A local man who settled a wrongful arrest lawsuit against a southern California police department in 2015 claims he was illegally detained by Morgan Hill officers earlier this year after he refused to show them his driver’s license, and he thinks he has been targeted due to his history of contentious contact with law enforcement.
The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office dismissed the case against Jesse Katz of Morgan Hill in relation to his Jan. 27 arrest near Del Monte and Spring avenues. But authorities say that doesn’t mean MHPD officers overstepped their bounds by taking him into custody.
Civil liberties advocates disagree, and Katz says his arrest in Morgan Hill so closely mirrors an incident in Barstow in 2014—which ultimately forced that city’s police department to adopt a new training bulletin—that he plans to take civil action.
On Jan. 27, an MHPD officer saw a motorcycle parked on the sidewalk, leaning up against a fence outside a residence on Spring Avenue, according to police reports found in Katz’ court file. As the vehicle was blocking the sidewalk—a violation of the state vehicle code—the officer stopped and tried to make contact with the owner.
Katz, 38, was helping a friend at the home in question, and responded that he was the owner of the motorcycle when the officer called to him over the fence. The officer asked him to move the vehicle, to which Katz replied he would do so.
After waiting “a few moments” without Katz approaching the motorcycle, the officer called out to him again, according to the police report. Katz then exited the yard and walked toward the motorcycle. The officer asked him for his identification, but Katz refused to present an ID and declined to identify himself by name.
Katz then told the officer he wanted to speak to a shift supervisor, who arrived along with another officer within a few minutes.
What is the law?
After arguing with the officers on scene—as depicted in the initial officer’s body camera footage obtained by Katz—he was arrested on suspicion of refusing to present his driver’s license to an officer, and resisting police.
But Katz argued with the officers and sergeant that he is not required to show his identification upon their request. He particularly took issue with MHPD Sgt. Carlos Guerrero’s statement during the incident that a driver’s signature on a California license “states you shall present your license when asked by an officer.”
Katz said this is “100 percent factually inaccurate and untrue.”
“That is only true when the person is driving,” Katz told the Times. “There is no law compelling a citizen to provide identification without cause.”
California Vehicle Code section 12951, cited in the MHPD report, says “the driver of a motor vehicle shall present his or her license for examination upon demand of a peace officer.” On Jan. 27, Katz told the responding officers that he was the owner of the motorcycle, but not that he had been driving it. He declined to say whether he drove the vehicle to the location where he was ultimately arrested.
The MHPD report does not claim that Katz had been driving the motorcycle.
“If they wanted to issue a citation, they should have issued a citation to the vehicle,” Katz added.
A staff attorney from the American Civil Liberties Union clarified that no person stopped by a peace officer in California has to present their driver’s license unless they are operating a vehicle.
But the ACLU attorney, Adrienna Wong, said in general terms—not referring to Katz’ most recent case—the ACLU continues to see arrests of people in California on suspicion of resisting officers just because they didn’t present their ID when asked. These cases are often dismissed by prosecutors, but sometimes they aren’t, Wong said.
“That’s a problem, when prosecutors keep filing those charges,” Wong said. “They should very well know that’s not the law in California.”
Wong was also familiar with Katz’ 2014 case against the Barstow Police Department, in which he and his brother enlisted the ACLU to file a lawsuit claiming wrongful arrest. That lawsuit stems from an incident in which a Barstow officer asked the Katz brothers for their ID while they were eating at a restaurant, after another customer accused them of theft without presenting any evidence. The brothers refused, and the officer arrested them.
The Katz’ each won a settlement of $15,000 from the City of Barstow. But Jesse Katz said the important part of the settlement is that Barstow officials agreed to adopt an internal “training bulletin” clarifying the law.
“(A) person who is subject to a police contact or lawful detention is not required to identify himself,” the Barstow Police Department training bulletin reads, in part.
Case closed?
The D.A.’s office dismissed Katz’ case in April, according to Deputy D.A. Jason Malinsky. However, Malinsky noted there was “circumstantial evidence” that Katz had been driving the motorcycle that was blocking the sidewalk, and MHPD officers had probable cause to arrest him due to his multiple refusals to present his license, thus “delaying their investigation.”
“We dismissed the case against Mr. Katz because we concluded the interests of justice would not be furthered by his prosecution for what amounted to a 13-minute delay,” Malinsky said in an email.
MHPD Capt. Shane Palsgrove denied the Times’ request for the officers’ body-camera footage of the Jan. 27 incident. He noted that the D.A.’s office has a different standard for prosecution than police have for making an arrest, but he referred follow-up questions to the city attorney.
Morgan Hill City Attorney Don Larkin said he has reviewed the MHPD file on the case.
“I’m comfortable with how our officers responded,” Larkin said.
Katz obtained one of the three responding officers’ body-camera videos—which he shared with the Times—through the evidence discovery process. Among Katz’ remaining complaints is the fact the authorities did not turn over the other videos.
Katz also thinks MHPD has had it out for him ever since officers responded to his previous home, on Count Fleet Court in south Morgan Hill, multiple times on complaints of oversized or inoperable vehicles parked in his driveway. These contacts, which ultimately led to a citation for Katz, occurred in 2015.
When the Times reported on that case, Palsgrove confirmed that an MHPD sergeant had sent an email to the department asking officers to respond to the Katz home with more than one officer due to the family’s “anti-police” stance. Palsgrove at the time cited Katz’ arrest in Barstow as one reason for the need to respond with numbers.
Katz thinks it’s not fair for MHPD to react that way to a case in which he was “completely vindicated.”
“There has been a clear pattern of harassment and arbitrary, inconsistent enforcement of the rules,” Katz said. “The only avenue left to me is to sue them in civil court and seek policy changes and police training guidelines, like we did in Barstow.”
