A former Harris County Constable Precinct 4 deputy, two current deputies, and a corporal are on trial this week after being accused of unlawfully arresting a Woodlands man and entering the home he used to share with his wife.
Deputies Jesus Guajardo, Patrice Small, former deputy Glenn Berry, and Corporal Benjamin Riveaux are also accused of using excessive force while handcuffing Jacob Gorsky and while questioning his now ex-wife, Olesya Gorsky, whether she had in fact egged her neighbor’s car as accused.
“What we’re dealing with are law-abiding citizens. Not gang members,” Randall Kallinen, a Houston civil rights attorney, said of the Gorskys in his opening statement.
The couple, now divorced, are seeking $500,000 in compensatory damages for what they claim are physical pain and mental anguish. The officers, for their part, assert they had every right to enter the Gorsky’s home and briefly detain Jacob Gorsky because he was interfering with an investigation. The officers also deny using force against him or Olesya Gorsky.
Suzanne Bradley of the Harris County Attorney’s Office argued the officers did not overstep the bounds of the law and violate the Gorskys’ Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable search and seizure. Bradley said the case was indicative of how the Gorskys and their neighbors had over the years used the police “to deal with petty, ongoing disputes with each other.”
In her opening statement, Bradley painted a picture of two neighbors at war with one another, saying police regularly responded to calls accusing one another of loud music, nudity, harassment, and dog poop, which was found one day in the Gorskys’ pool.
“We ask that you give the Gorskys nothing and make them finally accountable for their bad behavior,” Bradley said.
U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal told a 12-person jury assembled Monday that it was their job to decide whether Kallinen had proved by a preponderance of the evidence — whether it was more likely than not — that the officers had violated the Gorsky’s constitutional rights and that the officers were not entitled to qualified immunity, which shields most law enforcement officers from lawsuits unless there is a clear violation of established law.
The legal proceeding takes place more than seven years after the egging of a car belonging to Gorsky’s next-door neighbor. In the early morning hours of Feb. 21, 2016, the neighbor showed the four officers security camera footage of a woman he said was Olesya Gorsky smashing two eggs on the front windshield of 2014 Toyota 4Runnner.
Deputy Guajardo, one of five witnesses who testified Tuesday, said he and then-deputy Berry had responded earlier that evening to a call, likely from the same neighbor, about a “female in distress” at the Gorsky house. When they arrived in separate cruisers, Guajardo said he and Berry both heard what sounded like a female in distress and proceeded directly to the backyard, skipping the front door.
Rounding the corner, the deputies discovered that the Gorskys were throwing a birthday party for Olesya’s father. Their appearance caused a stir among the partygoers, according to testimony from Irena Levy, a friend and neighbor of the Gorskys. She also said Guajardo pointed his Taser at her without provocation.
While on the stand, Guajardo admitted to placing his hand on his Taser. He explained that he did so after Jacob Gorsky picked up a pool cleaning pole, which Guajardo took as a weapon. While on the stand, 72-year-old Jacob Gorsky denied picking up the pole.
Neither the Harris County attorney representing the deputy or Kallinen asked Guajardo whether he actually drew the device from its holster, however.
After giving the Gorskys a warning to keep the noise down, Guajardo and Berry left the backyard, Guajardo said. Several hours later, the two deputies, along with Corporal Riveaux and Deputy Small, knocked on the front door of the Gorsky’s home to question Olesya about the alleged egging.
Levy testified that it was her who, unbeknownst to the Gorskys and other partygoers, took two eggs from her neighbor’s refrigerator and smashed them on the car. Guajardo testified that he saw Levy arm-in-arm with Jacob Gorsky and assumed they were married.
When Jacob Gorsky, who testified that he used to work in information technology, answered the door, he told the deputies to “get out of it.” Riveaux and Berry placed their feet in the doorframe to prevent Gorsky, who had been asked to get his wife, from closing the door. Guajardo then told Gorsky he was hindering an investigation and could be taken to jail. At this, Gorsky was handcuffed by Guajardo, who said Gorsky willingly put his hands behind his back.
In the complaint, filed in September 2016 in the Southern District of Texas, Gorsky said the deputies pushed his arms behind his back “(in) such a way as to extend and prolong the pain.” Guajardo denies this, saying he restrained Gorsky with an extra pair of handcuffs after Gorsky said he suffered from shoulder pain due to surgery.
He also denied that Gorsky was arrested, as alleged in the complaint, arguing the man was detained in a squad car for the amount of time it took to call the Harris County District Attorney’s Office to see if a prosecutor would accept a Class B misdemeanor of interfering with public duties. Guajardo said the prosecutor he spoke with did not find that there was sufficient probable cause to level the charge against Gorsky.
Meanwhile, while Jacob Gorsky was in Guajardo’s cruiser, Olesya Gorsky had come to the front door of her then-home. The officers told her they had video evidence of her egging the neighbor’s car and asked if they could come inside. Olesya Gorsky can be heard on an audio recording saying, “Yeah, yeah,” but the parties disagree over whether that was sufficient consent. Olesya Gorsky is half Ukrainian and half Russian and, for much of Tuesday, wore a headset for translation.
Olesya Gorsky also alleged in the complaint that she sustained bruises on her arms, legs, and buttocks when she was grabbed, handcuffed, and pushed into a chair, which the officers vehemently denied doing. Deputy Small is also accused of illegally searching the house for the Gorskys’ then eight-year-old son without permission.
Guajardo said the officers ultimately issued criminal trespass warnings to Jacob and Olesya Gorsky, forbidding them from entering their neighbor’s property. A criminal mischief citation also was issued to Olesya related to the egging. The citation was eventually dismissed, and neither of the Gorskys were arrested.
In 2020, Rosenthal dismissed claims in the lawsuit that Harris County and the Precinct 4 Constable’s Office failed to train and discipline Riveaux, Guajardo, Small, and Berry. Rosenthal, appointed to the federal bench by George H.W. Bush, also ruled that Riveaux and Berry did not violate clearly established law and were entitled to qualified immunity when they placed their feet in the doorframe of the Gorsky’s front door to prevent Jacob Gorsky from closing it.
The unlawful entry, unlawful arrest, and excessive force claims against the officers survived and moved forward to trial after Rosenthal said that due to the dispute over the events of that fateful night, she could not determine whether the officers had acted reasonably when they used force to handcuff Jacob Gorsky, used force as alleged to question Olesya Gorsky, and searched the house for the Gorskys’ son and therefore were entitled to qualified immunity.
In 2023, a three-judge panel of the New Orleans-based Fifth Circuit dismissed the officers’ appeal for lack of jurisdiction, saying the dispute over the events prevented it from doing anything else.
Reagan-appointed Judge Jerry Smith dissented, saying the underlying factual disputes did not prevent the panel from evaluating the unlawful arrest and excessive force claims. Smith also said the officers were entitled to qualified immunity on the grounds that Jacob Gorsky had failed to prove that the force used against him was objectively unreasonable and that he had failed to fetch his wife as instructed.
“Law enforcement officers who act within the scope of their legal duties should not worry about being hauled into court for making a reasonable (even if not optimal) choice in the field. Today’s decision shakes that certainty,” Smith wrote.
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