ESTATE OF Roger D. OWENSBY, Jr., Plaintiff-Appellee, v. CITY OF CINCINNATI; Tom Streicher; Robert Jorg; Patrick Caton; Victor Spellen; Darren Sellers; David Hunter, Defendants-Appellants (04-3725), Stephen Tilley; Robert Heiland; Chris Campbell, Defendants-Appellants (04-3724).
Nos. 04-3724, 04-3725
United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit
July 7, 2005
414 F.3d 596
ARGUED: Wilson G. Weisenfelder, Jr., Rendigs, Fry, Kiely & Dennis, Cincinnati, Ohio, Richard Ganulin, City Solicitor‘s Office for the City of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, for Appellants. Paul B. Martins, Helmer, Martins, Rice & Popham Co., Cincinnati, Ohio, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Wilson G. Weisenfelder, Jr., Rendigs, Fry, Kiely & Dennis, Cincinnati, Ohio, Richard Ganulin, City Solicitor‘s Office for the City of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, Ravert J. Clark, Arenstein & Gallagher, Cincinnati, Ohio, for Appellants. Paul B. Martins, James B. Helmer, Jr., John J. Helbling, Mark T. Tillar, Helmer, Martins, Rice & Popham Co., L.P.A., Cincinnati, Ohio, for Appellee.
Before: MARTIN and ROGERS, Circuit Judges; FORESTER, District Judge.*
OPINION
BOYCE F. MARTIN, JR., Circuit Judge.
I.
A. Factual Background
The following facts are described in a light most favorable to the plaintiff. On November 7, 2000, as twenty-nine-year-old Roger Owensby left a Sunoco gas station convenience store, he was stopped by three Cincinnati police officers—Robert Jorg, Patrick Caton and David Hunter—who suspected him to be an individual who had fled from Officer Hunter in the same area in a drug-related incident on September 27, 2000. At least at the beginning of this encounter, Owensby fully cooperated with the officers, truthfully answering their questions and consenting to a thorough pat-down search that yielded no sign of any weapon or contraband. At some point, however, the encounter became contentious, and Officer Hunter accused Owensby of being the individual who had previously fled from him. Owensby then attempted to slip past the officers, but was immediately tackled by Jorg and Caton and landed face down in the parking lot. Jorg pinned Owensby in a prone position with his arms under his chest while Caton rested on Owensby‘s legs. Caton issued an “officer needs assistance” call, and the officers began struggling with Owensby in an attempt to handcuff him. During the course of this struggle, Caton struck Owensby in the lower back and right arm and used his
By way of background, the City of Cincinnati and the Village of Golf Manor are signatories to a “Hamilton County Local Government Mutual Aid Agreement for Law Enforcement,” which provides for “reciprocal police services across jurisdictional lines.” As a result, when Caton called for assistance, officers from both the City of Cincinnati and the Village of Golf Manor responded. Cincinnati police officer Darren Sellers, who had been in a nearby parking lot, was one of the first to arrive on the scene. He testified that upon his arrival, Owensby was not moving and that it was impossible to discern whether the difficulty the officers were experiencing in extracting Owensby‘s arms from underneath him was because Owensby was resisting or because of the combined weight of the officers and Owensby. Sellers eventually was able to handcuff Owensby, at which point he announced, “He‘s cuffed.”
Allegedly after Owensby was handcuffed, however, Caton demanded that Hunter spray mace at him. Hunter instructed Jorg to lift Owensby‘s head so that he could mace him directly in the face. Jorg pulled Owensby‘s head up, turned his own head away, and drove his knees into Owensby‘s back. Despite a police policy directing officers to spray chemical irritants “five to ten feet from an individual,” Hunter proceeded to spray mace directly into Owensby‘s eyes and nose from a distance of six inches, and he did this twice. Owensby reacted only by grimacing; he did not cough or make a sound. Furthermore, despite Owensby‘s lack of resistance, Sellers and Hunter saw Caton repeatedly strike Owensby in the back, only ceasing after Hunter exclaimed, “What the hell is he doing!” At this point, Owensby‘s face was cut and bleeding, and Jorg and Caton had Owensby‘s blood on the sleeves of their shirts.
Meanwhile, two Golf Manor police officers, Robert Heiland and Chris Campbell, had arrived on the scene. Because the Golf Manor police cruiser was the nearest to the arrest scene, Jorg and Caton asked Heiland‘s permission to place Owensby in the back seat of that cruiser, and Heiland agreed. The Cincinnati officers picked up the prone Owensby, carried him to the Golf Manor cruiser and placed him—handcuffed and possibly unconscious—in the back seat. Caton went to the other side of the cruiser, dragged Owensby headfirst into the seat and appeared to continue to beat Owensby. After the beating stopped, Owensby was left in the back seat of the cruiser with the doors locked.
Cincinnati police officer Brian Brazile soon arrived on the scene and peered into the Golf Manor cruiser with his flashlight. Noting that Owensby was bleeding and appeared unable to breathe, he said to Heiland and Campbell, who were standing near the back door of the cruiser, “This looks f[-]ed up. Can he breathe? It don‘t look like he can from the way he‘s laying.” Nevertheless, Heiland, Campbell and Brazile failed to investigate Owensby‘s condition any further and did not attempt to provide him with any medical care.
Cincinnati police officer Victor Spellen also arrived on the scene, and his cruiser‘s video camera recorded all of the subsequent activity around the Golf Manor cruiser. At this point, at least eleven Cincinnati police officers and two Golf Manor officers were either on the scene or in the immediate vicinity—three of whom were trained emergency medical technicians—yet no officer attempted to provide any
Approximately six minutes after Owensby was placed in the Golf Manor cruiser, Cincinnati police sergeant Watts arrived and asked Heiland to roll down the window so that he could check on him. Watts promptly discovered that Owensby was not breathing. Owensby was removed from the cruiser and given CPR, and emergency medical technicians from a local fire rescue department were summoned. The first responding unit arrived four minutes later, but was unable to resuscitate Owensby. Owensby was pronounced dead at 8:47 p.m. at the University of Cincinnati hospital. The coroner ruled his death a “homicide” resulting from “police intervention: asphyxiation during restraint attempts.”
B. Procedural Background
Owensby‘s estate filed this action pursuant to
All of the individual police officers filed this interlocutory appeal challenging the district court‘s denial of qualified immunity. In addition, the City of Cincinnati requests that we exercise pendent jurisdiction over its appeal of the district court‘s award of summary judgment against it for failure to train,1 and the Cincinnati defendants ask us to certify to the Ohio Supreme Court the question of the constitutionality of Ohio‘s Sovereign Immunity Act.2
II.
A. Qualified Immunity
Under the doctrine of qualified immunity, “government officials performing discretionary functions generally are shielded from liability for civil damages insofar as their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitu
In interlocutory appeals challenging a district court‘s denial of qualified immunity, this Court‘s review “is confined to the question of whether all of the conduct which the District Court deemed sufficiently supported for purposes of summary judgment met the Harlow standard of objective legal reasonableness.” Farm Labor Organizing Comm. v. Ohio State Highway Patrol, 308 F.3d 523, 537 (6th Cir. 2002) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted). Thus, “we lack jurisdiction on interlocutory appeal of a denial of qualified immunity to review the district court‘s determination that plaintiffs have presented sufficient evidence to prove the underlying or basic facts alleged in support of their constitutional claim.” Id. at 536-37 (citation omitted).
1. Do the Facts, Viewed in the Light Most Favorable to the Estate, Demonstrate a Constitutional Violation?
The district court held that no police officer was entitled to qualified immunity because the evidence, when viewed in the light most favorable to the estate, was sufficient to establish that each officer violated Owensby‘s Fourteenth Amendment right to adequate medical care while in police custody. The officers challenge the district court‘s holding on several grounds, none of which are persuasive.
a. What Level of Culpability is Required?
The first issue that the officers raise concerns the level of culpability required to establish a violation of Owensby‘s constitutional right to medical care. The Cincinnati officers argue that the district court erred in applying the traditional deliberate indifference standard and urge us to adopt a heightened standard requiring proof of malice and intent to harm.
In general, the level of culpability required to support
The Cincinnati police officers argue that this case is more analogous to vehicular chase cases than traditional prisoner or pretrial detainee cases, essentially because only about six minutes passed between the time Owensby was taken into custody and the time medical care was provided. This argument assumes, however, that actual deliberation was not possible within those six minutes. That assumption is erroneous. During the six minutes that Owensby was denied medical care after being taken into custody, the officers had time to do such things as greet each other, prepare for the arrival of their superiors, pick up dropped items and straighten their uniforms; some officers even had time to observe and discuss the apparent severity of Owensby‘s injuries. Under these circumstances, there is no question that the officers had “time to fully consider the potential consequences of their conduct.” Id. at 510. Accordingly, the district court properly applied the traditional deliberate indifference standard.
b. Is there Sufficient Evidence of Deliberate Indifference?
The officers next argue that the evidence, even when viewed in the light most favorable to the estate, is insufficient to establish that they acted with the requisite deliberate indifference. “Deliberate indifference requires that the defendants knew of and disregarded a substantial risk of serious harm to [the pretrial detainee‘s] health and safety.” Watkins, 273 F.3d at 686 (citation omitted). We have little difficulty finding a substantial risk of serious harm to Owensby‘s health and safety, as evidenced by his death, which the coroner ruled a homicide resulting from the officers’ restraint attempts. The primary dispute concerns the second aspect of the deliberate indifference standard—whether the officers knew of this risk and disregarded it.
We agree with the district court‘s conclusion that the evidence—again, when viewed in the light most favorable to the estate—indicates that each officer did, in fact, know of and disregard the substantial risk of harm to Owensby‘s health and safety. In reaching this conclusion, the district court engaged in a detailed and lengthy analysis of the evidence relating to each officer, which we find persuasive and adopt in its entirety. Without duplicating that extensive analysis, we note in summary that each officer viewed Owensby in significant physical distress, yet made no attempt to summon or provide any medical care until several minutes later, when Sergeant Watts checked on Owensby and discovered that he was not breathing. This evidence is sufficient to demonstrate that each officer‘s failure to provide medical care to Owensby constituted a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.3
The Cincinnati officers also argue that the district court erred in holding that the estate need not prove that the officers’ failure to provide medical care was the proximate cause of Owensby‘s death. We recently held in Blackmore that while medical proof may be necessary to assess whether the denial of medical care caused a serious medical injury in cases where the prisoner or pretrial detainee‘s “affliction is seemingly minor or non-obvious,” no such evidence is required where the individual had a “serious need for medical care that was so obvious that even a layperson would easily recognize the necessity for a doctor‘s attention.” 390 F.3d at 899.
As we explained in Blackmore:
Where the seriousness of a prisoner‘s needs for medical care is obvious even to a lay person, the constitutional violation may arise. This violation is not premised upon the “detrimental effect” of the delay, but rather that the delay alone in providing medical care creates a substantial risk of serious harm. When prison officials are aware of a prisoner‘s obvious and serious need for medical treatment and delay medical treatment of that condition for non-medical reasons, their conduct in causing the delay creates the constitutional infirmity. In such cases, the effect of the delay goes to the extent of the injury, not the existence of a serious medical condition.
In light of the facts as discussed above, we agree with the district court‘s assessment that Owensby‘s need for medical care was obvious. Accordingly, the estate need not prove that the officers’ acts or omissions were the proximate cause of Owensby‘s death in order to hold the officers liable under
2. Was Owensby‘s Fourteenth Amendment Right to Adequate Medical Care Clearly Established?
Finally, the Cincinnati police officers argue that the “contours” of Owensby‘s right to medical care were not clearly established at the time of the incident in question. The Cincinnati officers believe that the fact that Owensby was, in their words, a “just-arrested fleeing and resisting suspect” distinguishes this case from the typical case involving the denial of medical care to a pretrial detainee. This argument is similar to the Cincinnati officers’ unpersuasive argument that the heightened standard of culpability requiring proof of malice or intent to harm should apply in this case, and it fails for similar reasons. That Owensby may have fled or resisted before being taken into custody is irrelevant. There is no evidence that he was attempting to flee or resist during the time that he was in police custody and denied medical care; in fact, the evidence suggests that Owensby may have been unconscious when he was placed in the Golf Manor police cruiser and never regained consciousness. The Cincinnati officers do not dispute that, in general, the Fourteenth Amendment right of pretrial detainees to adequate medical care is, and has long been, clearly established. We find no principled basis on which to find Owensby‘s right to medical care any less clearly established than the right of other pretrial detainees.
B. Additional Matters
1. Pendent Jurisdiction
The City of Cincinnati requests that we exercise pendent jurisdiction over
2. Motion to Certify Question to the Supreme Court of Ohio
The Cincinnati defendants filed with this Court a “motion to certify to the Supreme Court of Ohio the trial court‘s erroneous invalidation of Ohio Revised Code Chapter 2744.” As noted, the district court held that no statutory immunity was available with respect to the state law claims because chapter 2744, which contains Ohio‘s Sovereign Immunity Act, violated the Ohio Constitution. We hold that certification is inappropriate at this stage because the question of the constitutionality of chapter 2744 would not be “determinative of the proceeding.” Ohio Supreme Court Practice Rule XVIII § 1 (providing that the Supreme Court of Ohio may answer a question of law certified to it only where, among other requirements, the question “may be determinative of the proceeding“).
3. Jurisdiction to Review the Denial of Immunity Under Chapter 2744 as a “Collateral Order”
Finally, the defendants argue that this court has jurisdiction, based on the “collateral order” doctrine, to review the district court‘s order denying their request for statutory immunity on the estate‘s state law claims. An order denying statutory immunity pursuant to chapter 2744, however, does not qualify as a collateral order because the statute provides immunity only from liability, not from suit. See Sinick v. County of Summit, No. 02-3463, 2003 WL 22220529, at *8 (6th Cir. Sept. 24, 2003) (noting that chapter 2744 clearly pronounces that “the statute is providing immunity from liability, rather than from immunity from suit“); Gratsch v. Hamilton County, No. 00-3398, 2001 WL 406440, at *7 (6th Cir. April 3, 2001) (holding that the court lacked jurisdiction to review an order denying statutory immunity pursuant to chapter 2744 on interlocutory appeal because “the state statute authorizes immunity from liability for damages only, as opposed to complete immunity from suit.“). Where statutory immunity protects defendants from liability, as opposed to suit, denial of such immunity is not “effectively unreviewable on appeal from a final judgment” and, accordingly, cannot be reviewed on appeal as a collateral order. See Summers v. Leis, 368 F.3d 881, 888-89 (6th Cir. 2004). We therefore have no jurisdiction over the district court‘s denial of immunity under chapter 2744.
III.
For these reasons, the district court‘s denial of qualified immunity is AFFIRMED and the case is REMANDED