Calif. Man Can't Sue D.A. for Mistaken Arrest

Courthouse News Service ^ | Monday, November 9, 2015 | JEFF D. GORMAN

[Auntie Mame]

(CN) - A California man who was jailed in a case of mistaken identity and then sexually assaulted by his cellmate cannot prevail on his false imprisonment claim, a state appeals court ruled.
     Valentino Bocanegra says his ordeal began when he was pulled over and mistakenly arrested by Palm Springs police in July 2011 on an outstanding warrant issued for another man.
     Bocanegra said that during what began as routine traffic stop, he was cooperative with police and produced a driver's license showing his name as "Jose M. Gonzalezbocanegra."
     However, the officers assumed he was "Jose Gonzales," who was then wanted for a misdemeanor parole violation.
     Following his arrest, Bocanegra was booked into a Palm Springs holding facility and then transferred between facilities until he finally wound up at the Los Angeles County Jail.
     Throughout the process, Bocanegra said, he was handcuffed and repeatedly subjected to harmful and offensive touching, even as he continued to protest that his driver's license, social security number, fingerprints, and booking photos would prove the officers had arrested the wrong man.
     He claims that on the first night of his incarceration, and in retaliation for his protests, Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies placed him in a cell with a violent sexual predator, who proceeded to forcibly sodomize him.
     Bocanegra was held for five days before his first court appearance, and was immediately released after the judge determined he was in fact the wrong man.
     Bocanegra sued Deputy District Attorney Donald Jakibowski for false imprisonment, claiming the he was negligent in failing to determine his true identity and tried to prevent his release from jail. Jakubowski responded by claiming governmental immunity.
     The trial court ruled in Jakubowski's favor, and the Fourth District California District Court of Appeals affirmed the ruling.
     Writing for the court, Presiding Justice Manuel Ramirez noted that Bocanegra did not allege that Jakubowski made a "considered decision" to keep him behind bars.
     "To the contrary, the allegation that 'neither he, nor anyone at the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office had bothered to read the file ... it was patently obvious to anyone that the numerous pictures of and numerous sets of fingerprints did not match Plaintiff' at least implies that he failed to make any such considered decision."
     Ramirez added that all of the alleged acts of Jakubowski were part of the judicial process.
     "Absolute prosecutorial immunity extends to false imprisonment claims," he stated. "It also extends to claims based on the willful suppression of exculpatory information."
     Justice Jeffrey King wrote a concurring opinion.
     "While a bench warrant may be requested by a district attorney, there are no facts pled that defendant or a district attorney had any role in the request to issue a bench warrant or the execution of the warrant," he wrote. "As such, there are no allegations that defendant instigated or played any role in the initial detention of plaintiff." 

[Auntie Mame]

This is such a miscarriage of justice!

[Truth29]

If there is no justice in the justice system, then other means to right the scale must be considered.

[Darksheare]

Tar, feathers, rail, rope, tree.

[pingman]

“In the halls of justice, the only justice is out in the halls.”

[G Larry]

He needs to appeal.

Failing that, I’d pick up a baseball bat.

[DJ MacWoW]

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[stinkerpot65]

Well, sure, an innocent man was raped.

But the greater concern is of the policemens’ delicate egos. The rape victim probably failed to display the proper level of subservience and grovelling, and therefore deserved to be raped.

Remember, folks, a policeman’s ego is a precious and delicate commodity. So when you or someone you know is brutalized or unjustly treated by a cop, you can assume that a failure to submit and grovel is the cause.

[hoosierham]

Governmental immunity should not exist,period.

It is a holdover from the old doctrine that the “king can do no wrong” simply because he is the king who makes the laws. Such ignores common decency,justice, and God’s laws on righteous treatment of fellow humans.

[RIghtwardHo]

Sadly, and speaking as a former Prosecutor, immunity for Police, Prosecutors, etc runs WAY too deep. It was that over zealous “law and order and lock em all up” movement decades ago that was the precursor to our current Police State.

[Moltke]

Valentino Bocanegra (...) produced a driver's license showing his name as "Jose M. Gonzalezbocanegra."

Huh?

[SkyDancer]

Maybe so, but I bet that DA might find himself at the end of a good ol’ boy a&& whuppin. Just saying ... like grandad likes to say.

[kiryandil]

Jakubowski responded by claiming governmental immunity.

Bocanegra should claim "Wu's pigs"....

[Yaelle]

I don’t understand why he sued a person, the deputy DA. Can’t he sue the state or county and get better results?

[july4thfreedomfoundation]

The Los Angeles County jail has been a hell-hole for decades and decades.

When I lived in California many years ago, there were endless stories in the media concerning the Men’s Central Jail, which holds 22,000 male inmates. Scandal after scandal, expose after expose, but little changed.

The deputies were known to have formed their own gangs and sometimes put black and Mexican inmates in the same jail cell, and then entertain themselves by watching the two gang members fight.

Many of the deputies were no better than the criminals locked up in the jail.

[Lion Den Dan]

Valentino Bocanegra (...) produced a driver’s license showing his name as “Jose M. Gonzalezbocanegra.”
Huh?

A product of Spanish naming practices. The name should have been hyphenated as Gonzalez-Bocanegra. One name is his mother’s and the other is his father’s family name.

[Moltke]

And Valentino became Jose M. how?

[Graybeard58]

I don’t understand why he sued a person, the deputy DA. Can’t he sue the state or county and get better results?

****************************************************************

First he would have to petition the state or county for permission to sue them.

A few years back, an acquaintance sued the state in a law suit about the traffic accident that killed his mother. Surprisingly enough Missouri granted permission. He collected $500,000 in a settlement, 1/3 of which his attorney got. All because of a stop sign that the highway dept. allowed to become obscured by some bushes.

[fella]

In America all are equal before law. But some are more equal if you have power and/or money. It’s now basicly the same justice system that the Founders rebelled against.

[zeugma]

Failing that, I’d pick up a baseball bat.

A firewarm would be more appropriate. The bozos who arrested him are a clear and present danger to their entire community.

[G Larry]

Nope.
Bat.
You can explain the motivation while administering justice.
Let them warn others.

And you don’t give the Fascists any anti-2A fodder.