Opinion ID: 3031371
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: facts

Text: On September 22, 1998, Jeff Potter, an officer of the marijuana eradication team (MET) of the County’s Sheriff DepartBALDWIN v. PLACER COUNTY 4407 ment, applied for a search warrant for the residence of Michael Baldwin and Georgia Chacko, then Baldwin’s wife. The affidavit stated that on July 16, 1998, Deputy Mark Reed had told Sergeant Kevin Besana that “a citizen informant” had told him that Michael Baldwin, a dentist, was “possibly growing marijuana.” The date when this information was given and the date when Baldwin was possibly growing marijuana were not stated in the affidavit. Potter stated that Besana had passed this tip to him and that four days after receiving it, he confirmed Baldwin’s office address as a dentist and obtained the registration number of his car; Potter used the car registration to confirm the informant’s statement as to Baldwin’s home address. A check of DMV records showed Baldwin to be 35 years-old, 5′ 9″, weighing 165 pounds and Georgia Chacko to be 34 years-old, 5′ 5″, weighing 125 pounds. On September 16, 1998, so the affidavit continues, Potter searched the trash at Baldwin’s home address. He found “marijuana leaves and stems recently cut from a mature marijuana plant. The marijuana was fresh green and still moist.” He also, he said, had found “marijuana seeds and a hydroponic grow rock. There were also two black 1/2 gallon planting pots commonly used in indoor marijuana grows and four packages of ‘rain drop’ irrigation equipment commonly used in indoor marijuana grows.” He concluded on the basis of his specific training in the investigation of narcotics and his ten years of experience in approximately three hundred narcotics cases that “[t]he items found in the trash inspection reveal an ongoing criminal activity to grow marijuana indoors.” He also concluded that “it is common for persons involved in the cultivation of marijuana to also be involved in the sale of marijuana.” Potter sought a warrant listing the documents and property he expected to find; he did not mention guns. On September 23, 1998, a state court judge issued the search war- rant that Potter sought. According to the plaintiffs’ evidence, the only marijuana in their trash searched by Potter were blackened bits of mari4408 BALDWIN v. PLACER COUNTY juana wrapped in a paper towel, the remnants of smoked marijuana. They bolster their claim of falsity in Potter’s affidavit by thirteen declarations from other individuals whose trash was searched by MET. In each instance MET officers swore they found “marijuana leaves and stems recently cut from a mature marijuana plant” and that “the marijuana was fresh green and still moist.” In each instance, these thirteen individuals swore they placed no marijuana or products of marijuana in their trash. The Baldwins’ further evidence is that the “rain drop” irrigation equipment was only for outdoor landscaping and that this fact should have been obvious to a trained narcotics investigator. The equipment included a sprinkler spraying water up to 14 feet, a soaker hose, and 6″ heavy duty support stakes; none of these items are used in an indoor grow. The two black gardening pots pointed to no illegal activity. The “grow rock” in Potter’s affidavit was, the plaintiffs also state, a lava rock with no implication of criminal activity. In the early dawn of the day that Potter obtained the warrant, according to the sworn declaration of Michael Baldwin, a group of five officers including Potter entered Baldwin’s home “para-military style” without knocking. Officer Reed encountered Baldwin as Baldwin came into the house from the back door. Reed pointed his gun at him and ordered him to lie down. Baldwin complied with the order. Reed “then pushed his gun at the rear of [Baldwin’s] head and placed his knee in the small of [Baldwin’s] back, all the while pressing a loaded firearm against the back of [Baldwin’s] head.” Baldwin was terrified that the gun would go off. According to the sworn deposition of Georgia Chacko, she was clothed only in a T-shirt and cotton briefs and just getting up to start her day when she opened her bedroom door to be confronted by a flashlight in her face and fingers sharply poking five to seven times at her throat and forcing her back into the bedroom. A voice told her to get on the floor. A gun was BALDWIN v. PLACER COUNTY 4409 pointed at her, then brought into contact with her head for 30 seconds. She got on the ground. The unidentified gunman kneed her in the small of her back and handcuffed her. The gunman was Potter. PROCEEDINGS On October 12, 2001, the plaintiffs filed their first amended complaint. The County moved for summary judgment on the ground of the qualified immunity of the officers. On April 2, 2004, the district court denied the motion, ruling that triable material issues of fact existed as to the plaintiffs’ claims of excessive force, judicial deception, and conspiracy by the MET team, all in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1983; state law claims similarly remained open to credibility determinations by a jury. The County appeals.