Yee v. Sacramento County, Jail et al

Filing 108

ORDER signed by Chief District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller on 3/3/23 GRANTING summary judgment to the defendants. CASE CLOSED(Kastilahn, A)

Case 2:14-cv-02955-KJM-DB Document 108 Filed 03/06/23 Page 1 of 6
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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

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FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

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Vincent Yee,

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No. 2:14-cv-02955-KJM-DB
Plaintiff,

ORDER

v.
Sacramento County Main Jail, et al.,
Defendants.

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In this action, plaintiff Vincent Yee alleges two officers of the Sacramento Police

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Department, Harold Penny and Corey Johnson, wrongfully withheld information about his father

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Peter Yee’s suicide risk when they booked him into the Sacramento County Main Jail in 1998.

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Peter Yee died by suicide in the jail about two months later. The officers asserted qualified

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immunity in their final pretrial statement, and the court directed the parties to submit briefs

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addressing whether the officers were entitled to summary judgment on the basis of that defense.

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Defs.’ Pretrial Statement 3–5, ECF No. 88; Mins., ECF No. 93; see also Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(f).

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The court also appointed counsel to represent Mr. Yee in preparing his brief; he had previously

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been representing himself. Appointment Order, ECF No. 95. The parties have now submitted

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their briefs. See Defs.’ Br., ECF No. 99; Pl.’s Br., ECF No. 102; Defs.’ Resp., ECF No. 105. The

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court now submits the matter without oral arguments and grants summary judgment to the

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officers based on their qualified immunity, as explained below.
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In general, summary judgment raises two questions. First, is there a “genuine dispute as

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to any material fact”? Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a). Second, if not, is a party “entitled to judgment as a

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matter of law”? Id. Together, the answers to these questions show “whether there is the need for

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a trial—whether, in other words, there are any genuine issues that can be resolved only by a

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finder of fact because they may reasonably be resolved in favor of either party.” Anderson v.

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Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 250 (1986). When a person seeks or opposes summary

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judgment, it is not enough to simply make an assertion or allegation. See Celotex Corp. v.

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Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 324 (1986). At summary judgment, factual claims must be accompanied

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by citations to “particular parts of materials in the record,” such as depositions, documents,

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responses to written discovery, and declarations. Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c)(1).
In their respective briefs, Mr. Yee and the two officers do not cite depositions, documents,

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written discovery, declarations or any other parts of the discovery record. See Defs.’ Br. at 2–3;

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Pl.’s Br. at 1–2; Defs.’ Resp. at 1–3. Nor have they attached any evidence to explain what the

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evidence would show at trial. Despite the absence of citations to evidence, the parties’

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descriptions of what happened are largely aligned. As a general rule, parties to a case may “have

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their case tried upon the assumption that facts, stipulated into the record, were established.”

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Christian Legal Soc. Chapter of the Univ. of Cal. v. Martinez, 561 U.S. 661, 676 (2010) (quoting

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H. Hackfeld & Co. v. United States, 197 U.S. 442, 447 (1905)) (alterations omitted). The court

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therefore interprets the parties’ briefs as proposed agreements about what would and would not be

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proven at trial. See Defs.’ Br. at 2–3; Pl.’s Br. at 1; Defs.’ Resp. at 1–3. When those proposals

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overlap—or when one side has made a claim without objection or contradiction by the other—the

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court treats the agreement as effective and binding for purposes of summary judgment. The court

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also resolves inconsistencies, ambiguities and disputes in Mr. Yee’s favor. The following story

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emerges from this approach.

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In the Fall of 1998, three Sacramento Police officers responded to reports of a domestic

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dispute at Peter Yee’s home. He was distraught, yelling again and again that he wanted to die,

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perhaps as many as fifty times. The officers arrested him, suspecting he was guilty of domestic

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abuse. See Cal. Penal Code §§ 273.5(a), (b)(1)–(2). Two of the officers, Penny and Johnson,
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took Peter to the Sacramento Main Jail, where he was booked. He did not tell the officers he was

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suicidal. The officers, in turn, did not suggest to jail staff that Peter was at risk of suicide. They

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did later note in a report that he had said, “I wanna die.” About two months later, while he was

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still in the Sheriff’s Department’s custody, Peter hanged himself with a bedsheet, which he could

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not have done if he had been confined in a cell designed to prevent suicides.

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Vincent Yee filed this lawsuit many years later. After pretrial motions and discovery, the

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only remaining claims are those against the two officers, Penny and Johnson. See Order

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Adopting F&Rs, ECF No. 41; Mins., ECF No. 93. Mr. Yee alleges they were deliberately

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indifferent to the risk of his father’s suicide in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment, and he

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seeks damages. See, e.g., Sixth Am. Compl. at 23–24, ECF No. 35. Officers Penny and Johnson

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argue they are legally immune to these claims. Defs.’ Pretrial Statement 3–5. Under the doctrine

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of qualified immunity, which they assert, they are immune unless their conduct violated “clearly

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established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known.”

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Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 818 (1982). Plaintiff can overcome the officers’ assertion of

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immunity by proving, first, they violated a constitutional right, and second, the constitutional

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right was “clearly established” at the time of the violation. See Tolan v. Cotton, 572 U.S. 650,

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655–56 (2014) (per curiam).

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District courts may begin with either part of this two-part test. See Pearson v. Callahan,

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555 U.S. 223, 236 (2009). It is “often beneficial” to begin with the first part, i.e., whether a

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defendant violated a constitutional right. Id. Doing so often “promotes the development of

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constitutional precedent.” Id. In this case, no guidance or clarity would be productive. In 1998,

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when Peter Yee died, the Ninth Circuit had prescribed a different legal test for claims of

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deliberate indifference than it does today. See Horton by Horton v. City of Santa Maria, 915 F.3d

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592, 599 (9th Cir. 2019) (citing Castro v. County of Los Angeles, 833 F.3d 1060 (9th Cir. 2016)

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(en banc)). Developing the now-abandoned legal test “would serve little purpose.” Id. at 602.

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Here, it is better to begin with the second part of the qualified immunity test: did the officers’

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conduct violate clearly established law? That is, in 1998, would it have been “sufficiently clear”

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to “every reasonable official” that the officers’ actions violated the Fourteenth Amendment?
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Mullenix v. Luna, 577 U.S. 7, 11 (2015) (per curiam) (quoting Reichle v. Howards, 566 U.S. 658,

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664 (2012)).

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The court must answer this question “in light of the specific context of the case, not as a

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broad general proposition.” Saucier v. Katz, 533 U.S. 194, 201 (2001), overruled in part on other

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grounds by Pearson, 555 U.S. 223. In Saucier v. Katz, for example, a protester claimed an officer

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had used excessive force when he “grabbed” him from behind, took his banner, rushed him away

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from where the Vice President was about to speak, took him to a military van, and “shoved” him

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inside. Id. at 198. The protester could not rely solely on the “general proposition” that

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objectively unreasonable force violates the Fourth Amendment. See id. at 201–02 (citing Graham

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v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386 (1989)). The Court also found it necessary to consider the context, such

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as the officer’s “duty to protect the safety and security of the Vice President of the United States

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from persons unknown in number.” Id. at 209.

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In this case, Officer Penny’s and Officer Johnson’s constitutional obligations were

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established in a broad sense at the time of Peter Yee’s arrest and booking. In 1979, the Supreme

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Court held that the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits states from punishing pretrial detainees like

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Peter Yee, who by definition have not been adjudicated guilty of a crime. See Bell v. Wolfish,

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441 U.S. 520, 535–36 (1979). In 1988, the Ninth Circuit held that this rule prohibited jail

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officials from exhibiting deliberate indifference to a pretrial detainee’s “serious medical needs.”

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See, e.g., Cabrales v. Cnty. of Los Angeles, 864 F.2d 1454, 1461 & n.2 (9th Cir. 1988), judgment

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vacated, 490 U.S. 1087 (1989), reinstated, 886 F.2d 235 (9th Cir. 1989), and overruled, Castro,

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833 F.3d 1060. And by the early 1990s, several federal courts of appeals had held that mental

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health conditions could be “serious medical needs.” See, e.g., Doty v. Cnty. of Lassen, 37 F.3d

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540, 546 (9th Cir. 1994); Hall v. Ryan, 957 F.2d 402, 406 & n.6 (7th Cir. 1992); Torraco v.

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Maloney, 923 F.2d 231, 234 (1st Cir. 1991); Colburn v. Upper Darby Twp., 838 F.2d 663, 669

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(3d Cir. 1988), abrogated in part on other grounds by Leatherman v. Tarrant Cnty. Narcotics

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Intelligence and Coordination Unit, 507 U.S. 163 (1993). As a result, at the time of Peter Yee’s

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death, it was clearly established that the Constitution prohibited jail officials from ignoring a

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pretrial detainee’s heightened suicide risk. See, e.g., Cabrales, 864 F.2d at 1457–58, 1461; Hall,
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957 F.2d at 406; Torraco, 923 F.2d at 235–36. A plaintiff could prevail under a constitutional

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claim of this type by showing (1) an official was “‘aware of facts from which the inference could

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be drawn that a substantial risk of serious harm exists’” and (2) the official “actually drew the

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inference.” Horton, 915 F.3d 592 (quoting Simmons v. Navajo Cnty., Ariz., 609 F.3d 1011, 1017

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(9th Cir. 2010)).

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For example, in 1988, the Ninth Circuit upheld verdicts against Los Angeles County and a

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local jail commander after a man committed suicide in the county jail while he was awaiting a

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trial on burglary charges. See Cabrales, 864 F.2d at 1456–57. The man had attempted suicide

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not long before his death, and jail officials knew he had suffered from a psychotic disorder, but

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they held him in isolation without observation, where he hanged himself. See id. at 1457. A few

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years later, in 1992, the Seventh Circuit denied qualified immunity to jail officials who had

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allegedly withheld treatment from a pretrial detainee with a history of suicide threats, who later

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attempted to hang himself in his cell. See Hall, 957 F.2d at 403–04, 405–06. It was unclear what

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the jail officials had known about the man’s history of suicide threats and attempts, a key question

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to answer when deciding whether they were deliberately indifferent, and so the court denied

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summary judgment. See id. at 405–06.

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In contrast with the defendants in those and other similar cases, Officers Penny and

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Johnson were not jail officials. Mr. Yee faults them not for ignoring the risk of his father’s

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suicide while he was in their own custody, but rather for not disclosing to others what they knew.

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The question, then, is whether a reasonable officer—knowing what Penny and Johnson knew and

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given the law at the time—would have understood that saying nothing to jail staff about Peter

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Yee’s mental health put him at such a substantial risk of harm that the Constitution demanded

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some warning or disclosure to the Sacramento County Main Jail when he was booked. On that

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question, Mr. Yee has cited no clearly established law predating 1998, and the court has found

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none.

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In fact, this uncertainty persisted even in 2012, many years after Peter Yee’s death, when

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two other police officers found themselves in a situation very much like the one Officers Penny

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and Johnson faced. Like Penny and Johnson, these two other officers had arrested a man whose
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behavior suggested he was suffering from a mental health condition. See Horton, 915 F.3d at

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596. The young man told one of the officers he was “feeling anxious” and “would really like to

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speak to someone.” Id. at 597. His mother also told the other officer the young man had recently

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been hospitalized for risk of suicide. See id. Twenty-seven minutes after that warning, officers

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found him in his cell, suffering from the effects of an unsuccessful suicide attempt. Id. at 598.

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The man survived, but he suffered severe and permanent injuries. Id. In the civil rights case his

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family later brought on his behalf, the Ninth Circuit found no clearly established law to overcome

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the two officers’ assertion of qualified immunity. See id. at 599–601. The only potentially

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comparable cases had been decided in 2009 and 2010. See id. (discussing Clouthier v. County of

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Contra Costa, 591 F.3d 1232 (9th Cir. 2010), overruled by Castro, 833 F.3d 1060, and Conn v.

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City of Reno, 591 F.3d 1081 (9th Cir. 2010), vacated, 563 U.S. 915 (2011), and reinstated in

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relevant part, 658 F.3d 897 (9th Cir. 2011)). The circuit’s opinion in Horton thus demonstrates

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that no clearly established law required more from Officers Penny and Johnson in 1998.

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In reaching this conclusion, the court is not finding affirmatively that Officers Penny and

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Johnson complied with their constitutional obligations. The Constitution may very well have

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demanded more of them. But if it did, that conclusion was not “clearly established” under the

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strict standard the Supreme Court has set. It is that strict standard this court must apply. While

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the two officers are not exonerated, they are immune to the claims in Mr. Yee’s complaint. The

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court grants summary judgment to the defendants and closes this case.

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IT IS SO ORDERED.
DATED: March 3, 2023.

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