Audrey Patricia Snover v. City of Starke, FLAudrey Patricia Snover v. City of Starke, FL
The district court also did not abuse its discretion by denying Bussard‘s motion for a new trial based оn the cumulative effect of the insufficiency of the evidence, evidentiary rulings, and prosecutorial misconduct. Bussard argues about the sufficiency of the evidence, but the verdict “was not contrary to the weight of the evidence.” United States v. Martinez, 763 F.2d 1297, 1313 (11th Cir.1985). Bussard complains about the admission of Exhibit 24 under
Bussard also failed to establish the prosecution committed any reversible error. Bussard argues the government twice violated the Jencks Act, but he admitted in his post-trial motion that the alleged violations did not prejudice him. See United States v. Hamaker, 455 F.3d 1316, 1327 (11th Cir.2006). Bussard also argues the government committed misconduct by referencing an organization that operated websites containing child pornography and classifying images as child pornography that Bussard did not receive, but any error did not harm Bussard‘s substantial rights. Bussard was not part of the organization and the district court gave an instruction to that effect, see Tenorio-Angel, 756 F.2d at 1512, and the jury was required to determine whether the materials Bussard attempted to receive contained child pornography. Because Bussard has failed to establish any reversible error, he cannot establish that cumulative error entitled him to a new trial. United States v. Culver, 598 F.3d 740, 751 (11th Cir.2010).
We AFFIRM Bussard‘s conviction.
City of Starke, Florida police officers Jason Crosby and Tommy Murrow appeal the district court‘s denial of their motion for summary judgment on qualified immunity grounds in Audrey Patricia Snover‘s
I.
“We review de novo a denial of qualified immunity. In an appeal of a denial of summary judgment based on qualified immunity, all evidence must be viewed in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party.” Townsend v. Jefferson County, 601 F.3d 1152, 1157 (11th Cir.2010) (quotation marks omitted). Because Snover was the nonmoving pаrty, “we set forth the facts, drawn from the evidence presented, in the light most favorable to [her].” Snow ex rel. Snow v. City of Citronelle, 420 F.3d 1262, 1265 (11th Cir.2005). On March 24, 2004, Snover pulled into the parking lot of her doctor‘s office. She got out of her car and walked to the doctor‘s office. As she was entering, Snover noticed a police car drive intо the parking lot with its lights flashing and park directly behind her car. Snover walked back to her car, and the police officer, Officer Crosby, told her that she had been speeding and asked for her driver‘s license and registration. Snover handed him both documents and then went back to the doctor‘s office and told the receptionist that she was getting a speeding ticket. When Snover returned to her car, Crosby told her to get in her car while he wrote the ticket, which she did. After he finished writing the ticket, Crosby asked Snover to sign it, but she refused. Crosby then told Snover: “Ma‘am, it‘s a new law. You have got to sign this ticket” and informed her that he could arrest her if she did not sign it. Snover agreed to sign the ticket and said “I will see you in court.”
After that comment, Officer Crosby pulled out his gun but quickly reholstered it. He then handcuffed Snover and pulled her out of the car. Once she was out of the car, he held Snover‘s right arm over her head, causing her arm to come out of its socket. Crosby then used his body to shove and bang Snover down the side of her car. He placed Snover in the back of his police car and arrested her on the charges of refusal to sign and accept a traffic citation and resisting an officer without violenсe.
Officer Crosby contends that the district court erred by denying summary judgment on Snover‘s false arrest claim against him. He argues that Snover‘s arrest was supported by “arguable” probable cause because she initially refused to sign the speeding ticket. See Brown v. City of Huntsville, Ala., 608 F.3d 724, 734 (11th Cir.2010) (noting that “[t]o receive qualified immunity, an offiсer need not have actual probable cause, but only ‘arguable’ probable cause“). “Arguable probable cause exists where reasonable officers in the same circumstances and possessing the same knowledge as the Defendant[] could have believed that probable cause existed to arrest Plaintiff.” Id. (quotation marks omitted). “The standard is an objective one, and therefore does not include an inquiry in the officers’ subjective intent or beliefs.” Rushing v. Parker, 599 F.3d 1263, 1266 (11th Cir.2010) (quotation marks omitted); see also Koch v. Rugg, 221 F.3d 1283, 1295 (11th Cir.2000) (“The subjective intent of government actor defendants plays no part in qualified immunity analysis” (quotation marks omitted)). “Whether an officer possesses probable
Under Florida law, any person cited for a traffic citation “must sign and accept a citаtion indicating a promise to appear.”
The facts when viewed in the light most favorable to Snover are that she initially refused to sign the speeding ticket but agreed to sign it once Officer Crosby told her that doing so was required by law. Florida Statute § 318.14(3) makes it a crime to “willfully” refuse to sign a spеeding ticket. “Willfully means intentionally, knowingly, and purposely.” Koch v. State, 39 So.3d 464, 466 (Fla. 2d DCA 2010) (quotation marks omitted); see also Arnold v. State, 755 So.2d 796, 798 (Fla. 2d DCA 2000) (explaining that “[i]n the context of criminal violations, ‘willfully’ implies that a defendant has acted voluntarily and consciously, not accidentally“); Reliance Ins. Co. v. Lazzara Oil Co., 601 So.2d 1241, 1242 (Fla. 2d DCA 1992) (noting that for purposes of Florida criminal statutes an act is “willful” if it is intentional; the act “need not be intended to cause harm or violate the law“); Linehan v. State, 442 So.2d 244, 247 (Fla. 2d DCA 1983) (explaining that “in general intent statutes words such as ‘willfully’ or ‘intentionally,’ without more, indicate only that the person must have intended to do the act and serve to distinguish that conduct from accidental (noncriminal) behavior or strict liability crimes“). Snover intentionally chose to disobey Officer Crosby‘s first instruction to sign the speeding ticket. Based on her initial refusal, a reasonable officer in Crosby‘s position could have believed that probable cause to arrest Snover existed because Florida law does not appear to require that shе have known of the statutory requirement when she failed to comply with it. Although Snover later agreed to sign the ticket, the crime was complete when Snover initially refused to sign it. Crosby‘s subjective motivation for arresting Snover is irrelevant. For those reasons, the district court erred in denying summary judgment on Snover‘s false arrest claim.
II.
Snover was also arrested on June 14, 2004 following a separate incident. She brought an excessive force claim against Officer Murrow based on that arrest. Murrow challenges the district court‘s denial of summary judgment on that claim. As an initial matter, he contends that the district court erred in relying on Snover‘s deposition testimony in ruling on summary judgment. Officer Murrow argues that testimony was discredited by a DVD recording that Snover made during the incident. Relying on the decision in Scott v. Harris, 550 U.S. 372, 127 S.Ct. 1769, 167 L.Ed.2d 686 (2007), he asserts that the district court should have relied on the DVD instead of Snover‘s deposition testimony in ruling on summary judgment. See Scott, 550 U.S. at 380, 127 S.Ct. at 1776 (holding that the court should not have relied on a version of events “utterly discredited” by an uncontested videotape but instead “should have viewed the facts in the light depicted in the videotape“).
In support of summary judgment, the defendants submitted the DVD to the
We view the facts now in the record in the light most favоrable to Snover. See Townsend, 601 F.3d at 1157. According to her deposition testimony, on June 19, 2004 Snover was driving in the City of Starke and saw a group of police officers gathered on the side of the road. As she was driving by, she saw one of the officers slam a young man up against his car. Snover drove home, got her video camera, and then returned to that location. While filming the officers, Snover stopped her car on the road because a police car door was open, making the road impassible without crossing into another lane. After the officer closed his door, Snover began driving аgain at the speed limit. Two police cars followed Snover. After she traveled about half a block, the officers turned on their flashing lights. Snover slowed down but did not stop because there was no place to pull over. Officer Murrow, who was driving another police car, stopped his сar in front of Snover‘s, blocking her from driving forward.
Officer Murrow then got out of his car with his weapon drawn and approached Snover. As he did, Murrow called Snover a “bitch.” Snover was instructed to get out of the car but remained inside to send a text message to her husband notifying him that she was being arrested and that he needed to come get her at the jail. When Snover did not get out of the car, two other officers on the scene forcibly removed her from the driver‘s seat. Once she was outside of the car, Officer Murrow grabbed the video camera that Snover was holding in her left hand. “[T]he strap caught [Snover‘s] fingers” and Murrow “ripped ... two fingers totally back,” causing damage to ligaments and tendons in those fingers. Another officer then handcuffed Snover and put her in the back of a police car. She was arrested on charges of aggravated fleeing and attempting to elude and resisting arrest without violence.
Snover contends that Officer Murrow used excessive force when he forcibly re-
At the time that Officer Murrow grabbed the video camera from Snover‘s hand, she was not restrained. Cf. Lee v. Ferraro, 284 F.3d 1188, 1198-99 (11th Cir. 2002) (finding excessive force where officеr slammed the plaintiff‘s head on the trunk of a car after she was handcuffed); Slicker v. Jackson, 215 F.3d 1225, 1233 (11th Cir. 2000) (finding excessive force where officers “repeatedly hit [the plaintiff‘s] head on the pavement, kicked him, and knocked him unconscious” after he was handcuffed). A reasonable officer in Officer Murrow‘s position сould have believed that the force used was lawful on the basis that the video camera in Snover‘s hand was a potential weapon that posed a threat to officer safety. See United States v. Gualdado, 794 F.2d 1533, 1535 (11th Cir.1986) (recognizing that “[a]lmost any object which as used or attempted to be used may endanger life or inflict great bodily harm, or which is likely to produce death or great bodily harm, can in some circumstances be a dangerous weapon“) (quotation marks omitted); see also Penley v. Eslinger, 605 F.3d 843, 851 (11th Cir.2010) (noting that “[t]he government has a weighty interest in protecting ... police officers from the threat of force“); Rodriguez v. Farrell, 280 F.3d 1341, 1351 (11th Cir.2002) (recognizing that “the typical arrest involves some force and injury“); id. (finding no excessive force where officer “grabbed plaintiff‘s arm, twisted it around plaintiff‘s back, jerking it up high to the shoulder and then handcuffed plaintiff“). Given Snover‘s earlier lack of cooperation in failing to get out of her car when оrdered to do so, a reasonable officer in Murrow‘s position could have believed that she would use the video camera in a hostile manner. The district court erred in denying summary judgment on Snover‘s excessive force claim against Officer Murrow.
REVERSED AND REMANDED.
PER CURIAM