A larger federal appellate panel will rehear a case, in which San Diego Police are accused of letting a woman die in custody, after two appellate judges previously ruled police were not liable on grounds of qualified immunity.
Aleah Jenkins was arrested on a warrant for missing a court date on methamphetamine charge, after a traffic stop in November 2018 by San Diego officers. While in custody in a police cruiser, she went into a coma, succumbing nine days later. Court papers said she died from an overdose.
In November 2019 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, Jenkins' minor son, through his father, filed suit against the city of San Diego, as well as officers Jason Taub and Lawrence Durbin. The suit alleged police should have known Jenkins was in medical distress and did not take steps to preserve her life, which included leaving her unattended in a police car for more than 11 minutes. As a consequence, police deprived Jenkins of her constitutional rights, the suit alleged.
District Judge Cathy Ann Bencivengo dismissed the suit in May 2020, finding the officers enjoyed qualified immunity and plaintiff did not make an adequate case Jenkins' rights were violated. A three-member panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, voting 2-1, affirmed Bencivengo's decision in November 2021. The majority view, held by Circuit Judges D. Michael Fisher and Patrick Bumatay, determined police reasonably believed Jenkins was "faking" her distress.
The dissenting circuit judge, Paul Watford, said the majority put forth in their ruling a "highly sanitized" account of events. Watford further said Officer Durbin was "required to summon immediate medical care for Ms. Jenkins. He instead did nothing, despite objective signs of medical distress that literally cried out for action."
Plaintiff then asked for another hearing before a larger number of Ninth Circuit judges, in what is known as an en banc hearing. On Feb. 17, Ninth Circuit Chief Judge Mary Murguia announced that after a vote by the 29 Ninth Circuit judges, she and 10 other judges will rehear the case in June in Seattle.
Defendants objected to the request for the rehearing, again arguing officers had no reason to suspect Jenkins was overdosing. They said Jenkins denied having ingested drugs and repeatedly told police she was nauseous, but from being pregnant. In addition, defendants asserted one of the officers asked Jenkins several times about her well-being, and after she lost consciousness, he immediately called for medical responders and tried to revive her.
Jenkins' son has been represented by Kaveh Navab, of Navab Law, of Marina Del Ray and Hesamedin Aynechi, of West Coast Trial Lawyers, of Los Angeles.
San Diego and the police have been defended by city attorneys Seetal Tejura, George F. Schaefer and Mara W. Elliott, as well as by Christie B. Swiss, Chandler A. Parker and James C. Jardin, of Collins, Collins, Muir & Stewart, of Carlsbad.
The Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank based in Washington, D.C., has filed friend-of-the-court arguments in support of Jenkins' son.
The Institute is zeroing in on qualified immunity, pointing to what it sees as "lack of legal justification for qualified immunity, the deleterious effect it has on the ability of people to vindicate their constitutional rights, and the subsequent erosion of accountability among public officials that the doctrine encourages."