Wins

Court of Appeal affirms summary judgment for GMSR’s client, finding civil rights claims barred by plaintiff’s criminal conviction

Delgado v. City of Riverside (2010) 2010 Cal.App. Unpub. LEXIS 9084 (California Court of Appeal, Fourth District, Division Two) [unpublished]. A jury convicted Gerardo Delgado of resisting police officers who were attempting to arrest him. Delgado then filed a civil rights suit alleging that it was unreasonable for the officers to use deadly force during the encounter. GMSR represented the police officers and the City both at the summary judgment stage and in the Court of Appeal. It argued that Delgado’s claims were barred by Heck v. Humphrey (1994) 512 U.S. 477, which prohibits a civil suit that, if successful, would necessarily imply the invalidity of a criminal conviction. The trial court agreed and granted judgment for the defendants. The Court of Appeal affirmed, rejecting Delgado’s theory that a recent California Supreme Court case alters the Heck v. Humphrey analysis in a case involving deadly force.