Judge dismisses much of lawsuit against SJPD regarding Floyd riots

A lawsuit representing over a dozen people who were injured in 2020 downtown demonstrations was minimized by Judge Phyllis Hamilton; some elements of suit remain. Robert Salonga at the SJ Merc reports.

Hamilton did agree with the city in dismissing claims alleging race-based targeting of protesters and that officers specifically violated protesters’ freedom of movement. She partially dismissed a claim over the curfew and limited potential liability to Mayor Sam Liccardo, former city manager Dave Sykes, former police chief Eddie Garcia and the City of San Jose.

The judge did not decide on issues addressing qualified immunity for officers — legal protections for officers against monetary damages — and questions over officers’ lack of crowd-control training. Hamilton wrote that the next information-gathering phase — discovery — will have to be done first. She will then evaluate those issues in later summary judgment proceedings, where she will decide again if the case can advance toward trial.

The lawsuit, filed in March, alleges civil-rights violations by San Jose police and city leadership covering excessive force, wrongful arrest, and First Amendment infringements stemming from both enforcement tactics and the issuing of a city-wide curfew after the first few days of violent clashes at the end of May 2020

Eleven of the city’s dismissal motions were denied by the judge outright. That means First Amendment violation claims, alleging that police targeted demonstrators based on their viewpoints and that a city curfew infringed their free expression, can move ahead to the evidentiary phase. The same goes for federal claims of excessive force, wrongful arrest, failure of officers to intervene with other officers using unlawful force, failure to accommodate a disability, and a series of parallel claims of state-law violations.
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Photo taken by Thomas Hawk.