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O'Meara v. City of Huntington Beach1/11/2005
I. INTRODUCTION
John O'Meara crashed his car into a median right in front of a police station in Huntington Beach and was arrested for drunk driving . Ultimately, however, the criminal charges against him were dismissed. (At oral argument we were told that the dismissals came in the wake of two hung juries.) And his driving privileges were fully restored without restriction following a DMV hearing.
In the wake of these victories, O'Meara sued the city of Huntington Beach for both false arrest and excessive use of force. After the city incurred more than $25,000 defending the suit, O'Meara voluntarily dismissed his false arrest claim. Later he lost the excessive force claim in a jury trial.
O'Meara has now appealed from the defense judgment, and in the first portion of this opinion we explain why the judgment is correct as against his main challenge, which is that because his blood was taken forcibly by an "unlicensed" nurse while he was strapped into a "restraint chair," his civil rights were necessarily violated. The short answer is that there was no automatic civil rights violation, because (a) the nurse was a licensed vocational nurse as required by the relevant statute; she merely had not been formally certified to draw blood because the hospital where she took the required course in blood drawing failed to forward some paperwork to a state board; and (b) the restraint chair was necessary because O'Meara was physically resisting taking any alcohol test at all.
The city, as successful defendant, also sought its attorney fees and costs, and obtained an award of $25,000 in fees and about $8,000 in costs. In the second portion of this opinion we will explain why we must affirm that order. Basically, while O'Meara might (or might not, we do not address the point) have had a non-frivolous excessive force claim, the fact is that his false arrest claim was utterly unjustifiable, and the city's fees on just the false arrest claim exceeded $25,000.
II. FACTS
On December 5, 2000, two Huntington Beach police officers, Mark Wersching and Eric Ramsey, were working at the police substation near the corner of Slater Avenue and Beach Boulevard when an unidentified individual came into the station and told them that someone had just crashed a car into the median on Beach Boulevard in front of the station. The officers went to the parking lot to see what happened and the unknown informant pointed out a Cadillac parked at the other end of the parking lot.
The officers saw O'Meara get out of the driver's seat, then stumble across the parking lot towards the intersection of Beach and Slater. The two officers looked over the car and noted damage to the front wheel, as well as heat emanating from the hood. They then drove around to where O'Meara was walking to ask him some questions.
O'Meara refused to identify himself, denied he had been driving, and denied owning the car. (In fact, there was never any dispute that the car was registered in O'Meara's name or that he had the keys to it.) He began to walk away from the officers, and staggered into the street against the light. Officer Ramsey then handcuffed O'Meara, told him that he was being detained while the officers figured out what had happened, and placed him in the back seat of the patrol car.
O'Meara looked like a mess. His eyes were bloodshot and glassy, and he smelled of alcohol. Other indicia that he was drunk included a relaxed face, red cheeks and nose, and the fact that on a cold evening in December he was lightly dressed and seemingly impervious to the cold night air. He was arrested for drunk driving and told that he must submit to either a b
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