Facts

Jameson Ashley filed suit against the City and County of San Francisco and Deputy Sheriff Curtis Edwards, alleging civil rights violations.

PLAINTIFF'S CONTENTIONS:
Plaintiff alleged that defendants violated his civil rights under the Fourth Amendment for unreasonable seizure, under the Eighth Amendment and Fourteenth Amendments for cruel and unusual punishment, and alleged a Monell claim. He claimed that from Oct. 21, 2010 through Dec. 7, 2010, he was unlawfully detained in San Francisco County Jail. Plaintiff alleged that officers arrested him for a misdemeanor when he was walking on the Golden Gate Bridge and he gave his first name, "James," but not his last name. The officers then booked him under the name "John Doe," and intentionally and maliciously changed his name on the booking card to "Richard Head," which made it so that his family members were unable to find him. Plaintiff claimed that defendants booked him under a false name and acted negligently and/or encouraged, directed, enabled and ordered defendants to engage in this conduct. Plaintiff also alleged that due to pre-existing mental health problems and improper evaluation or treatment by defendant's employees, plaintiff went mute and did not reveal his true identity to employees. However, plaintiff alleged defendants knew that his real name was Jameson Ashley based on readily available information.

Plaintiff claimed that defendants failed to properly train deputies and other employees as to the intake of prisoners.

DEFENDANTS' CONTENTIONS:
Defendants contended that plaintiff had been thrown out of his parents' house, after plaintiff behaved erratically and threatened his father with a knife. Defendants contended that Ashley was arrested the next day on the Golden Gate Bridge after he attempted to break into a storage locker and resisted arrest. Defendants contended that plaintiff refused to identify himself to the arresting officers. At the jail, plaintiff continued to refuse to identify himself, and refused to sign a citation, even after jail staff informed him that he would be released within hours if he simply signed the citation. Defendants argued that because plaintiff refused to identify himself and sign the citation, state law prohibited the jail from releasing him. A deputy booked plaintiff into the jail under a fictitious and inappropriate name for the purposes of moving plaintiff through the booking process, believing that plaintiff would ultimately cooperate in his own release and sign the citation.

The district attorney filed a criminal complaint, and the court referred the case to a competency proceeding. During that time, jail psychiatric staff monitored plaintiff's psychiatric condition. Defendants argued that plaintiff testified that he was content in the jail and made no effort to contact his family or obtain his release, because he had nowhere to go, since his parents had thrown him out of his house. Defendants contended that plaintiff's conduct was caused by the early stages of schizophrenia, for which he was receiving no treatment in the weeks before his arrest.

Result

The parties agreed to settle for $150,000. The court granted defendants' motion for summary judgment on all of plaintiff's federal constitutional claims.