From Judge William Alsup's Tentative Order filed Tuesday in Doe v. City of Hayward (N.D. Cal.) (I also plan on posting in the next few days about the pseudonymity issue in the case):
Plaintiff, a [self-represented] professor in the Bay Area, describes herself as "a victim of serial crime." Between July 2010 and June 2016, plaintiff submitted seven criminal complaints, while members of her household submitted five more. Although specific dates and details are not reported in the pleadings, those complaints concerned, among other crimes: "heavy metal poisoning; a dog attack; tampering with [redacted] car; attempted carjacking/robbery; [and] attempted kidnapping of [redacted] son." Many, if not all, of these criminal complaints were submitted to the Hayward Police Department .
Plaintiff has appended two reports to her opposition. The first, from Bardwell Consulting, concludes that "[plaintiff] and her household has [sic] been subjected to a level of crime that cannot be explained by chance." The second, attributed to Phyllis Gerstenfeld, concludes that "[plaintiff] was targeted due to her gender," and that the "the technology [used by the perpetrators] implies a sophistication more often seen in organized political schemes than in personal vendettas." Gerstenfeld concludes that "[plaintiff] has been the victim of hate crimes" and that "domestic terrorism charges could be successfully levied against the person who victimized [plaintiff] and her family." A third report, referenced but not on record, is attributed to a Dr. Liu and is said to analyze the origins of the technology used by those victimizing plaintiff.
At issue here is plaintiff's most recent criminal complaint to HPD. On May 27, 2022, plaintiff traveled to a HPD station to file a police report regarding an alleged sexual assault, battery, and hate crime. Plaintiff reported that "a foreign object had been removed from her intimate parts; that she had not consented to this penetration; that her husband was a witness to its location and removal; that an engineering lab had identified the foreign object as an electronic device/semiconductor; that a PhD in electrical engineering … Dr. Liu had identified the lab that designed and manufactured this device."
Plaintiff now claims that police defendants harassed her while she gave her report on May 27, and subsequently retaliated against her for making that report. These allegations fall into three categories: actions taken on May 27, inaccuracies in the resulting report, and subsequent inaction despite plaintiff's repeated follow-up requests.
