A 77-year-old retired psychologist with no criminal record, 5 feet 2 inches tall, 140 pounds, was falsely arrested, and injured by jail guards during book-in after expressing annoyance and confusion when denied access to his attorney’s phone number. One guard grabbed plaintiff’s left arm; a larger guard lunged suddenly from a side room, grabbed plaintiff’s arm and pulled it behind plaintiff’s back and upward, and slammed his left forearm behind plaintiff’s neck. This arm-bar maneuver caused a massive full-thickness rotator cuff tear of plaintiff’s right shoulder. Plaintiff had no prior right shoulder injury. The deputy also pushed plaintiff hard onto a bench, bruising his legs.
The case settled after the magistrate issued Findings and Recommendations dismissing the false arrest claim but denying a motion to dismiss the first-responding guard from the case. Likely the Article III judge would have adopted the F&R, leaving excessive force against both guards, and a Monell claim about the arm-bar maneuver, for trial. Whatever the outcome at trial, we would have likely appealed the dismissal of the false arrest, as there was no corroborating evidence of the plaintiff’s inebriated adult son’s false claim of assault. We had about $65,000 of accrued attorney fees and expenses, but settling was in the client’s best interests.