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Badia v. City of Casa Grande3/16/1999
however, Perez refused to take the test and, instead, signed an informed consent form acknowledging that she knew the consequences of refusing the test. Tena completed his paperwork and "waited for someone to pick her up."
Harrison testified in her deposition that a woman dispatcher from the substation had telephoned to inform her that Perez would be released. According to Harrison, the dispatcher stated that Perez wanted Harrison to pick her up and did not want Harrison to bring Murrillo with her. Although Harrison related that information to Murrillo, he accompanied Harrison to the substation. Upon their arrival there, Harrison spoke through a plexiglass window with the same dispatcher with whom she had spoken by telephone earlier, who immediately released Perez to Harrison. Murrillo was with Harrison and, according to Harrison, Perez was intoxicated but "acting okay" at that time. As the three of them started to leave the substation, but while they were still inside, Perez pushed Murrillo after he made a derogatory comment, and he shoved her back. Perez almost lost her balance but did not fall down. According to Harrison, Perez and Murrillo also argued and shoved one another outside in the parking lot after they had left the substation.
The county substation dispatcher, who was not identified or deposed in this case, released Perez sometime before 1:00 a.m. Harrison drove Perez and Murrillo directly from the substation to a convenience store because Perez wanted to purchase more beer. Harrison had not been drinking at all that night. Perez and Murrillo then resumed their drinking. Harrison testified that at some point later Perez told her that she (Perez) "had told the police that night that she did not want [Murrillo] to pick her up" and that he had "threatened to kill her a month earlier." Murrillo stabbed Perez to death at her apartment within approximately two hours after she was released.
In her amended complaint in this action, plaintiff alleged that defendants "knew or should have known of a pattern of domestic violence perpetrated against" Perez by Murrillo at the time they released her, and that the police department "failed to adequately protect" Perez from Murrillo "by treating her domestic violence complaints with less priority." Plaintiff claimed, inter alia, that the individual police officers and the City "deprived Ms. Perez of her constitutional rights to equal protection under the law, under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution," in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1983. In a separate negligence count, plaintiff also alleged that defendants had "established a special relation with Ida Perez by acts including arresting and/or detaining her knowing or having reason to know that she was intoxicated," "had a duty to take reasonable precautions" for her safety, had negligently breached that duty by releasing her to Murrillo, and had thereby proximately caused her death. Plaintiff sought compensatory and punitive damages and an award of attorneys' fees.
In their motion for summary judgment, defendants argued that plaintiff had failed to present any evidence of an unconstitutional policy or custom entitling her to relief under § 1983; that the individual officers were shielded from § 1983 liability by qualified immunity; and that plaintiff had failed to introduce evidence that the officers had been grossly negligent, required by A.R.S. § 12-820.02(A) in order to establish their liability. In her response, plaintiff claimed for the first time that defendants had violated § 1983 by depriving Perez of her due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment by releasing her to Murrillo. She also claimed for the first time that Officers Mercer
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