Lead Opinion
Opinion
Plaintiff Steven Yount suffered injuries when Sacramento Police Officer Thomas Shram shot him in the left buttock as Shram and three other officers were trying to transport him to jail following his arrest for driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI). Just prior to the shooting, Yount, despite being in handcuffs and leg restraints, was straggling and threatening the officers. Officer Shram, intending to draw and fire his Taser gun in order to subdue Yount, mistakenly pulled out and discharged his pistol instead.
As a result of this incident, Yount pleaded no contest to violating Penal Code section 148, subdivision (a)(1) (resisting, delaying, or obstructing an officer in the performance of the officer’s duties). He then brought this action against the City of Sacramento and Officer Shram for damages arising from the violation of his civil rights under title 42 United States Code section 1983 (section 1983) and asserted a common law claim of battery as well.
Defendants argued that the section 1983 claim must be dismissed as an improper collateral attack on Yount’s criminal conviction under Heck v. Humphrey (1994) 512 U.S. 477 [
Background
When plaintiff Steven Yount left his home in the early morning hours of March 10, 2001, he was very drunk. He had consumed more than a six-pack of beer and an unknown amount of ram. He drove out in search of more beer, but had no recollection of arriving at the 7-Eleven store on La Riviera Drive in East Sacramento, no recollection of being told that he could not purchase beer after 2:00 a.m., no recollection of staggering and swaying out of the store and getting back into his car, and no recollection of his straggle with the police attempting to effect his arrest that resulted in his being shot, accidentally, in the left buttock.
Daniel Powell, a private security guard, saw Yount in the parking lot of the 7-Eleven prior to the shooting. Yount was visibly drank and heading towards his car, so Powell placed a call to the police. Around that same time, Officer Samuel Davis of the Sacramento Police Department drove into the parking lot. Powell directed Officer Davis to Yount’s car, which was starting to back out, and warned him that Yount was drank. Officer Davis pulled his patrol vehicle behind Yount’s car to block its exit and got out of his car to talk to Yount.
Yount’s eyes were glassy and red. When asked whether he had ever been arrested before for driving under the influence, Yount responded, “Which date?” Officer Davis asked Yount to step out of the car. Yount did so but lost his balance and “kind of fell into” the officer. Yount came willingly part of the way to the patrol vehicle, but then became apprehensive and refused to get inside. Officer Davis was eventually able to maneuver him into the backseat. As Officer Davis continued his investigation, Yount yelled, “[Y]ou can’t do anything with me. You are not going to take me to jail, nigger,” and shouted other obscenities and racial slurs. Yount also banged his head and kicked against the side and window of the patrol vehicle. Concerned that Yount was going to injure himself, Officer Davis asked him to stop. Yount replied, “Fuck you.”
When Officer Debra Hatfield of the California State University Police Department, Sacramento, and Officers Daniel Swafford and Thomas Shram of the Sacramento Police Department arrived to assist minutes later, Officer Davis explained that he needed their help in completing the written DUI report, as he was supposed to be taking over as acting sergeant for the entire downtown area. As part of that assistance, Officer Shram opened the door to ask Yount for identification, but Yount “just popped out” of the vehicle and tried to “move right in [Shram’s] face” and continued yelling and cursing. Officer Shram retrieved Yount’s wallet himself and had to force Yount back into the patrol vehicle.
Unfortunately, once back in the patrol vehicle, Yount resumed banging and shaking it, as well as yelling and cursing. Officers Hatfield, Swafford, and Shram attempted to calm him down, to no avail. They warned him they would use a Taser if he did not cooperate, but Yount taunted them, “Shoot me, shoot me, shoot me” and kicked his legs at Officer Shram. Officer Swafford went to the other side of the vehicle and Tasered Yount in the back, which caused him to interrupt his resistance for a few minutes, but Yount then became more violent. He called Officer Davis a “nigger” and Officer Hatfield a “whore” and expressed his hope that they all would die that night. He also started kicking at the car window with both feet. Officer Shram saw the window start to flex and, as Officer Davis started walking towards it, “the thing just explode[d] in his face.”
Because of Yount’s resistance, Officer Davis decided that Yount’s legs needed to be immobilized before they could transfer him to another patrol vehicle. Yount, however, continued to be uncooperative and fought to stay in the car. The officers eventually succeeded in pulling Yount out of the damaged vehicle, but the effort caused Officer Davis to stumble backwards and hit his elbow on the ground. Yount fell on top of Officer Davis, kicked Officer Davis close to his groin, and spat on him. Officer Davis then got on top of Yount, who continued to straggle and shout, and placed his knee on Yount’s upper back to keep him on the ground. Officer Hatfield grabbed Yount’s left leg; Officer Shram grabbed his right. The officers succeeded in securing Yount’s ankles together, but they were not able to connect the ankle restraint to his wrists.
Two independent eyewitnesses, Daniel Powell and Robert Corke, confirmed that Yount had been resisting the officers up until the time he was shot: There is no evidence in the record that Yount committed any act of resistance after he was shot.
Yount’s blood-alcohol level following his arrest was determined to be 0.296 percent.
Criminal Proceedings
An amended criminal complaint charged Yount with violently resisting all four officers in the performance of their duties (Pen. Code, § 69; count 1) as well as battery on a peace officer {id., § 243, subd. (c)(2); count 2) and two counts of driving under the influence (Veh. Code, § 23152, subds. (a), (b); counts 3 & 4). On June 19, 2001, after Yount waived his right to a preliminary hearing, he pleaded no contest to DUI with three prior DUI convictions (Veh. Code, §§ 23550, 23626) and to the related misdemeanor offense of violating Penal Code section 148, subdivision (a)(1) (resisting an officer). The remaining counts were dismissed. Yount stipulated to the facts in count 1, and the court found a factual basis for the plea as to each count. Yount was placed on probation for five years and ordered to serve 270 days in county jail and pay specified fines.
Civil Proceedings
On October 28, 2002, Yount filed a first amended complaint against Officer Shram and the City of Sacramento for damages, alleging assault and battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The complaint also alleged violation of his rights under the Unrah Civil Rights Act (Civ. Code, § 51 et seq.) and violation of his federal civil rights (42 U.S.C. § 1983) against Officer Shram alone.
The complaint asserted that Officer Shram without probable cause wrongfully, negligently, intentionally, and with deliberate indifference to Yount’s
Defendants’ answer included an allegation that success in the civil action would necessarily imply the invalidity of Yount’s criminal conviction for violating Penal Code section 148, subdivision (a)(1). (See Heck, supra,
During the Heck hearing, the trial court heard from seven eyewitnesses and took judicial notice of the file of the criminal proceeding. Following the hearing, the court concluded that a finding of excessive force would be a collateral attack on Yount’s misdemeanor conviction for resisting the officers, since the conviction itself established that Officer Shram had acted appropriately. The trial court found that Yount’s own actions, which formed the basis of his criminal conviction, led to Officer Shram’s use of force; that Yount’s conviction encompassed resistance to all four officers; and that, despite brief pauses in Yount’s resistance, the entire episode was one continuous transaction. For those reasons, the trial court held that Yount’s civil claims were barred by Heck.
The Court of Appeal reversed in a published opinion. The Court of Appeal reasoned that, in general, “if the evidence discloses at least one violation of [Penal Code] section 148 independent of and discrete from the officer’s alleged misconduct, Heck does not apply,” inasmuch as that remaining act could be used to sustain the conviction. The court concluded that Yount’s claims for damages did not impugn his conviction for resisting the officers because, even if Yount prevailed in his civil suit, his criminal conviction could be sustained by any one of Yount’s other acts of resistance that was unrelated to the shooting.
Section 1983, as relevant here, provides that “[e]very person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State . . . subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress . . .
The legal proposition at issue here is easily stated but somewhat less easy to apply. It is this: “a state prisoner’s claim for damages is not cognizable under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 if ‘a judgment in favor of the plaintiff would necessarily imply the invalidity of his conviction or sentence,’ unless the prisoner can demonstrate that the conviction or sentence has previously been invalidated.” (Edwards v. Balisok (1997)
A
Our discussion begins with Heck, supra,
One example provided by the high court is especially pertinent to the circumstances here: “A state defendant is convicted of and sentenced for the crime of resisting arrest, defined as intentionally preventing a peace officer from effecting a lawful arrest. ... He then brings a § 1983 action against the arresting officer, seeking damages for violation of his Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable seizures. In order to prevail in this § 1983 action, he would have to negate an element of the offense of which he has been convicted.” (Heck, supra, 512 U.S. at pp. 486-487, fn. 6, citations omitted.) Although (as the Court of Appeal correctly pointed out) Penal Code section 148, subdivision (a)(1) is unlike the law of many states in that it is not limited to a defendant’s conduct in resisting arrest but extends to a defendant’s resistance of an officer in the discharge or attempted discharge of any duty of his or her office, it similarly requires that the officer be lawfully engaged in the performance of his or her duties. (People v. Gonzalez (1990)
To determine “whether a judgment in favor of the plaintiff would necessarily imply the invalidity of his conviction” (Heck, supra,
Yount pleaded no contest to a single count of violating Penal Code section 148, subdivision (a)(1), a misdemeanor. The legal elements of that crime are as follows: “ ‘(1) the defendant willfully resisted, delayed, or
Yount’s section 1983 claim, in turn, alleges that his Fourth Amendment rights were violated during this same incident because Officer Shram lacked probable cause to arrest him and because Officer Shram used excessive force. The section 1983 claim alleges in particular that Officer Shram assaulted and battered Yount by shooting him in the buttock “without any justification,” that Yount was not attempting to interfere with any duties of any police officer at the time he was shot, that Yount at no time posed any reasonable threat of violence to Officer Shram or did anything else to justify the force used against him, and that the force used was unnecessary, unlawful, grossly excessive, and deadly.
In analyzing the relationship between Yount’s criminal conviction and his section 1983 claim, the Court of Appeal focused in particular on the fact that Yount not only interfered with the performance of the officers’ duties at the time he was shot, but he also “committed several independently identifiable prior acts of resistance and obstruction during the encounter,” “any one of which could have formed the factual basis for his plea.” “Had the only act that could have formed the basis for Yount’s [Penal Code] section 148 conviction been his resistance to the officers at the time he was shot,” the Court of Appeal continued, “his claim would be barred by Heck. The uncontradicted evidence shows, however, that Yount violated the statute a number of times before Officer Shram pulled out his firearm. The criminal court record recites only that Yount admitted there was a ‘factual basis’ for his plea. That record is silent as to which act or acts formed the factual basis for Yount’s admission. Thus, Yount’s civil rights claim based on excessive force would not necessarily impugn his criminal plea, and Heck is no bar.”
To the extent the Court of Appeal believed that Heck was inapplicable here merely because Yount had entered a no contest plea without a preliminary hearing and without explicit identification of which of the multiple acts of resistance formed the factual basis for his conviction, it was mistaken. In this case, the trial court did not rely solely on the bare record of the criminal proceeding in analyzing the scope of Yount’s criminal conviction, but considered also the testimony of the seven eyewitnesses who testified at the
Yount then contends that, whatever the scope of his criminal conviction, Heck nonetheless “does not apply where the evidence discloses at least one violation of [Penal Code, section] 148 independent of and discrete from an officer’s alleged misconduct.” In Yount’s view (and in the view of the Court of Appeal), Heck does not apply even if success on the section 1983 claim would be inconsistent with a fact established by his conviction for resisting the officers, so long as there remains, undisturbed by the civil rights action, at least one criminal act sufficient to sustain the criminal conviction. Or, put another way, so long as one act of resistance remains undisturbed to support the criminal conviction, it is immaterial that success on the section 1983 claim might be inconsistent with other facts that supported the criminal conviction. In Yount’s view (and in the view of the Court of Appeal), the fact that the conviction could be sustained on this narrower basis means that a judgment for the plaintiff on the section 1983 claim would not necessarily imply the invalidity of the plaintiff’s conviction.
We find no support in Heck for the notion that the bar preventing collateral attacks on a criminal conviction is inapplicable when the plaintiff seeks to undermine only a part of his or her criminal conviction. (Cf. Heck, supra,
The rule proposed by the Court of Appeal and embraced by Yount would also have the perverse effect of rewarding those (like Yount) who engage in multiple acts of resistance with the right to pursue a civil action against the officers, since only those who commit a single act of resistance will find their civil action barred by Heck. Under such a scheme, as defendants observe, “the more egregious and more numerous the violations of Penal Code section 148 perpetrated by a criminal defendant, the better that defendant’s chances of pursuing a Section 1983 action and avoiding the Heck bar.” Granting such offenders the right to pursue a civil suit arising out of the same transaction on which their criminal plea is based merely by the expedient of ensuring that the civil action excludes at least one act of resistance (or at least one officer being resisted) is inconsistent with the high court’s general reluctance “to expand opportunities for collateral attack.” (Heck, supra,
Indeed, Yount obtained substantial benefit from his general plea. By declining to limit the scope of his no contest plea, Yount is protected against a new prosecution for resisting these officers by the double jeopardy clause. (U.S. Const., 5th Amend.; see State v. Newman (1992)
As stated above, our task is to analyze the relationship between Yount’s resistance, as evidenced by his criminal conviction, and Officer Shrum’s alleged misconduct, as set forth in the first amended complaint. The record of the Heck hearing indicates that Yount was kicking, spitting, and refusing to cooperate with the officers just prior to the shooting. Under those circumstances, Officer Shrum was justified in responding with reasonable force. (Pen. Code, § 835a; People v. Curtis (1969)
The record of the Heck hearing also demonstrates that Yount was attempting to drive while intoxicated. Hence, to the extent that Yount’s section 1983 claim alleges that Officer Shrum “violated YOUNT’S rights to be free from arrest and detention absent probable cause,” the claim is similarly inconsistent with his conviction for resisting the officers in the lawful performance of their duties and is barred under Heck. (Nuno v. County of San Bernardino (C.D.Cal. 1999)
However, to the extent Yount’s section 1983 claim alleges simply that Officer Shrum’s use of deadly force was an unjustified and excessive response to Yount’s resistance, the claim is not barred.
Defendants contend that the Heck bar should nonetheless apply because the shooting was part of a continuous transaction arising from Yount’s resistance as well as “a consequence flowing directly from Yount’s criminal conduct.” But our analysis does take account of the fact that Yount’s resistance caused the officers to respond with force of their own. As explained above, we find that Yount’s section 1983 claim is barred to the extent it alleges that Officer Shram lacked justification to arrest him or to respond with reasonable force to his resistance. The use of deadly force in this situation, though, requires a separate analysis. “For example, a defendant might resist a lawful arrest, to which the arresting officers might respond with excessive force to subdue him. The subsequent use of excessive force would not negate the lawfulness of the initial arrest attempt, or negate the unlawfulness of the criminal defendant’s attempt to resist it. Though occurring in one continuous chain of events, two isolated factual contexts would exist, the first giving rise to criminal liability on the part of the criminal defendant, and the second giving rise to civil liability on the part of the arresting officer.” (Jones v. Marcum (S.D. Ohio 2002)
B
Yount relies heavily on Smith v. City of Hemet, supra,
In reversing the trial court’s determination that Smith’s section 1983 claim was barred under Heck, the Ninth Circuit reasoned that “if Smith pled guilty to § 148(a)(1) based on his behavior after the officers came onto the porch, during the course of the arrest, his suit would be barred by Heck. [Citation.] In such case, a successful § 1983 action by Smith would necessarily mean that the officers had used excessive force to subdue him and were therefore acting unlawfully at the time his arrest was effected. In that circumstance, Smith’s conviction under § 148(a)(1) would have been wrongful and a successful § 1983 suit by him would demonstrate its invalidity. [Citation.] [f] Under Heck, Smith would be allowed to bring a § 1983 action, however, if
The possibility that this latter scenario was the basis for Smith’s guilty plea is what led the Ninth Circuit to reverse the judgment in favor of the defendants—and it is worthwhile to revisit the Ninth Circuit’s reasoning so as to demonstrate that Yount’s reliance on the case is misplaced. The Ninth Circuit correctly observed that a defendant entering a plea of guilty or no contest in California “is free to admit having committed a specific act or acts of resistance, delay, or obstruction, to identify the particular acts of unlawfulness to which he is willing to plead, and to deny that he engaged in other . . . acts.” (Smith v. City of Hemet, supra,
We need not consider here whether Smith was correctly decided because here, unlike in Smith, the trial court took judicial notice of the file of the criminal proceeding, including the transcript of the plea hearing. That transcript refutes any claim that Yount, at the time of his plea, admitted “having committed [only] a specific act or acts of resistance, delay, or obstruction”; that he identified “the particular acts of unlawfulness to which he [was] willing to plead”; or that he denied “that he engaged in other specific acts.” (Smith v. City of Hemet, supra,
The parties do not separately address the effect of Yount’s criminal conviction on his state law claim for battery. Heck, of course, is a rule of federal law that applies only to federal causes of action that challenge the validity of a state conviction. (Nuno v. County of San Bernardino, supra,
Moreover, this court has recently reiterated its concern about the use of civil suits to collaterally attack criminal judgments in the context of a convicted criminal defendant’s civil action against his or her attorney for legal malpractice. (See Coscia v. McKenna & Cuneo (2001)
In light of the fact that Heck and California law express similar concerns about judicial economy and the avoidance of conflicting resolutions, we conclude that the analysis in the preceding sections applies equally to Yount’s common law claim for battery. That is, to the extent Yount does not deny that he resisted the officers (or that the officers had the right to respond with reasonable force), he poses no challenge to his conviction, and, to that extent, his cause of action for battery arising from Officer Shrum’s use of deadly force is not barred.
We affirm in part and reverse in part the judgment of the Court of Appeal and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
George, C. J., Kennard, J., Chin, J., Moreno, J., and Corrigan, J., concurred.
Notes
Because the officer in this case used deadly force, we need consider only whether Yount may proceed with his civil claims to the extent they challenge the officer’s use of deadly force.
Although we hold that this portion of Yount’s section 1983 claim is not .Heck-barred, we have not been asked to decide (and do not decide here) whether Yount may recover damages under section 1983 for Officer Shrum’s accidental use of deadly force.
Concurrence Opinion
I concur in the judgment.
I agree with the majority that plaintiff Steven Yount may sue defendants under 42 United States Code section 1983 (section 1983) and for battery based on the claim that a police officer shot him while he was handcuffed and restrained. On this point the majority reasons: “[T]o the extent Yount’s section 1983 claim alleges simply that Officer Shrum’s use of deadly force was an unjustified and excessive response to Yount’s resistance, the claim is not barred. As defendants have conceded, the record at the Heck hearing [see Heck v. Humphrey (1994)
This reasoning suffices. The remainder of the majority’s opinion is unnecessary to the decision and thus constitutes, in my view, obiter dictum of no precedential value. The majority attempts to justify its dictum by purporting to decide “that [plaintiff’s] claims are barred to the extent they allege that Officer Shram was not entitled to use force at all in this incident.” (Maj. opn., ante, at p. 889.) But no such claim is before us. At the time of trial, plaintiff had elected to proceed on two theories only: section 1983 and battery. Both claims, as alleged in the first amended complaint, are based exclusively on the shooting. Plaintiff names only Officer Shram as a defendant in his claim under section 1983, and he bases the claim on the allegation that Officer Shram, “while acting under color of law with the Sacramento Police Department, shot and seriously and permanently injured” him. Plaintiff names both Officer Shram and his employer, the City of Sacramento, as defendants in his claim for battery. But the only battery alleged is that plaintiff “was shot and seriously and permanently injured by defendant Officer Shram . . . .”
Respondents’ petition for a rehearing was denied July 16, 2008.