RIVERSIDE, Calif. (Legal Newsline) - Cops who left a man’s body with pants down and genitals exposed for eight hours in a trailer park while police searched for his killer aren't liable for causing emotional distress to family members, a California court ruled.
State law protects local police against negligence claims over any actions they take while investigating a crime, the Fourth District Court of Appeal ruled. Even though the body lay exposed for several hours after police found the suspect dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, the court ruled, they were prohibited by law from interfering with the body until the coroner gave them permission.
The May 27 decision upheld the dismissal of Dora Leon’s lawsuit against Riverside County. But it also demonstrated an unusual rift between the Court of Appeal and the California Supreme Court, which has interpreted Section 821.6 of the Government Claims Act governing police conduct much more narrowly. Federal courts including the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals have adopted the California Supreme Court’s understanding of the law, allowing lawsuits against police that would be dismissed within the Fourth District.
Leon sued Riverside police after a neighbor shot her husband José in the chest outside her mobile home in space No. 98 of a Cherry Valley park at around 10:40 a.m. A county officer arrived about 10 minutes later and tried to “make a showing” of attempting to revive the victim to placate a growing crowd of onlookers, but the man was already dead.
As more police arrived, three shots came from the mobile home in space 97, across from the Leon’s home. Dora insisted upon staying next to her husband but police ordered her away while they dragged José’s body behind one of their vehicles, in the process pulling his pants down and exposing his genitals.
The body lay there in full sight for several hours while police secured the scene and tried to find the shooter. The suspect was discovered dead in his trailer around 3:42 p.m. The coroner finished his examination of the victim’s body at around 5:44 p.m., after which it was removed from the scene.
Dora Leon sued police for negligent infliction of emotional distressed by failing to promptly cover up José’s body or remove it from the scene. Riverside County moved to dismiss based on its statutory immunity from liability, which the trial court granted. The appeals court agreed.
“All of the evidence adduced on the county’s motion for summary judgment shows that the deputies’ negligence, if any, in failing to promptly cover or remove José’s body from the scene, occurred during the course of the deputies’ performance of their official duties to secure the area following the shooting,” the appeals court ruled, in an opinion by Justice Richard T. Fields.
Justice Michael Raphael concurred, but only after discussing the rift between his court and the state Supreme Court over how to apply Section 821.6, which says public employees are immune from liability over “instituting or prosecuting any judicial or administrative proceeding” even if they act “maliciously and without probable cause.” The California Supreme Court limits liability under the act to lawsuits over malicious prosecution, while the Fourth District extends it to any actions taken during an official investigation.
Federal courts, which must apply state law where applicable, have adopted the California Supreme Court’s interpretation, creating an unusual situation where different standards apply to police based on where the lawsuit is filed. Raphael said he found merit in the narrower reading of the law but couldn’t overrule his own court’s precedent.
“On a blank slate, I would not constrict our Supreme Court’s opinion to its barest holding, and I would follow the text of section 821.6,” he wrote. “But 36 years of precedent is persuasive when you sit on the court that issued it.”