Facts

Plaintiffs Jerry Lum and Dorothea Timmons filed an action against the County of San Joaquin, City of Lathrop, Sergeant Ray Walters, Sergeant Steven Pease, Deputy Davis, Officer Felipe Mendoza, in connection with their son Jeremy Lum's death.

At the time of the incident Walters, Pease, and Davis were Deputy Sheriffs on street patrol, and Mendoza was a deputy at the county jail.

PLAINTIFFS' CONTENTIONS:
On the night of July 8, 2009, Jeremy Lum, 29, tried to enter a neighbor's house through the locked front screen door, insisting to the neighbor that someone he knew lived there and that he had been there before. The neighbor recognized something was wrong with Jeremy, and talked calmly to him through the screen door while his wife called the police. The neighbor detected no odor of alcohol. Jeremy and his dog wandered away and went across the street to stand on the edge of a park. Later, three San Joaquin County Deputy Sheriffs, including two sergeants riding together, arrived in response to the 911 call. One of the deputies proceeded to take Jeremy's dog back to Jeremy's house, a couple of blocks away. The reporting neighbors asked the deputy what was wrong as he passed by with the dog, and the deputy told them, "He's just off his meds." Jeremy nevertheless was arrested and charged with being drunk. No testing was performed. The junior-most deputy, Davis, was designated to take Jeremy to jail.

At the county jail, seven miles away in French Camp, Deputy Davis handed over Jeremy without mentioning anything about his mental condition or his medications. The processing jailer, Officer Mendoza, knew Jeremy from high school, where Jeremy had been a star football player. Jeremy told Mendoza he was bipolar, under a doctor's care, and did not have his medications. Officer Mendoza testified he did not know what bipolar meant and locked Jeremy in a cell with other arrestees.

Plaintiffs contended that Officer Mendoza was supposed to check on Jeremy every 15 minutes. He admitted he did not. Instead, he filled out a log sheet saying that he did. He also admitted that when he did check on Jeremy, he saw him trying to open imaginary doors and "climbing the walls." Two nurses wrote reports claiming they examined Jeremy and he was in fine condition. Videotape inside the jail substantiated neither's claim of examining him. One of the nurse's reports said she examined him 30 minutes after he was shown to have been released from the jail at 7:00 the next morning. Although Jeremy had arrived in the jail with no shoes, the jailers allowed him to take somebody else's shoes. He then walked out with no money, no cell phone, and no ability to get home. He was next seen three days later, floating dead in a canal near the jail.

DEFENDANTS' CONTENTIONS:
The decedent was arrested because he was wandering the streets with no shoes on, staggering, late at night, extremely intoxicated and unable to care for himself. The officers first tried calling his family members, but the decedent's father did not answer his phone. Defendants claimed the officers involved were entitled to qualified immunity. Defendants also claimed plaintiffs could not establish liability. The decedent was found with Ecstasy and amphetamines in his system, three days after he was released from jail. It was never established he was having a bipolar episode and plaintiffs could not establish causation.

Result

The County agreed to settle the wrongful death action for $1,575,000.

Other Information

Defendants filed multiple motions to dismiss, which were not granted. When summary judgment was denied by Judge Lawrence Karlton, defendants appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on the basis of qualified immunity for the officers. The Ninth Circuit denied the appeal and sent it back for trial. Judge Karlton retired and died shortly after that and the case was reassigned to Judge England for trial to start April 4, 2016. FILING DATE: July 13, 2010.