Judge wants 9th Circuit to weigh in on woman he has jailed for civil contempt w/ LA Fitness
A woman described by her public defender as 'indigent' and 'mentally ill' is jailed indefinitely for violating a civil order that a judge agrees she can't currently follow.
Update: Federal judge orders release of woman who was jailed for civil contempt with LA Fitness
Everyone involved agrees that mental illness afflicts a woman jailed for a long-running dispute with LA Fitness.
Jurors in a federal trademark infringement trial asked if they could order her to undergo mental health treatment.
The gym company’s lawyers wanted a judge to order her into treatment for at least a year.
And a public defender said in a recent court filing that the woman’s “unshakable, delusional belief that she owns or works at Fitness gym locations” means she can’t stay away from LA Fitness no matter what a court order says.
But one year after Leah Alspaugh represented herself in a federal civil trial, she’s locked in a county jail with no mental health treatment in sight. She’s not charged with a federal crime, but U.S. District Judge David O. Carter in Santa Ana, California, ordered her jailed for contempt of court last month after she repeatedly violated an order he issued last year, including by filing new bank and tax documents related to LA Fitness and confronting employees at gyms.
Aslpaugh’s past activities include showing up at the company’s corporate office with a team of movers to try to remove furniture. Police arrested her after a confrontation with employees at a gym in the city of La Habra in late January, she’s been jailed on a civil contempt warrant from Carter since early February.
The judge on Feb. 15 ordered Alspaugh to undergo “a psychological evaluation” in jail, but a month later, her lawyer says no one has evaluated her for anything and Carter has no legal authority to keep her in jail.
It’s Alspaugh’s second stay in jail for contempt of Carter’s order after spending three weeks in custody last summer. She appeared before Carter last Thursday as Deputy Federal Public Defender Samuel Cross asked for her immediate release. Cross said Carter’s own words demonstrate he has no lawful reason to incarcerate Alspaugh because he said he doesn’t believe she’s capable of complying with his injunction. Incarceration cannot be a punishment for civil contempt of court; it can only be used as a coercive measure to get someone to comply with a court order.
“The Court’s contempt power, as the Court acknowledges, is only coercive, and if Ms. Alspaugh cannot be coerced because of her mental state, she cannot be detained,” according to a release request filed March 1. “Given the Court’s first finding—that Ms. Alspaugh’s mental state prevents compliance—its further finding and order—that Ms. Alspaugh must be evaluated so that she can be restored to competence—is unwarranted, and her detention on that basis is illegal.”
Cross said LA Fitness “has obtained a status quo whose alteration it now simply opposes.”
“That status quo, of which Fitness approves and which it seeks to preserve, is the indefinite incarceration of its civil litigation adversary, an indigent, mentally ill woman,” Cross wrote.
Judge Carter rejected a similar release request on Feb. 15, and he again declined to release Alspaugh last week, citing what he described as escalating violence against LA Fitness employees.
But in the same discussion, the judge said he didn’t want Alspaugh, who’s been jailed indefinitely for six weeks, to face criminal charges.
“I’m a little afraid if we move this over to state court that the district attorney might file criminal charges,” Carter said. “In other words, they might heighten this.”
The judge learned that day Alspaugh already has misdemeanor charges pending in state court. He told Cross and LA Fitness’ lawyer Christine C. DeMetruis of Yoka & Smith, LLP to contact representatives for the Santa Ana Jail’s medical provider, Wellpath Care, about a mental evaluation for Alspaugh and said he’d be available the next day for another status conference. The judge also said he was available this week but warned he’d be in Los Angeles on Monday.
“I don’t want you transporting Ms. Alspaugh to Los Angeles … because I think it’s going to be a big day,” Carter said, referring to a lawsuit he’s overseeing that involves the city of Los Angeles adding 3,000 mental health treatment beds.
Carter, a 1998 Bill Clinton appointee, said he welcomed the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ guidance on an issue he described as “extraordinary.”
“I think we’re all in kind of uncharted waters,” the judge said. “If I have any way of releasing her … then I want to do that. But so far, we have a track record of violence.”
Cross said he’ll ask the 9th Circuit to order Alspaugh’s immediate release.
“In the meantime, we intend to work in good faith as the court’s directed,” Cross said.
Alspaugh appeared distraught as the hearing ended.
“You can’t leave somebody in jail without bail. You can’t. You can’t hold somebody without them committing the crime,” she said as two U.S. marshals approached to return her to jail.
She looked at a reporter in the gallery.
“That lady doesn’t even represent LA Fitness!” Alspaugh said, referring to DeMetruis, who has represented LA Fitness’s parent company, Fitness International LLC, since the case was filed in August 2022. Founded in 1984, the Irvine-based company owns about 550 gyms in the United States and Canada.
“Call the public defender’s office! I gave them proof of all the taxes I pay on the f***ing property!” Alspaugh said as marshals took her away.
$600K jury verdict but no competency evaluation
According to a lawsuit filed in August 2022, Alspaugh was hired as an assistant manager at an LA Fitness in Long Beach in January 2009 and worked at several locations in Southern California before she was fired in February 2011. She reemerged across the country in May 2013 when she was hired at an LA Fitness gym in Atlanta, Georgia, then fired within a few days after her bosses discovered she’d provided a false Social Security number.
Alspaugh, now 44, hasn’t worked for LA Fitness since, but the company’s lawyers said in their lawsuit that she’s “engaged in a pattern and practice of harassing Plaintiff, its employees, and members” that began when a member found her sleeping inside a gym in September 2015.
The company barred her from its properties in June 2018 after incidents at gyms in Santa Ana and Long Beach, then sent her a cease-and-desist letter in 2022 after she visited LA corporate offices and several times emailed LA Fitness employees purporting to be a manager or owner.
Alspaugh also registered an LLC titled Leahalspaugh LA Fitness LLC and apparently used it to hire a man in Georgia “who showed up at one of LA Fitness’ clubs stating he was hired as an operations manager by ‘Leah’ in corporate,” according to the lawsuit. Yahoo disabled the account at the company’s request, the lawsuit says, but Alspaugh created another with a similar handle and continued contacting third parties on behalf of LA Fitness.
Judge Carter issued a temporary restraining order on Nov. 1, 2022.
Four months later, LA Fitness lawyers asked him to declare Alspaugh in contempt after she hired a vendor to inspect computers at a gym in Memphis, Tennessee, and sparked a Los Angeles County Superior Court hearing over a frivolous restraining order petition.
Alspaugh also had confrontations with employees at gyms in Los Angeles and Irvine, according to the contempt application, and, on Feb. 1, 2023, “Defendant showed up at Fitness’ corporate offices with movers to remove furniture from Fitness’ offices.”
Carter threatened Alspaugh with arrest if she didn’t start complying with the preliminary injunction, then he sanctioned her $5,000.
Alspaugh didn’t attend the hearing, but, while it was underway, she texted LA Fitness employees in violation of Carter’s injunction. She also continued contacting LA Fitness gyms and corporate offices in the weeks after, prompting LA Fitness lawyers to again ask the judge to hold her in contempt.
Carter didn’t address the contempt request before a three-day jury trial in May ended with jurors ordering Alspaugh to pay $602,400, in damages for trademark infringement, unfair competition, common law fraud, intentional interference with prospective economic advantage and intentional interference with contractual relations.
The verdict included $401,600 in punitive damages. Alspaugh represented herself through the pre-trial proceedings and trial and did not have standby counsel.
Before they finished deliberating, jurors asked if they could award punitive damages “such as mental treatment or otherwise.” They also asked, “Does the defendant’s mental or medical condition factor in our decision-making process?”
The court file does not include a record of how Carter responded to the questions.
The judge finalized the jury verdict in a May 8, 2023, judgment and also permanently enjoined Alspaugh from using the LA Fitness name, identifying herself as an employee or coming within 50 feet of its gyms or offices. Alspaugh filed several documents in the days after, including a “declaration of appeal,” but Carter rejected them based on his order that Alspaugh is a vexatious litigant, a legal term for frequent frivolous filers that can require a judge to approve filings before they are docketed.
Within a month, LA Fitness lawyers had filed their third request for a contempt order against Alspaugh. They said her post-judgment conduct included creating a new subpoenaing the company’ senior vice president and legal counsel, “and there is no end in sight.”
“Alspaugh’s past and current conduct make it clear that she has no intention of stopping,” according to the June 2 filing.
Carter held Alspaugh in contempt, then issued an arrest warrant after she didn’t show up at a June 26 hearing. He committed her to federal custody on July 20, then ordered her released on Aug. 9 because “Alspaugh acknowledges, comprehends, and agrees to abide by the Permanent Injunction ordered by the Court on May 8, 2023,” according to a docket entry.
A month later, LA Fitness lawyers filed a memo detailing Alspaugh’s recent violations, which included trying to open a Bank of the West account in LA Fitness’ name, trespassing at gyms in LA and Long Beach and text messaging the company vice president of human resources “photographs and other references to sea turtles, a butterfly, and a pair of sneakers.”
DeMetruis and her co-counsel Alice Chen Smith asked Carter to “fashion an appropriate remedy to compel Alspaugh to comply.”
By that time, Alspaugh was represented by Cross, who was appointed her public defender after she was arrested on the contempt charge in July.
He appeared at a contempt hearing before Carter on Oct. 16, but Alspaugh didn’t show up, so Carter issued an arrest warrant. It remained active through January as LA Fitness lawyers filed five memos updating Carter on Alspaugh’s violations.
The final on Jan 31 said she’s “become increasingly violent and has now twice physically assaulted Fitness personnel.”
He appeared at a contempt hearing before Carter on Oct. 16, but Alspaugh didn’t show up, so Carter issued an arrest warrant. It remained active through January as LA Fitness lawyers filed five memos updating Carter on Alspaugh’s violations.
The final on Jan. 31 said she’s “become increasingly violent and has now twice physically assaulted Fitness personnel.” It includes links to videos of Alspaugh confronting employees at the La Habra location.
Cross filed a 13-page memo on Feb. 7 seeking Alspaugh’s release that said Alspaugh “is not capable of complying with the Court’s orders, as she has abundantly shown.”
The memo asked Carter to do something he’d never done: Determine if Alspaugh is competent to be in court.
Cross said Alspaugh may “suffer from a mental disease or defect rendering her incapable of understanding the nature of these civil proceedings, assisting counsel or representing herself, or following the Court’s commands.”
“Not only should she therefore not be placed in custody for reasons of civil contempt, indefinitely or at all, but the Court should exercise its authority under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 17(c) and determine whether Ms. Alspaugh is competent to proceed, or should conduct a further hearing on the question,” Cross said.
Judge Carter agreed Alspaugh is incompetent, “meaning she is not able to understand the nature of the proceedings against her and cannot aid in her own defense,” according to a Feb. 15 order.
But he declined to release her from jail, instead ordering the psychological evaluation that Cross said last week has yet to be completed.
His order said Alspaugh “was able to have a lucid conversation with the Court” after she was evaluated in jail last year.
“It appears that a mental health evaluation is the only way to ensure that Ms. Alspaugh can understand the nature of these proceedings and her obligations under the Court’s permanent injunction. In this respect, such evaluation appears to be the only way to coerce compliance with the Court’s orders,” according to the order.
‘She has no present prospect of evaluation’
Cross said in his March 1 release request that the Santa Ana Jail’s Wellpath medical services contractor has refused to evaluate Alspaugh because a company representative says it isn’t contracted to do so.
“The one event on which Ms. Alspaugh’s freedom may turn, per the Order of Detention, is a mental health evaluation conducted by the institution detaining Ms. Alspaugh. That institution flatly refuses to obey the Court’s order, so she has no present prospect of evaluation, let alone release,” according to the filing.
Cross questioned whether LA Fitness lawyers “in this highly unusual situation” should have a say “at all regarding how Ms. Alspaugh’s mental health situation should be treated by the Court.”
“Having (further) impoverished and jailed Ms. Alspaugh, there is no reason to accept that her litigation adversary should also be permitted to probe into her mental health circumstances, request particular treatment or detention on the basis of those circumstances, or materially affect the steps the Court must now take,” Cross wrote. “The Court’s task now is to protect Ms. Alspaugh from Fitness, before it can do more harm.”
Cross also said Alspaugh’s freedom rests not on whether she’ll agree to comply with the injunction “but on what steps the Court can take to allow her to regain competence, or, alternatively, to protect her because she is incompetent.”
There’s also no basis for Carter’s “conclusion that merely having a mental health professional speak with Ms. Alspaugh will restore her to competence,” Cross wrote.
“Simply speaking to a doctor once will not change anything about Ms. Alspaugh’s mental health. Whatever the Court may have determined from its brief on-the-record conversation with Ms. Alspaugh at the time it previously released her, it is now clear, as the Court has noted, that Ms. Alspaugh suffers from a serious mental health condition,” according to the release request.
Carter suggested inviting someone from the Orange County Public Defender’s Office to the next hearing after he learned Alspaugh has misdemeanor charges in Orange County Superior Court, including one related to LA Fitness. He again encouraged Cross and the LA Fitness lawyers to contact Wellpath representatives so he wouldn’t have to subpoena them.
But the judge reiterated he won’t be release Alspaugh from jail because “this violence level now is exasperated and extraordinary.”
“I'm worried about time delay while she’s in custody. But at the same token, this violence level can’t continue,” Carter said.
The judge told Cross he’s “actually encouraging and hoping you to take that writ of mandamus to the [9th] Circuit, so you get their viewpoint just as quickly as possible.”
“It’s so unique, and if they’ve got guidance, I would welcome that,” Carter said.
Nothing has been filed with the 9th Circuit as of Monday night, and no hearing has been scheduled. Alspaugh remains in jail.
Court documents:
Oct. 7, 2022 memo for LA Fitness TRO application
Feb. 3, 2023 1st contempt application
April 6, 2023 2nd contempt application
May 8, 2023 permanent injunction
June 2, 2023 3rd contempt application
Sept. 6, 2023 LA Fitness memo on injunction violation
Jan. 31 5th memo on violations
March 1 ex parte renewed application for immediate release
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