Vanessa Velasco Ortega v. Isaiah Holloway, et al.

Spokane, Washington personal injury lawyer represented the Plaintiff who sued on civil rights violation theories.



Isaiah Holloway and Vanessa Velasco Ortega cross-appeal from the district

court's order granting in part and denying in part Holloway's motion for summary

judgment. Holloway encountered Velasco Ortega in the course of his duties as a

Deputy Police Officer for the Okanogan County Sheriff's Office, before engaging

her in a months-long sexual relationship. Velasco Ortega alleges that Holloway

made inappropriate advances, suggestively threatening her with law enforcement

and giving her tips to avoid police with full knowledge that she was addicted to

methamphetamines and involved in other criminal activity. She filed a complaint

against Holloway and the Okanogan County Sheriff's Office under 42 U.S.C. §

1983,1 claiming that Holloway had violated her Fourth Amendment rights against

unlawful seizure and her Fourteenth Amendment rights to equal protection and

substantive and procedural due process.2 Holloway asserted qualified immunity in

his motion for summary judgment, which the court partially granted for Velasco

Ortega's Fourth Amendment claim and Fourteenth Amendment claims for due

process. However, the court denied Holloway's motion with respect to Velasco

Ortega's equal protection claim, reasoning that there were material factual disputes

as to whether Holloway was acting under the color of state law and had violated

Velasco Ortega's equal protection right to be free from sexual harassment.

Affirmed