Facts

This action was brought against the the City of Stockton and two police officers for violating the constitutional rights of Crystal Keller, then four years old, and her father, Dennis Keller, when they took Crystal into protective custody without a warrant.

After Crystal's parents separated, a court awarded them joint custody. Crystal spent alternating weeks in each parent's home. In July, 2002, Stockton police received a complaint that Crystal was being abused in her mother's home. Officer Ernie Alverson responded. Concerned for Crystal's welfare, he told the father to keep Crystal even though she was due to return to the mother.

Alverson forwarded his report to Sergeant Ken Praegitzer who assigned the case to Detective Kathryn Henderson. Two days later, Henderson with Praegitzer's approval drove to Sacramento and removed Crystal from the father, placing her in protective custody just three days before her fifth birthday.

In a report explaining why she took Crystal, Detective Henderson said that the father was in violation of the custody order by keeping Crystal when the mother was supposed to have her. The Kellers attorney, David Beauvais, argued that Henderson was not enforcing the custody order by taking Crystal from both parents. Instead, he said, Henderson could have gotten an emergency protective order to give the father full custody while the allegations against the mother were investigated.

The jury found that since Crystal was not in danger of physical abuse in the care of the father, the officers were required to get a warrant to remove her. The jury also ruled against the City of Stockton for failing to have a policy in place that protects children from lawless seizures. Sgt. Leslie, a Stockton police officer for more than 21 years, testified that he was unaware of a single instance where police officers ever sought a warrant to remove a child.

The jury assessed punitive damages of $2 million against Praegitzer and Henderson saying they acted with deliberate indifference to the Kellers' constitutional rights.

In 2004, a court awarded Dennis Keller full custody of his daughter.

PLAINTIFF CONTENTIONS:
1. The defendants violated the plaintiffs rights by removing Crystal without a warrant and in the absence of evidence that she was in danger of serious bodily injury or death; 2. The defendants should have applied for an emergency protecting order giving the father full custody while the allegations against the mother were investigated; and, 3. The City of Stockton had a policy and practice of conducting warrantless seizures that violated federal constitutional standards.

DEFENDANT CONTENTIONS:
The defendants acted in good faith in removing Crystal because they reasonably believed that she was in danger in the care of her father.

Damages

Emotional Distress.

Deliberation

three hours.

Length

four days