SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Legal Newsline) – The California city of Dixon and its police department are wondering why they were included in a lawsuit that alleges Solano County sheriff’s deputies beat a woman unconscious.
Dixon, police chief Robert Thompson and two officers filed a motion to dismiss Nakia Porter’s lawsuit against them on March 3 in California federal court. The motion says in 49 pages of complaint, Porter fails to allege any force was used by the two Dixon officers.
According to the complaint, on Aug. 6, 2020, Solano deputies Dalton McCampbell and Lisa McDowell arrested and assaulted Porter, then brutally beat her unconscious without cause outside her vehicle and in front of her father Joe Berry Powell, Jr., and three children - her two daughters and her niece.
After tossing Porter in the back of their vehicle, unconscious, the same deputies handcuffed and falsely imprisoned Powell in the back of another vehicle, leaving the three children alone and scared inside the vehicle at night for about an hour while deputies illegally searched the vehicle, finding no evidence of a crime, the suit says.
“Despite the absence of personal participation by the Dixon officers, the (second amended complaint) asserts – in shotgun pleading style – that they (along with eleven other defendants) are liable to all five plaintiffs under twelve different legal theories, including excessive force, unlawful seizure, and unlawful search,” Dixon’s motion says.
“These claims are not supported by sufficient factual allegations to proceed.”
The two Dixon officers arrived after the alleged assault, the city says, and they are not alleged to have used any force or point any firearm at Porter.
“(T)here is no specific allegation of gun-pointing at any plaintiff or physical contact with any plaintiff other than a vague conclusion that Officer Hollingshed had a shotgun ‘out and oriented in the same direction’ when Mr. Powell was removed from the vehicle by the deputies,” the motion says.
Claims the Dixon officers participated in the illegal search fail also, the motion says.