) nor the product of any judicially created mandate, duty, or prohibition (i.e. Constitutional limits on police conduct, such as the judicially created exclusionary rule.) The conduct of the objectively reasonable officer; that standard that the Supreme Court attempted to describe in Graham v. Connor and Saucier v. Katz, is created by the very persons whose conduct the Fourth Amendment is supposed to impose limits on. Thus, in a very real sense, the Supreme Court has set the standard (objectively reasonable officer) that the Fourth Amendment requires, but has delegated the details of what’s reasonable or not, to the police.

This is quite problematic, as the Bill of Rights was created for the Courts to protect us from the police / government, so when the police define “what’s reasonable force”, in a very real way, the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, one of those rights in the Bill of Rights, is defined by the police, rather than the Courts. There are cases where the Courts will step-in and ban a particular police practice, but those cases are far and few between, and when the Courts do so, they often create more of legal mess than existed before such judicial intervention. See, for example, the trilogy of Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals taser cases.

TASER CASES GONE WILD.

Circuit Kim McLane Wardlaw wrote Majority Opinion in Bryan v. McPherson

See, for example, the trilogy of Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals taser cases. In the first case, Bryan v. McPherson (9th Circuit 12/28/09), the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that using a taser on a man in his underwear who was 20 feet away and merely verbally going-off on the police officers, was so obviously unlawful, that no reasonably well trained police officer could have believed that it was constitutional to tase the man.

Judge Richard A. Paez wrote Majority Opinion in Mattos v. Agarano

The Mattos court held that their decision didn’t conflict with the Bryan v. McPherson (9th Circuit 12/28/09), because the use of the taser in that case was so obviously unreasonable, that the defendant police officers would not be entitled to qualified immunity from suit.

Circuit Judge Cynthia Holcomb Hall wrote Majority Opinion in Brooks v. City of Seattle

Having now painted themselves into a corner, the Ninth Circuit decided to grant “en banc review” of all three 2010 taser cases; one en banc panel of judges decided the rehearings of the Mattos v. Argarano and Brooks v. City of Seattle cases, and one en banc panel reheard the Bryan case. The results were almost as confounding, as were the original wrongly decided decisions. In the Mattos and Brooks cases, the Ninth Circuit held that although the defendant police officers did violate the plaintiffs’ Constitutional right to be free from the use of unreasonable force upon their persons (i.e. the tasers), that the officers were nonetheless entitled to qualified immunity from suit, because the law on the use of tasers was not clearly established at the time of the Constitutional violations:

We now hold that, although Plaintiffs in both cases have alleged constitutional violations, the officer Defendants are entitled to qualified immunity on Plaintiffs 1983 claims because the law was not clearly established at the time of the incidents.

In the rehearing on the Bryan v. McPherson case, the Ninth Circuit reversed themselves, and awarded qualified immunity to the defendant officers; also because the law regarding the use of tasers was not clearly established at the time of the Constitutional violations:

“Officer MacPherson appeals the denial of his motion for summary judgment based on qualified immunity. We affirm the district court in part because, viewing the circumstances in the light most favorable to Bryan, Officer MacPhersons use of the taser was unconstitutionally excessive. However, we reverse in part because the violation of Bryans constitutional rights was not clearly established at the time that Officer MacPherson fired his taser at Bryan on July 24, 2005.”

In the Ninth Circuit’s first taser case, Bryan v. McPherson(9th Cir. 09), the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that using a taser on a man in his underwear who was 20 feet away and merely verbally going-off on the police officers, was so obviously unlawful, that no reasonably well trained police officer could have believed that it was constitutional to tase the man.

Two weeks later, in Mattos v. Argarano (9th Cir. 1/12/10), another three judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that the police tasing of a domestic violence victim did not constitute unreasonable force, since the police were trying to grab the her husband, and she happened to just be between the man and the police. The Mattos court held that their decision didn’t conflict with the Bryan v. McPherson (9th Circuit 12/28/09), because the use of the taser in that case was so obviously unreasonable, that the defendant police officers would not be entitled to qualified immunity from suit.

Thereafter, two and one-half months later in Brooks v. City of Seattle (9th Cir. March 26, 2010), the Ninth Circuit held that it didn’t constitute the use of unreasonable force for a police officer to tase a pregnant woman three times in her neck to get her out of her car. Having now painted themselves into a corner, the Ninth Circuit decided to grant “en banc review” of all three 2010 taser cases; one en banc panel of judges decided the rehearings of the Mattos v. Argarano and Brooks v. City of Seattle cases, and one en banc panel reheard the Bryan case. The results were almost as confounding, as were the original wrongly decided decisions. In the Mattos and Brooks cases, the Ninth Circuit held that although the defendant police officers did violate the plaintiffs’ Constitutional right to be free from the use of unreasonable force upon their persons (i.e. the tasers), that the officers were nonetheless entitled to qualified immunity from suit, because the law on the use of tasers was not clearly established at the time of the Constitutional violations:

“We now hold that, although Plaintiffs in both cases have alleged constitutional violations, the officer Defendants are entitled to qualified immunity on Plaintiffs 1983 claims because the law was not clearly established at the time of the incidents.”

So, what is the lesson of the “Taser Trilogy”; everyone is full of it; everyone.

San Bernardino County District Attorney Michael Ramos prosecutes the innocent victims of police outrages instead of the officers whom committed serious crimes against them

WHY THE POLICE CRIMINALLY PROSECUTE THEIR VICTIMS; THE ROOT OF MOST FALSE ARRESTS.

Unfortunately, because of institutional pressures (i.e. “ratting out fellow officer not a good career move), and the obvious political and practical consequences of not backing-up the their fellow officers, the norm in todays police profession, is for peace officers to falsely arrest their “victims”, and to author false police reports to procure the bogus criminal prosecutions (i.e. to literally “frame” others) of those civilians whose Constitutional rights and basic human dignity have been violated; to justify what they did, and to act in conformity with that justification. The excessive force victims get criminally prosecuted, for crimes that they didn’t commit; usually for crimes such as “Resisting / obstructing / delaying a peace officer in the lawful performance of their duties (Cal. Penal Code § 148(a)(1)), assault on a peace officer (Cal. Penal Code § 240 / 241), “battery on a peace officer (Cal. Penal Code § 242 / 243(b); which is almost always, in reality, battery by a peace officer; otherwise known as “Excessive Force” or “Unreasonable Force”),and resisting officer with actual or threat of violence (Cal. Penal Code § 69.) Section 69 is a “wobbler” under California law; a crime that the government can charge as either a misdemeanor or a felony. This charge is usually reserved for cases in which the police use substantial force on the innocent arrestee (the real “victim”), and need to falsely claim more violent / serious conduct by the “victim” to justify their outrages.

So, for example, the crime of “battery on a peace officer” (Cal. Penal Code § 242 / 243(b)), is almost always, in reality, “battery by a peace officer”; otherwise known as “Excessive Force”; an “unreasonable seizure” of a person under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution (See, Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386 (1989).)

If you have been the victim of Excessive Force by a police officer, please check our Section, above, entitled: “What To Do If You Have Been Beaten-Up Or False Arrested By The Police“. Also, please click on “Home“, above, or the other pages shown, for the information or assistance that we can provide for you. If you need to speak with a lawyer about your particular legal situation, please call the Law Offices of Jerry L. Steering for a free telephone consultation.

Thank you, and best of luck, whatever your needs.

Law Offices of Jerry L. Steering

Jerry L. Steering, Esq.

Jerry L. Steering with Diane Sawyer, Co-counsel* Bob Dole,
and former partner** Melvin M. BelliSuing Bad Cops And
Defending Bogus Criminal
Cases For 33 Years

***The State Bar of California does not recognize a specialty in police misconduct
which is most of Mr. Steering’s law practice.
*In the District of Columbia only.
**In Beverly Hills Office only.

The Law Offices Of Jerry L. Steering, 4063 Birch Street, Suite 100, Newport Beach, CA 92660, 949-474-1849, (Fax) 949-474-1883, jerrysteering@yahoo.com

Serving the following California counties and cities

County of Orange

http://www.ocgov.com/

Cities In Orange County:

City of Fountain Valley

City of Fullerton

City of Garden Grove

City of Huntington Beach

City of Laguna Niguel

City of Laguna Woods

City of Lake Forest

City of Los Alamitos

City of Mission Viejo

City of Newport Beach

City of Orange

City of Placentia

City of Rancho Santa Margarita

City of San Clemente

City of San Juan Capistrano

County of Los Angeles

https://www.lacounty.gov/

Cities In Los Angeles County:

County of Los Angeles

https://www.lacounty.gov/

Agoura Hills

www.ci.agoura-hills.ca.us

nhamburger@ci.agoura-hills.ca.us

Alhambra

www.cityofalhambra.org

webmaster@cityofalhambra.org

Arcadia

www.ci.arcadia.ca.us

Artesia

www.cityofartesia.us

aperry@cityofartesia.us

Avalon

Azusa

Baldwin Park

Bell

Bellflower

webmaster@bellflower.org

Bell Gardens

www.bellgardens.org

eorozco@bellgardens.org

Beverly Hills

www.beverlyhills.org

Bradbury

www.cityofbradbury.org

Burbank

www.ci.burbank.ca.us

webmaster@ci.burbank.ca.us

Calabasas

www.cityofcalabasas.com

info@cityofcalabasas.com

Carson

http://ci.carson.ca.us

Cerritos

www.cerritos.us

Claremont

www.ci.claremont.ca.us

Commerce

www.ci.commerce.ca.us

pio@ci.commerce.ca.us

Compton

Covina

Cudahy

info@cityofcudahyca.gov

Culver City

www.culvercity.org

Diamond Bar

www.ci.diamond-bar.ca.us

info@ci.diamond-bar.ca.us

Downey

www.downeyca.org

Duarte

www.accessduarte.com

duarte91010@accessduarte.com

El Monte

www.ci.el-monte.ca.us

El Segundo

www.elsegundo.org

helpdesk@elsegundo.org

Gardena

www.ci.gardena.ca.us

webmaster@ci.gardena.ca.us

Glendale

www.ci.glendale.ca.us

Glendora

www.ci.glendora.ca.us

webmaster@ci.glendora.ca.us

Hawaiian Gardens

www.hgcity.org

Hawthorne www.cityofhawthorne.com

hawweb@cityofhawthorne.org

Hermosa Beach www.hermosabch.org

webmaster@hermosabch.org

Hidden Hills www.hiddenhillscity.org

staff@hiddenhillscity.org

Huntington Park www.huntingtonpark.org

Industry www.cityofindustry.org

Inglewood www.cityofinglewood.org

webmaster@cityofinglewood.org

Irwindale

http://irwindale.ca.us

postoffice@ci.irwindale.ca.us

La Cañada Flintridge www.lacanadaflintridge.com

webmaster@lacanadaflintridge.com

La Habra Heights

http://la-habra-heights.org

info@lhhc.org

Lakewood

www.lakewoodcity.org

La Mirada

www.cityoflamirada.org

citycontact@cityoflamirada.org

Lancaster www.cityoflancasterca.org

La Puente

www.lapuente.org

cclerk@lapuente.org

La Verne

www.ci.la-verne.ca.us

Lawndale

www.lawndalecity.org

adminstrator@lawndalecity.org

Lomita

www.lomita.com/cityhall

Long Beach

www.longbeach.gov

Los Angeles

www.lacity.org

ita.webservices@lacity.org

Lynwood

www.lynwood.ca.us

Malibu

www.ci.malibu.ca.us

webmaster@ci.malibu.ca.us

Manhattan Beach http://citymb.info

Maywood www.cityofmaywood.org

Monrovia www.ci.monrovia.ca.us

cityhall@ci.monrovia.ca.us

Montebello www.cityofmontebello.com

Monterey Park www.ci.monterey-park.ca.us

Norwalk

www.ci.norwalk.ca.us

webinfo@ci.norwalk.ca.us

Palmdale

www.cityofpalmdale.org

webmaster@cityofpalmdale.org

Palos Verdes Estates www.pvestates.org

cityclerk@pvestates.org

Paramount www.paramountcity.com

crequest@paramountcity.com

Pasadena

www.cityofpasadena.com

CityWeb-server@cityofpasadena.com

Pico Rivera

www.pico-rivera.org

Pomona

www.ci.pomona.ca.us

Rancho Palos Verdes www.palosverdes.com/rpv

Redondo Beach

www.redondo.org

rbwebmaster@redondo.org

Rolling Hills

www.rolling-hills.org

adahlerbruch@cityofrh.com

Rolling Hills Estates

www.ci.rolling-hills-estates.ca.us

Rosemead www.cityofrosemead.org

San Dimas www.cityofsandimas.com

administration@ci.san-dimas.ca.us

San Fernando

www.ci.san-fernando.ca.us

info@ci.san-fernando.ca.us

San Gabriel www.sangabrielcity.com/cityhall

San Marino

www.cityofsanmarino.org

Santa Clarita

www.santa-clarita.com

Santa Fe Springs www.santafesprings.org

barbaraearl@santafesprings.org

Santa Monica

www.smgov.com

Sierra Madre www.ci.sierra-madre.ca.us

Signal Hill

www.cityofsignalhill.org

info@cityofsignalhill.org

South El Monte

www.ci.south-el-monte.ca.uS

South Gate www.cityofsouthgate.org

South Pasadena

www.ci.south-pasadena.ca.us

jquintana@ci.south-pasadena.ca.us

Temple City

Torrance

Vernon

Walnut

West Covina

West Hollywood

Westlake Village

Whittier

www.cityofwhittier.org

administrator@cityofwhittier.org

County of Riverside

http://countyofriverside.us/Home.aspx

Cities in Riverside County

City of Banning
City of Beaumont
City of Blythe
City of Calimesa
City of Canyon Lake
City of Cathedral City
City of Coachella
City of Corona
City of Desert Hot Springs
City of Eastvale
City of Hemet
City of Indian Wells
City of Indio
City of Jurupa Valley
City of Lake Elsinore
City of La Quinta
City of Menifee
City of Moreno Valley
City of Murrieta
City of Norco
City of Palm Desert
City of Palm Springs
City of Perris
City of Rancho Mirage
City of Riverside
City of San Jacinto
City of Temecula
City of Wildomar

Neighboring Communities
Imperial County
Los Angeles County
Orange County
San Bernardino County
San Diego County

County of San Bernardino

http://www.sbcounty.gov

Cities in San Bernardino County

Adelanto
Apple Valley
Barstow
Big Bear Lake
Chino
Chino Hills
Colton
Crestline
Fontana
Grand Terrace
Hesperia

Highland
Joshua Tree
Lake Arrowhead
Loma Linda
Lucerne Valley
Montclair
Needles
Ontario
Rancho Cucamonga
Redlands

Rialto
Running Springs
San Bernardino
Twentynine Palms
Upland
Victorville
Wrightwood
Yermo
Yucaipa
Yucca Valley

San Diego County

http://www.sandiegocounty.gov/content/sdc/home.html

San Diego County Cities

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Riverside County Police Brutality Attorney

Posted by Jerry L. Steering, Esq. on September 24, 2017

Riverside County Police Brutality & Excessive Force Attorney

Jerry L. Steering, Esq., is a Police Misconduct Attorney, serving, among other places, Riverside and Riverside County. He has been suing police officers, and defending bogus criminal cases of crimes against police officers for over 28 years.

The majority of our firm’s law practice, is suing police officers and other government officials, for claims such as false arrest, police brutality / excessive force, malicious prosecution, and other “Constitutional Torts.” False arrests by police officers are almost always the product of either sheer incompetence (i.e. the police arrest another for conduct that isn’t criminal), or of the police officer attempting to justify his unlawful conduct, by arresting and then framing their victim (i.e. false police reports, perjurous court testimony, false convictions) of his federal criminal (18 U.S.C. § 242), and otherwise tortious misconduct (i.e. if the police use unreasonable / unlawful force on a civilian, the use of force is almost always followed by a false arrest.)

Mr. Steering has been suing police officers for constitutional violations and defending bogus criminal “resistance offense” cases for 33 years. The Law Offices of Jerry L. Steering is proud to serve all areas of Riverside County, including the cities shown below.

Mr. Steering has been suing police officers, and defending bogus “resistance offense” criminal cases of crimes against police officers, since 1984. The majority of the Steering firm’s law practice, is suing police officers and other government officials, for “Constitutional Torts” such as false arrest, police brutality / excessive force and malicious prosecution.

POLICE MISCONDUCT IN RIVERSIDE COUNTY.

In 2001 in Gardner v. AMR, U.S. Dist. Court (Los Angeles) Mr. Steering obtained a $650,000.00 settlement of

In Risk v. Cathedral City, U.S. District Court Central District of Cal. (Riverside)(2006) Mr. Steering obtained a $125,000.00 settlement for false arrest / excessive force.

In Torres v. County of Riverside, U.S. District Court, Central District of California (Riverside)(2010), Mr. Steering obtained a $500,000.00 settlement for unreasonable force (i.e. taser).

In 2016 in the case of Licitra v. County of Riverside (U.S. District Court – Riverside) Mr. Steering obtained a $300,000.00 settlement for false arrest / unreasonable force.

In Chynoweth v. County of Riverside et al.,Riverside County Superior Court (2011), Mr. Steering obtained a

In 2013 in Parnell v. County of Riverside (above), U.S. District Court (L.A.) Mr. Steering

David Parnell was beaten-up in his own home when RCSD Detectives arrested him in his home for a crime that he was innocent of.

In 2016 in Jones v. County of Riverside (U.S. District Court – Riverside) Mr. Steering obtained a $300,000.00 settlement for unreasonable seizure of person.

In 2014 Holley v. County of Riverside (U.S. District Court – Riverside) Mr. Steering obtained a $500,000.00 settlement for false arrest and unreasonable force.

POLICE SADISM IN THE UNITED STATES; IT ROOT AND CAUSES.

Some of this is the result of the United States being in a war in the Middle East since 2001. The United

OFFICER’S SAFETY HAS REPLACED YOUR RIGHT TO BE FREE FROM UNREASONABLE SEARCHES AND SEIZURES OF YOUR PERSONS AND PROPERTY.

POLICE BRUTALITY IS TOLERATED AND ENCOURAGED BY PUBLIC PROSECUTORS BY PROSECUTING INNOCENTS FOR RESISTANCE OFFENSES.

THE COPS ARE OUT OF CONTROL.

IT REALLY HAS BECOME THAT BAD; CASE EXAMPLE, THE DESERT HOT SPRINGS POLICE DEPARTMENT.

Case In Point; Desert Hot Springs PD:

Other police agencies are not far behind, if at all, DHSPD.

Take the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. The certainly have DHSPD beat in sheer number of total police outrages committed.

THE LAPD’S MOTTO IS “WE’RE THE BADEST GANG IN

Los Angeles police beat a boy for skateboarding on the wrong side of the street

TOWN”.

On March 16, 2017 Sheriff Lee Baca was convicted for his role in a scheme to block an FBI investigation into mistreatment of inmates in his jails.

POLICE BRUTALITY, FALSE ARRESTS AND MALICIOUS CRIMINAL PROSECUTIONS.

IN CALIFORNIA, A POLICE OFFICER CAN BEAT-UP OR MURDER ANYONE THAT THEY WANT TO, ANY TIME THAT THEY WANT TO, WHILE ON-DUTY.

The Los Angeles Police Departments (LAPD’s) motto is: Were the badest gang in town. One might think, why are these cops acting like Nazis? Why is this allowed to persist?

Nonetheless, the body politic tolerates the existence, and the perpetuation of an ongoing unwritten agreement among and between peace officers, to falsely report, and, if necessary, to thereafter conspire with officers who they may not yet even know, to falsely testify, about event(s), if the potential or apparent criminal, administrative and civil liability of a fellow officer is at stake. After all, in the primary category of cases that truly are “false arrests” in the most malevolent sense of the word, “Contempt of Cop cases“, the only reason that there’s an arrest of a civilian at all, is because the police officer has beaten-up / tortured another; usually to self-medicate rather their frail and easily bruise-able egos. If you’re reading this article, the odds are, that either you or a loved one or friend has been beaten-up by the police and are being criminally prosecuted for allegedly battering the officer or somehow “resisting” the officer.

LEGALLY, WHAT IS EXCESSIVE / UNREASONABLE FORCE?

The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides:

“Amendment IV.

What Is Excessive / Unreasonable Force?

The United States Supreme Court has defined “Excessive Force”as follows:

“Ninth Circuit Model Civil Jury Instructions

9.25 PARTICULAR RIGHTS—FOURTH AMENDMENT—UNREASONABLE SEIZURE OF PERSON—EXCESSIVE (DEADLY AND NONDEADLY) FORCE

In determining whether the officer[s] used excessive force in this case, consider all of the circumstances known to the officer[s] on the scene, including;

1) The severity of the crime or other circumstances to which the officer[s] [was] [were] responding;

2) Whether the plaintiff posed an immediate threat to the safety of the officer[s] or to other;

3) Whether the plaintiff was actively resisting arrest or attempting to evade arrest by flight;

4) The amount of time and any changing circumstances during which the officer had to determine the type and amount of force that appeared to be necessary;

5) The type and amount of force used;

6) The availability of alternative methods [to take the plaintiff into custody] [to subdue the plaintiff;]

7) Other factors particular to the case.]“

THE PROBLEM WITH GRAHAM’S “REASONABLE OFFICER STANDARD” IN THE REAL WORLD – THE WATCHMAN GETS TO MAKE HIS OWN RULES THAT REGULATE HIS OWN CONDUCT.

THE PROBLEM OF QUALIFIED IMMUNITY, COMPOUNDS THE PROBLEM CREATED BY GRAHAM

The Perversion, Ad Nauseam, Of The Qualified Immunity Doctrine, To Protect Peace Officers From Civil Liability; “Reasonably Acting Unreasonably”

When determining whether there are any genuine issues of material fact at the summary judgment stage, the court must take all facts in the light most favorable to the non-moving party. In the context of qualified immunity, determinations that turn on questions of law, such as whether the officers had probable cause or reasonable suspicion to support their actions, are appropriately decided by the court. Act Up!/Portland v. Bagley, 988 F.2d 868, 873 (9th Cir. 1993.)

QUALIFIED IMMUNITY IS A SELF-FULFILLING POLICY; THE COURT’S DON’T PROVIDE EITHER REASONABLY DISCERNIBLE GUIDELINES, OR CLEAR BORDER TYPE RULINGS.

TASER CASES GONE WILD.

So, what is the lesson of the “Taser Trilogy”; everyone is full of it; everyone.

WHY THE POLICE CRIMINALLY PROSECUTE THEIR VICTIMS; THE ROOT OF MOST FALSE ARRESTS.

SUING POLICE OFFICERS IN FEDERAL COURT FOR VIOLATING YOUR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS; ENFORCING THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT.

The Third Enforcement Act, also known as The Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 and 42 U.S.C. § 1983 provides:

Although the original immediate class of persons that the 14th Amendment was ratified to protect were black persons of African descent, those protections of the 14th Amendment apply to all persons.

DEFENDING BOGUS CRIMINAL RESISTANCE OFFENSE CASES.

HEADS THEY WIN, TAILS YOU LOSE; POLICE PROSECUTION OF POLICE MISCONDUCT VICITMS GIVES THE POLICE TWO BITES AT THE APPLE.

GENERAL CRIMINAL AND CIVIL RIGHTS PRACTICE.

PUBLICATIONS.

POLICE MISCONDUCT SPECIALIST; SUING BAD COPS AND DEFENDING BOGUS CRIMINAL CASES.

IF YOU’RE THE VICTIM; YOU’RE THE ENEMY.

WHY THE COPS TRY TO DESTROY YOU; TO PROTECT THEMSELVES.

SUING THE POLICE FOR CONSTITUTIONAL VIOLATIONS AND OTHER TORTIOUS CONDUCT, WHEN NO CRIMINAL CASE HAS BEEN FILED AGAINST THE POLICE MISCONDUCT VICTIM.

Thank you again for visiting with us.

Jerry L. Steering, Esq.

Newport Beach Criminal Attorney

Posted by Jerry L. Steering, Esq. on September 24, 2017

Mr. Steering’s law practice involves representing persons in Orange County, Los Angeles County, San Diego County, Riverside County, San Bernardino County, Ventura County and other place throughout California and the United States. He is also a member of the State Bar of Georgia and has also litigated cases in Georgia, Alabama and the District of Columbia.

He is an expert in police brutality / excessive force and false arrest cases, and has been litigating these cases since 1984.The great majority of Mr. Steering’s law practice is devoted to defending bogus criminal cases against the victims of abuse by the police, and suing police officers and other government officials, for claims such as false arrest, police brutality / excessive force, malicious prosecution, and other “Constitutional Torts.”

Mr. Steering is an expert in defending your bogus criminal action, in a way to best protect and enhance your ability to ultimately obtain some justice; reasonable compensation and redress, for your police beating; for your false arrest; for your unlawful search and seizure; for your malicious criminal prosecution; and for what’s usually at the center of all of the above, the exercise of our right to freedom of speech, and to complain to public officers, about misconduct by them or others, under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.

One substantial advantage that Mr. Steering can provide you, is a better chance at obtaining favorable evidence, to either leverage a favorable plea agreement, or flat-out win your criminal case, when you couldn’t otherwise do so.If you don’t sue police officers, you simply don’t know what types of evidence is “out there” (i.e. in the possession of police agencies.) Because pre-trial discovery is extremely limited in California state court criminal prosecutions, most lawyers who only practice criminal law will not have an opportunity to even find out what types of evidence is available. The type of evidence that can exonerate you, and can show that the Constable is not telling the truth. There are hundreds of different types of evidence that lawyers who only practice criminal law, usually do not know the existence of. For example, if you’re presently being represented by a criminal lawyer, make sure, they get the minimal types of “discovery”, that is available from various police agencies; most of which is “available”, only for a certain amount of time.

THE NEWPORT BEACH POLICE ARE NOT BOY SCOUTS, AND ARE OFTEN QUITE BRUTAL.

Newport Beach police, responding to a domestic violence call, shot and killed a man armed with a knife

If you want to see a police officer beat up an innocent, just go to Newport Beach on the 4th of July; you won’t be disappointed. If you think that the police don’t do bad thing to people who don’t deserve it, think again. After a while, many of today’s police officer actually enjoy beating others; no joke. Newport Beach PD is no exception. They kill others just as readily as today’s other trigger-happy police agencies. See, “Neighbor describes what happened when police officer shot, killed Newport Beach man”, Orange County Register, April 17, 2017.

Moreover, most rank and file police officers do not want to record their conduct. That way there is only one side of story. It was not until May of 201 that the Newport Beach Police Department began to wear body cams. See, Newport Police Department patrol officers don body cameras.

NOTABLE ORANGE COUNTY CRIMINAL CASES.

People of the State of California v. Mark Edwin Taylor; Orange County Superior Court (1986); Trial Counsel And Appointed Appellate Counsel (1986-1992.) Second Degree Felony Murder Case.

Under New “People v. Patterson” Standard, Second Degree Felony Murder Cannot Be Predicated On The Felony Of PCP Distribution, Because Illicit Use Of PCP Does Not Create “A High Probability Of Death”

In 1986, John Belushi died from an overdose of a combination of various narcotics, in Los Angeles. Also that year, Len Bias, the first round pick of the Boston Celtics, died from a cocaine overdose. Nancy Reagan was trumpeting her “Just Say No” (to drugs) campaign, and a very large portion of the American population was snorting cocaine; just about everyone (including President Carter’s National Security Adviser (spotted snorting coke in “Studio 54“; the Old Ed Sullivan Theater), and President George W. Bush (admitted to coke use during 2000 campaign.) Cops, Judges, lawyers, doctors, teachers, business people, housewives; just about everybody was snorting coke. There was drug madness about, and the “drug dealer” replaced the “Commies” as the enemy.

In that same year, 1986, Mark Edwin Taylor was passing around a “sherm” (a PCP laced cigarette) at Huntington Beach. An 18 year old young man from Montabello paid $2.00 for a puff of the sherm. After puffing, the young man walked-down to the surfline, fully clothed, wearing his Sony Walkman headphones, sat down on the beach, and a big wave took him to “Davy Jones locker“. The autopsy of the young man showed that he had a subdural hematoma. Since “dead men don’t bleed”, the evidence showed that the young man’s head was apparently slammed on the beach (perhaps a rock) when the big wave came crashing in, that disabled the young man to the point where he was rendered unconscious and drowned. In other words, the PCP didn’t kill the young man; the subdural hematoma did. This was the first case in the English speaking world in which a person was criminally prosecuted for homicide for drug distribution, when the dead person didn’t die of an overdose; only possibly the behavioral effects of the PCP (i.e. sitting at the surf line, while fully dressed and listening to music.)

During the first trial, Mr. Steering came close to being held in contempt of court for continuing to argue that there must be a better reason for the continued use of the felony murder rule, than it has been around since the time of Lord Coke (a quote frequestly attributed to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes.)

At the time of the first Taylor trial, the “Second Degree Felony Murder Rule” in California applied when a person died as a result of the commission of a felony that was “inherently dangerous to human life in the abstract”, and was not one of those felonies listed in Cal. Penal Code 189 (for First Degree Felony Murder.) See, People v. Henderson, 19 Cal.3d 86 (1977). It was under that standard that Mr. Taylor was convicted of Second Degree Felony Murder.

After his conviction, while Mr. Taylor was appealing the same, a case came out of the California Supreme Court, that changed the standard for the Second Degree Felony Murder rule from requiring a felony that’s“inherently dangerous to human life in the abstract”, to one that ”can’t be committed without creating a high probability of death”. See, People v. Patterson, 49 Cal.3d 615 (1989.) The Fourth District Court of Appeal remanded Mr. Taylor’s murder case back to the trial court (Judge Richard Beacom), who convicted Mr. Taylor again, under People v. Patterson, “can’t be committed without creating a high probability of death”standard.

When Mr. Steering again appealed Mr. Taylor’s Second Degree Felony Murder conviction to the Fourth District Court of Appeal, this time they reversedMr. Taylor’sSecond Degree Felony Murder permanently; holding that if all of the prosecution’s evidenceis accepted as true, that since PCP (phencyclidine) stabilizes a person’s vital signs (as opposed to destabilizing them), that illicit PCP use can be committed without creating a high probability of death. Result. Conviction Reversed, Mr. Taylor found Not Guilty by Court of Appeal. People v. Taylor, 6 Cal.App.4th 1084 (1992.)

OTHER NOTABLE ORANGE COUNTY SUPERIOR COURT CRIMINAL CASES

People of the State of California v. Joseph “Mac” Duffy; “Con Juan” Of The Coast Highway; Central Orange County Superior Court felony action for grand theft.

“Playboy Of The Coast Highway” Get “Sweatheart Deal” In Plea Bargain.

Joe Duffy (aka “Mac Duffy”) was a 28 year old Scottish golf professional, who had a way with the women. Mr. Duffy would drive up and down the Pacific Coast Highway between Laguna Beach and Newport Beach, in expensive cars, like Rolls Royces and Lambourginis. He would romance women (lots of them) and convince them to invest their money with him; telling them that his father manipulated stock prices on the “International Stock Market”; something that doesn’t exist. Several women in Orange County, California fell for the con, and gave Mr. Duffy $160,000.00 to invest for them. He invested the money; just not on them (it is estimated that Mr. Duffy obtained approximately $4,000,000.00 just this way from women, from Florida to California.See,

One of the women, Sylvianne Lestringant, became suspicious of Mr. Duffy, and hired Newport Beach Private Investigator Tom Martin to find-out about him. Mr. Martin found enough to procure the Newport Beach Police Department to investigate, and to arrest Mr. Duffy on four counts of grand theft; one of the four counts being stealing from Ms. Lestringant. However, Mr. Duffy was so smooth, that he actually convince victim number 4 (Count IV) Ms. Lestringant, to pay for his $40,000.00 bail bond to get him out of jail. Duffy was so smooth that he also got Ms. Lestringant to marry him, so she wouldn’t have to testify against him (the Judge made her testify anyway.) See, ‘Highway Heartbreaker’ Revisits Road to Ruin : Movie: The television film, airing Sunday, tells the story of playboy Joseph (Mac) Duffy and the victims of his scams, Los Angeles Times, March 28, 1992.

At Mr. Duffy’s Preliminary Examination in his felony grand theft case, Judge Leonard McBride dismissed all but one of the Counts against Mr. Duffy after Mr. Steering showed that the prosecution failed to prove a crucial element of theft via false pretenses; that the pretense was false. Mr. Steering thereupon negotiated a plea to one Count of Grand Theft, no jail time, and the dismiss of the Grand Theft conviction upon the successful completion of probation. It’s what in the law is known as a “sweatheart deal”.

People of the State of California v. Richard Page;Central – Orange County Superior Court (1992) criminal action for violation of Cal. Penal Code 148(a)(1) (resisting / obstructing delaying peace officers) Jury Verdict: Not Guilty

People of the State of California v. Rexford Newman; Harbor – Orange County Superior Court (2002) criminal action for violation of Cal. Penal Code 148(a)(1) (resisting / obstructing delaying peace officers) Jury Verdict: Not Guilty

People of the State of California v. Gabriel Celli; Harbor – Orange County Superior Court (2008) criminal action for violation of Cal. Penal Code 148(a)(1) (resisting / obstructing delaying peace officers) Jury Verdict: Not Guilty

PUBLICATIONS ON CRIMINAL LAW.

Mr. Steering is also a published legal scholar, and has a published Law Review Article a logical quandary of

Mr. Steering Article in disparate treatment of accomplice accusations was published by Rutgers Law School in 1985

federal evidentiary law: the disparity in the use of “accomplice accusations” between Fourth Amendment (accomplice accusations sufficiently reliable to establish probable cause for search warrant), and Sixth Amendment analysis (accomplice accusations are so inherently unreliable, that Congress could not have meant to have included them with the ambit of the Declaration Against Penal Interest exception to the hearsay rule.) As explained in the Law Review Article, a statement is either made under circumstances that we believe indicate that they are reliable, or not. Although the tests may be somewhat different, the statement is either reliable or not, and treating the statement as unreliable for Sixth Amendment purposes, but as reliable for Fourth Amendment purposes, is simply illogical. See, “The Application Of Sixth Amendment Tests For The Reliability Of Hearsay Evidence To Probable Cause Determinations”, 16 Rutgers Law Journal 869 (1985.)

MR. STEERING’S CIVIL RIGHTS EXPERIENCE PUTS US IN A POSITION TO KNOW WHAT TO OBTAIN FROM THE PROSECUTION, AND HOW TO MAKE SURE IT’S THERE WHEN YOU DEMAND IT.

Evidence preservation letters need to be delivered by your criminal lawyer (click here for a sample letter) to at least the investigating and arresting agencies, within the 100 days of the date of the incident to ensure the preservation of radio and telephone communications. After 100 days following the subject incident, the police agency can claim that they destroyed any such audio recordings of radio and telephone communications. See, Cal. Gov’t Code §§ 26202.6 and 34090.6. Usually, like all things in life of an adversarial nature, whether or any such communications exist, all too often, if the recordings are “bad” for the police, the police either destroy such audio recordings, or simply tell the District Attorney’s Office that they have been purged or lost. This same cushion of deniability or often is used by police agencies to deny the existence of other key items of evidence, such as (non-privileged) police agency internal memos, police agency emails, police agency MDC (Mobile Data Computer) car-to-car chat printouts, transmissions, officer daily activity reports, patrol sergeant’s daily reports, Pass-On logs, audio recordings made by officers on audio recorders, and other items of important material evidence. Believe this or not, it was not until 2012, that the right of a criminal defendant, who is on felony trial for battery on of peace officer (and other associated “resistance offenses“) to obtain copies of police agency Internal Affairs Investigations and the officer and witness statements made pursuant to those investigations. Rezek v. Superior Court, 206 Cal.App.4th 633 (2012.)

Moreover, in state court misdemeanor resisting arrest prosecutions, opposing counsel on ultimately the same issues (i.e. probable cause for arrest, use of unreasonable force), is usually green (new lawyer). Experience from extensive federal court discovery of the same police agency involved in state court criminal cases, allows us to know what various items of evidence to ask for from various police agencies, and what to demand and compel the production of. We have enough diligence and experience to nail the cops down on their stories in these criminal actions, that simply cannot be done in a regular civil action. When they’re on the stand in a criminal case, the cops don’t have their experienced civil lawyers to take them out in the hallway and tell them what to say, like they do in civil cases. In other words, we use the bogus criminal case to dramatically improve the odds of your ultimately prevailing on your civil excessive force, false arrest and malicious prosecution claims.

Mr. Steering specializes, in what the legal and law enforcement professions call Contempt Of Cop cases, and their sister civil counterparts; suing the police for false arrest, unreasonable force and malicious criminal prosecutions. If the police use unreasonable force on you, their standard reaction is to arrest you; right or wrong; good or evil. It makes no difference to them. Most good citizens understand that we need the police, and that they often deal with unsavory characters that we are glad that we don’t have to deal with ourselves. We believe that they protect us from the bad guys, and praise them for doing so.

However, most good citizens don’t have a clue that the people entrusted with their safety, are, in many cases, worse than those who they’re protecting you from. Ask any police officer if he would arrest his fellow officer, if they were out on patrol, and he saw his fellow officer beating a handcuffed and hobbled arrestee with a billy club in his head; even if he kills the fellow. They will all tell you “No.” That’s because they really believe that they are exempt from the same rules of civility and treatment of others as we are; above the law.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN; YOU ARE NOW THE ENEMY OF THE STATE.

Once the police cross that Constitutional barrier, there is no going back; at least not in their minds. Their relationship with you is, and ever after will be, adverse.Yesterday you were “Joe” or “Jane” citizen. Someone who supported the police, and believed that the police don’t do bad things to people who in some way, legally or morally, don’t deserve it. If need be, you would help a police officer in distress, and report serious criminal behavior, like seeing another get murdered. Now you are on the police radar; the enemies list. You are a threat to them, and they will lie, cheat, destroy evidence, procure your bogus criminal prosecution, and frame you for a crime, when you’re the victim. That is the modern police state that were are now in. The police can, and do, really shoot you dead, by merely claiming that you reached for your waistband. The is no joke. In 2010, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department admitted in a semi-annual report, that they shot 15 people to death, all unarmed, because they reached for their waistband. If you don’t believe it, just try them out and see what happens.

CRIMINAL LAW PRACTICE AND THE FIGHT FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE; MR. STEERING’S EARLY YEARS IN GEORGIA.

Having attended the University of Georgia School of Law, and having taken and passed the February 1984

Georgia Bar Exam in his last semester of Law School (while contemporaneously Clerking at a law firm full time, and attending law school full time), in June of 1984, Mr. Steering began defending criminal cases for the law firm of Scott & Quarterman, of Athens, Georgia; the same law firm that he clerked for, full-time, for over two years.

THE EARLY YEARS; CRIMINAL CASES IN GEORGIA.

MARTIN v. HARDISON; ON HIS FIRST DAY AS A LAWYER, JERRY L. STEERING INVENTS THE USE OF THE WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS, FOR VACATING TRAFFIC OFFENSES CONVICTIONS IN GEORGIA, RESULTING IN THE RETURN OF HUNDREDS OF SUSPENDED AND REVOKED DRIVER LICENSES

GEORGIA SUPREME COURT DECLARES RIGHT TO DRIVE A PROTECTED LIBERTY INTEREST; HARDISON V. MARTIN.

In Hardison v. Martin, 254 Ga. 719 (1985) the State of Georgia was turned upside down as a result of Mr. Steering’s invention of use of “The Great Writ” to obtain driver license reinstatement. In literally his first case as a lawyer (and literally his first day as a lawyer in court), Mr. Steering “invented” the use of the “Writ of Habeas Corpus“ (the “Great Writ“), to vacate wrongful convictions of innocents for serious traffic offenses (misdemeanors and felonies), that result in driver license suspension or revocation. Prior to Hardison v. Martin, 254 Ga. 719 (1985), a motorist had no remedy for the suspension or revocation of his/her driver license, if he/she had plead guilty to the underlying traffic offense, and the motorist was neither in police custody (i.e. prison or jail), nor “constructive custody” (i.e. parole or probation.) Hardison v. Martin expanded Georgia’s definition of restraint of one’s liberty under the Georgia Habeas Corpus statute, from being in prison or jail, or being on probation or parole, to being entitled to a driver license. In other words, because of the widespread use of cars in today’s society to travel, there is a constitutionally protected “liberty interest” in being able to drive a vehicle; not a mere “privilege” that the state may revoke at its whim (a right, rather than a privilege.)

HARDISON v. MARTIN; THE PROBLEM; NO REMEDY TO RIGHT THE WRONG.

In Hardison v. Martin, 254 Ga. 719 (1985), Randall Martin was a car salesman at an Athens, Georgia, Cadillac Dealership. He needed to have a valid Georgia driver license, to work as a car salesmen. Mr. Martin had a tough break-up with his girlfriend, and got drunk to deal with his mental anguish. Over a two day period, Mr. Martin got arrested twice for DUI. The second DUI arrest was prompted by a call to the police by Mr. Martin’s girlfriend, reporting that Mr. Martin had broken a window on her home (while knocking too hard; the product of ethanol and inadvertence, and being “jilted“), and that she just wanted him gone. When the police were driving Westbound on the Atlanta Highway (the B52′s “Love Shack’s” Atlanta Highway), Mr. Martin was driving Westbound. There was quite a large amount of lawn / grass that separated the Eastbound from the Westbound lanes. Mr. Martin correctly guessed that the police officer, who was traveling Eastbound, was looking for him. However, it took the officer about fifteen seconds to reach the next road to turn-around, to pursue Mr. Martin Westbound (this wasn’t life or death, when an officer might drive over a large grass median.) So, Mr. Martin immediately pulled his car over to the curb, parked on the shoulder of the Atlanta Highway, and ran into the woods; hiding from the police.

The officers simply waited for a few hours at Mr. Martin’s car, and he eventually came out of the woods and surrendered to the police. Over his two day drunken binge (from being “jilted”), Mr. Martin had been arrested for DUI for the first day, and for DUI and eluding an officer in a vehicle, on the second day. Mr. Martin pleaded guilty to all three misdemeanor traffic offenses, and was given three years probation and a $700.00 fine. However, the Clerk of the Clarke County, Georgia Superior Court neglected to send copies of Mr. Martin’s judgment of conviction for the three traffic misdemeanors to the Georgia Department of Public Safety (Georgia’s combo State Patrol and DMV) for over three years; only doing so in response to the Probation Office notifying the Superior Court Clerk’s Office that Mr. Martin had successfully completed his three years of probation.

After the Georgia Department of Public Safety received Mr. Martin’s judgment of conviction from the Clerk’s Office, they notified him that he was an “habitual violator” under Georgia law, for having three serious traffic convictions within five years. See, OCGA § 40-5-58 . Under that law, it was a felony for Mr. Martin to drive for five years.

After being declared an habitual violator (OCGA § 40-5-58 ), Mr. Martin lost his job as a car salesman, as he couldn’t drive. His lawyer (Mr. Steering’s old boss, Howard Scott) brought a motion to set-aside his guilty plea to the eluding an officer in a vehicle Count, on the ground that although Mr. Martin did flee the officer on foot, that he didn’t use his car to evade the police, and, therefore, cannot be guilty of the misdemeanor offense of eluding an officer in a vehicle, and deserves his driver license back. So, although Mr. Martin was guilty of a crime, he was not guilty of a traffic offense, and his right to drive should not have been revoked.

At the hearing on the motion to vacate Mr. Martin’s guilty plea, the arresting officer testified to the above and foregoing; that Mr. Martin eluded him, but on foot; not in his car. The Judge nonetheless denied the motion. The motion was written and orchestrated by Mr. Steering, for his then boss, Howard Tate Scott, during his last semester of law school.

Thus, Mr. Martin had proof, based on the arresting officer’s own version of the events, that the he was innocent of the traffic misdemeanor that resulted in his being declared an habitual violator (eluding an officer in a vehicle), and the loss of his job. However, as one can’t appeal a guilty plea, as there is nothing to appeal from; there was no trial to complain was unfair. Also, because Mr. Martin was not in prison or jail, or on parole or probation, as the judgment of conviction was sent in after he was off probation, under the Georgia Habeas Corpus statute, there was not a sufficient restraint on liberty for Habeas Corpus relief to lie; or was it?

HARDISON v. MARTIN; THE SOLUTION; FOR EVERY WRONG THERE MUST BE A REMEDY.

Not taking “No” for an answer, on the first day that Mr. Steering was an attorney, June 25, 1984, a hearing was held on the Writ of Habeas Corpus against Colonel Hugh Hardison, Commissioner of the Georgia Department of public safety. While still a law clerk, Mr. Steering ghostwrote a Habeas Corpus Petition for Mr. Martin, contending that Colonel Hugh Hardison was restraining Mr. Martin’s liberty by revoking his driver license, and requesting that Clarke County Superior Court Judge Joseph P. Gaines order Colonel Hardison to give Mr. Martin his driver license back. After ruling that modern American cases and the change in modern society should recognize other forms of restraints on one’s liberty other than prison, jail, parole and probation, and that “mere technicalities of law” should not permit the scales of justice to be tipped in favor of punishing the indisputably innocent, Clarke County Superior Court Judge Joseph P. Gaines ordered Colonel Hardison to give Mr. Martin his driver license back. Judge Gaines granted the Writ of Habeas Corpus on the ground that driver license revocation qualified as a sufficient restraint on one’s liberty upon which Habeas Corpus relief may lie.

Because Mr. Martin was indisputably innocent, the Georgia Supreme Court was not going to leave him without remedy, for the Clerk’s belated delivery of the judgment of his conviction to the Georgia Department of Public Safety. When the Georgia Attorney General’s Office appealed Judge Gaine’s granting of the Writ of Habeas corpus for Mr. Martin, a unanimous Georgia Supreme Court affirmed Judge Gaines’ order; creating the right to use the remedy of Habeas Corpus to vacate traffic offense convictions in Georgia.

HARDISON v. MARTIN; THE POLITICAL FALLOUT

Because in the State of Georgia, there were no “infractions” or “violations”, just misdemeanors or felonies (i.e. DUI misdemeanor; bald tires ticket misdemeanor, and robbery and murder, felonies), the ruling in the Martin case had dramatic consequences in the State of Georgia. In none, or almost none, of the guilty pleas in Georgia traffic cases, did the Judge obtain either written or oral (and reported / recorded) waivers of the certain fundamental Constitutional rights that Boykin v. Alabama, 395 U.S. 238 (1969.) guarantees. However, in order to withstand attack upon conviction, even a misdemeanor traffic violation, by way of a Writ of Habeas Corpus, a guilty plea (or no contest / nolo contendre plea) must include some sort of record (i.e. a written waiver of rights form, or a transcript of an oral in-court waiver of rights) of a knowing, intelligent and voluntary waiver of certain basic Constitutional rights, such as: 1) the right to counsel; 2) the right to remain silent; 3) the right to a public trial by jury: 4) the right to use the compulsory process of the court; and 5) the right to confront (cross-examine) one’s accusers. See, Boykin v. Alabama, 395 U.S. 238 (1969.)

Therefore, because the majority of traffic convictions in Georgia were the result of guilty pleas, and all of them were at least misdemeanors, almost all of them in the state were now subject to being set aside via Habeas Corpus. Many of them were.

THE STATE v. SUSAN JONES; EVERYONE NEEDS TO START SOMETIME; MR. STEERING’S FIRST JURY TRIAL; LET’S CONVICT THE OBVIOUSLY INNOCENT.

Mr. Steering’s first criminal jury trial was the case of The State of Georgia v. Susan Jones; Clarke County (Georgia) State Court. In that case, defendant Susan Jones was being prosecuted for misdemeanor criminal utterance of a bad check. OCGA § 16-9-20 (uttering a check for present consideration, knowing that the check will not be honored by the bank.) On the same day that Mrs. Jones had paid her $380.00 monthly rent for her apartment by check, she had also made a $400.00 bank deposit into her checking account (before she paid her rent.) However, the landlord didn’t deposit the check for about a month. When the check was presented to Ms. Jones’ bank for payment, the bank denied the payment, as her account had dipped a few dollars below the $380.00 check amount, due to miscellaneous bank charges.

On the day before the Jones “bad-check” trial, the Clarke County Solicitor, Ken Stula, received Susan Jones’ bank records. It was apparent from the bank account records that she had no intent to defraud her landlord, and that she was innocent. On the morning of the trial, Susan Jones, represented by then young attorney Jerry L. Steering, answered ready for trial. The prosecution, represented by Clarke County Solicitor, Ken Stula, told the Clarke County State Court (Judge Grady C. Pittard, Jr.), that his office had obtained Ms. Jones’ bank records yesterday, that the records show that she was innocent, and that The State would like to dismiss the case. Judge Pittard scolded Mr. Stula for filing cases without first properly investigating them, and for waiting to the last minute to investigate them. However, Judge Pittard refused to dismiss the case, and told Mr. Stula not to worry; that he would “help” him. When Mr. Steering asked the Court what that was supposed to mean, Judge Pittard threatened Mr. Steering with jail for even asking.

During the trial, young attorney Jerry Steering found out what the “help” was. Judge Pittard refused to allow Mr. Steering to have the manager of Ms. Jones’ bank, identify or authenticate her bank account records, that proved her innocence. Mr. Steering could not believe that in his first trial, that the Judge and the prosecutor, were making a game out of attempting to convict a woman who they both knew was truly innocent. The Judge was “teaching the prosecutor a lesson”, and the prosecutor was going through the motions; almost struggling to keep a straight face. Mr. Steering doesn’t believe that Judge Pittard would had let a conviction of Ms. Jones stand. He was just having fun with the whole situation, at Mrs. Jones’ expense.

Notwithstanding the little game between the court and the prosecution, the jury saw right through it, and acquitted Ms. Jones in five minutes; literally five minutes. The fastest verdict that Mr. Steering has ever received.

This case was exceptionally “novel”, in the sense that once the prosecution moves to dismiss a criminal action, the court has no choice other than to dismiss it. It comes from the American doctrine of “separation of powers“. The judicial branch of government (the courts) cannot order the executive branch of government to prosecute anyone; ever. Only the executive branch of government (i.e. the President, a Governor, an Attorney General or a District Attorney, City Attorney, United States Attorney; in this case the State misdemeanor prosecutor; the Solicitor) can decide to criminally prosecute a person or corporation. So, although what Judge Pittard was doing was exceptionally unlawful, the defendant ultimately prevailed.

THE STATE OF GEORGIA v. KATIE MAE WILSON; MR. STEERING’S FIRST MURDER CASE.

Mr. Steering tried a murder case in Athens, Georgia; several months after graduation from law school in 1984. It was defending that case that gave Mr. Steering his first taste of police perjury (something that he has experienced in most of his cases thereafter.) The main investigating officer lied on the witness stand at the murder trial, about a discussion that he had with Mr. Steering, so Mr. Steering knew that the police officer was lying. Although the defendant did kill her husband, Curtis Wilson, with a boiling pot (smashed it over his head), Mr. Steering was still able to pull-off a manslaughter conviction out of the jury, and a six month jail sentence for his client; Katie Mae Wilson.

Mr. Steering got plenty of trial experience in Clarke County and Oconee County State Court, before the Hon. Grady C. Pittard, Jr. In Georgia, the District Attorney’s Office prosecutes felony cases, but the County Solicitor’s Office prosecute misdemeanors. Similarly, in Georgia, felonies are handled in the Superior Court, but misdemeanors are handled in the “State Court” (both of the Courts are courts of the State of Georgia.)

CRIMINAL CASES AFTER MR. STEERING MOVES TO CALIFORNIA – APPELLATE PRACTICE

MR. STEERING IS APPOINTED BY CALIFORNIA COURT OF APPEALS TO REPRESENT INDIGENT CRIMINAL DEFENDANTS ON MAJOR FELONY APPEALS

Based on the quality of his legal writing, when Mr. Steering first moved to California in 1986, he applied to the Fourth District Court of Appeal (that includes Imperial County, San Diego County, Orange County, Riverside County and San Bernardino County) for appointments for serious felony convictions for those in prison, and without sufficient resources to pay for an appellate attorney.

FIRST APPOINTED APPEAL; SAN DIEGO MAN CHOPS-UP WIFE WITH AXE.

In his first appointed appeal, Mr. Steering represented a Polish immigrant who chopped-up his wife with an axe in San Diego (he caught her in bed with another, and waited for her paramour to leave. He left their wedding photos on her chopped-up body, and called the police to turn himself in. The jury gave him Second Degree Murder, and Mr. Steering was trying for a reduction to manslaughter.

SECOND APPOINTED APPEAL; BRING A THICKER SWEATER.

In his next appointed appeal, he represented a man who had attempted to hold-up a liquor store by draping a sweater over his hand with his finger pointed to attempt to look like a gun barrel. The store clerk immediately recognized the items underneath the sweater as a hand, hit the alarm, walked around the corner and beat-up the defendant / appellant. Mr. Steering tried to appeal on theory of the impossibility defense, but the Court of Appeal wouldn’t go for it. Under the impossibility defense to crime, one does an act that no reasonable person would think would result in the desired result of the action. The classic example is the Voodoo Witch Doctor who casts a spell and sticks pins in a Voodoo doll in an attempt to kill another. Under the impossibility defense, no reasonable person would believe that their actions, in that case, casting a death spell and sticking pins in a Voodoo doll, would result in death or any harm; yet the menta

l element of most crimes, the mens rea, is the same in such a case as if one believe that home made bomb would work, when it wouldn’t as assembled; when it would have been impossible for that home made bomb to explode.This was the case with the sweater. It was so obvious from the look of a flimsy sweater draped over the defendant’s / appellant’s hand with pointing finger that there was no gun, only a finger, that no reasonable person would have believed that the result (i.e. making the store clerk believe that he had a gun under the sweater) would have resulted from the defendant’s / appellant’s conduct. Again, however, this is a criminal case, and the Court of Appeal ignored the Voodoo Doctor’s pin-sticking, and affirmed the conviction.

CRIMINAL CASES AFTER MR. STEERING MOVES TO CALIFORNIA – TRIAL PRACTICE.

BILL L. HARBERT v. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA; “THE KING CAN DO NO WRONG”

Mr. Steering has even filed a civil action for a Declaratory Judgment in the United States District Court for the

Bill M. Harbert, Chairman Bill Harbert International Constitution

District of Columbia (that got transferred to the Northern District of Alabama) Bill L. Harbert v. United States of America; District Court Case No. 05-00173 CV-LSC-S. Mr. Harbert, was essentially “extorted” by the United States government to guarantee a $54,000,000.00 fine for a Sherman Act violation by a Liechtenstein company owned by him. He was neither a defendant to the criminal Sherman Act case against Bilhar International Construction, nor accused in any way in the Indictment of his company, and its London based President; Roy Anderson. The Declaratory Judgment action sought to relieve Mr. Harbert from having to pay that fine, based on the ground that he was extorted into signing the personal guarantee for the $54,000,000.00 fine imposed against Bilhar International Construction in said Sherman Act case.

Bill L. Harbert International Construction, one of the largest international construction companies in the world, and its affiliate company; Bilhar International Construction, a Lichtenstein company, was awarded a contract to rebuild the water delivery system for Cairo, Egypt by the United States Agency for International Development (“USAID”.) The $285,000.00 contract was a product of the 1979 Camp David Peace Accords, where President Carter negotiated permanent peace treaty between Israel and Egypt. Although President Carter may have been a persuasive fellow, the United States had to provide and to pay for large construction projects in Egypt, to get Egyptian President Anwar Sadat to sign the peace treaty.

After being awarded the contract and completing the Cairo water delivery project, the United States government indicted Bill L. Harbert International Construction, Bilhar Company, and it’s London-based President, Roy Hill, for violation of the Sherman Act and making a false claim for payment to “Uncle Sam“; claiming that the Bill Harbert companies had “rigged the bidding” on the water delivery project, via a group of several international construction companies, called “The Frankfort Club.” The Sherman Act is a federal law that prohibits “anti-competitive business practices“, and nothing is more anti-competitive than bid-rigging.

Although the government Indicted Bilhar and an affiliate company, along with its President, Elmore Roy Hill, the government never claimed that Bill L. Harbert even knew about the bid-rigging. However, in order to settle the criminal action against Bilhar, Mr. Harbert was forced to (extorted) sign a personal guarantee of the criminal fine against Bilhar; a $54,000,000.00 fine. The fine terms called for an immediate payment of $10,000,000.00, and payments of approximately $740,000.00 per month. The personal guarantee also provided for the estate of Mr. Harbert to continue to be liable for the fine, even after his death.

Since he was never Indicted, the government couldn’t collect any monies from Mr. Harbert, other than via his personal guarantee. Moreover, Bilhar company, the actual defendant, only had $34,000,000.00 in total assets. Therefore, Mr. Harbert was being forced to pay $20,000,000.00 more than the total assets of the defendant company. Something had to be done. Although Mr. Harbert’s personal guarantee was negotiated by Nashville, Tennessee attorney Jim Neal (the man who put Jimmy Hoffa in prison), and his companies were represented by, among others, Charles F. (“Rick”) Rule (lead counsel for Microsoft in USA v. Microsoft), no one had a solution for Mr. Harbert’s problem; getting out of paying the remained of the$54,000,000.00 fine, and at least not having to pay the extra $20,000,000.00.

In 2002, Mr. Steering was hired by the Harbert legal team to solve the problem. Mr. Steering came-up with the idea of filing an action for a Declaratory Judgment; ordering that Mr. Harbert is excused from paying any of the fine, as being the product of extortion by Uncle Sam himself. While this case was going on, former United States Senator Bob Dole (R-Kansas) was escorting Mr. Steering around Capitol Hill, and introducing him to Senators and United States Representatives (Members of the House of Representatives) to sign-off on a Congressional letter of support for Mr. Harbert’s cause. On June 19, 2003, Sen. Dole even wrote to Attorney General Ashcroft, and accused the United States Department of Justice of extorting the personal guarantee from Mr. Harbert. See, June 19, 2003 letter from Bob Dole to Attorney General Ashcroft.

The Eleventh Circuit ultimately held that whether or not Mr. Harbert was “extorted” by Uncle Same, that “The King Can Do No Wrong“; that notwithstanding any such oppressive conduct by the government toward Mr. Harbert, that the federal government had “Sovereign Immunity” from being sued; even notwithstanding a 14th Amendment (“shocking to the conscience” standard for 14th Amendment Substantive Due Process Violation. It is true; “The King Can Do No Wrong“.

PEOPLE v. MARK EDWIN TAYLOR; NO SECOND DEGREE MURDER LIABILITY FOR PCP DISTRIBUTION.

In 1986, John Belushi died from an overdose of a combination of various narcotics, in Los Angeles. Also that year, Len Bias, the first round pick of the Boston Celtics, died from a cocaine overdose. Nancy Reagan was trumpeting her “Just Say No” (to drugs) campaign, and a very large portion of the American population was snorting cocaine; just about everyone (President George W. Bush (admitted to coke use during 2000 campaign.) Cops, Judges, lawyers, doctors; just about everybody was snorting coke. There was drug madness about, and the “drug dealer” replaced the “Commies” as the enemy.

In that same year, 1986, Mark Edwin Taylor was passing around a “sherm” (a PCP laced cigarette) at Huntington Beach. An 18 year old young man from Montabello paid $2.00 for a puff of the sherm. After puffing, the young man walked-down to the surf line, fully clothed, wearing his Sony Walkman headphones, sat down on the beach, and a big wave took him to Davy Jones locker. The autopsy of the young man showed that he had a subdural hematoma. Since “dead men don’t bleed”, the evidence showed that the young man’s head was apparently slammed on the beach (perhaps a rock) when the big wave came, and, that disabled the young man to the point where he was rendered unconscious and drowned. In other words, the PCP didn’t kill the young man. The subdural hematoma did. This was the first case in the English speaking world in which a person was criminally prosecuted for homicide for drug distribution, when the dead person didn’t die of an overdose; only possibly the behavioral effects of the PCP (i.e. sitting at the surf line, while fully dressed and listening to music.) During the first trial, Mr. Steering came close to being held in contempt of court for continuing to argue that there must be a better reason for the continued use of the felony murder rule, than it has been around since the time of Lord Coke.

In addition, Mr. Steering proved that although PCP had bizarre psychological effects, he also proved that illicit PCP use does not carry with it a “high probability of death”; the requirement for a felony to serve as the predicate felony for Second Degree Felony Murder in California. Therefore, in Reversing Mr. Taylor’s Second Degree Murder conviction, the Fourth District Court of Appeal (Division Three) held that a person could not be held liable for murder in California for PCP distribution, as PCP is not drug that carries with it, “a high probability of death” when used illicitly (See, People v. Taylor, 6 Cal.App.4th 1084 (1992).)

THE FIGHT FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE; CONTEMPT OF COP CASES

Mr. Steering is an expert in “Contempt Of Cop” type cases, and has litigated, consulted, advised or has otherwise been involved in thousands of these type of bogus criminal cases; usually for fabricated charges of either: 1) resisting / obstructing / delaying a peace officer in the lawful performance of his duties, 2) assault and battery on a peace officer, 3) using / threatening use of force or violence to deter or prevent a public officer from performing their duty, 4) assault with a deadly weapon on a peace officer, or, 5) attempted murder of a peace officer.

The natural American reaction to hearing that you are accused of a crime, is to presume that you actually committed some crime, or otherwise acted unlawfully, anti-socially dishonorably or despicably. These, “Contempt Of Cop” cases, typical involve the police using force upon persons (i.e. beating them) and/or falsely arresting them, and then inventing bogus allegations of violations various “Contempt Of Cop” statutes, such as violations of: 1) Cal. Penal Code § 148(a)(1) (resisting / obstructing / delaying peace officer; the most abused statute in the Penal Code; 2) Cal. Penal Code § 240/241(b) (assault on a peace officer); 3) Cal. Penal Code § 242 / 243(b) (battery on a peace officer); and 4) Cal. Penal Code § 69 (interfering with public officer via actual or threatened use of force or violence.) Cal. Penal Code § 69 is a “wobbler”; a California public offense that may be filed by the District Attorney’s Office as either a felony or a misdemeanor. In Orange County, Riverside County and Los Angeles County, allegations of violation of Penal Code 69 are usually filed as misdemeanors. In San Bernardino County, however, allegations of violation of Cal. Penal Code § 69 are filed as felonies much more often than her sister counties.

Jerry L. Steering also handles many other types of criminal cases, such as:

* DUI cases; * Drug cases; * Theft / Fraud cases; * Failure to Register cases (drug offenders and sex offenders); *Assault and Battery cases; * Domestic Violence cases; * Criminal Threats; * Economic Crimes cases (investor fraud, securities laws violations; * Homicide cases; * Other offense * Towing Cases

If you have a legal problem, please call (949) 474-1849 for a free telephone consultation to see if we can help you with your criminal law problems.

Jerry L. Steering, Esq.

Huntington Beach Police Brutality Attorney

Posted by Jerry L. Steering, Esq. on September 24, 2017

Huntington Beach Police Brutality Attorney

Jerry L. Steering is a Police Misconduct Attorney who sues police officers and deputy sheriffs, for, among other things, false arrests, excessive force and malicious criminal prosecutions. Of all of the police departments in Orange County, California, the Huntington Beach Police Department has a reputation for being one of the most brutal police agencies.

One of Mr. Steering’s first Police Misconduct cases in California, was for a man named Michael Markell, who was beaten by a Huntington Beach Police Department police officer named Wiley Weston. Officer Weston’s father was a Huntington Beach Police Department police officer, and his son Wiley Weston was apparently a legacy hire by the Department.

Although Wiley Weston was eventually fired by the Huntington Beach Police Department for torturing DUI arrestees with his stun gun at the Huntington Beach Police Department station, before he was fired, he brutally beat Mr. Markell over a speeding violation on the Pacific Coast Highway.

Things at the Huntington Beach Police Department has not changed. That agency still routinely beats and literally tortures innocents for “failing the attitude test”; for “contempt of cop”. Police brutality, usually for sadistic motives, is alive and well in Surf City USA.

Huntington Beach Police Department Police Officers Commit Constitutional Violations, Such as Excessive Force, Often for Sadistic Reasons.

LEGAL EDUCATION AND PUBLICATIONS.

Mr. Steering is also a published legal scholar, and has a published Law Review Article about a logical

THE HUNTINGTON BEACH POLICE DEPARTMENT HAS BEEN BEATING INNOCENTS AND FRAMING THEM FOR MANY YEARS NOW. THE RANK AND FILE DO NOT WANT THEIR CONDUCT TO BE RECORDED.

As shown below, police abuse of these resistance offenses, coupled with our appellate courts basically allowing “Officer’s Safety” concerns to trump your search and seizure rights, have created a truly modern police officer who is brutal and who will frame you to shift the blame for his / her use of force upon you.

Sorry to burst your bubble Huntington Beach, but commensurate with their long tradition, the Huntington Beach Police Department is exceptionally brutal, and will almost never pass-up an opportunity to “tune up” anyone who dare not jump fast enough when they bark, or who challenges the officer’s unreasonable “orders” to them (i.e. Get over here and “shut the f–k up”; Sit on the curb and “shut the f–k up”; Get on the ground and “shut the f–k up”; all supposedly for officer safety.) In Huntington Beach, its all too often Friday or Saturday night at the fights; except the only ones fighting are the police; the other involuntary participant, is doing more of covering-up, while the police street gangs roam Surf City’s streets.

Huntington Beach Police Department officers are especially brutal. They revel in beating-up innocents and procuring your malicious criminal prosecution for some “resistance offense”. This is not lefty propaganda.

HBPD Chief Robert Handy is running into resistance by his officers to recording their conduct and in doing actual internal affairs investigations

Throughout 2017 the Huntington Beach Police Department has been fighting efforts by Chief Robert Handy and a 4-3 Majority of the City Council in purchasing 50 body cam recorders for HBPD patrol officers. In his response to the police association “vote of no confidence”; HBPD Chief Handy stated that the Huntington Beach is one of few police departments without either body cameras or dashboard devices. He also stated that although the officers have belt-worn audio recorders, they are rarely used.

“We’re way behind other departments in documenting and recording the work that officers do,” he said. “In fact, we’re at the bottom.”

INTRODUCTION: MOST FALSE ARRESTS ARE EFFORTS BY POLICE OFFICERS. ALONG WITH THEIR PROTECTORS AT THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY’S OFFICE, TO PROTECT THEMSELVES FROM CIVIL, CRIMINAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE LIABILITY, FOR WRONGFUL ACTS COMMITTED BY THEM.

Police Misconduct is rampant and condoned and defended by the command structure of most, if not all, modern police agencies.

FOR MOST OF YOU, IF YOU ARE READING THIS ARTICLE YOUR VIEWS ABOUT POLICE OFFICERS HAVE RECENTLY DRAMATICALLY CHANGED.

POLICE SADISM IN THE UNITED STATES; IT ROOT AND CAUSES.

Some of this is the result of the United States being in a war in the Middle East since 2001. The United

OFFICER’S SAFETY HAS REPLACED YOUR RIGHT TO BE FREE FROM UNREASONABLE SEARCHES AND SEIZURES OF YOUR PERSONS AND PROPERTY.

POLICE BRUTALITY IS TOLERATED AND ENCOURAGED BY PUBLIC PROSECUTORS BY PROSECUTING INNOCENTS FOR RESISTANCE OFFENSES.

THE COPS ARE OUT OF CONTROL.

IT REALLY HAS BECOME THAT BAD; CASE EXAMPLE, THE DESERT HOT SPRINGS POLICE DEPARTMENT.

Case In Point; Desert Hot Springs PD:

Other police agencies are not far behind, if at all, DHSPD.

Take the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. The certainly have DHSPD beat in sheer number of total police outrages committed.

THE LAPD’S MOTTO IS “WE’RE THE BADEST GANG IN

TOWN”.

On March 16, 2017 Sheriff Lee Baca was convicted for his role in a scheme to block an FBI investigation into mistreatment of inmates in his jails.

POLICE BRUTALITY, FALSE ARRESTS AND MALICIOUS CRIMINAL PROSECUTIONS.

IN CALIFORNIA, A POLICE OFFICER CAN BEAT-UP OR MURDER ANYONE THAT THEY WANT TO, ANY TIME THAT THEY WANT TO, WHILE ON-DUTY.

The Los Angeles Police Departments (LAPD’s) motto is: Were the badest gang in town. One might think, why are these cops acting like Nazis? Why is this allowed to persist?

Nonetheless, the body politic tolerates the existence, and the perpetuation of an ongoing unwritten agreement among and between peace officers, to falsely report, and, if necessary, to thereafter conspire with officers who they may not yet even know, to falsely testify, about event(s), if the potential or apparent criminal, administrative and civil liability of a fellow officer is at stake. After all, in the primary category of cases that truly are “false arrests” in the most malevolent sense of the word, “Contempt of Cop cases“, the only reason that there’s an arrest of a civilian at all, is because the police officer has beaten-up / tortured another; usually to self-medicate rather their frail and easily bruise-able egos. If you’re reading this article, the odds are, that either you or a loved one or friend has been beaten-up by the police and are being criminally prosecuted for allegedly battering the officer or somehow “resisting” the officer.

LEGALLY, WHAT IS EXCESSIVE / UNREASONABLE FORCE?

The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides:

“Amendment IV.

What Is Excessive / Unreasonable Force?

The United States Supreme Court has defined “Excessive Force”as follows:

“Ninth Circuit Model Civil Jury Instructions

9.22 PARTICULAR RIGHTS—FOURTH AMENDMENT—UNREASONABLE SEIZURE OF PERSON—EXCESSIVE (DEADLY AND NONDEADLY) FORCE

In determining whether the officer[s] used excessive force in this case, consider all of the circumstances known to the officer[s] on the scene, including;

1) The severity of the crime or other circumstances to which the officer[s] [was] [were] responding;

2) Whether the plaintiff posed an immediate threat to the safety of the officer[s] or to other;

3) Whether the plaintiff was actively resisting arrest or attempting to evade arrest by flight;

4) The amount of time and any changing circumstances during which the officer had to determine the type and amount of force that appeared to be necessary;

5) The type and amount of force used;

6) The availability of alternative methods [to take the plaintiff into custody] [to subdue the plaintiff;]

7) Other factors particular to the case.]“

THE PROBLEM WITH GRAHAM’S “REASONABLE OFFICER STANDARD” IN THE REAL WORLD – THE WATCHMAN GETS TO MAKE HIS OWN RULES THAT REGULATE HIS OWN CONDUCT.

THE PROBLEM OF QUALIFIED IMMUNITY, COMPOUNDS THE PROBLEM CREATED BY GRAHAM

The Perversion, Ad Nauseam, Of The Qualified Immunity Doctrine, To Protect Peace Officers From Civil Liability; “Reasonably Acting Unreasonably”

When determining whether there are any genuine issues of material fact at the summary judgment stage, the court must take all facts in the light most favorable to the non-moving party. In the context of qualified immunity, determinations that turn on questions of law, such as whether the officers had probable cause or reasonable suspicion to support their actions, are appropriately decided by the court. Act Up!/Portland v. Bagley, 988 F.2d 868, 873 (9th Cir. 1993.)

QUALIFIED IMMUNITY IS A SELF-FULFILLING POLICY; THE COURT’S DON’T PROVIDE EITHER REASONABLY DISCERNIBLE GUIDELINES, OR CLEAR BORDER TYPE RULINGS.

TASER CASES GONE WILD.

So, what is the lesson of the “Taser Trilogy”; everyone is full of it; everyone.

WHY THE POLICE CRIMINALLY PROSECUTE THEIR VICTIMS; THE ROOT OF MOST FALSE ARRESTS.

Thank you, and best of luck, whatever your needs.

Law Offices of Jerry L. Steering

Jerry L. Steering, Esq.

Why Police Officers Do Not Want Their Conduct Recorded

Posted by Jerry L. Steering, Esq. on September 7, 2017

Ask the average American why people become police officers, and they will almost invariably tell you “to serve and protect.” They are conditioned to believe this even though it’s just not so. This frame of mind must stop if we are to again become a free people. Presently, we are not. You may not feel the boot of oppression pressing down upon you now, but someday, you or your relative, or a friend or your neighbor, will. When that happens, you will not be the same person. Your belief system about the police will have changed. You will be saying: “I never would have believed it if I hadn’t seen it myself.” They always do. You will no longer believe that the police are here to “serve and protect” us. You will know otherwise. A strong dose of reality, like being beaten-up by the police and being arrested for resisting arrest and battery on a peace officer will do that to you.

Most Conservative white people feel that they aren’t doing anything illegal, so what do they have to worry about? What they don’t realize is that contrary to all of the recent press coverage of police shootings of black youths, the police don’t just pick on blacks; they falsely arrest, wrongfully beat and often shoot all colors of civilians. In recent times, the American press and media, along with the growth of social media, have bombarded Americans with stories of misconduct by the police. This is not a trend that is going to go away, for no other reasons than: 1) just about everyone is carrying smartphones, and 2) because of the ever dropping costs to police agencies of recording and storing digital video and audio data more and more police agencies are having their officer wear body video cameras.

Because of the advent of smartphones, the public has become today’s videographers of police misconduct. Almost all of us have the ability to quickly engage a video recording device to record an event that we may be witnessing. Unfortunately, the event that would prompt one to engage the video record function of the cellphone, usually precedes what actually gets recorded. However, there’s enough smartphones out there so once in a while, the actual police outrage gets recorded.

Also, because some public entities are either dumb enough, or honest enough, to have their police officers video record themselves, the public can get a better concept of reality. If you ask any Risk Management Officer with a public entity about the their police agency even being equipped with Patrol Video Recording Systems, they will tell you (off the record) that they are vehemently opposed to any such recording. Although when some police officer does something terrible to a civilian, the politicians call for “transparency”, Risk Management people with the public agency know better. They know that the numbers of false claims against police officers will be greatly exceeded by the number of police outrages against the public that does get recorded. In most public agencies, the “bean counters” (the Risk Management people) have so far won that battle.

For example, the California Highway Patrol still only has a few of their Patrol Cars equipment with Patrol Video Recording Systems. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department doesn’t have Patrol Cars equipment with Patrol Video Recording Systems to this very day. The FBI and the Treasury Department don’t even video or audio record witness statements to this very day; they take handwritten notes, and then type-up their Form 302 Witness Interview statements. So, why is this the case? The answer is simple; without recording witnesses or incidents, there’s only one side of the story; the police officer’s side.

If someday, all or most police officer are required to wear and engage body video cameras, the veil of purity or decency of police agencies will, to an appreciable degree, be lifted for all to see. If that happens, the public will realize that their illusion / delusion of living in a free society, was false. This is important for many reasons:

FIRST REASON: BECAUSE THE PUBLIC HAS NO CONCEPT OF POLICE ACTIONS IN THE REAL WORLD, THE POLICE CAN EASILY FRAME THEIR VICTIMS FOR “RESISTANCE OFFENSES.”

Unless you were brought up in the ghetto or the barrio, you probably haven’t personally witnessed the police beating-up and framing innocents; most often for verbal protest of their treatment by the police (i.e. “contempt of cop arrests”.) This author has been suing police officers since 1984 and has either represented or has spoken with thousands or victims of police brutality and false arrests. These wrongful beatings, tasings, clubbings, pepper-sprayings and shootings don’t just happen to persons of color. This author has represented persons who one would never expect to have been beaten and falsely arrested by the police; such as an American Airlines Captain, an Aerospace Engineer, a major Bank Vice Presidents, School Teachers, a School Board Member, Pastors, Physicians and other members of society that we don’t associate with criminality. These innocents who suffer police beatings and false arrests invariably say that they never would have believed it if it hadn’t happened to them. Before their life-changing encounter with oppressive police conduct, these high status innocents usually supported the police, and thought highly of them. They thought that the police were there to “protect and serve” them; not to beat / tase / spray / club or shoot them.

This is particularly problematic when members of the public are impaneled as jurors in either criminal cases for “resistance offenses”, or civil actions against police officers for civil rights violations. During jury selection, potential jurors who are questioned by the court and the lawyers during jury selection (“voir dire“) who have either seen or have been the victim of oppressive police actions, will almost always tell the court that they cannot be truly “fair and impartial” to both sides, because of the effect that their prior bad experience with the police. When that happens, the court will excuse them for cause; excuse them from serving on the jury without the prosecutor or the lawyer for the police not having to use one of their peremptory jury strikes. This gives the prosecutor or the civil lawyer for the police an advantage. In federal court in a civil action, each side usually gets three or four peremptory jury strikes. In state court criminal actions, most courts give each side as many as ten peremptory jury strikes. Any of the other jurors who have who have either seen or have been the victim of oppressive police actions but have not been excused for cause, will routinely be prevented from serving on the jury by the the prosecutor or the civil lawyer for the police though their use of peremptory jury strikes. Thus, at the end of the day, those who do end-up sitting as jurors are “sanitized”. They are people who have never seen or have been the victim of oppressive police actions. When that happens, it’s almost impossible for the victims of police outrages to get a fair trial. They are judged by persons who have no concept of the reality of modern policing. As described in more detain below, the problem with the police obtaining a bogus conviction of you for a “resistance offense” (i.e. resisting / obstructing / delaying peace officer, battery on peace officer, using or threatening use of force or violence against peace officer) will generally preclude you from suing for your false arrest, your beating by the police and your malicious criminal prosecution.

SECOND REASON: WHEN THE COPS ARREST YOU FOR YOUR FAILURE TO PASS “THE ATTITUDE TEST”, THEY USUALLY DO SO FOR A “RESISTANCE OFFENSE”; A CONVICTION FOR WHICH WILL PRECLUDE YOU FROM SUING THEM.

Contempt of Cop arrests are usually for crimes such as violation of Cal. Penal Code § 148(a)(1) (resisting / obstructing / delaying peace officer; the most abused statute in the Penal Code), 2) Cal. Penal Code § 240/241(c)(assault on a peace officer), 3) Cal. Penal Code § 242/243(b) (battery on a peace officer) and 4) Cal. Penal Code § 69 (interfering with public officer via actual or threatened use of force or violence.)

Cal. Penal Code § 69 is a “wobbler”; a California public offense that may be filed by the District Attorney’s Office as either a felony or a misdemeanor. When the police falsely arrest one for violation of Section 69, they always make it a felony arrest; one that requires the posting of bail prior to any court appearance. Over 95% of all of police arrests for these “resistance offenses” are false arrests; the arrested person almost always being the victim of the use of unreasonable force by a police officer. As shown below, either because one is not willing to or simply cannot either post bail, many of them end-up pleading to misdemeanor Section 69 or some other misdemeanor “resistance offense”, to get out of jail, or to put an end to their nightmare. After all, Public Defenders who defend misdemeanor cases are usually not experienced lawyers, and have too many clients to devote the time and effort necessary to overcome police lies about their clients. Therefore, having a video and/or audio recording of an event may be the only way to vindicate the innocent victim of police abuse.

THIRD REASON: LOCAL PUBLIC PROSECUTORS THAT ARE USUALLY ELECTED OFFICIALS LIKE COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY’S AND CITY PROSECUTORS, ARE THE POLICE, AND HAVE NO PROBLEM FRAMING INNOCENTS TO PROTECT THE POLICE FROM CIVIL LIABILITY; TO PROTECT THEM FROM YOU.

They do this by criminally prosecuting innocents for “resistance offenses“; the conviction for which will almost always preclude the police misconduct victim from obtaining civil redress in court. Don’t think that public prosecutors sit around, determine that a police misconduct victim is innocent of a crime, and then take it upon themselves to prevent you from suing the police to protect the police from civil liability and obloquy. This does happen, but it’s not common.

County District Attorney’s Offices usually have “filing deputies”; Deputy District Attorney’s who are assigned to review “case packages” from local police agencies (i.e. at the filing stage usually just the police reports), and who make the initial decision to file a criminal case against the person complained of in the initial police reports. These filing deputies usually have to review and to make filing decisions on ten to twenty police filing packages per day. That’s barely enough time to read the initial police reports. They usually don’t have an opportunity to review audio and video recordings from the same incidents for which the police are seeking criminal prosecutions. So, these filing deputies will usually accept whatever material false statements of fact contained in the police reports as true, and usually will file a completely bogus criminal case against an innocent victim of police abuse; usually for “resistance offenses.”

Moreover, local elected public prosecutors see the endorsements of local police agencies as central to them being re-elected, so if they can do favors for the police by prosecuting their victims, they usually do so. Some DA’s Offices have even created “Crimes Against Peace Officer” Units, to endear themselves with the police by beating-down the victims of police abuse, and get them to plea to some crime that will preclude the innocent from suing the police.

The U.S. Supreme Court has made a policy decision, to preclude one convicted of committing a crime, to sue for constitutional violations. See, Heck v. Humphrey, 512 U.S. 477 (1994.) So, the police get away civilly for violated your rights, if you basically plead to anything; especially any sort of “resistance offense.” That’s why in recent years, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department will now more than ever charge the victims of police beatings and “contempt of cop” arrests for violation of Cal. Penal Code § 69 (interfering with public officer via actual or threatened use of force or violence); a “wobbler” offense in California, that can be charged as either a felony or a misdemeanor. If the police charge you with a felony, then they can hold you in-custody unless you post bail; something that many Section 69 arrestees cannot afford. This results in many persons falsely arrest for violation of Section 69 plea at the first court appearance; just so they can get out of jail. The Section 69 charge is usually reduce to a misdemeanor, or changed to violation of regular resisting / obstructing / delaying a peace officer; Cal. Penal Code § 148(a)(1) . So, the arrestee pleads-out to get out of jail, and the cops get their conviction that will preclude the police abuse victim from suing his oppressors; the police.

The California Supreme Court has also followed suit in Yount v. City of Sacramento, 43 Cal. 4th 885 (2008)(adopting Heck v. Humprey’s bar to suit if there’s a conviction, just because the court felt like limited public entity and employee liability as a matter of policy. So much for “we” (the right) don’t like those “activist liberal judges”, who just make-up the law.

So, why are police officers against recording themselves? Because they may have to start respecting the rights of the public, and are more likely to be held accountable for any such violations. It’s really that simple.

Law Offices of Jerry L. Steering

Jerry L. Steering, Esq.

Why Police Officers Are Against Recording Their Conduct

Posted by Jerry L. Steering, Esq. on September 5, 2017

Wisdom * Justice * Constitution

FIRST REASON: BECAUSE THE PUBLIC HAS NO CONCEPT OF POLICE ACTIONS IN THE REAL WORLD, THE POLICE CAN EASILY FRAME THEIR VICTIMS FOR “RESISTANCE OFFENSES.”

SECOND REASON: WHEN THE COPS ARREST YOU FOR YOUR FAILURE TO PASS “THE ATTITUDE TEST”, THEY USUALLY DO SO FOR A “RESISTANCE OFFENSE”; A CONVICTION FOR WHICH WILL PRECLUDE YOU FROM SUING THEM.

The California Supreme Court has also followed suit in Yount v. City of Sacramento, 43 Cal. 4th 885 (2008) (adopting Heck v. Humprey’s bar to suit if there’s a conviction, just because the court felt like limited public entity and employee liability as a matter of policy. So much for “we” (the right) don’t like those “activist liberal judges”, who just make-up the law.

Law Offices of Jerry L. Steering

Jerry L. Steering, Esq.