Facts

Rayven Vinson, Christian Sutton, Olaoluwa Bayode, Debbie Rumbo, Frances Wang, Jason Sneed, and Teremy Jackson sued the City of Los Angeles, the University of Southern California and Chief John Thomas, the head of USC's Department of Public Safety, alleging numerous civil rights violations.

PLAINTIFFS' CONTENTIONS:
On May 3, 2013, two simultaneous parties were being held near the USC campus in two separate houses directly across the street from one another and attended by USC students. One was hosted and attended by predominantly Caucasian students, while the other was hosted and attended by predominantly African-American and minority students.

In the early morning hours of May 4, seventy-nine officers descended upon the minority partygoers, in riot gear, in response to an alleged noise complaint. The officers corralled the partygoers while aggressively yelling and dispersing the crowd of compliant attendees. Plaintiffs, who were attendees of the minority-hosted student party, were forcefully arrested without probable cause and mistreated by the officers when they attempted to film and document the excessive force used on them. In contrast, the attendees in the other house were allowed to proceed with their party.

Plaintiffs asserted claims of excessive force, false arrest and malicious prosecution, failure to intervene, 'Monell' claim, and deprivation of equal protection. Plaintiffs also asserted state law claims for intentional infliction of emotional distress, assault and battery, assault, violation of the Unruh Act for racial discrimination, false promise, and negligent misrepresentation.

DEFENDANTS' CONTENTIONS:
After most of the causes of action were dismissed at the pleading stage, USC and Chief Thomas moved for summary judgment on the two remaining causes of action under the federal civil rights laws, a claim under Monell v. Department of Social Services, 436 U.S. 658 (1978), against USC, and an equal protection claim against Chief Thomas. USC and Chief Thomas showed that there was no evidence that Chief Thomas or anyone else at USC violated plaintiffs' civil rights.

Result

The City of Los Angeles settled with plaintiffs for $450,000. The court granted summary judgment for USC and Chief Thomas on plaintiffs' two remaining claims, finding that there was no triable issue regarding any pattern or custom of USC DPS officers violating the civil rights of minority students, and no evidence connecting Chief Thomas to any constitutional violation. The court entered judgment in favor of USC.