SAN DIEGO COUNTY POLICE BRUTALITY & EXCESSIVE FORCE ATTORNEY

San Diego County Police Brutality & Excessive Force Attorney Jerry L. Steering specializes in and has been suing state and local police officers since 1984. The area of police misconduct litigation; both criminal and civil.

Mr. Steering has litigated police misconduct cases in federal court in San Diego (the United States District Court for the Southern District of California) for many years now. He has been suing police officers for violating the constitutional rights of others for over thirty years. Mr. Steering has had some recent high profile police misconduct cases in San Diego County.

POLICE BRUTALITY IN SAN DIEGO COUNTY IS RAMPANT.

Police Brutality in San Diego County is rampant and growing by the day.

Politicians (including judges) and the public, sitting as jurors, are very sympathetic to the police; especially in San Diego County. Most people think that police officers are honest people, and that police agencies are basically trustworthy, with a few bad apples.

Notwithstanding how honest and noble that a San Diego County police officer may be, no one rats on their fellow officers / deputies. No one. If you do, you are toast with that agency.

Police are not rewarded for telling the truth, when the truth would implicate their fellow officer. They are, however,

They will set the officer up of some sort of termination from the agency.

MR. STEERING IS AN EXPERT IN LITIGATING CASES INVOLVING POLICE COVER-UPS AND FRAME-UPS FOR RESISTANCE OFFENSES.

San Diego County is a difficult venue if you are falsely accused of some resistance offense against a police officer or are trying to sue one. If you are charged with a “resistance offense”, the courts and the public is against you.

THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT HAS NOT ABDICATED ITS ROLE IN POLICING STATE AND LOCAL POLICE.

In Jovan Jimenez v. County of San Diego, Mr. Steering recovered $500,000.00 for a man from RS County who was beaten by San Diego County Sheriff’s Department Deputy Sheriffs for verbal protest of his misdemeanor simple battery arrest. Although San Diego County Deputy Sheriff’s beating of a handcuffed and helpless Jovan Jimenez, no criminal proceedings were ever brought against the deputy.

The FBI and the United States Attorney’s Office in San Diego was hot-to-tort to Indict the officer in the Jimenez case for the criminal violation of Jovan Jimenez’ Fourth Amendment right to be free from an unreasonable seizure of his person; in this case an arrest accompanied by unreasonable force. This a clear violation of 18 U.S.C. Section 242; violation of Constitutional Rights United Color of Authority.

However, in early 2018, the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice told Mr. Steering: “We don’t prosecute these type of cases anymore”. In other words, no more with the US.DOJ “policing the police”.

This is an actual abdication of the United States Department of Justice, of it’s duty to prosecute state and local law enforcement officers for committing Constitutional Violations against civilians. Imagine if the San Diego District Attorney’s Office announced that it would not longer prosecute elected or other public officials for taking illegal bribes. Think anyone would be taking any bribes?

Same with the police. There is no longer any oversight of violations of your Constitutional rights by state and local law enforcement officers.

ROBERT PITT v. COUNTY OF SAN DIEGO.

Mr. Steering also represents a retired CHP Officer in U.S. District Court in San Diego who was falsely arrested by the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department for carrying a concealed firearm on a High School campus. He was allowed to do so because he is an Honorably Retired peace officer with a Carry Concealed Weapon (CCW) permit from the CHP.

In Robert Pitt v. County of San Diego, et al.; United States District Court for the Southern District of California, the plaintiff obtained an award of $220,000.00.

FREE CASE EVALUATION

Mr. Steering also represents other men in their another case against the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department for beating and falsely arresting a totally innocent man who happened to exit a 7-11 store in Encinitas and look at a Deputy Sheriff in the wrong way who harassing others there.

If you believe that police agencies are honest and that police don’t do bad things to good people you are still drinking the Kool-Aid. That is not our world anymore; at least not in this Country.

POLICE BRUTALITY IS TOLERATED AND ENCOURAGED BY SAN DIEGO COUNTY PUBLIC PROSECUTORS, BY PROSECUTING INNOCENTS FOR RESISTANCE OFFENSES, TO PROTECT THE POLICE.

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.

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; ESPECIALLY IN SAN DIEGO COUNTY.

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.

If you have been the victim of Police Brutality * Excessive Force, Jerry L. Steering can help you.

Call Mr. Steering at (949) 474-1849 or at jerry@steeringlaw.com