United States Ninth Circuit

In an action under 42 U.S.C. section 1983 by a Los Angeles County public defender who alleged that her Fourth Amendment rights were violated when a deputy sheriff briefly arrested her pursuant to a judicial command that she appear in court, the district court's bench trial judgment is affirmed in part and reversed in part where: 1) the deputy sheriff was not entitle to qualified immunity because he could not reasonably have believed that he had one of the usual Fourth Amendment justifications for the arrest; and 2) the presiding referee's order, by its clear terms, did not authorize the deputy sheriff to seize plaintiff, and no reasonable officer could have understood the referee as ordering that plaintiff be forcibly brought into court.

Appellate Information

• Decided 08/14/2015
• Published 08/14/2015

Judges

• Kozinski

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel