Document ID: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-caed-1_19-cv-00646/USCOURTS-caed-1_19-cv-00646-0/pdf.json

Parties Involved:
Ricardo Chavez
Plaintiff
City of California City
Defendant
Jack Craig
Defendant
Brian Hansen
Defendant
Jesse Hightower
Defendant
Ortega
Defendant

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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

RICARDO CHAVEZ,

Plaintiff,

v.

CITY OF CALIFORNIA, et al.,

Defendants.

No. 1:19-cv-00646-DAD-JLT

ORDER GRANTING DEFENDANTS’ 

MOTION TO DISMISS

(Doc. No. 28)

This matter is before the court on a motion to dismiss plaintiff’s first amended complaint 

(“FAC”) filed by defendants City of California City (the “City”) and four of its police officers

(collectively, “defendants”). (Doc. No. 28.) A hearing on the motion was held on November 5, 

2019. Attorney Herbert John Hayden appeared telephonically on behalf of plaintiff Ricardo 

Chavez (“plaintiff”). Attorney Patrick Daniel Moriarty appeared telephonically on behalf of 

defendants. The court has considered the parties’ briefs and oral arguments and, for the reasons 

set forth below, will grant defendants’ motion to dismiss without leave to amend. 

BACKGROUND

In his FAC, plaintiff alleges as follows. On or about April 7, 2019, plaintiff invited three 

individuals to a house he owned, located at 17093 Hacienda Boulevard, California City, CA 

93505 (the “Property”), to assist him with loading equipment into a rental truck in order to move 

the equipment to a storage facility. (Doc. No. 23 (“FAC”) at ¶¶ 4, 23.) That same day, defendant 

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Brian Hansen, an officer employed by the California City Police Department (“CCPD”), arrived 

at the Property. (Id. at ¶ 25.) Plaintiff identified himself to defendant Officer Hansen as the 

owner of the house. (Id. at ¶¶ 26, 27.) Defendant Officer Hansen replied that he was responding 

to a call regarding a suspected burglary. (Id. at ¶ 27.) Shortly thereafter another CCPD officer, 

defendant Officer Ortega,

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arrived at the Property. (Id. at ¶ 28.) Plaintiff “asked the police 

officers to leave the [] Property because there was no burglary in progress . . ..” (Id. at ¶ 29.) 

The police officers, however, did not leave, and instead “proceeded to attempt a search of 

the residence/home . . . and [searched the] Penske rental truck parked in the driveway of the [] 

Property.” (Id. at ¶ 30.) Plaintiff alleges that this search was conducted “without a warrant, 

probable cause[,] or reasonable suspicion that any crime whatsoever had been committed by 

Plaintiff or any of his guests.” (Id. at ¶ 31.) After searching the rental truck, defendant Officer 

Hansen informed plaintiff and his guests that “trace amount[s] of cannabis residue” was found on 

the equipment inside the truck and he placed the four men under arrest. (Id. at ¶ 38.) Later that 

day, defendant Officer Hansen applied for and was issued a search warrant for the Property. (Id.

at ¶ 39.) CCPD sergeants defendants Jack Craig and Jesse Hightower, along with defendants 

Officers Hansen and Ortega and Does 1–50, executed that search warrant. (Id. at ¶ 40.) While 

searching the Property, “the officers damaged and destroyed Plaintiff’s personal property,”

“seized numerous household items, furniture, and equipment from the [] Home and the Penske 

rental truck,” and “dumped over beds and furniture, removed clothing and other personal items 

from closets, cabinets, and dressers[,] leaving hallways, passageways, doorways, and other 

pathways blocked and cluttered.” (Id. at ¶ 41.)

As a result of the search, plaintiff was charged in the Kern County Superior Court with

opening or maintaining a place for the purpose of selling a controlled substance (honey oil2), in 

violation of California Health & Safety Code § 11366, as well as five other charges. (Id. at ¶ 53.) 

 

1

 Defendant Ortega’s first name is not alleged in the FAC.

2

 “Honey oil” is a concentrated form of marijuana produced by the solvent extraction of 

marijuana.

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Plaintiff pled nolo contendere to violating Health & Safety Code § 11366,

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and the remaining 

charges brought against him were dismissed. (Id. at ¶ 54.) Since plaintiff entered his plea, 

defendants have not returned to him the property seized pursuant to the warrant. (Id. at ¶ 55.)

Based on these facts, the FAC asserts the following causes of action: (1) unlawful search 

in violation of the Fourth Amendment; (2) unlawful seizure in violation of the Fourth 

Amendment; (3) conversion; (4) intentional infliction of emotional distress; (5) false arrest or 

imprisonment; (6) negligence; and (7) violations of California’s Bane Act, California Civil Code 

§ 52.1.4 (Id. at 15–28.) Each of the claims is asserted against each of the named defendants.

On September 6, 2019, defendants filed the pending motion to dismiss. On September 

24, 2019, plaintiff filed his opposition to that motion and, on October 29, 2019, defendants filed 

their reply. (Doc. Nos. 31, 34.)

LEGAL STANDARD

The purpose of a motion to dismiss pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6) is to test the legal 

sufficiency of the complaint. N. Star Int’l v. Ariz. Corp. Comm’n, 720 F.2d 578, 581 (9th Cir. 

1983). “Dismissal can be based on the lack of a cognizable legal theory or the absence of 

sufficient facts alleged under a cognizable legal theory.” Balistreri v. Pacifica Police Dep’t, 901 

F.2d 696, 699 (9th Cir. 1990). A plaintiff is required to allege “enough facts to state a claim to 

relief that is plausible on its face.” Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 570 (2007). “A 

claim has facial plausibility when the plaintiff pleads factual content that allows the court to draw 

the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged.” Ashcroft v. 

Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 (2009).

 

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 The FAC alleges that plaintiff pled nolo contendere to violating California Health & Safety 

Code § 11366.5(A) (see FAC at ¶ 54), but this is clearly a typographical error since a review of 

the other allegations of the FAC, as well as the plea itself which this court will take judicial notice 

of, indicates that plaintiff pled nolo contendere to the § 11366 charge (see, e.g., Doc. No. 28-1 at 

30).

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 The FAC also asserts a cause of action for violations of the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal 

Protection Clause. (See FAC at 18–20.) However, in his opposition to the pending motion, 

plaintiff stated that this claim may be dismissed with prejudice as to all defendants. (Doc. No. 31 

at 8.) Accordingly, the court will dismiss plaintiff’s equal protection claim with prejudice. 

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In determining whether a complaint states a claim on which relief may be granted, the 

court accepts as true the allegations in the complaint and construes the allegations in the light 

most favorable to the plaintiff. Hishon v. King & Spalding, 467 U.S. 69, 73 (1984); Love v. 

United States, 915 F.2d 1242, 1245 (9th Cir. 1989). However, the court need not assume the truth 

of legal conclusions cast in the form of factual allegations. U.S. ex rel. Chunie v. Ringrose, 788 

F.2d 638, 643 n.2 (9th Cir. 1986). While Rule 8(a) does not require detailed factual allegations, 

“it demands more than an unadorned, the defendant-unlawfully-harmed-me accusation.” Iqbal, 

556 U.S. at 678. A pleading is insufficient if it offers mere “labels and conclusions” or “a 

formulaic recitation of the elements of a cause of action.” Twombly, 550 U.S. at 555; see also 

Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 676 (“Threadbare recitals of the elements of a cause of action, supported by 

mere conclusory statements, do not suffice.”). Moreover, it is inappropriate to assume that the 

plaintiff “can prove facts which it has not alleged or that the defendants have violated the . . . laws

in ways that have not been alleged.” Associated Gen. Contractors of Cal., Inc. v. Cal. State 

Council of Carpenters, 459 U.S. 519, 526 (1983).

ANALYSIS 

In moving to dismiss, defendants’ primary argument is that the FAC fails to state a claim 

because each of plaintiff’s causes of action is barred either by the decision in Heck v. Humphrey, 

512 U.S. 477 (1994), or its California state-law equivalent, Yount v. City of Sacramento, 43 Cal. 

4th 885 (2008), both of which prohibit a plaintiff from asserting a claim that would necessarily 

imply the invalidity of a criminal conviction or sentence. (Doc. No. 28 at 2, 18, 23.) 

Before analyzing this argument, the court will first address defendants’ request for judicial 

notice. 

A. Defendants’ Request for Judicial Notice Will Be Granted

Defendants request that the court take judicial notice of: (1) a copy of the search warrant 

authorizing the search of the Property and defendant Hansen’s affidavit in support thereof; (2) a 

certified copy of the criminal complaint filed against plaintiff in the Kern County Superior Court; 

(3) a certified copy of the register of actions from the state court criminal case; (4) a certified 

copy of plaintiff’s entry of plea form in the state court action; (5) a certified copy of the transcript 

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from the plea hearing; and (6) a certified copy of the “Declaration of Probable Cause” and the 

police report relating to the events of April 7, 2019. (Doc. No. 28-1 at 2; see also id. at Exs. A–

F.) Plaintiff objects to defendants’ request to the extent they are “seek[ing] to establish the 

truthfulness of Defendant Hansen’s narrative in the search warrant . . . and the incident-related 

police reports . . ..” (Doc. No. 32 at 2.)

Ordinarily, the court considers only the complaint and documents attached thereto in 

deciding a motion to dismiss; however, the court may also take judicial notice of matters of public 

record. Lee v. City of Los Angeles, 250 F.3d 668, 688–89 (9th Cir. 2001). Pursuant to the Federal 

Rule of Evidence 201(b), a court may “judicially notice a fact that is not subject to reasonable 

dispute because it: (1) is generally known within the trial court’s territorial jurisdiction; or (2) 

can be accurately and readily determined from sources whose accuracy cannot reasonably be 

questioned.” When a court takes judicial notice of a document, “it may do so not for the truth of 

the facts recited therein, but for the existence of the [record], which is not subject to reasonable 

dispute over its authenticity.” Lee, 250 F.3d at 690 (internal quotation marks and citation 

omitted). 

Here, the court will take judicial notice of the certified copies of the documents from the 

file of the state court criminal prosecution of plaintiff. See Lininger v. Pfleger, No. 17-cv-03385-

SVK, 2017 WL 5128170, at *1 (N.D. Cal. Nov. 6, 2017) (“The documents submitted for judicial 

notice are documents filed in Plaintiff’s state court criminal proceedings, which are suitable for 

judicial notice under Fed. R. Evid. 201(b).”) (citing Dawson v. Mahoney, 451 F.3d 550, 551 (9th 

Cir. 2006)). The court will also take judicial notice of the certified copy of the police report 

because, as discussed in this order, that report formed the factual basis for plaintiff’s entry of a 

nolo contendere plea and was a document filed in the state court criminal action. Finally, the 

court will take judicial notice of the search warrant, as “[c]ourts regularly find that search 

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warrants are public records properly subject to judicial notice[.]” Ferguson v. California Dep’t of

Justice, No. 16-cv-06627-HSG, 2017 WL 2851195, at *1 (N.D. Cal. July 4, 2017).

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B. Plaintiff’s Federal Claims are Barred by Heck

As noted, in moving to dismiss, defendants argue that plaintiff’s claims that his detention, 

arrest, and search of his property were unlawful are barred by the decision in Heck. In Heck, the 

Supreme Court held that 

in order to recover damages for allegedly unconstitutional conviction 

or imprisonment, or for other harm caused by actions whose 

unlawfulness would render a conviction or sentence invalid, a § 1983 

plaintiff must prove that the conviction or sentence has been reversed 

on direct appeal, expunged by executive order, declared invalid by a 

state tribunal authorized to make such determination, or called into 

question by a federal court’s issuance of a writ of habeas corpus. A 

claim for damages bearing that relationship to a conviction or 

sentence that has not been so invalidated is not cognizable under 

§ 1983. Thus, when a [plaintiff] seeks damages in a § 1983 suit, the 

district court must consider whether a judgment in favor of the 

plaintiff would necessarily imply the invalidity of his conviction or 

sentence; if it would, the complaint must be dismissed . . .. But if the 

district court determines that the plaintiff’s action, even if successful, 

will not demonstrate the invalidity of any outstanding criminal 

judgment against the plaintiff, the action should be allowed to 

proceed, in the absence of some other bar to the suit.

512 U.S. at 486–87.

Here, the parties agree that plaintiff was convicted pursuant to his nolo contendere plea to 

opening or maintaining a place for the purpose of selling a controlled substance (honey oil), in 

violation of California Health & Safety Code § 11366. The parties also agree that the conviction 

has not been reversed, expunged, declared invalid, or called into question by the issuance of a 

writ of habeas corpus. Defendants argue that, as a result, plaintiff’s claims presented in this civil 

action are Heck barred because: (1) “[b]y attacking the lawfulness of his seizure, Plaintiff calls 

into question the propriety of his Health & Safety Code § 11366 conviction”; and (2) “[s]uccess 

 

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 In addition, the court notes that plaintiff incorporated the search warrant into his FAC by 

reference in alleging that defendants “seized objects outside the scope of those enumerated in the 

search warrant.” (FAC at ¶ 60d); see also Knievel v. ESPN, 393 F.3d 1068, 1076 (9th Cir. 2005) 

(“[T]he ‘incorporation by reference’ doctrine [applies] to situations in which the plaintiff’s claim 

depends on the contents of a document, the defendant attaches the document to its motion to 

dismiss, and the parties do not dispute the authenticity of the document, even though the plaintiff 

does not explicitly allege the contents of that document in the complaint.”).

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on Plaintiff’s unlawful search claim would necessarily invalidate his conviction.” (Doc. No. 28 at 

19–20.) Plaintiff counters that his claims are not Heck-barred because his “conviction [wa]s 

derived from a plea rather than from a verdict obtained by supposedly illegal evidence.” (Doc. 

No. 31 at 3.) As one court has observed under similar circumstances, “[t]he parties’

disagreement on this point reflects tension in the case law applying Heck in the context of guilty 

and no-contest pleas[.]” Farrow v. Lipetzky, No. 12-cv-06495-JCS, 2017 WL 1540637, at *8 

(N.D. Cal. Apr. 28, 2017). Ninth Circuit law on this issue has been described by another district 

court as “admittedly somewhat confusing[.]” Best v. Beresford, No. 3:18-cv-00554-RCJ-WGC, 

2019 WL 1461921, at *8 (D. Nev. Feb. 27, 2019), report and recommendation adopted, No. 

3:18-cv-00554-RCJ-WGC, 2019 WL 1472360 (D. Nev. Apr. 2, 2019). Below, the court will 

address the relevant Ninth Circuit decisions. 

The first such decision is that in Szajer v. City of Los Angeles, 632 F.3d 607 (9th Cir. 

2011). In that case, although originally charged in thirteen criminal counts, both plaintiffs entered 

a plea of no contest to a single count of felony possession of a weapon. Id. at 609. Thereafter, 

the plaintiffs filed a § 1983 suit alleging that police officers had violated their civil rights by 

conducting illegal searches and unlawfully seizing their personal property, arguing that the police 

had created fictitious informants and included false information in their applications for a search 

warrant authorizing the search of the plaintiffs’ residence and a vacation home. Id. at 609–10. 

The district court concluded that the plaintiffs’ claims were barred by Heck because a finding in 

their favor would necessarily imply the invalidity of their convictions entered pursuant to their no 

contest plea. Id. at 610. The Ninth Circuit affirmed, relying on its prior decision in Whitaker v. 

Garcetti, 486 F.3d 572, 574 (9th Cir. 2007). In Whitaker the court had held that plaintiffs, who 

were convicted of possession of cocaine by way of guilty plea, were Heck-barred from bringing 

§ 1983 claims alleging that police officers provided false information in an application “for 

wiretaps that ultimately produced the evidence that triggered the investigations against them” 

because doing so would “‘challenge the search and seizure of the evidence upon which their

criminal charges and convictions were based.’” Szajer, 632 F.3d at 611 (quoting Whitaker, 486 

F.3d at 577, 584).

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A few months after Szajer was decided, the Ninth Circuit issued its decision in Lockett v. 

Ericson, 656 F.3d 892 (9th Cir. 2011), a case upon which plaintiff relies heavily here in opposing 

the pending motion to dismiss. At first glance, the holding in Lockett may arguably appear to 

contradict the Ninth Circuit’s prior decisions in Szajer and Whitaker which were not addressed in 

Lockett. However, upon closer review it becomes clear that such is not the case. In Lockett, the 

plaintiff’s neighbor had reported him for drunk driving after he drove his car off road, abandoned 

it, and walked home. Id. at 894. Plaintiff brought a § 1983 action against the police department 

and several of its officers alleging violations of the Fourth Amendment after the officers entered 

his home “without a warrant and obtained evidence that he had driven under the influence earlier 

in the night.” Id. at 893. “The ensuing state prosecution concluded when [the plaintiff] pled nolo 

contendere to a violation of [the] California Vehicle Code.” Id. The defendants in Lockett argued 

that the plaintiff’s subsequent § 1983 action was barred by Heck because successfully arguing

that the search of his home was unconstitutional would render his conviction invalid. Id. at 895. 

The district court agreed and dismissed plaintiff’s complaint as Heck barred. The Ninth Circuit 

reversed, noting that Lockett’s conviction was obtained as the result of his nolo contendere plea 

and that “[h]e was not tried, and no evidence was introduced against him.” Id. at 896–97. The 

court found that Lockett’s conviction did “not in any way depend on the legality of the search of 

his home,” and that his conviction therefore did not bar his § 1983 suit challenging the legality of 

the search of his home. Id. at 897 .

Without addressing its prior decisions in Szajer and Whitaker, the Ninth Circuit in Lockett

found that the its prior holding in Ove v. Gwinn, 264 F.3d 817 (9th Cir. 2001), was “dispositive in 

Lockett’s case.” 656 F.3d at 896. In Ove, three plaintiffs who were arrested for suspicion of 

driving under the influence of alcohol consented to blood tests and subsequently had their blood 

drawn. 264 F.3d at 820. After criminal charges were filed, each of the plaintiffs moved to 

suppress the blood test results. Id. One plaintiff’s motion was granted and his case was 

dismissed; one plaintiff’s motion was taken off calendar; and one’s motion was denied. Id. 

Thereafter, the latter two plaintiffs (Ove and Forest) pled nolo contendere and guilty,

respectively. Id. The plaintiffs eventually filed a civil suit and asserted a § 1983 claim, alleging 

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that defendants “conspired and arranged for the use of employees in the withdrawal of blood who 

were not licensed, qualified, or permitted to draw blood or handle syringes under California law.” 

Id. (internal quotation marks omitted). The district court dismissed the § 1983 claim, arguing that 

it was barred by Heck. Id. at 821. The Ninth Circuit reversed, holding that:

[I]t is apparent that the plaintiffs’ lawsuit, even if successful, would 

not necessarily imply the invalidity of Ove and Forest’s DUI 

convictions. Their lawsuit concerns the way in which their blood 

was drawn. But blood evidence was not introduced against them. 

No evidence was introduced against them. They pleaded guilty or 

nolo contendere, respectively. Their convictions derive from their 

pleas, not from verdicts obtained with supposedly illegal evidence. 

The validity of their convictions does not in any way depend upon 

the legality of the blood draws . . . .

The point is illustrated by [the Ninth Circuit’s] decision in Smithart 

v. Towery, 79 F.3d 951, 952 (9th Cir. 1996). In Smithart, the plaintiff 

had pleaded guilty in state court to assault with a deadly weapon. In 

his federal § 1983 lawsuit, the plaintiff alleged, first, that he had been 

arrested without probable cause and had unfounded criminal charges 

brought against him, and second, that he had been the victim of 

excessive force during his arrest. [The Ninth Circuit] held that the 

former claim was barred by Heck because it would necessarily imply 

the invalidity of the conviction, but that the excessive force claim 

was not. Even if the plaintiff recovered a judgment for damages for 

excessive force, the validity of his underlying guilty plea and 

conviction would not be affected.

Id. at 823 (footnotes omitted). The Ove court found that “Ove and Forest’s § 1983 claim . . .

[wa]s analogous to Smithart’s excessive force claim” because, “[e]ven if the plaintiffs prove[d]

everything they allege[d] about the blood draws, a judgment in their favor w[ould] not imply the 

invalidity of their DUI convictions [as] the convictions d[id] not depend upon the blood draws.” 

Id.

The Ninth Circuit confronted the issue of Heck’s applicability to no contest pleas again in 

Byrd v. Phoenix Police Department, 885 F.3d 639, 645 (9th Cir. 2018). There, the plaintiff had 

pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit possession of a dangerous drug. Id. at 641. 

Subsequently, he filed a § 1983 complaint alleging violations of his constitutional rights during 

the traffic stop that resulted in his arrest and eventual conviction. Id. at 640. The plaintiff alleged 

that officers had stopped him for riding his bicycle without a headlight but did not cite him for 

that violation, and instead searched him and his belongings, and thereafter “beat the crap out of 

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him,” causing serious injuries. Id. at 640–41. Among other claims, he alleged that he was 

unlawfully searched and seized by the officers. Id. at 641. The district court dismissed the 

plaintiff’s unlawful search and seizure claims as barred by Heck. Id. The Ninth Circuit, however, 

reversed. Id. at 643. After analyzing its prior decisions involving the applicability of Heck to 

pleas—including those in Ove, Sjazer, Whitaker, and Lockett—the Ninth Circuit found that Heck

did not bar the plaintiff’s search and seizure claims because he pleaded guilty to the conspiracy 

charge and no evidence was produced against him at his plea hearing. Id. at 644. The defendants 

argued that the decisions in Sjazer and Whitaker supported application of the Heck bar to the 

plaintiff’s claims, but the Byrd court distinguished those cases from the one before it, noting that, 

in those cases, the evidence supporting the possession convictions was found in the challenged 

searches, and therefore prevailing on a § 1983 suit challenging those searches would necessarily 

imply the invalidity of the convictions. Id. at 644–45. 

[I]n contrast, Byrd’s conviction was based on methamphetamine he 

threw when the police were questioning him, which they 

subsequently recovered “a distance away from where he was at.” 

Byrd’s civil suit concerns allegations that the police illegally 

searched his person and used excessive force on him—after they 

discovered the drugs, for all we know—which has nothing to do with 

the evidentiary basis for his conspiracy conviction.

Id. at 645. Thus, the Ninth Circuit concluded that “success in Byrd’s § 1983 action [would] not 

‘necessarily imply’ that his conviction was invalid.” Id.

Several district courts have found the aforementioned Ninth Circuit jurisprudence to be 

confusing. See, e.g., Taylor v. Cty. of Pima, No. CV-15-00152-TUC-RM, 2017 WL 6550590, at 

*8 (D. Ariz. Mar. 16, 2017) (“At first glance, the decisions in Lockett, Ove, and Szajer appear to 

be inconsistent.”), motion to certify appeal granted, reconsideration denied, No. CV-15-00152-

TUC-RM, 2017 WL 6550602 (D. Ariz. June 6, 2017), and aff’d in part, appeal dismissed in part,

913 F.3d 930 (9th Cir. 2019); Hilson v. Arnett, No. 1:15-cv-01240-DAD-MJS (PC), 2017 WL 

1375219, at *3 (E.D. Cal. Apr. 17, 2017) (“District courts have struggled to divine the import of

Lockett on the relationship between Heck and no contest pleas.”), report and recommendation 

adopted, No. 1:15-cv-01240-DAD-MJS (PC), 2017 WL 1956729 (E.D. Cal. May 11, 2017); 

Cooley v. City of Vallejo, No. 2:14-CV-0620-TLN-KJN, 2014 WL 3749369, at *4 (E.D. Cal. July 

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29, 2014) (observing “that this court does not agree that a no contest plea should automatically 

insulate a subsequent section 1983 action from Heck’s reach,” but finding that “Lockett is binding 

upon a district court”), report and recommendation adopted, No. 2:14-CV-620-TLN-KJN, 2014 

WL 4368141 (E.D. Cal. Sept. 2, 2014); Leon v. San Jose Police Dep’t, No. 5:11-CV-05504 HRL, 

2013 WL 5487543, at *4 (N.D. Cal. Sept. 30, 2013) (same). The undersigned agrees that the 

Ninth Circuit’s jurisprudence on Heck’s applicability to convictions obtained by way of pleas is 

not a model of clarity, but also joins those district courts within the circuit to find that these Ninth 

Circuit’s decisions are reconcilable. As one district court has summarized:

Taken together, the precedent discussed above indicates that Heck’s 

inapplicability to certain cases involving [] pleas is essentially an 

application of the harmless error exception first recognized in Heck

itself, or more generally, the rule that success on a claim must 

necessarily imply the invalidity of the conviction in order to be 

barred by Heck. Where an alleged constitutional violation relates 

only to evidence that might or might not be admissible despite the 

error, might or might not be necessary to convict the defendant at 

trial, and regardless is not necessary for the defendant to enter a []

plea, then a successful claim that the evidence was obtained in 

violation of the constitution would not necessarily imply the

invalidity of the conviction. Accordingly, in considering whether 

Heck bars claims of other constitutional violations by defendants 

who have pled [] to crimes, a court must look to what effect such a 

violation would necessarily have on the validity of the conviction.

Farrow, 2017 WL 1540637, at *9; see also Gordon v. Perris Police Station, No. EDCV 18-315-

RGK (AGR), 2019 WL 3021465, at *5 (June 14, 2019) (“A Heck bar may be based on a 

conviction resulting from a guilty or no contest plea, depending on the nature of the § 1983 

claims and the factual basis for the plea.”), report and recommendation adopted, 2019 WL 

3017764 (C.D. Cal. July 10, 2019); Best, 2019 WL 1461921, at *10 (“Following Byrd, it seems 

that in the Ninth Circuit, whether a section 1983 claim will be Heck-barred when the underlying 

conviction was obtained pursuant to a no contest (or guilty) plea depends on the allegations in the 

section 1983 action and the evidentiary basis of the conviction.”); Taylor, 2017 WL 6550590, at 

*8 (“[T]he [Ninth Circuit’s] decisions are reconcilable if they are understood as together standing 

for the proposition that a § 1983 action is Heck-barred when successfully proving the plaintiff’s 

§ 1983 claims would fatally undermine the factual basis of an outstanding plea-based conviction, 

because under such circumstances the § 1983 action challenges the validity of the outstanding 

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conviction.”); Covey v. Assessor of Ohio Cty., 777 F.3d 186, 197 (4th Cir. 2015) (“[A] civil-rights 

claim does not necessarily imply the invalidity of a conviction or sentence if (1) the conviction 

derives from a guilty plea rather than a verdict obtained with unlawfully obtained evidence and 

(2) the plaintiff does not plead facts inconsistent with guilt.”) (citing Lockett v. Ericson, 656 F.3d 

892, 897 (9th Cir. 2011). 

Plaintiff counters that the constitutional and state law based claims he asserts in this civil 

action are not Heck-barred solely because his criminal “conviction [wa]s derived from a plea 

rather than from a verdict obtained by supposedly illegal evidence.” (Doc. No. 31 at 3.) 

Plaintiff’s position is obviously contrary to the undersigned’s interpretation of the Ninth Circuit’s 

decisions in this area as explained above. Adoption of plaintiff’s argument would render Heck 

entirely inapplicable where an underlying criminal conviction was obtained by way of plea. The 

Ninth Circuit did not so hold in Lockett, and its decisions in Ove (on which the court in Lockett 

relied) and in Byrd make clear that plaintiff’s contention has been rejected by that court. Rather,

whether a § 1983 or other civil claim is Heck-barred where the underlying criminal conviction 

was obtained by way of plea (whether no contest or guilty) turns on the nature of the allegations 

in the civil action, the factual basis of the criminal conviction, and whether success on the former 

would undermine the validity of the latter. Accordingly, below the court will analyze whether 

plaintiff succeeding on his Fourth Amendment and other civil claims in this action would 

necessarily imply the invalidity of his conviction obtained pursuant to his no contest plea. 

In this action, plaintiff alleges that defendants violated his Fourth Amendment rights by 

searching, seizing, and arresting him “without reasonable suspicion or probable cause” and by 

searching the rental truck “without Plaintiff’s consent or the consent of his guests.” (FAC at 15–

18.) These claims, however, are inconsistent with his plea in the underlying criminal prosecution. 

As demonstrated by that plea, which the court has taken judicial notice of, plaintiff “freely and 

voluntarily plead . . . NO CONTEST to the charge[]” of opening or maintaining a place for the 

purpose of selling a controlled substance (honey oil), in violation of California Health & Safety 

Code § 11366 (Doc. No. 28-1 at 38.) In his plea, plaintiff also acknowledged that he 

“underst[ood] that the court [wa]s required to find a factual basis for [his] plea to make sure that 

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[he] [was] entering a plea to the proper offense[] under the facts of the case.” (Id.) Most 

importantly, plaintiff specifically acknowledged that he “underst[ood] that the court may consider 

the following as proof of the factual basis for [his] plea: . . . [the] Police report.”6 (Id.) The 

police report upon which the factual basis for plaintiff’s plea of no contest was explicitly based, in 

turn, recited the following facts:

1. “[T]here is probable cause to believe this arrestee has committed a crime.” (Doc. No. 28-

1 at 73.)

2. After responding to a possible burglary, “[o]fficers observed large equipment used to 

extract THC from marijuana in the back of a moving truck along with the odor of 

marijuana.” (Id. at 74) (emphasis omitted); (see also id. at 80) (after arriving at the 

Property, defendant Hansen “looked at the Penske moving truck which had the back door 

all the way up and open” and “observed large equipment in the back of the truck [that he] 

recognized as being used to possibly make honey oil and extract THC from marijuana”); 

(id.) (defendant Hansen “walked closer to the Penske truck and equipment and could 

smell a strong odor of marijuana emitting from the truck and equipment”).

3. “Officers observed multiple plant chemicals inside the residence.” (Id.) (emphasis 

omitted); (see also id. at 80) (defendant Hansen “got approximately 10 feet from the front 

wooden and glass doors [and could] smell a strong odor of marijuana emitting from the

/////

 

6

 Next to each of these statements on his change of plea form, plaintiff placed his initials and 

signed the final page, where it was noted that “[he] ha[d] read or ha[d] read to [him] th[e] form 

and ha[d] initialed each of the items that applie[d] to [his] case.” (Doc. No. 28-1 at 40.) 

Moreover, at the change of plea hearing, the state trial court asked plaintiff’s attorney if he had 

discussed with plaintiff the possible consequences of his plea and whether counsel joined in the 

waiver, stipulated to the factual basis, and consented to plaintiff’s change of plea, and plaintiff’s 

attorney answered those questions in the affirmative. (Id. at 54.) Accordingly, plaintiff’s

contention that he did not stipulate to the factual basis for his plea (Doc. No. 31 at 4) is wholly 

without merit. Moreover, plaintiff’s reliance on the decision People v. Willard, 154 Cal. App. 4th 

1329, 1334 (2007), for the proposition that a stipulation to the existence of a factual basis without 

any reference to a document in the record is insufficient to establish an actual factual basis for a 

plea (Doc. No. 31 at 4) is misplaced given the record in this case. For, here, plaintiff’s stipulation 

to a factual basis for his no contest plea specifically did reference a document (the police report)

as providing the specific factual basis for that plea. (See Doc. No. 28-1 at 38.)

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front doors of the residence” and he “stood about 3 feet from the front door . . . [and] 

observed multiple containers in the hallway that appeared to be some sort of chemicals”).

4. “Officers obtained a search warrant for the residence and located multiple 50 gallon trash 

bags containing marijuana along with several 50 gallon containers with hazardous 

chemicals.” (Id.) (emphasis omitted).

5. “Inside the residence appeared to be used to first illegally grow marijuana and then extract 

THC from marijuana and make honey oil.” (Id.) (emphasis omitted); (see also id. at 80)

(“There were also large 50 gallon containers containing chemicals such as hydrogen 

peroxide and ethanol. In the hallway were several containers of chemicals as well as 

boxes containing glass beakers and different types of valves. There were also more boxes 

that contained a large amount of unknown dark brownish tar in glass mason jars.”); (id.)

(“[T]here was large equipment that was used to cook or pressurize the marijuana with 

multiple 5 gallon containers labeled ‘house ethanol’ containing an unknown fluid.”).

6. “There were also marijuana grow lights in the garage and make shift breaker panels 

installed inside the residence bypassing the electric meter.” (Id.) (emphasis omitted); (see 

also id. at 81) (“In the garage were several grow lights along with large air filters and 

more 50 gallon containers of plants[,] chemicals and hydrogen peroxide.”).

Because plaintiff stipulated to these specific facts as providing the factual basis for his no 

contest plea, the claims he is attempting to assert in this action based upon his allegation that 

defendants violated his Fourth Amendment rights by searching and seizing him and his 

belongings without any probable cause or reasonable suspicion to do so are barred by Heck. This 

is so because were plaintiff to prevail on his claims in this civil action it would necessarily call 

into question the validity of his criminal conviction obtained by way of his no contest plea in 

which he admitted that defendants had probable cause and admitted facts establishing a

reasonable suspicion and/or probable cause to seize and arrest him and search him and his 

property. See, e.g., Walton v. Cty. of Sutter, No. 2:18-cv-00080-TLN DB PS, 2019 WL 3522463, 

at *3 (E.D. Cal. Aug. 2, 2019) (“[P]laintiff is challenging his arrest for the same crime he was 

later convicted for [by plea]. In this regard, if plaintiff’s arrest was proven to be invalid that 

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would imply the invalidity of his conviction [by plea].”), report and recommendation adopted, 

No. 2:18-cv-00080-TLN-DB, 2019 WL 4166830 (E.D. Cal. Sept. 3, 2019); Kowarsh, 2015 WL 

2406785, at *8 (“If Plaintiff successfully showed that Defendants Jay and O’Connell maliciously 

prosecuted him by ignoring exculpatory blood evidence, this would reveal an inconsistency with 

his no contest plea by suggesting that he contested the charges against him and had evidence to 

support his opposition. At bottom, his current claim implies that the sentence he served as part of 

his no contest plea was invalid.”); Shabazz v. Parris, No. CV 12-5803-SVW DFM, 2014 WL 

2986485, at *4 (C.D. Cal. May 27, 2014) (“Because Plaintiff is alleging that officers engaged in 

an illegal search and seizure in relation to the criminal charges for which he was ultimately 

indicted, his claims appear to be foreclosed by Heck because he has pleaded guilty in the Criminal 

Case.”), report and recommendation approved, No. CV 12-05803-SVW DFM, 2014 WL 

2986508 (C.D. Cal. July 2, 2014).

Plaintiff attempts to circumvent this conclusion by arguing that “the initial search by 

Defendant Hansen of the Penske truck is temporally and spatially separate from the . . . plea [] 

facts . . . which occurred four to five hours later after Plaintiff’s original detention.” (Doc. No. 31 

at 4–5.) In other words, plaintiff argues that “[t]he search of the home is what the plea of no 

contest is based upon and not the initial search of the Penske truck.” (Id. at 5.) Plaintiff’s 

arguments in this regard are both unsupported and unpersuasive. First, the factual basis for 

plaintiff’s no contest plea—the police report—reflects that “[o]fficers observed large equipment 

used to extract THC from marijuana in the back of a moving truck along with the odor of 

marijuana.” (Doc. No. 28-1 at 74) (emphasis omitted); (see also id. at 80) (after arriving at the 

Property, defendant Hansen “looked at the Penske moving truck which had the back door all the 

way up and open” and “observed large equipment in the back of the truck [that he] recognized as 

being used to possibly make honey oil and extract THC from marijuana”); (id.) (defendant 

Hansen “walked closer to the Penske truck and equipment and could smell a strong odor of 

marijuana emitting from the truck and equipment”). Plaintiff stipulated to these facts as the basis 

for his no contest plea and those facts established both probable cause and a reasonable suspicion 

with respect to the search of the truck. If plaintiff were now permitted to proceed with his claims 

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in this action challenging the legality of the officers’ search of the Penske truck, he would 

necessarily be calling into question his criminal conviction obtained by way of his plea. Second, 

the officers’ search of the Property was not “temporally and spatially separate” from their initial 

search of the truck. Rather, the facts and evidence gleaned by the officers during their search of 

the truck formed part of the basis for the issuance of the warrant to search the house. Indeed, the 

affidavit that defendant Hansen submitted to obtain the search warrant at issue notes that he had 

already “observed different types of large equipment used for extracting THC from marijuana” 

and that he “could also smell a strong odor of marijuana emitting from . . . the moving truck.” 

(Id. at 8.) In other words, the search of the truck was in fact closely related to the search of the 

Property. Finally, the court notes that plaintiff perhaps could have limited the factual basis for his 

plea to the search of the Property, but this he did not do. Instead he broadly agreed to the police 

report as the factual basis for his plea. See Winder v. McMahon, 345 F. Supp. 3d 1197, 1206 

(C.D. Cal. 2018) (“[Plaintiff] agreed in his criminal case to a factual basis, and cannot now pick 

apart the [police report] that forms that factual basis—revising his own position in an attempt to 

be consistent with only portions of it—in order to manufacture ‘two isolated factual contexts’ to 

maintain his claim. Only one factual context . . . exists according to the [plea].”), appeal 

dismissed sub nom. Winder v. Cty. of San Bernardino, No. 18-56598, 2019 WL 1077010 (9th Cir. 

Jan. 25, 2019).

The court concludes that plaintiff’s first and second causes of action—alleging that 

defendants searched and seized him and his property in violation of his Fourth Amendment 

rights—are barred by Heck. Accordingly, the court will grant defendants’ motion to dismiss 

these two claims without leave to amend. See AmerisourceBergen Corp. v. Dialysist W. Inc., 465 

F.3d 946, 951 (9th Cir. 2006) (leave to amend need not be granted when amendment would be

futile) (citing Bowles v. Reade, 198 F.3d 752, 757 (9th Cir. 1999)); McQuillion v. 

Schwarzenegger, 369 F.3d 1091, 1099 (9th Cir. 2004) (affirming the dismissal of § 1983 

complaint without leave to amend because amendment would have been futile due to the 

applicability of the Heck bar). 

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C. Plaintiff’s State Law Claims are Barred by Yount

Defendants also move to dismiss plaintiff’s remaining state law claims. Specifically, they 

contend that plaintiff’s state law conversion, intentional infliction of emotional distress, false 

arrest and imprisonment, negligence, and Bane Act claims are all barred by application of the 

holding in Yount v. City of Sacramento, 43 Cal. 4th 885 (2008), California’s state-law equivalent 

to Heck. See id. at 902 (“Heck, of course, is a rule of federal law that applies only to federal 

causes of action that challenge the validity of a state conviction. But we cannot think of a reason 

to distinguish between section 1983 and a state tort claim arising from the same alleged 

misconduct . . ..”) (citation omitted); Fetters v. Cty. of Los Angeles, 243 Cal. App. 4th 825, 835 

(2016) (“In Yount . . ., our Supreme Court adopted Heck . . . .”). Defendants contend that “[f]or 

the same reasons Heck relief is warranted as to the federal claims, Yount is warranted on the 

above-specified state claims.” (Doc. No. 28 at 23.) In opposition, plaintiff argues merely that 

“[f]or the same reasons Heck does not bar [his] claims it does not override his state claims either.” 

(Doc. No. 31 at 8.)

The basis for each of plaintiff’s state law claims asserted in this civil action is that 

defendants acted without probable cause or reasonable suspicion when they detained him, 

searched the truck, arrested him, and thereafter searched his house pursuant to a search warrant

and seized his property. (See, e.g., Compl. at ¶ 108 (alleging that “Defendants’ conduct in 

unlawfully and unjustifiably arresting Plaintiff with no probable cause” as the basis for his IIED 

claim); ¶ 114 (alleging that “Defendants . . . detained Plaintiff without reasonable suspicion” as 

the basis for his false arrest/imprisonment claims); ¶ 121 (alleging that “Defendants . . . had a 

legal duty to . . . refrain from searching the Subject Property in the absence of any legal basis for 

a search” as the basis for his negligence claim); and ¶ 128 (alleging that “Defendants . . . 

interfered with . . . the rights of Plaintiff Chavez . . . to be free from unreasonable searches and 

seizures” as the basis for his Bane Act claim).) Plaintiff’s state law claims are therefore barred by 

Yount for the same reasons that his federal claims alleging Fourth Amendment violations are

barred by Heck, namely that plaintiff stipulated as the factual basis for his plea in state court that 

the officers had reasonable suspicion and/or probable cause to search and seize him and his 

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property, and his state law claims in this action directly challenge that factual basis. Although 

plaintiff’s conversion claim does not allege that the officers lacked probable cause to seize his 

belongings, a conversion claim requires proof establishing that the defendant converted the 

property by a wrongful act or disposition of property rights. See Spates v. Dameron Hosp. Assn., 

114 Cal. App. 4th 208, 221 (2003). Here, plaintiff stipulated that the officers obtained a search 

warrant to search for and seize items from the Property and that probable cause existed. Thus, 

plaintiff’s conversion claim is also barred by Yount. Accordingly, the court will also grant 

defendants’ motion to dismiss plaintiff’s state law claims for conversion, intentional infliction of 

emotional distress, false arrest and imprisonment, negligence, and Bane Act violations without 

leave to amend. See AmerisourceBergen Corp., 465 F.3d at 951 (leave to amend need not be 

granted when amendment would be futile).

D. The Court Need Not Address Defendants’ Remaining Arguments

Having concluded that each of plaintiff’s causes of action is either barred by Heck or 

Yount, and that the FAC must therefore be dismissed without leave to amend, defendants’ 

remaining arguments—that California Government Code § 821.6 bars plaintiff’s conversion and 

negligence claims, and that the items seized by the officers from the Property were within the 

scope of the search warrant—have been rendered moot. Accordingly, the court need not address 

those arguments. 

CONCLUSION

For the reason explained above:

1. Defendants’ motion to dismiss (Doc. No 28) is granted without leave to amend; 

and

2. The Clerk of the Court is directed to close this case. 

IT IS SO ORDERED.

Dated: March 12, 2020 

UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

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