On June 19, 2014, plaintiff Brandon Duncan, 32, a tiler and an aspiring rapper, was getting ready to go to work when he was arrested by San Diego police officers. Duncan was detained for hours in a police vehicle while his home was searched by the police officers. After bringing Duncan to a police station, Detectives Rudy Castro and Scott Henderson allegedly told Duncan that he was being arrested because of his music lyrics. However, the detectives denied Duncan was given that reason. Duncan was unable to post the $1 million bond, and he remained jailed for seven months while awaiting trial until the bond was reduced to $500,000. Around the same time, in July 2014, plaintiff Aaron Harvey, 25, who moved to Las Vegas and was studying to become a real estate agent, was leaving his apartment when he was arrested by U.S. marshals. The marshals allegedly told him that he was being arrested for “a number of murders in San Diego.” Harvey claimed that he told the marshals that he did not know what they were referring to, but that he was arrested anyway. Harvey spent three weeks in a Las Vegas jail before being picked up by San Diego police officers on July 30, 2014, and driven to San Diego, where he was held on $1.1 million bail. He was also remained jailed for seven months. Duncan and Harvey sued Castro, Henderson and the officers’ employer, the city of San Diego. Duncan and Harvey alleged that the defendants’ actions constituted unlawful arrests, wrongful searches and seizures, and violations of their freedom of speech. Plaintiffs’ counsel contended that Castro and Henderson investigated a series of shootings between May 2013 and February 2014 in the Lincoln Park neighborhood and that the officers believed that Duncan and Harvey were involved. Counsel asserted that as a result, California state law, Penal Code § 182.5, was used to wrongfully charge Duncan and Harvey. Plaintiffs’ counsel explained that the law was enacted by a voter initiative in 2000 to prosecute gang members with general knowledge of a gang’s criminal activities for crimes others commit, as long as the prosecuted gang members willfully benefited from, furthered, promoted or assisted in the activities in some way. Counsel contended that although the law was rarely used, local authorities used it in 2014 to send dozens of alleged San Diego gang members to jail. Duncan claimed that he had rap lyrics about southeastern San Diego’s Lincoln Park neighborhood, where he grew up and was charged with conspiracy to commit murder. Harvey, who also grew up in the neighborhood, claimed that he had Facebook posts and photos that allegedly tied him to the Lincoln Park gang. However, Duncan and Harvey denied that they were gang members, and they claimed that they were punished for associating with those who were allegedly members. Plaintiffs’ counsel asserted that there was no evidence that either Duncan or Harvey actually committed the shootings and that Castro and Henderson did not have probable cause for the arrests under the warrants they used. Defense counsel contended that the arrests were based on probable cause and that a superior court judge agreed with the officers. Counsel asserted that there was evidence from the Facebook pages of both Duncan and Harvey, as well as prior arrests and/or field interviews, and that this information would lead a reasonable person to believe that Duncan and Harvey were both members of the Lincoln Park gang, held positions of leadership in the gang, knew of the shootings, and benefited from those shootings by gaining increased reputations in the gang and on the street. Defense counsel also noted that a state court judge found there was probable cause for detaining Duncan for violation of a gang conspiracy statute, and bound Duncan over for trial, and that Harvey was also bound over for trial by a state court judge on the same gang conspiracy statute. In August 2019, Judge Barry Moskowitz found that there was insufficient evidence to show that Harvey and Duncan had actively participated in the Lincoln Park gang. Moskowitz also dismissed the allegation that Castro and Henderson violated Harvey’s and Duncan’s First Amendment rights. However, Moskowitz ruled that there was sufficient evidence to require a jury to decide whether Castro and Henderson intentionally misled a judge in applying for the warrants, and whether Castro and Henderson should be held responsible for punitive damages., Duncan and Harvey remained in San Diego County jail, awaiting trial, for seven months, each on multiple counts of criminal street gang conspiracy. Duncan and Harvey each pleaded not guilty to multiple charges at their arraignments. At a later preliminary hearing for other defendants charged in the same case, the court found that there was no probable cause for the § 182.5 charges against the other individuals. Following that hearing, Duncan and Harvey’s bail amounts were lowered, and they were able to post bond with Duncan being released from jail on Jan. 19, 2015 and Harvey being released from jail on Jan. 21, 2015. The two men then moved to have the charges set aside, which Superior Court Judge Louis Hanoian granted on March 16, 2015. Prior to their arrests, Harvey and Duncan each ended up on a statewide database called CalGang, which is used by law-enforcement officials to track people whom police document as gang members. They both claimed they were not in any gangs and that the database routinely includes people with no gang affiliation. Harvey and Duncan claimed that they suffer from ongoing psychological and financial problems due to their incarcerations. They sought recovery of unspecified damages for the constitutional violations related to their arrest and detention.