A jury has rejected the claim of four who visited Chukchansi Gold Resort & Casino in Madera County, California that they were illegally manhandled by three officers at the casino in June 2013.
The incident resulted in one of the four suffering a broken hip. They sued for false arrest and excessive force. The facts in the incident did not appear to be in doubt since it was all caught on video.
However, attorney Stephen Cornwell was stunned when the jury in U.S. District court in Fresno ruled against his clients. “It’s the weirdest thing,” he said.
The civil rights claim was brought by Jose Lorenzo; his brother, Alfredo Lorenzo; Jose’s daughter, Gretel Lorenzo, and her partner, Melinda Avila (whose hip was broken) against the Madera County Sheriff’s Sgt. Guy Rich and two officers of the California Highway Patrol. The plaintiffs had asked for $1 million in damages.
The jury only took five hours to reach its verdict and awarded no damages. The defendants were represented by the Attorney General’s office attorney Catherine Woodbridge. She successfully maintained that Lorenzo was drunk in public, and thus subject to arrest and that the others illegally interfered with that arrest.
The plaintiffs’ side was that no one was drunk, evidenced by the fact that the District Attorney never filed charges against anyone.
Gretel claimed to have been groped in the casino bar, which led to them leaving the bar and calling a limonene.
“They were peacefully waiting for a limo when the deputies began interrogating them. The law says they don’t have to answer questions by police, but I guess they got mad when Jose told them to call the police.”
The jury disagreed with this interpretation.
