California Supreme Court Limits Absolute Immunity for Public Employees’ Actions During Investigations

Government Code, § 821.6 does not provide law enforcement officers with absolute immunity absent the subsequent instigation of a judicial proceeding. 

• The California Government Claims Act 

• Government Code, § 821.6 and absolute civil immunity 

• Immunity for injuries inflicted during a law enforcement investigation  

Government Code § 821.6, as a part of the California Government Claims Act, provides public employees, and their employers, with absolute immunity from civil liability for their tortious acts, but only in acts leading to the actual initiation of a criminal prosecution or other judicial or administrative proceeding.  

Married couple José and Dora Leon had a dispute with another man (the details of which were not described), resulting in the other man shooting José. Riverside County sheriff’s deputies found José unconscious in a driveway of a mobile home lot near where he lived. Hearing more shots, the deputies dragged José to the cover of a nearby parked vehicle, where they unsuccessfully attempted to revive him. In dragging his body to where they could work on him, José’s pants slid down to around his ankles, exposing his naked body. José was left ....