The Ninth Circuit has held that police officers in Washington state could have violated the Fourth Amendment rights of a man who died in their custody during a suspected drug overdose, finding that their alleged use of force would be excessive under federal law if proven.

The three-judge panel on Thursday partially revived an amended complaint, allowing the estate of Clovy Jaramillo to bring excessive-force claims against three Spokane, Washington, police officers who were involved in detaining Jaramillo in October 2020. 

The panel said officers used their full body weight and restraints to detain Jamarillo, who the officers believed was experiencing an overdose, and that nothing about Jamarillo's encounter with police suggested he was resisting arrest.

"The district court erred in treating resistance as dispositive. The Fourth Amendment inquiry requires balancing, which 'nearly always requires a jury to sift through disputed factual contentions, and to draw inferences therefrom,'" the panel said in an unsigned opinion. "Constructed in the light most favorable to plaintiff, the [first amended complaint] plausibly alleges limited resistance."

Spokane police arrested Jamarillo after receiving multiple 911 calls about a man acting erratically and running into traffic who was possibly experiencing a drug overdose. Police claimed they struggled to arrest Jamarillo and resorted to using a neck restraint and their body weight to detain him, the opinion said.

While police were trying to arrest Jamarillo, he began to vomit profusely and appeared to have a seizure, and, at some point during the interaction, lost consciousness and died, the opinion said.

Jamarillo's estate sued the department, claiming that three officers responsible for the arrest, Jackson Henry, Timothy Schwering and Korey Bjornstad, used an unconstitutional degree of force when they applied their full weight and neck restraints to Jamarillo, the opinion said.

The estate's lawsuit against the city, police department and officers was filed in state court, alleging numerous violations of Washington state law, including negligence and deprivation of civil rights. The defendants moved the case to federal court in November 2023, according to the opinion and federal court records.

An amended version of the lawsuit was later filed in federal court, with the estate claiming the officers violated federal law with their use of force along with the previous claims from the state court suit, the opinion said.

A federal judge found that because police officers believed Jamarillo was resisting arrest by kicking his legs and screaming, he was resisting arrest, and that resistance made the use of force acceptable. The judge tossed the remaining federal use of force claims and ordered that the remaining state claims be sent back to Washington state court, the opinion said.

The appeals panel said district courts are required to consider how much a defendant was resisting arrest when determining whether the use of force was appropriate under the Fourth Amendment. The opinion said that because Jamarillo appeared to be experiencing a medical episode and was "limited" in his resistance, the degree of force used could plausibly be considered unconstitutional.

The opinion found that because police were initially called to the scene for a drug overdose as opposed to a violent crime, and because Jamarillo was already on the ground when officers arrived, police lacked cause to believe they were in danger, or that they should use escalated force.

The opinion did find that the estate forfeited certain claims that officers violated Jamarillo's 14th Amendment rights, and that officers were negligently trained, saying that they were not correctly supported by the current version of the lawsuit.

An attorney representing Jamarillo's estate did not respond to a request for comment, nor did a spokesperson for the defendants.

U.S. Circuit Judges Margaret McKeown, Richard Paez and Roopali Desai sat on the panel for the Ninth Circuit.

The estate of Clovy Jamarillo is represented by Douglas D. Phelps of Phelps and Associates PS.

The government is represented by Brian C. Augenthaler and Stewart Andrew Estes of Keating Bucklin & McCormack Inc PS.

The case is Estate of Clovy Jamarillo v. City of Spokane et al., case number 24-5937, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

--Editing by Linda Voorhis.