Judge throws out lawsuits against police

A federal judge dismissed a 6-year-old lawsuit filed by more than a dozen people who said their free speech rights were violated and they were illegally arrested by El Cajon police at protests over the killing of Alfred Olango.

U.S. District Court Judge Linda Lopez threw out the suit after concluding the police were entitled to qualified immunity, a legal protection for government employees that says they can’t be sued if they did not violate a “clearly established” right when performing their duties.

The lawsuit was filed following protests held in the wake of Olango’s death on Sept. 27, 2016. An El Cajon police officer, Richard Gonsalves, fatally shot him in the parking lot of the Broadway Village Shopping Center. Relatives of Olango had called police because he was going through a mental health crisis. He was shot to death while holding an e-cigarette.

The District Attorney’s Office later ruled the shooting justified. But the shooting led to protests for more than two weeks in the city.

On the evening of Oct. 1, 2016, a group of protesters was given an order to disperse by police after officers received a report of a fight among the protesters and someone allegedly saying they were going to get a gun. Police declared the protest an unlawful assembly and, while many people left, a small group of people did not, according to the ruling. They were arrested.

About two weeks later at the same shopping center, four other people were arrested after the shopping center owner complained to police about the protesters being on private property and hampering the businesses of the tenants.

Eventually 18 people, including three juveniles, sued the city, county of San Diego and a number of sheriff ’s deputies and El Cajon officers. They contended their First Amendment rights were violated when an unlawful assembly was declared and they were ordered to disperse There was no imminent threat of violence, therefore declaring an unlawful assembly was wrong, they argued. Some of the plaintiffs also said they were wrongly arrested.

Under state law an unlawful assembly occurs when two or more people gather to do an unlawful act, or do a lawful act in a “violent, boisterous or tumultuous manner.”