Opinion ID: 6333813
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Hughes’s Apprehension

Text: The moment the entry team gathered by the front door is the moment at which the factual accounts diverge. Hughes testified at deposition that he was sleeping in the back bedroom of the home when he heard officers yelling at him from the front door to come out. He shouted back repeatedly at a loud volume, “Hold on, I’m coming out!” until he was just ten feet away from the front door. Hughes walked from the back bedroom with his hands up in a gesture of surrender. He kept his arms up and peered around the corner to make eye contact with Officer Michael Rodriguez. It was only after Hughes made eye contact and showed his empty hands that Officer Michael Rodriguez released Cain. Cain immediately attacked Hughes, which caused Hughes to collapse into the hallway. Once he was on the ground, officers piled on top of Hughes while Cain continued to bite. Hughes testified that 8 HUGHES V. RODRIGUEZ he did not resist arrest, but that he moved involuntarily in response to Cain biting and pulling at his limbs. After only a few seconds, the officers had Hughes face-down with his hands cuffed behind his back. Once Hughes was handcuffed and subdued, Hughes was punched in the head and face, and Cain continued to bite Hughes, for “two minutes, if not more.” The law enforcement account differs substantially. Bodycam footage from Officer Michael Rodriguez and Officer Molthen shows the law enforcement team assembled just outside the home’s open front door. In the footage, Officer Michael Rodriguez can be seen and heard shouting twice, “Stockton P.D., come on out or you’re going to get bit by a police dog!” However, there is no audible reply from Hughes. The camera, pointed precisely where Hughes claims to have been standing with his hands up, shows only an empty hallway. Hughes’s face and arms are not in the officers’ view. Hughes does not appear in the camera’s frame until Cain attacks, and Hughes tumbles onto the floor and into the hallway. This footage flatly refutes Hughes’ claim that he was standing in the hallway with his arms up in surrender mode. The officers engaged in a physical struggle with Hughes. Officer Michael Rodriguez testified that his bodycam was kicked off of his chest, and while the footage does not depict the kick, Officer Michael Rodriguez’s bodycam does turn off suddenly. Officer Michael Rodriguez admits to punching Hughes in the head before Hughes was handcuffed because Hughes was grabbing Officer Michael Rodriguez’s groin area, near the gun on his belt. The footage clearly refutes Hughes’s claim that he was beaten for “two minutes if not more,” as no more than a single minute elapses between the moment Officer Michael HUGHES V. RODRIGUEZ 9 Rodriguez releases the dog and the moment Hughes is taken into custody. Importantly, however, the footage does not clearly and unmistakably depict whether punches were thrown before or after Hughes was handcuffed. The defendant officers argue that the audio from Officer Molthen’s bodycam contains the unmistakable sound of handcuffs snapping on Hughes’s hands, after which Hughes can be heard shouting “Okay! Okay!” and an off-camera officer announces that Hughes is in custody, after which the scene goes quiet, and no sounds of beating or dog biting can be heard. Appellees argue that the series of events indicated by this audio necessarily rebuts Hughes’s testimony that he was beaten after he was handcuffed. After his apprehension, Hughes went to the hospital by ambulance for treatment for the dog bites to his left leg, abrasions to his head and face, and bruising on his upper right thigh. Hughes testified that he has scarring and residual soreness in his left leg due to the dog bites.