SAN JOSE, Calif. (Legal Newsline) – A man who fled San Jose, Calif., cops and ran over a woman in an intersection can make claims that his subsequent gunshot wounds were the result of widespread use of excessive force in the police department.
On Nov. 17, U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman granted some parts and denied others of San Jose’s motion to dismiss Yuridia Ochoa’s lawsuit, in which he is seeking $5 million. He was shot six times after two cops on motorcycles had him pinned at a dead end but he put his car in reverse three times.
He had been doing donuts in his car in an intersection and tried to flee when he earned the attention of officers. He hit a woman, breaking her ankle.
When the chase led him to a dead end, he three times put his car in reverse and moved. Each time, gunfire struck him and he stopped.
When he finally exited the car, officers threw a flash grenade, then instructed him to crawl to them despite the fact he’d been shot. He also claims a “community briefing” on the shooting on the PD’s YouTube page attempted to mislead the public about the incident.
The Monell claim in his lawsuit says the City and police chief Edgardo Garcia were aware of a pattern of excessive force that included 12 incidents over 20 years.
“The Court finds that the past incidents Plaintiff has pointed to are sufficient to plausibly plead a ‘persistent and widespread’ custom of ‘permitting or encouraging personnel’s use of unreasonable and excessive force’ as Plaintiff alleges, and that the custom amounted to deliberate indifference as to Plaintiff’s constitutional rights and was the moving force behind the violations he alleges,” Labson Freeman wrote.
Labson Freeman rejected claims from San Jose that those incidents are a list of lawsuits and unsubstantiated complaints against the PD, and that they were inadequate to meet the pleading standards.
“Defendants quibble with the factual similarity of several of these prior incidents, but the Court finds that the issues Defendants raise are too granular for the pleading stage,” Labson Freeman wrote.
Three of the lawsuits led to seven-figure recoveries - $2.95 million settlement, $1.825 settlement and $1 million judgment. Ochoa’s allegations over the “community briefing” – that body cam footage was edited and his criminal past was needlessly brought up – further support his claims, Labson Freeman wrote.
Ochoa’s lawsuit also alleged he was discriminated against over an unidentified disability, but Labson Freeman tossed that claim, writing he would be hard-pressed to prove the cops were aware of whatever the disability is.
His Bane Act claims - which allege his Constitutional rights were violated by threat, intimidation or coercion – against the city and the shooting officer survived, as did his intentional infliction of emotional distress claims.