High Court Upholds Ruling on State Civil Rights Law

A store whose security guards unreasonably detain and search a customer cannot be sued under California civil rights laws, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

Although private parties can be sued for such acts as assault and false imprisonment, the right to be free of illegal searches and seizures can be violated only by the government, the court said in a unanimous ruling. By contrast, some civil rights, such as California’s constitutional right to privacy and the right to be free of hate crimes, can be violated by private citizens.

A person whose civil rights are violated may win damages above those awarded for physical and emotional injuries, and is also entitled to attorney’s fees, which are not awarded in most damage suits.

In this case, the ruling wipes out all but $41,000 of $288,000 in damages and attorney’s fees awarded to an Oakland teenager for his treatment at a Kmart store in San Leandro.

According to his lawsuit, Belafonte Jones, 16, took a box of dye from a shelf at the store in May 1991 and was walking through the electronics department when a guard started watching him as a possible shoplifter. Jones planned to buy the dye but left it at a front counter and walked out when his sister called him.

Two guards ran after him, grabbed his arms and asked him what he had done with the items, the suit said. He told them, but they searched him anyway.

Jones said he was handcuffed, punched in the face and neck, and placed in a chokehold before the guards let him go.

A jury found battery, false imprisonment, negligence and violations of a state civil rights law that forbids interference with the exercise of a person’s legal rights. His damage award of more than $71,000 included $30,000 for the rights violation, which also accounted for his attorney’s fee award of more than $216,000.

A state appeals court overturned the civil rights damages and was upheld by the Supreme Court. The court said that although the state civil rights law does not mention the need to show police or government involvement, it requires proof of a violation of legal rights--which, in this case, could be violated only by the government.

The state Supreme Court also upheld the death sentence Thursday of a Pasadena teenager for the rape and murder of a woman who was kidnapped while shopping for baby gifts.

Ronald A. Jones was 18 when he and another man abducted Lois Anne Haro at gunpoint from a Pasadena shopping mall in October 1988, sexually assaulted her during a one-hour drive and then shot her, the court said.

Jones admitted shooting the woman, but later recanted and said his companion, George M. Trone Jr., had fired the bullets, the court said. The jury found that Jones had been the gunman. Another jury deadlocked in Trone’s trial; he then pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life without parole.