O'SCANNLAIN, Circuit Judge:
We must deal with a case of mistaken identity arising out of the arrest and detention of a person named on a warrant not intended to describe him.
In July 1985, a Los Angeles Superior Court issued an arrest warrant for "Santiago Rivera." On June 18, 1989, officers of the Montclair Police Department arrested Santiago Rivera, the plaintiff in this case, on the 1985 warrant. Fingerprint analysis revealed, however, that the Santiago Rivera who was arrested ("Rivera" or "the plaintiff") was not the Santiago Rivera sought by the warrant ("the subject of the
On July 6, 1989, the court reissued the warrant but did not indicate that Rivera had been determined not to be its subject. The 1989 warrant described the subject as a Hispanic male with brown hair and brown eyes, 5'5" tall, and 180 pounds in weight. It included a date of birth matching Rivera's and suggested that the subject did not have visible scars or tattoos.
On March 7, 2009, deputies from the San Bernardino Sheriff's Department stopped a car in which Rivera was traveling because it lacked a license plate. Using Rivera's identification to run a routine warrant check, the deputies learned of the 1989 warrant for a "Santiago Rivera" with the same date of birth as the plaintiff. Rivera informed one of the deputies that he was not the warrant's subject and had been issued a judicial clearance form after the erroneous 1989 arrest. When asked to produce that form, however, Rivera stated that he could not locate it.
Upon the deputies' request, dispatch informed them that the warrant was active and provided the physical description from the warrant. Rivera's driver's license described him as 5'6" tall and as weighing 170 pounds. Believing Rivera to be the subject of the warrant, the deputies arrested him and took him to a detention center in San Bernardino, where his fingerprints were taken. San Bernardino officials transferred custody of the plaintiff to the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department two days later.
On the next morning, Rivera appeared in a Los Angeles Superior Court. Represented by a public defender, he did not tell the judge that he was not the subject of the warrant. At his next hearing, on March 24, 2009, Rivera argued that he was not the subject of the warrant. Because the court could not determine whether he was the subject of the warrant at that time, the court remanded Rivera to custody until April 7, 2009. As of April 7, 2009, the staff at the Los Angeles archives had still been unable to locate the documents that would contain the true subject's fingerprints. The court again remanded Rivera to custody while the search for the proper documents continued. Two days later, the court released the plaintiff after it was determined that his fingerprints did not match the fingerprints of the true subject of the warrant.
To prevent mistaken identity in the future, the court issued the plaintiff a new judicial clearance form and added the plaintiff's photograph and fingerprints to the case file. The court also reissued the warrant with the true subject's middle name, which differs from Rivera's middle name.
In 2010, Rivera sued Los Angeles County, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, San Bernardino County, and the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department ("the Counties"), alleging violations of the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments, violation of the Bane Act (California Civil Code § 52.1), and common law false imprisonment.
The district court granted the Counties' motions for summary judgment on all of Rivera's claims. The district court also denied his motion for reconsideration. Rivera timely appealed.
Rivera asserts that the district court erred in rejecting his claims that the Counties violated his Fourth and Fourteenth
Rivera first argues that Los Angeles County violated the Fourth Amendment by issuing the 1989 warrant without including a number corresponding to the true subject's fingerprints.
In United States v. Espinosa, 827 F.2d 604 (9th Cir.1987), we evaluated a warrant under the particularity requirement. The subject of that warrant was described as "a male Latin, name unknown, referred to in affidavit as John Doe #1 ... approximately 35 years of age, 5'8"/5'10", approximately 200 pounds with black hair and black full beard." Id. at 607. Despite the omission of the subject's name, we held that such description sufficed under the Fourth Amendment. Id. at 611. A warrant containing the subject's sex, race, hair color, as well as approximate height, weight, and age, satisfied the particularity requirement when it was accompanied by an affidavit listing places that the subject might be found. See id. It follows that a warrant containing the subject's name, sex, race, hair color, eye color, and date of birth (rather than approximate age), in addition to approximate height and weight, is sufficiently particular, even if it does not list places that the subject might be found.
Confirming such analysis, other circuits have held that the inclusion of the subject's name alone satisfies the particularity requirement. Rejecting the contention that the Fourth Amendment "impose[s] stringent requirements on how warrants must describe their intended subjects," the Seventh Circuit has expressly noted that "an arrest warrant that correctly names the person to be arrested is [generally] considered constitutionally sufficient and need not contain any additional identifying information." White v. Olig, 56 F.3d 817, 819 (7th Cir.1995); see also Powe v. City of Chicago, 664 F.2d 639, 645 (7th Cir.1981). The Fifth Circuit has also recognized the general rule that "the inclusion of the name of the person to be arrested on the arrest warrant constitutes a sufficient description to satisfy the fourth amendment requirement that the person to be seized be described with particularity." Wanger v. Bonner, 621 F.2d 675, 682 (5th Cir. 1980).
Thus, the 1989 warrant satisfied the particularity requirement because it contained both the subject's name and a detailed physical description. That the plaintiff was erroneously arrested based on the warrant simply does not affect whether the warrant itself satisfied the particularity requirement.
Moreover, municipalities, including counties and their sheriff's departments, can only be liable under § 1983 if an unconstitutional action "implements or executes a policy statement, ordinance, regulation, or decision officially adopted and promulgated by that body's officers." Monell v. Dep't of Soc. Servs. of City of New York, 436 U.S. 658, 690, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 56 L.Ed.2d 611 (1978). A municipal defendant is liable only "where the entity's policies evince a `deliberate indifference' to the constitutional right and are the `moving force behind the constitutional violation.'" Edgerly v. City and Cnty. of San Francisco, 599 F.3d 946, 960 (9th Cir.2010).
Even if the Fourth Amendment did require Los Angeles County to include more detailed information in the 1989 warrant in order to avoid the risk of repeated misidentification, Rivera would have to show that Los Angeles County had a policy or custom of failing to do so. This Rivera has not done. In fact, Los Angeles County had a policy of including an "exoneration" entry that identifies anyone mistakenly arrested on the warrant in the past. That officials apparently failed to implement that policy properly in this one instance is not sufficient for Los Angeles County to be liable. A single instance is not sufficient to show that a "practice is so widespread as to have the force of law." Bd. of Cnty. Comm'rs of Bryan Cnty. v. Brown, 520 U.S. 397, 404, 117 S.Ct. 1382, 137 L.Ed.2d 626 (1997).
Rivera also argues that San Bernardino sheriff's deputies violated the Fourth Amendment when they arrested him. The deputies had probable cause to arrest the true subject of the warrant but mistakenly believed that Rivera was that person. In such cases, the question is whether the arresting officers had a good faith, reasonable belief that the arrestee was the subject of the warrant. See Hill v. California, 401 U.S. 797, 804, 91 S.Ct. 1106, 28 L.Ed.2d 484 (1971) ("[S]ufficient probability, not certainty, is the touchstone of reasonableness under the Fourth Amendment and on the record before us the officers' mistake was understandable and the arrest a reasonable response to the situation facing them at the time.").
On the undisputed factual record, the deputies were not unreasonable in believing that Rivera was the subject of the warrant at the time of arrest. The name and date of birth on the warrant matched Rivera's exactly. The height and weight descriptors associated with the warrant, although not matching Rivera exactly, were within one inch and ten pounds of Rivera's true size. See id. at 803-04 & n. 6, 91 S.Ct. 1106 (ruling that the officers reasonably concluded that the arrestee was the subject of the warrant despite a difference of two inches and ten pounds).
Rivera's statement that he had been issued a judicial clearance form but could not locate it did not make the officers' belief unreasonable. As the Supreme Court has expressly recognized, police are right to be wary when suspects claim mistaken identity. See id. at 803, 91 S.Ct. 1106 ("That person claimed he was Miller, not Hill. But aliases and false identifications are not uncommon.").
The deputies' belief that Rivera was the true subject of the warrant was not unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment.
Rivera also challenges his detainment after arrest under both the Fourth Amendment and the Fourteenth Amendment. Precedent demonstrates, however, that post-arrest incarceration is analyzed
In arguing that his incarceration violated the Fourteenth Amendment, Rivera relies chiefly on our decision in Fairley v. Luman, 281 F.3d 913 (9th Cir.2002). In Fairley, the plaintiff, John, had been detained for twelve days "without any procedural safeguard in place to verify the warrant he was detained on was his and in the face of his repeated protests of innocence." Id. at 918. The Fairley court emphasized that John had been detained on a warrant, the subject of which was named "Joe" and differed from John in weight by 66 pounds, despite the defendants' awareness that John had a twin brother. Id. at 915. John was never brought before a judge to assert his claim of mistaken identity. On such facts, we held "there was sufficient evidence for a reasonable jury to find that John suffered a constitutional deprivation under the Fourteenth Amendment." Id. at 917.
Rivera's reliance on Fairley is misplaced. Cases, like Fairley, holding that an incarceration based on mistaken identity violated the Due Process Clause are readily distinguishable from this case. They involved circumstances that might alert the defendants to a mistake of identity, withholding of a judicial forum for raising a claim of mistaken identity, or both.
The Supreme Court has suggested that incarceration based on mistaken identity might violate the Due Process Clause in some circumstances. In Baker v. McCollan, 443 U.S. 137, 140-41, 99 S.Ct. 2689, 61 L.Ed.2d 433 (1979), a warrant was issued for "Linnie McCollan" because the true subject of the warrant, Leonard McCollan, used false identification. Police in Dallas later arrested Linnie and transferred him to the Potter County Sheriff's Department after four days. Potter County officials released Linnie three days later when a review of a file photograph of the true subject revealed the mistake. Id. at 141, 99 S.Ct. 2689. Linnie challenged his three-day detention in Potter County under the Fourteenth Amendment and § 1983. Id. at 143-44, 99 S.Ct. 2689. The Supreme Court ruled:
Id. at 145, 99 S.Ct. 2689. In Lee v. City of Los Angeles, 250 F.3d 668 (9th Cir.2001), which relied on Baker, we confirmed that such a violation could occur and explained that a plaintiff's burden is to show that "it was or should have been known that [he] was entitled to release." Lee, 250 F.3d at 683 (quoting Cannon v. Macon Cnty., 1 F.3d 1558, 1563 (11th Cir.1993)).
Cases holding that an incarceration violated the Due Process Clause because
But the "further investigation" cases have involved significant differences between the arrestee and the true suspect. In Fairley, for example, the plaintiff and the true subject of the warrant not only had different first names but also differed in weight by 66 pounds. 281 F.3d at 915. In Cannon v. Macon County, 1 F.3d 1558, 1563 (11th Cir.1993), the arrestee's "driver's license differed significantly from the description provided for" the suspect and that the arrestee's "physical makeup did not match the physical description for" the suspect.
And the "denied access" cases have involved significant periods of deprivation. For instance, in Fairley, the plaintiff was held for twelve days without a hearing or court appearance. There, we held that the procedures employed violated the Due Process Clause. Fairley, 281 F.3d at 915, 918. In Oviatt v. Pearce, 954 F.2d 1470, 1473 (9th Cir.1992), the "plaintiff spent 114 days in jail without an arraignment, a bail hearing, or a trial." Again, we ruled that the procedures that permitted such a delay denied the plaintiff liberty without due process of law. Id. at 1477.
Rivera has not presented any evidence that the Counties knew that Rivera was not the true subject of the warrant. Nor do the circumstances of this case suggest that further investigation into Rivera's identity was required. Indeed, it appears that the San Bernardino deputies reasonably believed that Rivera was the true subject of the warrant from the time they arrested him. The same considerations that made the arrest reasonable bear on whether the circumstances of the detention should have warned the Counties that Rivera might not be the true subject of the warrant. In this case, the warrant information gave no reason to suspect that Rivera was not the true subject of the warrant since the name and date of birth matched exactly while the physical descriptions were quite similar.
Nor did Rivera's two brief claims of mistaken identity upon arrival at the Los Angeles facility indicate that the Los Angeles defendants should have investigated more thoroughly.
Even assuming Rivera's two casual mentions of mistaken identity suffice to make his incarceration "in the face of repeated protests of innocence," the Due Process Clause was not violated unless Rivera was held for a long enough period of time without adequate procedures. Baker, 443 U.S. at 145, 99 S.Ct. 2689 (assuming a violation could occur "after the lapse of a certain amount of time" and "depending on what procedures the State affords defendants following arrest and prior to actual trial"). Rivera was taken before a judge the very next day, a significant procedural protection. It is unclear why Rivera did not assert his claim of mistaken identity at the March 10 court hearing, but the failure to take advantage of a procedural protection does not disprove its availability.
Thereafter, he was no longer held simply on the warrant; he was "held in custody pursuant to a court order." If a suspect is held according to court order, county officials are not required to investigate whether that court order is proper. See Hernandez v. Sheahan, 455 F.3d 772, 776 (7th Cir.2006) (upholding a policy that "[i]gnore[s] all claims of misidentification" after a judge commits a suspect to the sheriff's custody); Lumbermens Mut. Cas. Co. v. Rhodes, 403 F.2d 2, 7 (10th Cir.1968) ("Certainly a jailer should not be expected to go behind a court order of commitment to determine whether a person presented for safekeeping has been convicted as a result of some denial of his constitutional rights.").
For the foregoing reasons, Rivera's detention did not violate the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Rivera has asserted claims under California law as well. First, he claims that the defendants committed the common law tort of false imprisonment. Second, he asserts that the defendants are liable under California Civil Code § 52.1(b), the Bane Act, which is a cause of action for violations of constitutional and statutory rights. Under California law, the Counties, as public entities, are liable for the actions of their employees. Cal. Gov.Code § 815.2(a). To the extent their employees would be immune from liability, however, the Counties are also immune. Cal. Gov.Code § 815.2(b).
California law provides two types of immunity relevant to this case. First, an officer is not liable for "an arrest pursuant to a warrant of arrest regular upon its face if the peace officer in making the arrest acts without malice and in the reasonable belief that the person arrested is the one referred to in the warrant." Cal. Civil Code § 43.55(a). Second, an officer is not liable "for false arrest or false imprisonment arising out of any arrest" that "was lawful, or [that] the peace officer, at the time of the arrest, had reasonable cause to believe ... was lawful." Cal.Penal Code § 847(b)(1).
In Lopez v. City of Oxnard, 207 Cal.App.3d 1, 4, 254 Cal.Rptr. 556 (1989), plaintiff Lopez had been arrested multiple times on a warrant for which he was not the true subject because his name, date of birth, address, and physical description matched those on the warrant. After his first arrest, however, the plaintiff obtained a "disposition sheet" from the court, which explained that the plaintiff was not the true subject of the warrant. Despite bringing this disposition sheet to the officers' attention, the plaintiff was detained twice more, once for three days and once for three hours. Id. at 4-5, 254 Cal.Rptr. 556. The court held that the arresting officer was immune from liability because "there is no factual question whether the officer had a reasonable belief that Lopez was the person named in the warrant." Id. at 9, 254 Cal.Rptr. 556. The court also held that the sheriff's department that jailed the plaintiff was not liable, despite failing to consider the disposition sheet, because jail personnel "are entitled to rely on process and orders apparently valid on their face." Id.
Because the employees relevant to this case would be able to invoke statutory immunities to avoid liability, the Counties can as well. Therefore, the district court's grant of summary judgment based on statutory immunities was correct.
For the foregoing reasons, the district court properly granted the defendants' motions for summary judgment.
PAEZ, Circuit Judge, concurring in part and dissenting in part:
Although I agree with the majority that Rivera's Fourth Amendment claims against Los Angeles County and San Bernardino County, his Fourteenth Amendment claims against San Bernardino County, and his state law claims against both counties must fail, I disagree with the
As the majority acknowledges, after the lapse of a certain period of time, "a detainee has `a constitutional right to be free from continued detention after it was or should have been known that the detainee was entitled to release.'" Lee v. City of Los Angeles, 250 F.3d 668, 683 (9th Cir. 2001) (quoting Cannon v. Macon Cnty., 1 F.3d 1558, 1563 (11th Cir.1993)). The majority contends, however, that there are just two types of scenarios where a jailer should know that a detainee is entitled to release: (1) circumstances indicate that further investigation is warranted, or (2) the detainee is denied access to the courts for an extended period of time. Maj. Op. at 390-91. The existence of "significant differences between the arrestee and the true suspect" may warrant additional investigation, but "[u]nsupported claims of mistaken identity ... do not trigger a duty to investigate." Id. at 390-91, 391-92. Finally, the majority holds that after the detainee appears in court, county officials can never have an obligation to further investigate. Id. at 392-93. Under this view, unless a detainee has the good fortune to (1) exhibit obvious physical or biographical differences from the true subject of the warrant, or (2) possess support for his claim of mistaken identity, county officials are free to ignore his complaints. Furthermore, even the limited duty to investigate obvious indicia of mistaken identity is extinguished once the detainee appears in court. Neither case law nor logic compel such a cabined understanding of the due process rights of detainees.
Our precedent does not delineate what circumstances must exist before an officer or agency should know that a detainee is entitled to release. It simply mandates that if an officer or jailer should have known that the detainee was entitled to release, "a detainee has `a constitutional right to be free from continued detention....'" Lee, 250 F.3d at 683 (quoting Cannon, 1 F.3d at 1563). The majority treats our existing case law as the outer boundaries of when county officials should have known that a detainee was entitled to release. But we have had only three occasions to consider such claims. See Fairley v. Luman, 281 F.3d 913, 915, 917-18 (9th Cir.2002) (per curiam); Lee, 250 F.3d at 677-78, 683-84; Oviatt v. Pearce, 954 F.2d 1470, 1473-77 (9th Cir.1992). In none of those cases did we suggest that physical differences between a detainee and the true subject of the warrant or lengthy detention without a court hearing were requirements to a successful due process claim. The examples cited by the majority are just that; they do not provide a basis for concluding that no other set of facts could sustain a detainee's due process claim. Moreover, the majority creates a bright-line rule that jailers owe nothing to detainees whose claims of mistaken identity are "[u]nsupported." Maj. Op. at 391-92. We have never suggested that a jailer's duty to investigate is contingent on a detainee first presenting his jailer with supporting evidence. Nor can I see any logical basis for limiting a detainee's due process rights to these circumstances. The touchstone is simply whether the jailer should have known, despite the existence of probable cause at the time of arrest, that a detainee was entitled to be released. This is inherently a fact-intensive, circumstance-specific inquiry.
The majority's next conclusion — any duty the jailers have to investigate terminates
Furthermore, exonerating a jailer of any obligation to investigate once a court remands a detainee to custody is an unsound policy. As this case demonstrates, if the detainee's only recourse is to seek court intervention to verify his identity, he may languish in detention for weeks while the court searches its records for dated physical files. In contrast, county jail officials typically have instantaneous access to extensive criminal history records and fingerprint databases. It is no great burden to expect them to access these readily available resources when appropriate.
The majority has imposed a variety of unjustified restrictions on Rivera's Fourteenth Amendment claim. In determining
Rivera testified that, upon arriving at the Los Angeles County jail, he complained to two Los Angeles County officials that he was not the individual wanted in the warrant. First, he informed a male official behind a window that he was "being mistaken for another person." The male official wrote something down and directed Rivera to "[g]o to the cell." He took no further action. Rivera also informed another official, a young woman behind a window, that "they were confusing me with a person who had run over two people here in Culver City." The woman responded by saying "I'm sorry," but also took no further action. In my view, a factfinder could reasonably conclude that such complaints were sufficient to put an officer or county official on notice that further investigation was necessary.
Had either officer followed up with Rivera or conducted an independent investigation, the officer would have discovered — with relative ease — that Rivera was not the true subject of the warrant. A Los Angeles County official could have searched the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System ("CLETS"), a statewide criminal records database maintained by the California Department of
Even if a factfinder were to conclude that Los Angeles County officials violated Rivera's due process rights, the inquiry would not end there. A municipality is liable for constitutional violations only where its policies or customs "evince a `deliberate indifference' to the constitutional right and are the `moving force behind the constitutional violation.'" Edgerly v. City and Cnty. of San Francisco, 599 F.3d 946, 960 (9th Cir.2010) (quoting Levine v. City of Alameda, 525 F.3d 903, 907 (9th Cir.2008)).
Rivera contends that Los Angeles County has a policy of relying on the arresting agency's identification. Los Angeles County does not dispute that, as a general matter, it does not verify the identity of individuals arrested by a different agency; however, if an individual arrested by a different agency complains that he is not the subject of the warrant, Los Angeles County will conduct an investigation. Rivera has not shown how the failure to conduct an investigation at the outset for every person arrested by another agency is deliberately indifferent to a detainee's constitutional rights.
On the evidence presented, however, a factfinder may nonetheless conclude that Los Angeles County's policy is deliberately indifferent to a detainee's due process rights and was the moving force behind the violation. Sergeant Angela Becerra, the Document Control Sergeant at the Inmate Reception Center of the Los Angeles County jail, described the County's policy as follows: When a detainee complains that "he is not the subject of a warrant on which he has been arrested or detained," officials fill out a Disputed Warrant Verification Form and begin an investigation. They compare the detainee's and the warrant subject's physical characteristics, dates of birth, CII numbers, and, if necessary, criminal histories. However, Agent Becerra's declaration also states that this is a rare complaint, noting that many inmates will complain "that they are `innocent', that they were arrested by `mistake,' or that they are not the person the police
A factfinder could reasonably conclude from the above that Los Angeles County has a policy of investigating only those complaints of misidentification that have been phrased in very precise, particular terms. Applying the Disputed Warrant Verification Form procedures only when a detainee specifically complains that he is not the subject of the warrant and ignoring the other, more common complaints may well be deliberately indifferent to a detainee's constitutional rights. After all, a lay person has no means of knowing that, to get an officer's or county official's attention, he must state, in very specific terms, that he is not the true subject of the warrant; instead, he may reasonably attempt to explain his predicament by indicating that the police have mistaken him for another person or that he is not the person the police are seeking. It is entirely obvious that refusing to investigate any but the most precise misidentification complaints will lead to the unconstitutional detention of innocent individuals. See Lee, 250 F.3d at 682 ("[D]eliberate indifference to a person's constitutional rights occurs when the need for more or different action, `is so obvious, and the inadequacy [of the current procedure] so likely to result in the violation of constitutional rights, that the policymakers ... can reasonably be said to have been deliberately indifferent to the need.'" (second alteration in original) (quoting Oviatt, 954 F.2d at 1477-78)).
If the factfinder were to conclude that Los Angeles County has a policy of investigating only a narrow set of very precisely-worded complaints, the factfinder could also reasonably conclude that this policy was the moving force behind the deprivation of Rivera's rights. In order to be the "moving force" behind a plaintiff's injury, the "`identified deficiency' in the County's policies [must be] `closely related to the ultimate injury.'" Gibson v. Cnty. of Washoe, Nev., 290 F.3d 1175, 1196 (9th Cir.2002) (quoting City of Canton v. Harris, 489 U.S. 378, 391, 109 S.Ct. 1197, 103 L.Ed.2d 412 (1989)). Here, the statements Rivera made to the Los Angeles County officials are remarkably similar to Agent Becerra's examples of complaints that would be considered distinct from general misidentification claims. A factfinder could reasonably determine that Rivera's complaints were therefore ignored because of a municipal policy to not investigate such complaints.
For the above reasons, I would hold that a genuine issue of material fact exists as to whether Rivera's due process rights were violated and whether Los Angeles County may be held liable for the violation. I would therefore affirm in part and reverse in part the district court's order granting summary judgment in favor of Defendants.
