Manning & Kass Team Earns Victory in Federal Court

Congratulations to our Governmental Entity Liability practice for winning a motion for summary judgement on all federal claims on behalf of the defendant the City of Fresno and its individually-named defendant officers. The litigation team, led by Partners Mildred K. O'Linn and Lynn L. Carpenter, and the firm's law and motion specialist, successfully convinced the court to dismiss multiple federal claims. The incident as described below involves allegations of asphyxiation arising out of an incident on May 10, 2017, involving both Fresno Police Department officers and Fresno County deputies. 

Fresno Police Department personnel initially encountered the plaintiff while returning to the City of Fresno from an unrelated call nearby. While the officers were driving near Palm Avenue and Santa Fe, they saw a man walking in and out of the street, waving his arms, and yelling. Upon contact with the man, the officers suspected he was under the influence of a controlled substance and confirmed he was on AB 109 probation. Officers initially sat the man on the curb and one of the officers called for EMS Code 2, followed by a second call to EMS a short time later, requesting Code 3, or an emergency response. Thereafter, the man suddenly sprang up from a seated position and appeared to be trying to run back into the roadway and was taken to the ground. During the attempt to restrain the man on the ground the man was initially on his back, but turned onto his stomach during the struggle. The man continued to yell, scream, and resist officers while scraping his head onto the concrete. The officers used control holds to prevent him from injuring himself while they waited for EMS to arrive. A RIPP restraint was briefly applied to the man's ankles, but it was ineffective as he continued to kick at the officers. 

When EMS finally arrived approximately fourteen minutes after the first call was placed, a paramedic directed the placement of a backboard on top of the man's back while he was still in a prone position. After the backboard was placed on the man, the paramedic directed one of the officers to sit on the backboard. The officer, who had been trained to defer to on-scene medical personnel with regard to a subject's medical care, sat on the backboard near the man’s buttocks area for a brief amount of time. When the man was turned over with the backboard the paramedic determined the man did not have a pulse. At that point, EMS loaded him into the ambulance for transport to the hospital. The man never regained consciousness and was later pronounced deceased. Although the autopsy revealed a toxic amount of methamphetamine in the man's system, the County coroner determined the cause of death was compressive asphyxia with restraint. The defense medical experts disagreed with this determination, as the man had significant underlying cardiac disease, asthma, and was released from a hospital the day before after exhibiting hallucinations and agitated delirium symptoms from extreme drug use.