Police Misconduct Attorney Palm Springs, CA

Police Misconduct Attorney Jerry L. Steering has been suing the police since 1984 for police brutality, false arrests, malicious criminal prosecutions and First Amendment retaliation cases. Mr. Steering in an Expert and Specialist in suing the police in federal court for constitutional violations in the City of Palm Springs, throughout Riverside County, and throughout the State of California. Mr. Steering has also sued the government as far away as in federal court in Alabama and in the District of Columbia.

“THE YOUNG LAWYER KNOWS THE LAW, BUT THE OLD LAWYER KNOWS THE JUDGE”

Mr. Steering’s many years of experience and acquired knowledge can help you maximize your chances of actually winning your Police Misconduct Civil Rights case, and winning is the only thing that matters. If you cannot win your Civil Rights Police Misconduct Lawsuit then you have no rights, because you have no way to enforce them, and a right without a remedy in the real world does not exist.

THE PALM SPRINGS POLICE DEPARTMENT IS OFTEN BRUTAL AND IS INSTITUTIONALLY DISHONEST.

Palm Springs has an estimated population of 45,000 residents. Demographically, Palm Springs is Palm Springs has an estimated population of 45,000 residents. Demographically, Palm Springs is White alone 69.3%, Black alone 5.4%, American Indian and Alaska Native alone 0.9%, Asian alone 4.6%, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone 0.2%, Two or More Races 12.6%, Hispanic or Latino 24.3% and White alone, not Hispanic or Latino 62.5%.

Notwithstanding Palm Springs’ fairly liberal reputation, even the Palm Springs City Council cannot control the Palm Springs Police Department. No police officers or deputy sheriffs “rat-out” their fellows officers. If they do, they need to find employment in some other profession, because they will not be peace officers much longer. Palm Springs Police officers, as are most modern police officers, are acutely aware of what they can and cannot get away with. As a practical matter, they all know that with few exceptions, they can beat, falsely arrest, maliciously prosecute and even kill civilians, anytime that they want to do so, and get away with it.

Most Palm Springs Police Department police officers don’t drive around town in their patrol cars, looking to pick fights with innocents. However, when they do come into contact with the public, such as a traffic or pedestrian stops, if the civilian verbally protests or challenges their authority (“contempt of cop”), the civilian often soon finds himself with a fat-lip, a black eye, taser burn marks, an now being taken to to jail for some bogus “resistance offense”, against the very officer who beat them up.

The Riverside County District Attorney’s Office is then all too anxious to prosecute that innocent civilian for beating-up / “resisting” the police; to beat the innocent down into taking some sort of plea agreement that will protect the police from any civil liability to you. This is how things work in Riverside County, and in the Palm Springs area (See, The Contempt of Cop Game”; How Well Can You Play?).

Palm Springs Police Department police officers routinely beat-up, falsely arrest and maliciously prosecute their victims for bogus “resistance offenses” such as violation of Cal. Penal Code § 69 (resisting officer with force), Cal. Penal Code § 148(a)(1) (resisting/delaying/obstructing officer), Cal. Penal Code § 240/241 (assault on officer), Cal. Penal Code § 242 / 243(b) & (c) (battery on officer causing injury) and Cal. Penal Code § 245(c) (assault on officer with weapon). This is not lefty propaganda; this is reality.

To make things worse, Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin has created a Crimes Against Peace Officers Unit (“CAPO”). The role of that Unit is to falsely and maliciously prosecute the innocent victims of police misconduct, to prevent / preclude those innocents from suing the police. It is shameful.

JERRY L. STEERING HAS SUED POLICE OFFICERS IN THE PALM SPRINGS AND THROUGHOUT THE COACHELLA VALLEY FOR MANY YEARS NOW

Mr. Steering recently obtained $375,000.00 from the City of Palm Springs for an hourly long false arrest of a Palm Springs woman for violation of a restraining order. Palm Springs Police Department police officer Michael Delaney failed to read the Riverside County Superior Court Judges handwritten notes on the Temporary Restraining Order that specified that the wife was not restrained from being at her own home (the permanent order was ultimately denied). By the time that the Officer arrived at the Palm Springs Police Department station, he realized his mistake, and the falsely arrested woman was driven back home. She never made it into the Palm Springs Jail. Rather than discipline Officer Delaney, the Palm Springs Police Department promoted him to the rank of Sergeant. See, Amy Barnett v. City of Palm Springs, United States District Court, Central District of California Case Number Case No.:  5:21-CV-00386-JWH-(KKx)

His most notorious cases are Edward Moore et al. v. City of Desert Hot Springs, et al, and Andrea Heath v. City of Desert Hot Springs, et al., Ryan Risk et al. v. Cathedral City et al. and Alexis Segovia v. Cathedral City.

In the Edward Moore v. Desert Hot Springs case, Mr. Steering obtain $825,000.00 for the plaintiffs for the unlawful use of pepper-spray of innocent plaintiffs, who complained to the DHSPD Officers about their failure to attend to their daughter, whose vehicle was struck by a drink driver in her own driveway.

The Andrea Heath v. Desert Hot Springs case was more bizarre. During the 2000s Desert Hot Springs Police Department was basically a crazed gang of murderous cops. They had two factions at DHSPD; the “lettuce eaters” and “meat eaters”. The “lettuce eaters” were those DHSPD officers who refused to use force as a first resort. The “meat eaters” were those DHSPD officers who used and enjoyed to use crippling source as a first resort. 

The leader of the “meat eaters”, Lt. David Henderson, used to go out on his patrol shift with two cans of pepper-spray, because one can would not be enough for one of his duty shifts. Lt. David Henderson even essentially murdered a man named Michael Sanchez while on-duty. Mr. Sanchez was in a pursuit with Riverside County Sheriff’s Department Deputy Sheriffs, and the Sheriffs Deputies claim that Sanchez shot at them.

The Sheriff’s Department had already captured Michael Sanchez and had him on the ground, so when David Henderson got to the scene he did a field goal style kick in the handcuffed and proned out Michael Sanchez’ testicles, literally killing him on the spot.

The other leader of the “meat eaters”, Sgt. Anthony Sclafani, ended up going to prison for torturing prisoners at the Desert Hot Springs Police Department Jail.

The Andrea Heath case handled by Jerry L. Steering involved DHSPD Detective Andrea Heath suffering incredible retaliation for telling the FBI and a federal Grand Jury how bad DHSPD really was treating the public. DHSPD retaliated so badly against Det. Heath ended-up committing suicide.

Local District Attorney’s are simply not competent to criminally prosecute the police and will use any excuse and will find any justification for an Officer-Involved-Shooting. If you don’t believe this, then just take a gander at the ever growing list of bad-police-shootings that have been found to have been justified by the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office in the past few years. None of the 963 fatal police shootings of civilians in 2017 ended-up with the prosecution of those officers who unjustifiably killed a civilian.

IF YOU ARE THE VICTIM OF POLICE MISCONDUCT, JERRY L. STEERING CAN HELP YOU ACTUALLY ENFORCE YOUR RIGHTS BY WINNING YOUR CASE.

The only thing that matters when enforcing your rights, is whether you win your case. If you don’t win your case, then you have no rights because you have no way to enforce them. 

Just because the police violated your constitutional rights doesn’t mean that you can do anything about it. In order to “do something about it”, to enforce your constitutional rights, it takes a great deal of experience, insights, skill and savvy. You need a unanimous jury of usually 8 jurors to vote in your favor in federal court to win your case. If you mouth-off to the cops or don’t do what the police tell you to do or cuss out the cops, or act like a jerk, one or more of the jurors in your case may not vote for you. That is the reality in which we all live.

Mr. Steering’s many years of experience and knowledge in suing the police can help you maximize your chances of winning your Police Misconduct Civil Rights case, and winning is the only thing that matters.

Jerry L. Steering has been suing police agencies for constitutional violations since 1984. He has the experience, insights, skill and savvy to actually win your police misconduct civil rights case, and winning is the only thing that matters. As the old saying goes, “The young lawyer knows the law, but the old lawyer knows the Judge”. 

If you are the victim of police misconduct, Jerry L. Steering can help you. Call Jerry L. Steering, Esq. at (949) 474-1849, or email Mr. Steering at jerry@steeringlaw.com .

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