Judge ready to toss civil assault and rights violation claims against former LA DA

A judge tentatively tossed an assault and a civil rights cause of action facing former Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey and her husband but kept in place a false imprisonment action Tuesday in a lawsuit filed after David Lacey allegedly pointed a gun at a protester outside his house last year.
Tentatively ruling, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Theresa M. Traber sustained two demurrers seeking to throw out portions of the civil suit filed last year by Black Lives Matter organizer Melina Abdullah. Abdullah accuses the Laceys of assault, negligence and infliction of emotional distress after she showed up before dawn in March 2020 to protest outside the Lacey's house. She accused David Lacey of pointing a gun at her. A judge earlier this year granted David Lacey diversion on a criminal charge. He will not face trial.

Demurring the false imprisonment action, Jackie Lacey argued that Abdullah failed to allege sufficient facts suggesting the then-DA engaged in any wrongful conduct that deprived Abdullah of the freedom to leave her property. Abdullah argued that while it was David Lacey who pointed a gun at her, and told her to get off his porch, it was Jackie Lacey, as a co-conspirator, who consented to her husband grabbing the gun, Traber wrote.
"Plaintiffs allege that defendants 'jointly create[d]' a plan to 'walk together to the location where the handgun is stored, ... retrieve the gun from its secure location, [and] ... jointly hand the gun' to David Lacey," Traber wrote. "David Lacey would then, 'acting as the agent, employee, servant, aider, inciter, and/or co-conspirator' of Jacquelyn Lacey, 'carry the gun downstairs to the front door, and open the door and point the loaded handgun at the peaceful protesters should the protesters ring the front doorbell.'"
The Laceys also argued that, even if David Lacey's actions were assigned to Jackie Lacey, they do not rise to a claim for false imprisonment because Abdullah was not restrained in any way and because David Lacey yelled, "Get off my porch" while pointing the gun, the ruling states,

However, the tort of false imprisonment consists of the "nonconsensual, intentional confinement of a person, without lawful privilege, for an appreciable length of time, however short," the ruling states.
"Any exercise of force, or express or implied threat of force, by which in fact the other person is deprived of his liberty or is compelled to remain where he does not wish to remain, or to go where he does not wish to go, is false imprisonment," Traber wrote.
Traber set oral arguments relating to the demurrers for Wednesday in a Los Angeles court. DR. Melina Abdullah V. Jacquelyn Lacey. 20STCV40080 (L.A. Sup. Ct., filed Oct., 19, 2020.)