Wash. Supreme Court published opinion — 1012055.pdf

Citation: Wash. Supreme Court published opinion — 1012055.pdf
Jurisdiction: Washington (state)
Source verification: official_capture_completeness_unverified
Original Source: https://www.courts.wa.gov/opinions/pdf/1012055.pdf ↗

Related Parts of This Source

Full Text

1,729 chars

Respondent Melissa Rivas2 has been the officer in charge of the CFRHP since 2010.

Rivas states she has received training on both the RLTA and the CFRHP ordinance.

2
Respondents indicate that Melissa Rivas has changed her last name to “Heeren”; she is
described by both names in the record. See Resp’t City’s Resp. Br. at 14 n.3. For clarity, we refer
to her as “Rivas,” consistent with the title of the case, as no party has moved to change the case
title. See RAP 3.4. No disrespect is intended.
4
For the current opinion, go to https://www.lexisnexis.com/clients/wareports/.
State v. City of Sunnyside et al.
No. 101205-5

She maintains that she understands it is not the role of police to evict anyone and she

has never done so.

The other individual respondents include Police Chief Al Escalera, police

officers Christopher Sparks and Joey Glossen, and code enforcement officer James

Rivard. Like Rivas, the officers state they understand they do not have authority to

evict tenants and claim they have not done so. As chief of police, Escalera is

responsible for establishing the City’s customs and policy with respect to the

CFRHP, though he did not regularly review CFRHP matters.

The City has paused enforcement of the CFRHP pending this litigation.

2. Tenants’ Experiences

The State argues the respondents have enforced the CFRHP unlawfully from

2014 to 2019, demonstrated, in part, by the individual experiences of numerous

tenants. The State offers declarations of nine tenants and a landlord as evidence of

this pattern.

Angelita Guizar and family

Angelita Guizar was living in rental housing with her three children when

Rivas and Rivard came to her home and arrested her daughter’s friends. Guizar