Source: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-cand-3_13-cv-00441/USCOURTS-cand-3_13-cv-00441-12/pdf.json

Nature of Suit Code: 440
Nature of Suit: Other Civil Rights
Cause of Action: 42:1983 Civil Rights Act

---

Case No.: 13-cv-00441-NC

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

United States District Court

Northern District of California

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

JOSE ANTONIO AGUILAR 

JARAMILLO,

Plaintiff,

v.

CITY OF SAN MATEO, MICHAEL 

LEISHMAN, ANTONIO MONTOJO,

 Defendants.

Case No.13-cv-00441-NC 

PROPOSED PRELIMINARY JURY 

INSTRUCTIONS

I. INTRODUCTION

Ladies and gentlemen: You are now the jury in this case. It is my duty to instruct 

you on the law. 

These instructions are preliminary instructions to help you understand the principles 

that apply to civil trials and to help you understand the evidence as you listen to it. You 

will be allowed to keep this set throughout the trial to which to refer. This set of 

instructions is not to be taken home and must remain in the jury room when you leave in 

the evenings. At the end of the trial, I will give you a final set of instructions. It is the 

final set of instructions which will govern your deliberations.

You must not infer from these instructions or from anything I may say or do as 

indicating that I have an opinion regarding the evidence or what your verdict should be.

It is your duty to find the facts from all the evidence in the case. To those facts you 

Case 3:13-cv-00441-NC Document 126 Filed 01/30/15 Page 1 of 8
Case No.:13-cv-00441-NC 2

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

United States District Court

Northern District of California

will apply the law as I give it to you. You must follow the law as I give it to you whether 

you agree with it or not. And you must not be influenced by any personal likes or dislikes, 

opinions, prejudices, or sympathy. That means that you must decide the case solely on the 

evidence before you. You will recall that you took an oath to do so.

In following my instructions, you must follow all of them and not single out some 

and ignore others; they are all important.

II. SUMMARY OF THE CLAIMS IN THIS CASE

To help you follow the evidence, I will give you a brief summary of the claims at 

issue in this case.

This is a civil case of alleged excessive use of force by San Mateo Police 

Department officers. It stems from an incident that occurred on the evening of March 13, 

2012, in the City of San Mateo. The person bringing the case, sometimes referred to as the 

plaintiff, is Jose Antonio Aguilar Jaramillo. The defendants are the City of San Mateo, and 

San Mateo police officers Michael Leishman and Antonio Montojo. 

The primary issues to be decided in this case are: (1) Whether the officers used 

excessive force in Jaramillo’s apprehension and arrest; (2) whether the officers committed 

assault and battery on Jaramillo; (3) whether the officers intentionally inflicted emotional 

distress on Jaramillo; (4) whether the officers were negligent in the application of force to 

apprehend and arrest Jaramillo; (5) whether defendants’ acts caused injuries to Jaramillo,

and if so; (6) how Jaramillo should be compensated; and (7) whether the City of San 

Mateo should be liable for the acts of its police officers. 

III. BURDEN OF PROOF

When a party has the burden of proof on any claim or affirmative defense by a 

preponderance of the evidence, it means you must be persuaded by the evidence that the 

claim or affirmative defense is more probably true than not true.

You should base your decision on all of the evidence, regardless of which party

presented it.

Case 3:13-cv-00441-NC Document 126 Filed 01/30/15 Page 2 of 8
Case No.:13-cv-00441-NC 3

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

United States District Court

Northern District of California

IV. EVIDENCE

A. Evidence You May Consider

The evidence you are to consider in deciding what the facts are consists of: 

(1) the sworn testimony of any witness; 

(2) the exhibits which are received into evidence; and

(3) any facts to which the lawyers have agreed.

B. Things You May Not Consider

In reaching your verdict, you may consider only the testimony and exhibits received 

into evidence. Certain things are not evidence, and you may not consider them in deciding 

what the facts are. I will list them for you:

(1) Arguments and statements by lawyers are not evidence. The lawyers are not 

witnesses. What they have said in their opening statements, closing arguments, and at 

other times is intended to help you interpret the evidence, but it is not evidence. If the 

facts as you remember them differ from the way the lawyers have stated them, your 

memory of them controls.

(2) Questions and objections by lawyers are not evidence. Attorneys have a duty to 

their clients to object when they believe a question is improper under the rules of evidence. 

You should not be influenced by the objection or by the court’s ruling on it. 

(3) Testimony that has been excluded or stricken, or that you have been instructed 

to disregard, is not evidence and must not be considered. In addition sometimes testimony 

and exhibits are received only for a limited purpose; when I give a limiting instruction, you 

must follow it.

(4) Anything you may have seen or heard when the court was not in session is not 

evidence. You are to decide the case solely on the evidence received at the trial.

C. Types of Evidence

Evidence may be direct or circumstantial. Direct evidence is direct proof of a fact, 

such as testimony by a witness about what that witness personally saw or heard or did. 

Circumstantial evidence is proof of one or more facts from which you could find another 

Case 3:13-cv-00441-NC Document 126 Filed 01/30/15 Page 3 of 8
Case No.:13-cv-00441-NC 4

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

United States District Court

Northern District of California

fact. You should consider both kinds of evidence. The law makes no distinction between 

the weight to be given to either direct or circumstantial evidence. It is for you to decide 

how much weight to give to any evidence.

D. Evidence for a Limited Purpose

Some evidence may be admitted for a limited purpose only.

When I instruct you that an item of evidence has been admitted for a limited 

purpose, you must consider it only for that limited purpose and for no other.

E. The Court’s Ruling on Objections

There are rules of evidence that control what can be received into evidence. When 

a lawyer asks a question or offers an exhibit into evidence and a lawyer on the other side 

thinks that it is not permitted by the rules of evidence, that lawyer may object. If I overrule 

the objection, the question may be answered or the exhibit received. If I sustain the 

objection, the question cannot be answered, and the exhibit cannot be received. Whenever 

I sustain an objection to a question, you must ignore the question and must not guess what 

the answer might have been.

Sometimes I may order that evidence be stricken from the record and that you 

disregard or ignore the evidence. That means that when you are deciding the case, you 

must not consider the evidence that I told you to disregard. 

V. WITNESSES

A. Evaluation of Witness Testimony

In deciding the facts in this case, you may have to decide which testimony to 

believe and which testimony not to believe. You may believe everything a witness says, or 

part of it, or none of it. Proof of a fact does not necessarily depend on the number of 

witnesses who testify about it.

In considering the testimony of any witness, you may take into account:

(1) the opportunity and ability of the witness to see or hear or know the things 

testified to;

(2) the witness’s memory;

Case 3:13-cv-00441-NC Document 126 Filed 01/30/15 Page 4 of 8
Case No.:13-cv-00441-NC 5

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

United States District Court

Northern District of California

(3) the witness’s manner while testifying;

(4) the witness’s interest in the outcome of the case and any bias or prejudice;

(5) whether other evidence contradicted the witness’s testimony;

(6) the reasonableness of the witness’s testimony in light of all the evidence; and

(7) any other factors that bear on believability.

The weight of the evidence as to a fact does not necessarily depend on the number 

of witnesses who testify about it.

B. Expert Witnesses

Some witnesses, because of education or experience, are permitted to state opinions 

and the reasons for those opinions.

Opinion testimony should be judged just like any other testimony. You may accept 

it or reject it, and give it as much weight as you think it deserves, considering the witness’s 

education and experience, the reasons given for the opinion, and all the other evidence in 

the case. 

VI. CONDUCT OF THE JURY

A. Prohibitions on Your Activities

I will now say a few words about your conduct as jurors.

First, keep an open mind throughout the trial, and do not decide what the verdict 

should be until you and your fellow jurors have completed your deliberations at the end of 

the case. 

Second, because you must decide this case based only on the evidence received in 

the case and on my instructions as to the law that applies, you must not be exposed to any 

other information about the case or to the issues it involves during the course of your jury 

duty. Thus, until the end of the case or unless I tell you otherwise:

Do not communicate with anyone in any way and do not let anyone else 

communicate with you in any way about the merits of the case or anything to do with it. 

This includes discussing the case in person, in writing, by phone or electronic means, via 

e-mail, text messaging, or any Internet chat room, blog, Web site or other feature. This 

Case 3:13-cv-00441-NC Document 126 Filed 01/30/15 Page 5 of 8
Case No.:13-cv-00441-NC 6

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

United States District Court

Northern District of California

applies to communicating with your fellow jurors until I give you the case for deliberation, 

and it applies to communicating with everyone else including your family members, your 

employer, the media or press, and the people involved in the trial, although you may notify 

your family and your employer that you have been seated as a juror in the case. But, if you 

are asked or approached in any way about your jury service or anything about this case, 

you must respond that you have been ordered not to discuss the matter and to report the 

contact to the court. 

Because you will receive all the evidence and legal instruction you properly may 

consider to return a verdict: do not read, watch, or listen to any news or media accounts or 

commentary about the case or anything to do with it; do not do any research, such as 

consulting dictionaries, searching the Internet or using other reference materials; and do 

not make any investigation or in any other way try to learn about the case on your own. 

The law requires these restrictions to ensure the parties have a fair trial based on the 

same evidence that each party has had an opportunity to address. A juror who violates 

these restrictions jeopardizes the fairness of these proceedings, and a mistrial could result 

that would require the entire trial process to start over. If any juror is exposed to any 

outside information, please notify the court immediately. 

B. Taking Notes

During deliberations, you will have to make your decision based on what you recall 

of the evidence. You will not have a transcript of the trial. I urge you to pay close 

attention to the testimony as it is given.

If at any time you cannot hear or see the testimony, evidence, questions or 

arguments, let me know so that I can correct the problem.

If you wish, you may take notes to help you remember the evidence. If you do take 

notes, please keep them to yourself until you and your fellow jurors go to the jury room to 

decide the case. Do not let note-taking distract you. When you leave, your notes should 

be left in the jury room. No one will read your notes. They will be destroyed at the 

conclusion of the case.

Case 3:13-cv-00441-NC Document 126 Filed 01/30/15 Page 6 of 8
Case No.:13-cv-00441-NC 7

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

United States District Court

Northern District of California

Whether or not you take notes, you should rely on your own memory of the 

evidence. Notes are only to assist your memory. You should not be overly influenced by 

your notes or those of your fellow jurors.

C. Questions to Witnesses

You will be allowed to propose written questions to witnesses after the lawyers 

have completed their questioning of each witness. You may propose questions in order to 

clarify the testimony, but you are not to express any opinion about the testimony or argue 

with a witness. If you propose any questions, remember that your role is that of a neutral 

fact finder, not an advocate.

Before I excuse each witness, I will offer you the opportunity to write out a question 

on a form provided by the court. Do not sign the question. I will review the question with 

the attorneys to determine if it is legally proper.

There are some proposed questions that I will not permit, or will not ask in the 

wording submitted by the juror. This might happen either due to the rules of evidence or 

other legal reasons, or because the question is expected to be answered later in the case. If 

I do not ask a proposed question, or if I rephrase it, do not speculate as to the reasons. Do 

not give undue weight to questions you or other jurors propose. You should evaluate the 

answers to those questions in the same manner you evaluate all of the other evidence.

By giving you the opportunity to propose questions, I am not requesting or 

suggesting that you do so. It will often be the case that a lawyer has not asked a question 

because it is legally objectionable or because a later witness may be addressing that 

subject.

D. Bench Conferences and Recesses

From time to time during the trial, it may become necessary for me to talk with the 

attorneys out of the hearing of the jury, either by having a conference at the bench when 

the jury is present in the courtroom, or by calling a recess. Please understand that while 

you are waiting, we are working. The purpose of these conferences is not to keep relevant 

information from you, but to decide how certain evidence is to be treated under the rules of 

Case 3:13-cv-00441-NC Document 126 Filed 01/30/15 Page 7 of 8
Case No.:13-cv-00441-NC 8

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

United States District Court

Northern District of California

evidence and to avoid confusion and error.

Of course, we will do what we can to keep the number and length of these 

conferences to a minimum. I may not always grant an attorney’s request for a conference. 

Do not consider my granting or denying a request for a conference as any indication of my 

opinion of the case or of what your verdict should be.

VII. TRIAL 

Trials proceed in the following way: First, each side may make an opening 

statement. An opening statement is not evidence. It is simply an outline to help you 

understand what that party expects the evidence will show. A party is not required to 

make an opening statement.

Jaramillo will then present evidence, and counsel for the City of San Mateo and the 

police officers may cross-examine. Then the City and the officers may present evidence, 

and counsel for Jaramillo may cross-examine. Finally, Jaramillo may present rebuttal

evidence.

After the evidence has been presented, I will instruct you on the law that applies to 

the case and the attorneys will make closing arguments.

After that, you will go to the jury room to deliberate on your verdict.

IT IS SO ORDERED.

Dated: January 30, 2015 _____________________________________

NATHANAEL M. COUSINS

United States Magistrate Judge

Case 3:13-cv-00441-NC Document 126 Filed 01/30/15 Page 8 of 8