Yvette Lujano, through her guardian ad litem, Maria del Carmen Lujano, appeals an order granting summary judgment to the County of Santa Barbara (County) and two Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department deputies on her complaint for false arrest and use of excessive force. We affirm.
On June 2, 2006, respondents Bryan Munana and Mark Ward, along with a third sheriff's deputy and two Regents of the University of California (Regents) police officers were dispatched to an apartment building in Isla Vista in response to a call by Lujano's mother that Lujano had been beaten up in a fight with several other girls.
When the deputies arrived, Lujano was standing outside the building with her cousin, Susana, and her brother, Rufino. Rufino was wearing a white tank top with a red stain on the front that Deputy Munana thought was blood. As the officers approached them, the three individuals turned around and walked down a passage between the apartment buildings. Munana parked his vehicle and followed them. He saw Lujano and Susana enter Lujano's residence. Rufino stopped outside the residence when commanded to do so by Munana. As Munana was talking to Rufino, Lujano stepped out of the apartment and protested Rufino's detention in a loud, angry voice. Lujano's mother arrived and joined her daughter in protesting Rufino's detention. A crowd, including gang members, formed to watch the confrontation.
Deputy Ward arrived and separated Lujano from her brother by walking her a few steps to the side without touching her. Ward told Lujano they were conducting an investigation and that she was preventing them from doing their jobs. He warned her she would be arrested if she continued to obstruct the investigation. Lujano failed to heed the warning, and Munana arrested Lujano for obstructing the investigation. (Pen. Code, § 148.)
Munana ordered Lujano to place her hands behind her back. At the same time, he reached for her left wrist to guide it behind her for handcuffing and to move her further away from Rufino. Lujano attempted to pull her hands away from Munana, but he was able to grasp her left wrist. Lujano continued to resist, and Munana briefly lost his grip on her wrist. University of California police officer Seth Clark grabbed Lujano's right arm, and Munana then regained control of her left arm. The officers pushed Lujano's arms behind her back for handcuffing.
Munana drove Lujano to the Isla Vista patrol station and then to Goleta Valley hospital where she was diagnosed and treated for a broken right arm. She was booked into juvenile hall that evening on the Penal Code section 148 charge. The charge was resolved by Lujano's agreement to six months of informal probation under Welfare and Institutions Code section 654.
Lujano filed a complaint based on the arrest against the County, Munana and Ward, and against the Regents and Clark. She alleged state law and 42 United States Code section 1983 (section 1983) claims for false arrest, battery, negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress, excessive force, and "acts or omissions of public employees."
All parties moved for summary judgment or in the alternative for summary adjudication. The court granted the County defendants' motion for summary judgment. The court reasoned: "[S]ince the underlying criminal charge did not terminate in [Lujano's] favor, a favorable judgment in this action would be inconsistent with her agreement to probation to dispose of that criminal matter (Heck v. Humphrey (1994) 512 U.S. 477 [129 L.Ed.2d 383, 114 S.Ct. 2364]) and . . . there was probable cause to arrest her and the force used to take her into custody was reasonable." The court also ruled that Munana and Ward were entitled to qualified immunity from section 1983 liability, finding that "Deputy Munana merely grasped [Lujano's] left wrist to handcuff her. Deputy Ward did not even participate in the arrest." The court concluded that the County could not be liable under either section 1983 or state law because neither of the individual defendants had violated Lujano's rights.
On appeal, Lujano asserts that granting summary judgment was error as to the excessive force claim because a jury could infer that Munana caused
"A `party moving for summary judgment bears the burden of persuasion that there is no triable issue of material fact and that he . . . is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.' [Citation.] A defendant satisfies this burden by showing `"one or more elements of" the "cause of action" in question "cannot be established," or that "there is a complete defense"' to that cause of action. [Citation.] `"Once the defendant . . . has met that burden, the burden shifts to the plaintiff . . . to show that a triable issue of one or more material facts exists as to that cause of action or a defense thereto."' [Citation.] . . . In determining whether these burdens have been met, we review the record de novo. [Citation.]" (Susag v. City of Lake Forest (2002) 94 Cal.App.4th 1401, 1407-1408 [115 Cal.Rptr.2d 269].)
As "`a corollary of the de novo review standard, the appellate court may affirm a summary judgment on any correct legal theory, as long as the parties had an adequate opportunity to address the theory in the trial court. [Citation.]' [Citation.]" (California School of Culinary Arts v. Lujan (2003) 112 Cal.App.4th 16, 22 [4 Cal.Rptr.3d 785].)
Our analysis disposes of Lujano's excessive force claims as a matter of law. Nonetheless, we briefly address her contention that summary judgment was improperly granted because a jury could find that deputies Ward and Munana used excessive force in arresting her. The contention is without merit. Deputy Ward did not participate in the arrest.
An officer's duty to intervene does not arise until a person's constitutional rights are being violated in the officer's presence and there must be sufficient time to do so. (O'Neill v. Krzeminski (2d Cir. 1988) 839 F.2d 9, 11.) A claim of excessive force is analyzed under the framework set forth by the Supreme Court in Graham v. Connor (1989) 490 U.S. 386 [104 L.Ed.2d 443, 109 S.Ct. 1865]. That analysis "requires a careful balancing of `"the nature and quality of the intrusion [on a person's liberty with]'" . . . the countervailing governmental interests at stake" to determine whether the use of force was objectively reasonable under the circumstances. (Id. at p. 396.)
Here, there were no facts or circumstances which would have led Deputy Ward to believe that Lujano's constitutional rights were being violated. The undisputed evidence shows that the officers who arrested Lujano merely placed her arms behind her back for handcuffing, using the force necessary to restrain her when she resisted. Lujano did not indicate that her right arm had been injured until she was being driven to the police station. No reasonable trier of fact could find either that Deputy Ward knew that Lujano's constitutional rights were being violated by others or that he had a realistic opportunity to intercede to prevent the violation.
There are no facts that Deputy Munana did anything other than use the force necessary to restrain Lujano so that she could be handcuffed. There are no facts showing that he knew or should have known that her right arm had been injured during the arrest. Summary judgment was properly granted because Deputy Munana himself did not use excessive force in handcuffing Lujano.
Yegan, Acting P. J., and Coffee, J., concurred.