Opinion ID: 2754539
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: the circumstances indicated to the

Text: defendants that further investigation was warranted, or (2) the defendants denied the plaintiff access to the courts for an extended period of time. But the “further investigation” cases have involved significant differences between the arrestee and the true suspect. In Fairley, for example, the plaintiff and the true subject of the warrant not only had different first names but also differed in weight by 66 pounds. 281 F.3d at 915. 745 F.3d at 390–91. Ventura’s Fourteenth Amendment claim against the San Bernardino defendants falls into the second category. He argues that “circumstances indicated to the defendants that further investigation was warranted.” GANT V. COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES 27 The San Bernardino defendants detained Ventura at WVDC for four days after he was arrested and before he was transferred to the custody of the L.A. County defendants. Ventura alleges that he complained to WVDC staff about his wrongful detention, and that there were very significant discrepancies between the physical descriptors on his driver’s license and the physical descriptors on the warrant. At his deposition, Ventura testified that he complained to an officer at WVDC that he was “not the person you’re looking for.” Ventura also testified that he complained to the arresting officer that he had “the wrong person.” Ventura argues the San Bernardino defendants could have used several means to determine whether he was the warrant’s true subject, including by conducting fingerprint comparisons and by accessing “police criminal records information systems.” The San Bernardino defendants respond that there is no record of Ventura’s complaints, and that if he had raised such a complaint, it would have been memorialized. They also argue that they could not have determined that Ventura was not the warrant’s true subject through the means Ventura suggests. The district court recognized there was a triable issue of fact about whether Ventura complained to the San Bernardino defendants that they had the wrong person, but the district court ruled that Ventura did not offer any evidence showing the jailers’ failure to conduct a fingerprint comparison was pursuant to an official policy or practice. In fact, the district court noted that the San Bernardino defendants filed the declaration of a custody specialist (“the Walstrom declaration”) in conjunction with its summary judgment motion, and the declaration explained that San Bernardino’s policy does require fingerprint comparisons when a detainee complains of mistaken identity. The district court further 28 GANT V. COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES ruled that Ventura did not show that accessing an alternate police records system would have established he was not the warrant’s true subject because the lack of a criminal history, by itself, does not eliminate the possibility that a person is the subject of a warrant. Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to Ventura, we assume the significant discrepancies between the physical descriptors on Ventura’s driver’s license and the physical descriptors on the warrant did raise the concern that the wrong man was being detained, just as we assume that Ventura voiced his objection to the San Bernardino defendants—though the evidence on this point is conflicting. Ventura’s Fourteenth Amendment claim against the San Bernardino defendants fails because assuming these facts to be true does not establish that San Bernardino’s failure to investigate Ventura’s complaint was the result of an official policy or practice. We agree with the district court that Ventura did not raise a material issue of fact about whether the San Bernardino defendants had a policy of not requiring fingerprint comparisons after detainees complain they have been mistakenly arrested. Ventura failed to controvert evidence that it was the San Bernardino defendants’ practice to investigate a warrant arrestee’s claim of wrongful identity. Further, “[t]hat officials apparently failed to implement [a] policy properly in this one instance is not sufficient for” the San Bernardino defendants to be liable. Rivera, 745 F.3d at 389. After reviewing the record, we also agree with the district court that Ventura did not show that accessing alternate police record systems would necessarily have revealed that Ventura was not the warrant’s true subject. The lack of a criminal history would not have established that GANT V. COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES 29 Ventura was being erroneously detained, because warrants are sometimes issued for individuals with no prior offenses, and individuals without criminal histories can have CII numbers. Indeed, Ventura has no criminal history, but because he has been a foster parent, and because he is a lawful immigrant who has been given political asylum, he has a CII number. We therefore affirm the district court’s order granting summary judgment for the San Bernardino defendants on Ventura’s Fourteenth Amendment claim. c. L.A. County Defendants Ventura argues that the L.A. County defendants violated his Fourteenth Amendment rights because they detained him even though they should have known that he was not the subject of the “Jose Ventura” warrant. The L.A. County defendants detained Ventura for two days while he waited for a court appearance. In granting summary judgment for the L.A. County defendants, the district court found “no evidence from which a reasonable jury could conclude that Ventura complained to any L.A. County official that he was not the subject of the warrant.” The district court based this finding on Ventura’s deposition testimony; when asked if he had ever complained to anyone while at the L.A. County Jail, Ventura testified, “I decided not to say anything because anyway I would be ignored.” Asked the follow-up question, “So you made no complaints to anybody at the Los Angeles County Jail; correct?” Ventura responded, “Not to anyone.” But Ventura’s deposition also included his statement that he told the woman who took his fingerprints at the L.A. County Jail (in Spanish), “I think they’re confused about me. I’m not the person you’re looking for.” The district court reasoned that “[s]tanding alone, this [statement] might be enough to raise a triable issue of fact as to whether Ventura complained to 30 GANT V. COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES anyone such that County officials would have had a duty to verify his identity,” but because the record included Ventura’s other sworn and unequivocal statements, the court concluded that there was not a triable issue of fact about whether Ventura complained his arrest was a mistake. The district court dismissed Ventura’s Fourteenth Amendment claim against the L.A. County defendants after applying the Mathews v. Eldridge balancing test and concluding, “due process does not require a custodial agency to confirm a detainee’s identity where the detainee does not complain that he has been wrongfully incarcerated.” Ventura argues on appeal that the district court’s decision on this point is inconsistent with the summary judgment standard. We agree. The conflicting evidence about whether Ventura complained to the L.A. County defendants that they had the wrong person raises a genuine issue of material fact. We therefore reverse the district court’s order dismissing Ventura’s Fourteenth Amendment claim against the L.A. County defendants.