At around 11 or 11:30 p.m. on Dec. 15, 2007, plaintiff James Owens, an X-ray technician for an orthopedic surgeon, was detained and searched by Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Casey Cheshier, who was assigned to a dispatch call from a resident on the 4100 block of 169th Street in Lawndale regarding “suspicious males.” Cheshier, along with other deputies, responded to the 4100 block of 169th Street and observed Owens leaning into, and removing an item from, a car seven residences away from the reporting party’s residence. Owens claimed that his constitutional rights were violated by the detention and search, and that Cheshier used excessive force during the search. Owens sued Cheshier (whose name was incorrectly spelled in the case caption), the county of Los Angeles, and Deputies Martinez and A. Pruitt, who responded to the scene with Cheshier. He alleged that the defendants’ actions constituted unreasonable search and seizure, failures to train and supervise, battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Martinez and Pruitt were dismissed on summary judgment. Just before the officers arrived, Owens went outside of his residence in his slippers to retrieve an address book from his fiancée’s vehicle, which was parked immediately in front of his residence. Owens claimed he unlocked the driver’s door with car keys, opened it and leaned in to get the address book when the officers arrived. The keys remained in the car door. Cheshier claimed he did not know it at the time that Owens was retrieving an address book out of his fiancee’s car, parked in the street in front of his house at 4147 169th Street in Lawndale. Cheshier claimed he saw potentially suspicious activity and stopped to question Owens in order to determine if Owens owned the vehicle. Vehicle thefts increase during the winter holiday season, defense counsel stated. Thus, counsel argued that Cheshier did not violate Owen’s rights by the detention and search, and disputed the use of excessive force when Cheshier physically contacted Owens during the detention and search. In addition, Cheshier claimed that Owens was fully compliant with his commands. On Oct. 13, 2010, the jury rendered a complete defense verdict. (The original trial was reported in VerdictSearch California, volume 10, issue 17.) After the trial, plaintiff’s counsel filed a post-trial motion for judgment as a matter of law. Judge Dolly Gee ruled that the detention and search of Owens were illegal and granted judgment as a matter of law for Owens on the claim of violations of his Fourth Amendment rights for illegal stop and search. The judge then ordered a new trial against Cheshier only to determine whether he caused Owens’ alleged and damages., During the retrial, Owens claimed that Cheshier injured his knee during the detention and the search. Owens claimed that, the following Monday at work, he talked to his employer about the injury to his knee. Films were taken and he was diagnosed with a medial meniscus tear. He ultimately underwent arthroscopic surgery. Owens claimed that he may need a future knee replacement and that he would need ongoing physical therapy to rehabilitate his knee. Cheshier denied that he injured Owens. Although the parties agreed that Owens had a torn medial meniscus on Dec. 15, 2007, defense counsel argued that the injury to the left knee pre-existed Cheshier’s contact with Owens. Defense counsel contended that the day before the incident with Cheshier, Owens complained to his employer about pain in his left knee. His employer did a clinical examination, but took no films. The orthopedic surgeon made a note that he believed that Owens had a possible left medial meniscus tear. Thus, defense counsel argued that Owens’ injury was pre-existing and degenerative, and that the injury had developed over months. Counsel further contended that Owens had complained about his knee more than a month before the incident. Defense counsel presented video footage of Owens at trial that showed him walking without a limp and being very active.