SAN DIEGO (Legal Newsline) – The California city of La Mesa is attempting to get itself out of legal trouble as it asks a federal judge to grant it judgment in a lawsuit over a woman shot with a rubber bullet.
Michelle Horton says a San Diego County deputy sheriff shot her in her breast in front of her children at a protest against police violence. She filed suit against the county, the deputy and the City of La Mesa earlier this year.
Federal judge Marilyn Huff has already denied the defendants’ motion to dismiss. La Mesa’s Aug. 27 motion argues Horton fails to allege a city policy caused a city employee to deprive her of any constitutional rights.
“To be sure, Horton does not allege that any City employee did anything to her,” the motion says. “(L)iability against the City does not exist for the conduct of deputies Sobzcak and MacLeod because they are not City employees.”
Though Horton could argue La Mesa could be liable for the conduct of the San Diego County deputy sheriffs because it authorized their presence in the city limits, attorneys for the city say that reasoning fails.
“Even assuming the City’s ‘authorization’ is a viable Monell theory, Horton’s conclusory allegations of the ‘authorization’ are insufficient,” the motion says.
Horton says she was standing on the corner of Spring St. and University Ave. in La Mesa waiting to meet her children on May 23 of last year, when she was struck by a non-lethal projectile form a law enforcement officer involved in a drive-by shooting.
Horton and her children were participating in a peaceful mass protest regarding the death of George Floyd.
In an event described as "out of the blue" by the lawsuit, officers drove by in a marked police vehicle and fired what is suspected to be a rubber bullet at the plaintiff, she claims.
Horton says the shot came from within a group of officers that included defendants Jacob MacLeod and Evan Sobzcak.