On Sept. 3, 2009, plaintiff Valerie Allen, 37, a nursing student with a bipolar disorder, experienced a sudden manic episode. In the evening, Allen, who stood 5-foot, 3-inches tall and weighed 220 pounds, drove from her Buena Park home to Hollywood. She then proceeded to get out of her car and walk around the neighborhood in nothing but a t-shirt until the early morning hours. A passerby saw Allen and flagged down Los Angeles Police Department Officer Brent Houlihan and his rookie partner, Officer Nam Phan. When Allen was approached by the two officers in their cruiser at approximately 7 a.m., she banged on their passenger-side window. A foot chase ensued, in which the officers followed Allen into a backyard, where she sprayed Houlihan with a hose before jumping a fence. The officers eventually cornered Allen in a narrow walkway. Houlihan claimed he told Phan to “Tase” her. However, Phan claimed he thought Houlihan said to “engage” her and subsequently approached Allen in an attempt to subdue her. Allen then picked up a wooden construction stake and struck Phan on his right arm, causing Houlihan to shoot Allen three times. Additional officers then arrived on the scene and Allen was shocked with a Taser by Officer Joseph Bezak, since the officers claimed she continued to resist their attempts to handcuff her. Allen’s wounds were treated and she was charged with assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer. The Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office ultimately dropped the charges. Allen sued Houlihan, Phan and Bezak, as well as their employers, the city of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Police Department. She alleged that the defendants’ actions constituted negligence and excessive force in violation of her civil rights. Allen claimed that she was not in the right state of mind at the time of the incident and thought that she was being chased by assassins. She alleged that by taking an aggressive stance and chasing her, the officers confirmed her fears that they were trying to harm her. Allen claimed that as a result, Houlihan and Phan should not have chased her and, instead, should have kept her contained and calm when they approached her. She also claimed that the defendants should have called for backup, specifically the police department’s System-wide Mental Assessment Response Team (SMART), who are equipped to handle people suspected of mental illness. Plaintiff’s counsel contended that when the officers cornered Allen in the walkway, the act of shooting her was excessive force since she did not pose a real threat with the wooden stake and caused only a minor bruise to Phan. Allen further claimed that Bezak used excessive force in shocking her with a Taser, as she was not flailing her arms or resisting arrest as the officers claimed, since her arm was shot and she was bleeding profusely. Thus, she claimed that she was in no position to cause a serious struggle. Houlihan and Phan alleged that they could not understand Allen when they approached her, since she was speaking in non-audible growls. They claimed that as a result, they did not know if the plaintiff was drunk, drugged or mentally ill, and could not get her to stop and respond to find out. Defense counsel contended that SMART only responds in situations where a mentally ill person is contained, which Houlihan and Phan had no opportunity to confirm. Phan claimed that he believed Houlihan told him to “engage” Allen and not to “Tase” her, and that he was knocked down to the ground by the stake almost instantly. Houlihan claimed he shot Allen since she posed a threat to Phan, after she refused to drop the stake and was about to strike Phan again as he lay on the ground. Bezak claimed he used appropriate force in shocking Allen with a Taser since the plaintiff was resisting arrest and flailing her arms at the other officers. He also claimed that Allen was warned she’d be shocked with a Taser, but continued to struggle. He further claimed that it took multiple officers to handcuff Allen after the fact., Allen sustained gunshot wounds to her left, dominant arm, chest and stomach, for which she underwent emergency surgery. One of the bullets shattered the humerus in her left arm, requiring open reduction and internal fixation with the insertion of a plate and nails. Allen then followed up with some physical therapy for her left arm. Allen suffers from residual scars from the gunshot wounds and she claimed her left arm is now mostly nonfunctional. She alleged that as a result, her daily activities are affected, such as her ability to get dressed, brush her hair and write, and that she may require additional surgery to her left arm. Allen further claimed that her bipolar condition has worsened and that she now requires ongoing therapy for depression. Thus, plaintiff’s counsel asked the jury to award Allen $5 million in total economic and non-economic damages, as well as an unspecified amount for punitive damages due to the defendants’ oppression and malice.