Opinion ID: 780449
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Introduction and Procedural History

Text: 2 Jeffrey Allen Grant was arrested and charged with a series of highly publicized rapes and related felonies (the Belmont Shores rapes) that occurred over eighteen months in the City of Long Beach. When forensic evidence found at several crime scenes failed to match Grant's DNA, the prosecutor dropped all charges and released Grant from jail, where he had been sitting for over three months awaiting trial. Grant then sued the City of Long Beach, the Long Beach Police Department, and the two police officers that spearheaded the investigation under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for false arrest and false imprisonment. He alleged, inter alia, that defendants' conduct violated his Fourth Amendment protection from arrest without probable cause and his Fourteenth Amendment right to due process. 3 The district court bifurcated the trial, separating Grant's claim against the individual officers from his claim against the City and Police Department. The trial proceeded against the officers (Joseph Bahash and Katherine Watson) first and culminated in a jury award of $1.75 million in compensatory and punitive damages in favor of Grant. The officers assign error to the district court's denial of two motions for judgment as a matter of law, first on probable cause and then on qualified immunity. They also challenge the exclusion of proffered testimony. 4 We reject the officers' arguments on all three issues. The district court properly submitted the case to the jury because material issues of fact existed as to the knowledge the officers had at the time of Grant's arrest and the reasonableness of their actions. The jury was properly instructed, and there was no error in excluding testimony of questionable relevance.