SAN DIEGO (Legal Newsline) – A California city has defeated a lawsuit against it that alleges a woman was protesting peacefully when a police officer shot her in the chest with a rubber bullet.
Though San Diego County was unable to get out of Michelle Horton’s lawsuit, the City of La Mesa recently found success when federal judge Marilyn Huff granted its motion for judgment.
La Mesa argued Horton failed to allege a city policy caused a city employee to deprive her of her constitutional rights.
“To be sure, Horton does not allege that any City employee did anything to her,” the motion said.
In an eight-page ruling issued Sept. 23, Judge Huff agreed, noting the officers believed to have shot her are deputy sheriffs for San Diego County.
“Plaintiff does not assert that she can adequately allege that Defendants Sobzcak or MacLeod constitute ‘employees’ of Defendant La Mesa…” Huff wrote. “As such, Plaintiff has failed to adequately allege a statutory basis for holding Defendant… La Mesa vicariously liable for the alleged conduct of the individual defendants with respect to Plaintiff’s state law claims.”
Huff granted the motion without allowing Horton leave to amend her complaint to try to re-plead her claims.
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.