Case Information
*1 FOR PUBLICATION
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT W ANDA J OHNSON , individuаlly No. 11-16456 and as personal representative of the Estate of Oscar J. Grant, III; D.C. Nos. E STATE OF O SCAR J. G RANT III; 3:09-cv-00901-EMC S OPHINA M ESA , as Guardian ad 3:09-cv-04014-EMC Litem of minor, T.G.; J ACK 3:09-cv-04835-EMC B RYSON , J R .; N IGEL B RYSON ; 3:10-cv-00005-EMC M ICHAEL G REER ; C ARLOS
R EYES ; F ERNANDO A NICETE , J R .; O SCAR J ULIUS G RANT , J R .;
J OHNTUE C ALDWELL (now
deceased),
Plaintiffs-Appellees , v.
B AY A REA R APID T RANSIT
D ISTRICT ; G ARY G EE , in his
official capacity as chief of
police for BART; D OROTHY D UGGER , in her official capacity as general manager for BART; A NTHONY P IRONE , individually and in his official capacity as a police officer for BART;
M ARYSOL D OMENICI ,
individually and in her official capacity as a police officer for BART; D OES 1-50,
Defendants , J and OHANNES M EHSERLE
individually and in his official *2 capacity as a police officer for BART,
Defendant-Appellant . W ANDA J OHNSON , individually No. 11-16480 and as personal representative of the Estate of Oscar J. Grant, III; D.C. Nos. E STATE OF O SCAR J. G RANT III; 3:09-cv-00901-EMC S OPHINA M ESA , as Guardian ad 3:09-cv-04014-EMC Litem of minor, T.G.; J ACK 3:09-cv-04835-EMC B RYSON , J R .; N IGEL B RYSON ; 3:10-cv-00005-EMC M ICHAEL G REER ; F ERNANDO A NICETE , J R .; C ARLOS R EYES ; O SCAR J ULIUS G RANT , J R .;
J OHNTUE C ALDWELL (now
deceased),
Plaintiffs-Appellees , v.
B AY A REA R APID T RANSIT
D ISTRICT ; G ARY G EE , in his
official capacity as chief of
police for BART; D OROTHY D UGGER , in her official capacity as general manager for BART; J OHANNES M EHSERLE ,
individually and in his official capacity as a police officer for J BART; M ARYSOL D OMENICI , individually and in her official capacity as a police officer for BART; D OES 1-50,
Defendants and
A NTHONY P IRONE , individually and in his official capacity as a police officer for BART,
Defendant-Appellant . W ANDA OHNSON , individually No. 11-16481 and as personal representative of *3 the Estate of Oscar J. Grant, III; D.C. Nos. E STATE OF O SCAR J. G RANT III; 3:09-cv-00901-EMC S OPHINA M ESA , as Guardian ad 3:09-cv-04014-EMC Litem of minor, T.G.; J ACK 3:09-cv-04835-EMC B RYSON , J R .; N IGEL B RYSON ; 3:10-cv-00005-EMC M ICHAEL G REER ; F ERNANDO A NICETE , J R .; C ARLOS R EYES ; O SCAR J ULIUS G RANT , J R .; OPINION J OHNTUE C ALDWELL (now
deceased),
Plaintiffs-Appellees , v.
B AY A REA R APID T RANSIT
D ISTRICT ; G ARY G EE , in his
official capacity as chief of J police for BART; D OROTHY D UGGER , in her official capacity as general manager for BART; OHANNES M EHSERLE , individually and in his official capacity as a police officer for BART; A NTHONY P IRONE ,
individually and in his official capacity as a police officer for BART; D OES 1-50,
Defendants , and
M ARYSOL D OMENICI
individually and in her official capacity as a police officer for BART,
Defendant-Appellant . Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of California Marilyn H. Patel, Senior District Judge, Presiding
Argued and Submitted
December 3, 2012—San Francisco, California
Filed July 30, 2013
Before: Michael Daly Hawkins, A. Wallace Tashima, and
Mary H. Murguia, Circuit Judges.
Opinion by Judge Murguia
SUMMARY [*]
Civil Rights
The panel affirmed in part, vacated in part, and reversed in part the district court’s denial in part of qualified immunity to Bay Area Rapid Transit police officers, and dismissed a portion of one officer's appeal, in two civil rights suits arising from an encounter on a train platform that ended with the shooting and death of Oscar Grant III.
Grant’s friends who were involved in the encounter, Nigel Bryson, Jack Bryson, Jr., Carlos Reyes, Michael Greer, and Fernando Anicete, Jr., brought suit alleging that transit officers Mehserle, Pirone and Domenici committed various violations of the United States Constitution and state law by detaining and arresting them and holding them handcuffed at the BART police headquarters overnight after shooting Grant. Grant’s father filed a separate complaint alleging that the officers violated his right to a familial relationship with his son.
The panel first held that Mehserle was not entitled to qualified immunity from Grant’s father’s Fourteenth Amendment claim for deprivation of a familial relationship. The panel declined Mehserle’s invitation to find, as a matter of law, that Grant and his father lacked a sufficiently strong father–son bond to support the claim. The рanel further determined that given the factual dispute as to whether Mehserle’s actions were required by a legitimate law [*] This summary constitutes no part of the opinion of the court. It has been prepared by court staff for the convenience of the reader. *5 6 J OHNSON V . BART enforcement purpose, the district court could not have properly granted Mehserle qualified immunity. The panel therefore affirmed the district court’s judgment as to the Fourteenth Amendment claim.
Citing
Liberal v. Estrada
,
Reversing the judgment, the panel held that Mehserle was entitled to qualified immunity from Anicete’s unlawful arrest claim because there was no evidence that he played any part in the arrest.
The panel held that the district court relied improperly on
Dubner v. City and County of San Francisco
,
Affirming the district court, the panel held that: (1) Mehserle was not entitled to qualified immunity frоm Jack Bryson’s unlawful arrest claim; (2) Pirone was not entitled to qualified immunity from Reyes’s, Greer’s and the Brysons’ claim for unlawful detention given the questionable nature of Pirone’s authority to detain the group for a misdemeanor that abated before his arrival; (3) Pirone was not entitled to qualified immunity from Reyes’s and the Brysons’ claim that he conducted a de facto arrest, without the requisite probable cause, by drawing his Taser; (4) Pirone was not entitled to qualified immunity for arresting Greer for his refusal to accede to the unlawful detention.
Finally, the panel held that to the extent the district court relied solely on Dubner to deny Domenici immunity from any of the plaintiffs’ claims, the judgment was vacated and on remand the district court should reconsider its decision in *6 accordance with the panel’s opinion. To the extent the district court relied upon disputed facts to deny Domenici immunity, the panel stated that it lacked jurisdiction to review that denial.
COUNSEL
Michael L. Rains (argued) and Lara Cullinane-Smith, Rains Lucia Stern, PC, Pleasant Hill, California, for Defendant–Appellant Johannes Mehserle.
Donald T. Ramsey (argued), Law Offices of Donald T. Ramsey, San Francisco, California; William R. Rapoport, Law Offices of William R. Rapoport, Redwood City, California, for Defendant–Appellant Anthony Pirone. Alison Berry Wilkinson (argued), Berry Wilkinson Law Group, Inc., San Rafael, California, for Defendant–Appellant Marysol Domenici.
John L. Burris (argued) and Adanté D. Pointer, Law Offices of John L. Burris, Oakland, California; Dan Siegel (argued) and Dean Royer, Siegel & Yee, Oakland, California, for Plaintiffs–Appellees Fernando Anicete, Jr., Jack Bryson, Jr., Nigel Bryson, and Carlos Reyes.
Panos Lagos, Law Offices of Panos Lagos, Oakland, California, for Plaintiff–Appellee Oscar Julius Grant, Jr.
OPINION
MURGUIA, Circuit Judge:
In the early morning hours of January 1, 2009, on a train platform in Oakland, an encounter between a group of young men and several officers of the Bay Area Rapid Transit (“BART”) police ended with the shooting and death of Oscar Grant III and the allegedly unconstitutional detentions of Grant’s friends, Nigel Bryson, Jack Bryson, Jr., Carlos Reyes, Michael Greer, and Fernando Anicete, Jr. A train full of witnesses observed the encounter; several made video recordings that were replayed widely in the news media and made available on the Internet. Johannes Mehserle, the BART police officer who shot and killed Grant, was convicted criminally for his role in the incident, which also gave rise to several civil suits against Mehserle and the other *7 officers involved in the morning’s events. Two of those suits are the source of the interlocutory appeals now before us.
The Brysons, Reyes, Greer, and Anicete filed a complaint against Mehserle, as well as against Anthony Pirone—the officer who first detained the group—and Pirone’s partner, Marysol Domenici. [1] Among other things, their complaint alleged, under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, that the officers committed various violations of the United States Constitution that [1] The Brysons, et al., also sued other officers and advanced other theories of liability, none of which are relevant to the matter now before the Court, and are therefore not part of our analysis.
morning. Grant’s father, Oscar Grant, Jr., filed a separate complaint alleging Mehserle, Pirone, and Domenici violated his right to a familial relationship with his son. [2] Mehserle, Pirone, and Domenici each moved for summary judgment, arguing that they are entitled to qualified immunity—that is, to be shielded from claims arising out of their policework—from all the plaintiffs’ claims. The district court denied the officers qualified immunity, at least in part. The officers appealed those denials immediately.
Our jurisdiction over these appeals is limited: we may review only the district court’s legal conclusion that an officer is not entitled to qualified immunity. Johnson v. Jones , 515 U.S. 304, 319–20 (1995); Eng v. Cooley 552 F.3d 1062, 1067 (9th Cir. 2009); Kennedy v. City of Ridgefield , 439 F.3d 1055, 1060 (9th Cir. 2006). “Our jurisdiction . . . does not extend to qualified immunity claims involving disputed issues of material fact.” KRL v. Estates of Moore , 512 F.3d 1184, 1188–89 (9th Cir. 2008). For the reasons that follow, we AFFIRM in large part the district court’s ruling, VACATE it in small part, REVERSE it in smaller part, and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
I.
Resolving any disputed facts in the plaintiffs’ favor (as we must), Scott v. Harris , 550 U.S. 372, 378 (2007), the following events occurred over the span of 12 minutes, early on New Year’s Day, 2009.
[2] Grant’s mother, daughter, and estate settled their claims arising out of *8 this incident.
10 J OHNSON V . BART
1:59:21 A.M.
Keecha Williams operated an eastbound BART train, carrying New Year’s revelers out of San Francisco and across the Bay. Shortly before Williams’s train pulled into Oakland’s Fruitvale Station, a passenger used the train’s emergency intercom to report a fight in the train’s lead car. Williams relayed the passenger’s report to BART dispatch, which instructed Williams to stop the train at Fruitvale and wait for the police.
Officer Pirone was dispatched to the Fruitvale platform with information that the troublemakers on Williams’s train were a group of black males, in the lead car, wearing dark clothing. Dispatch also told Pirone that no weapons were used in the fight.
2:04:00 A.M.
Arriving on the platform, Pirone passed through a group of people loosely fitting the description of the alleged combatants and headed towards another group, also fitting that description, whose members were standing and talking on the platfоrm near the train’s lead car. Pirone approached the men and, as he said when later questioned, unholstered his Taser in an effort to intimidate them. Three of the men—the Brysons and Reyes—began to walk toward the stairs and the station exit, behind Pirone. Pirone asked the men to stop, but they continued to walk toward the exit. He then commanded them to “sit the [expletive] down,” and they did. In the meantime, two other members of the group, Grant and Greer, stepped back aboard the train. Pirone radioed his partner, Officer Domenici, who jogged up to the platform, drew her *9 own Taser, and assumed watch over Reyes and the Brysons so Pirone could search for Grant and Greer.
2:06:33 A.M.
Pirone was pacing the platform, yelling “get the [expletive] off my train,” when he spotted Grant through one of the train’s windows. He pointed his Taser at Grant through the glass, prompting Grant to maneuver his way out of the car and on to the platform. Pirone led Grant to the wall where Reyes and the Brysons sat, and then returned to the train to search for Greer. Pirone located Greer shortly and demanded he get off the train. When Greer failed to comply with Pirone’s order, Pirone grabbed him by the shirt and dragged him from the train, pushing him to the wall where the other men were seated. Greer extended his arms to avoid striking the wall, and then turn to face Pirone. Pirone described Greer’s position as “a combative stance,” purportedly justifying his response: Pirone grabbed Greer by the hair and swept his legs from under him, dropping him to the station floor. Pirone moved to handcuff Greer.
2:08:06 A.M.
Alarmed by Pirone’s treatment of Greer, Jack Bryson stood and protested, exchanging profanities with Domenici. Grant stood between Domenici and Bryson, extending a hand between them and imploring Bryson to remain calm. Pirone, claiming to have seen Grant touch Domenici, leapt from Greer’s side, punched Grant in the head, and slung him to the floor.
2:08:36 A.M.
Other passengers, including the detainees’ friend, Anicete, stepped from the idling train, protesting Pirone’s actions. Officer Mehserle and Officer Jon Woffinden (who is not a party to the appeals before us) sprinted on to the platform. Seeing Pirone and Domenici with their Tasers drawn, Mehserle removed his Taser from its holster on the left side of his body—the side opposite his gun. Pirone walked away from the assembled group of officers and detainees, leaving the officers to keep watch without having said anything to anyone about why he detained the group in *10 the first place.
“What do we have here,” Pirone asked Williams, as he arrived at the operatоr’s booth at the front of the train’s lead car. “Some BS,” Williams replied, referring to problems, like fighting, that occur on BART trains on New Year’s Eve. Pirone did not inquire further, and Williams said nothing else. Pirone returned to the assembled officers and detained men.
2:09:53 A.M.
Walking back towards the group, Pirone pointed a finger at the seated men, and generally at Grant, ordering Mehserle to arrest “him and him” for “148” (California Penal Code § 148—misdemeanor resistance, delay, or obstruction of an officer in the conduct of his duties). Mehserle thought Pirone meant for him to arrest Grant and Jack Bryson; Pirone actually meant for Mehserle to arrest Grant and the already- handcuffed Greer. Mehserle began to handcuff Bryson. Bryson argued with Mehserle, who threatened to use his Taser if Bryson continued to resist.
2:10:19 A.M.
Bryson capitulated, kneeled, and put his hands behind his back. Mehserle handcuffed him. Mehserle then turned to Grant, who was seated to Mehserle’s left and facing Pirone. Mehserle grabbed Grant, causing Grant to fall forward on to Reyes, who was sitting on the floor as Pirone ordered previously. Mehserle crouched behind Grant, and Pirone knelt in front of Grant. Reyes implored Pirone and Mehserle to get Grant off of him, and the two officers rolled Grant, face down, on to the station floor, with Grant’s hands coming to rest underneath his body.
2:10:53 A.M.
Pirone then knelt on Grant’s neck. Mehserle straddled Grant, trying to pull his hands out from under his prostrate body. Grant struggled, complaining that he was unable to breathe. Despite his struggling, Pirone was satisfied that Grant was subdued. Mehserle, however, stood, unholstered his gun, and directed Pirone to get back. Puzzled by Mehserle’s request, Pirone stood, allowing onlookers who were recording the scene to see Grant’s hands resting visibly behind his back.
2:11:00 A.M.
Another officer, Emery Knudtson (who also is not a party to these appeals), arrived on the platform. Knudtson saw Anicete pacing and cursing at the other officers, so Knudtson tackled and handcuffed him, applying extra pressure to Anicete’s hip after Anicete complained of a preexisting injury there. As Anicete fell to the floor, he and Knudtson both heard a popping sound. Knudtson thought it was a firecracker. It was actually the sound of Mehserle shooting Grant in the back.
“You shot me,” Grant repeated frantically. “Oh, [expletive], I shot him,” Mehserle exclaimed, raising his hands to his head. Mehserle handcuffed the mortally wounded Grant and searched him. He then removed the handcuffs and tried to stanch the blood flowing from the hole in Grant’s back.
Knudtson dragged Anicete to the wall, putting him with the other detained men. Reyes stood and attempted to leave, but Woffinden and Knudtson handcuffed him. The other officers herded passengers back on to the train, attempting to clear the platform.
2:12:41 A.M.
The train’s doors closed, and it pulled out of the Fruitvale Station.
* * *
An unknown officer handcuffed Nigel Bryson, the last of the group of men who remained free. Pirone had already handcuffed Greer, Mehserle handcuffed Jack Bryson, Knudtson handcuffed Anicete, and Knudtson and Woffinden handcuffed Reyes. The Brysons, Reyes, Greer, and Anicete were then taken to BART police headquarters by unknown officers, at the command of police officials who are not parties to these appeals or the underlying lawsuit. None of the young men were charged with any crime in connection with the morning’s events, though all remained handcuffed in
J OHNSON V . BART 15 holding rooms at the station for several hours. Grant was taken to the hospital, where he died.
II.
A. Pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983, Reyes, the Brysons, Greer, and Anicete sued Mehserle, Pirone, and Domenici for detaining them in violation of the Fourth Amendment; additionally, they claimed Mehserle, Pirone, and Domenici unlawfully arrested them, also in violation of the Fourth Amendment. All five men alleged a violation of California Civil Code § 52.1, the California state law analog to section 1983. Further, Anicete and Greer alleged thаt Pirone and Knudtson used unconstitutionally excessive force against them.
Separately, Oscar Grant, Jr. brought a Fourteenth Amendment claim alleging that Mehserle, Pirone, and Domenici deprived him of his familial relationship with his deceased son, “in violation of the rights, privileges, and immunities secured by the First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution.” Mehserle, Pirone, and Domenici filed motions for summary judgment, each seeking qualified immunity from the claims made against him or her.
B.
In analyzing the officers’ motions, the district court created a three-part chronology of the morning’s events, granting or denying the officers immunity from the plaintiffs’ claims depending on the point in time at which the claims arose. The district court’s first time period began when Pirone detained Reyes and the Brysons, the second began when Pirone ordered Mehserle to arrest “him and him,” and the third encompassed the prolonged detentions of Reyes, the *13 Brysons, and Anicete, beginning when Mehserle shot Grant.
The district court denied Pirone qualified immunity—for all three time periods—from Reyes’s, the Brysons’, Greer’s, and Anicete’s claims that Pirone both unlawfully seized and unlawfully arrested the group. The district court granted Mehserle and Domenici qualified immunity from the same claims during the first time period, but denied both of them immunity from the time Pirone ordered Mehserle to arrest “him and him,” onward—that is, for the second and third time periods. Moreover, and specifically as to Jack Bryson’s claim that Mehserle arrested him unlawfully, the district court’s denial of qualified immunity was premised on its finding that there remained a triable issue of fact as to whether Mehserle reasonably mistook Pirone’s command in arresting the wrong person. The district court also denied the officers qualified immunity from the men’s claim under California Civil Code § 52.1. Finally, the district court denied Mehserle immunity from Oscar Grant, Jr.’s Fourteenth Amendment claim.
C.
Mehserle asks us to determine whether the district court erred in denying him immunity from: (1) Oscar Grant, Jr.’s Fourteenth Amendment claim for deprivation of a familial relationship; (2) any claim under California Civil Code § 52.1; (3) Anicete’s unlawful arrest claim; (4) claims arising from the extended detentions of Anicete, Reyes, and Nigel Bryson at BART police headquarters; and (5) Jack Bryson’s unlawful arrest claim. Pirone asks us to review the district court’s decision to deny him immunity from: (1) the claim that he detained Reyes and the Brysons unlawfully; (2) the claim that, at some point, Pirone’s detention of Reyes and the Brysons became a de facto unlawful arrest; and (3) Greer’s unlawful arrest claim. Domenici seeks review of the district court’s decision denying her immunity from the portion of Reyes’s and the Brysons’ unlawful detention claims arising out of their еxtended detentions at BART headquarters. Because this is an appeal from the denial of summary judgment, we adopt the view of any disputed facts most favorable to the plaintiffs—the one we have set forth, above—and then, premised upon those facts, review de novo the district court’s denials of qualified immunity. Karl v. City of Mountlake Terrace , 678 F.3d 1062, 1067–68 (9th Cir. 2012).
D.
When police officers are sued for their conduct in the line
of duty, courts must balance two competing needs: “the need
to hold public officials accountable when they exercise power
irresponsibly and the need to shield officials from
harassment, distraction, and liability when they perform their
duties reasonably.”
Pearson v. Callahan
,
We apply a two-part test to determine which way the
balance tips in a given case.
Id.
at 232;
Lacey v. Maricopa
Cnty.
,
If the answer to our first question is “yes,” then for the
second step, we call on a familiar character, the hypothetical
“reasonаble officer.” The reasonable officer avoids
committing acts that have been clearly established as
unconstitutional—for example, handcuffing a prisoner to a
fence for a long period of time—as well as other, similar acts,
like handcuffing a prisoner not to a fence, but instead to a
hitching post.
See Hope v. Pelzer
, 536 U.S. 730, 739–43
(2002) (holding that an act—there, handcuffing a shirtless
inmate to a hitching post in the sun for seven hours—may be
clearly established as unconstitutional even if there is no case
addressing it specifically, as long as existing law provides
“fair warning” that the act is unconstitutional);
Mattos v.
Agarano
,
To complete the second step of the qualified immunity
analysis, we place our hypothetical reasonable officer in the
*15
same situation as the defendant police officers, and then ask
whether the reasonable officer also would have committed the
act that the plaintiffs contend is uncоnstitutional.
Lacey
III.
A. Johannes Mehserle 1. Mehserle is not entitled to immunity from Oscar
Grant, Jr.’s Fourteenth Amendment claim.
Parents have a Fourteenth Amendment right to the
companionship of a child, which a police officer violates by
“act[ing] with a purpose to harm” the child “that [is]
unrelated to legitimate law enforcement objectives.”
Porter
v. Osborn
,
Mehserle first argues that we should scrutinize the
strength of the relationship between Grant and his father, and
determine that they lacked a degree of familiarity sufficient
to warrant a claim for loss of companionship. In a scant
paragraph supporting this argument, Mehserle cites two
cases. First, Mehserle cites the Seventh Circuit’s opinion in
Russ v. Watts
, 414 F.3d 783 (7th Cir. 2005), which he
describes as holding “that where a child had created a new
life away from the parents, the parents were not entitled to a
claim under the Fourteenth Amendment.” Second, Mehserle
cites our opinion in
Lee v. City of Los Angeles
,
The upshot of
Russ
, however, is not that courts should
determine, as a matter of law, that at some indeterminate
point in time a child has created enough of a life away from
home to strip his parents of their right to his companionship.
It is instead that at some
determinate
point in time—when the
child reaches the age of majority—his parents’ Fourteenth
Amendment right to his companionship is extinguished.
Russ
,
Mehserle next contends that “the facts overwhelmingly
show that [he] was acting consistently within the legitimate
law enforcement objective of arresting Grant” at the time that
[3]
Several of our sister circuits have held that a parent’s protected interest
in the companionship of his or her child, at least as far as the Constitution
is concerned, ends when the child reaches the age of majority.
See, e.g. Russ
,
he shot Grant in the back. We construe the facts,
overwhelming or otherwise, in Grant’s father’s favor and ask
whether the district court properly denied Mehserle immunity
on the basis of those facts. As recounted above, before the
district court was evidence that: Grant struggled with
Mehserle and Pirone because they were prеventing him from
breathing; Grant was adequately subdued before Mehserle
shot him; Pirone was surprised by Mehserle’s command that
he stand back (because Pirone thought Grant was adequately
subdued); and Grant’s hands were behind his back when
Mehserle shot him.
See Porter
,
In light of these and other facts, which Mehserle disputes,
the district court concluded that “there is a genuine issue of
material fact as to whether Mehserle’s actions were required
by a legitimate law enforcement purpose . . . .” We do not
disturb that conclusion,
Johnson
,
[5]
We note that Oscar Grant, Jr.’s Fourteenth Amendment claim makes
reference to “rights, privileges, and immunities secured by the First,
Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendments.” There is, however, no argument
as to what First or Fourth Amendment rights Oscar Grant, Jr. is attempting
to assert, either on his own behalf or that of his deceased son—though
Mehserle argues that Oscar Grant, Jr. may not assert any Fourth
Amendment rights vicariously on his son’s behalf.
See Alderman v.
United States
,
right to federal law qualified immunity from a
California state law (Civil Code § 52.1) violation.
Mehserle seeks qualified immunity from the California
Civil Code § 52.1 claim against him (based on the same
conduct underlying the plaintiffs’ section 1983 claims), but
the doctrine of qualified immunity does not shield defendants
from state law claims.
Cousins v. Lockyer
,
We rejected an identical argument in
Liberal v. Estrada
632 F.3d 1064 (9th Cir. 2011), in which we held that we
lacked jurisdiction to entertain a defendant’s interlocutory
vicariously asserted.”).
But see Moreland v. Las Vegas Metro. Police
Dep’t
,
claim that he unlawfully arrested Anicete. Mehserle protests that the district court neglected to address Anicete’s claims against him entirely, even though Mehserle sought immunity from those claims. We agree with Mehserle that the district court did not give adequate consideration to Anicete’s claims against him, though we do so mindful of the enormity of the task the district court faced.
The parties presented the district court with a host of claims against a group of officers and municipal entities, and then made cross-motions for summary judgment that they supported in a disorderly, muddled, and confusing manner. The distriсt court attempted to impose some level of coherence on the case by discussing those claims that made sense for a given plaintiff to bring against a particular officer. But by structuring its decision in that fashion, the district court analyzed claims that appeared nowhere in the pleadings, and omitted claims that did appear in the pleadings. For instance, the district court asked whether Mehserle used excessive force against the Brysons (one of whom Mehserle handcuffed), Reyes (with whom Mehserle had no contact), *20 and Greer (likewise), but the plaintiffs’ excessive force claim was made only on behalf of Greer and Anicete, and against Pirone (who threw Greer on the ground) and Knudtson (who tackled and handcuffed Anicete) only. There was no need for the district court to conduct an excessive force analysis as to Mehserle, though we understand why it did: the plaintiffs, in opposing summary judgment, argued that the officers’ use of Tasers in detaining all the plaintiffs constituted excessive force—a claim the plaintiffs never before raised.
Anicete did, however, plead unconstitutional seizure and unconstitutional arrest claims against Mehserle, and Mehserle moved for summary judgment on those claims. Nonetheless, the district court did not disсuss Anicete at all when addressing the initial seizures of Reyes, the Brysons, and Greer (unsurprisingly, since Anicete was not yet detained), and when discussing unconstitutional arrest, the district court only addressed Mehserle’s treatment of the two people he handcuffed—Grant and Jack Bryson.
What to do with Anicete’s claims against Mehserle? There is only one point at which the district court’s order can be read to reach those claims: when the district court denied all the officers (including Mehserle) qualified immunity for the detention of all of the plaintiffs (including Anicete), beginning at the point at which Pirone ordered Mehserle to arrest “him and him” (the second and third of the district court’s time periods). Anicete, however, was not detained or arrested until after Pirone gave his order; Knudtson tackled and handcuffed Anicete just as Mehserle shot Grant. The plaintiffs would have us stop with this observation and conclude that the district court intended, implicitly, to leave Mehserle—and every other officer sued—responsible for Anicete’s arrest and detention.
But we must grant Mehserle qualified immunity from suit
over an act in which he played no part.
See Hopkins v.
Bonvicino
,
The district court’s order also denies Mehserle qualified immunity from claims arising from Anicete’s extended *21 detention at BART police headquarters, and from the extended detentions of Reyes and Nigel Bryson. Mehserle contends he is entitled to immunity from those claims, as well; we turn now to that argument.
4. The district court failed to consider whether there was
any evidence that Mehserle participated in the extended detentions of Anicete, Reyes, or Nigel Bryson.
On the orders of BART police Commanders White and Gibson (neither of whom is a defendant in this case), Reyes, both of the Brysons, Greer, and Anicete were taken to BART police headquarters and detained, in handcuffs, for hours. Mehserle argues he had nothing to do with the prolonged detentions of Anicete, Reyes, or Nigel Bryson, and is therefore entitled to qualified immunity from their claims arising out of those detentions. The district court held that it did not matter whether Anicete, Reyes, and Nigel Bryson had any evidence implicating Mehserle in their prolonged detentions, and instead, that the burden fell to Mehserle to exculpate himself from their claims.
In reaching that conclusion, the district court appears to
have misread our opinion in
Dubner v. City and County of
San Francisco
,
In the case befоre us, the district court quoted from Dubner —“‘[i]f the defendant is unable or refuses to come *22 forward with any evidence that the arresting officers had probable cause and the plaintiff’s own testimony does not establish it, the court should presume the arrest was unlawful’”—and then concluded that Mehserle was required to demonstrate he had nothing to do with the prolonged detentions of Anicete, Reyes, and Nigel Bryson in order to escape liability for them. Dubner , however, establishes only that we will find the police lack probable cause to make an arrest—and therefore that the arrest is unlawful—if the police are unable to identify who made the arrest, or why. But the issue we must evaluate here is not whether Mehserle had probable cause to arrest Anicete, Reyes, or Nigel Bryson; it is whether Mehserle was at all responsible for their prolonged detentions. The district court did not rely on the record in trying to resolve the question, and instead relied erroneously on Dubner to conclude that the absence of evidence implicating Mehsrele was, as a matter of law, “of no account.” Because the district court’s legal error prevented it from making the factual findings necessary to decide whether Mehserle is entitled to immunity from claims arising out of Anicete’s, Reyes’s, and Nigel Bryson’s prolonged detentions, we remand this issue to the district court with instructions to review the record and determine whether there are disputed issues of fact as to Mehserle’s involvement with Anicete’s, Reyes’s, and Nigel Bryson’s detentions. 5. The district court properly denied Mehserle qualified
immunity from Jack Bryson’s unlawful arrest claim. Mehserle arrested Jack Bryson on Pirone’s order to arrest “him and him,” and argued before the district court that he made a reasonable mistake when he arrested the wrong “him,” Jack Bryson. (Pirone testified that he meant for Mehserle to arrest Grant and Greer.) The district court denied Mehserle qualified immunity for the arrest, concluding that whether Mehserle’s mistake was reasonable is a question for the jury. We agree. See, e.g. , Wilkins v. City of Oakland 350 F.3d 949, 955–56 (9th Cir. 2003) (holding that the question of whether officers made a reasonable mistake when they shot their own undercover colleague must be submitted to a jury).
J OHNSON V . BART 29 Mehserle argues that he is otherwise entitled to qualified immunity from Jack Bryson’s unlawful arrest claim, because he had probable cause to arrest Bryson independently of Pirone’s order. See Rosenbaum v. Washoe Cnty. , 663 F.3d 1071, 1076 (9th Cir. 2011) (noting that an officer is immune to a claim of unlawful arrest if he had probable cause for the arrest, i.e. , it was not actually unlawful, or if “it is reasonably arguable that there was probable cause for arrest”). Specifically, Mehserle posits, he had probable cause to arrest Jack Bryson for violating California Penal Code § 148, which penalizes interference with a law enforcement officer in the performance of his duties, because Mehserle “personally observed Bryson creat[ing] a disturbance, incit[ing] the crowd, and disregard[ing] Mehserle’s instructions during a tense, escalating event on the platform to which Mehserle had been called for backup.”
Bryson’s alleged creation of a disturbance consisted of his
cursing the officers, but “[e]ven though the police may dislike
being the object of abusive language,” section 148 does not
allow them “to use the awesome power which they possess to
punish individuals for conduct that is not only lawful, but
which is protected by the First Amendment.”
In re
Muhammed C.
,
B. Anthony Pirone 1. Pirone was properly denied qualified immunity for his
initial detention of Reyes, the Brysons, and Greer.
Pirone stopped Reyes, the Brysons, and Greer to
investigate a misdemeanor violation of California Penal Code
§ 242 (
i.e.
, a misdemeanor battery); such an investigatory
stop requires a police officer to have “reasonable suspicion
supported by articulable facts that criminal activity ‘may be
afoot.’”
United States v. Basher
,
Determining whether an officer had reasonable suspicion
to conduct an investigatory stop can be a tricky proposition,
particularly when one of the factors motivating the stop was,
as in this case, the race of the suspects. Race is of little value
in distinguishing one suspect from others, particularly where
everyone in the pool of possible suspects is of the same race.
See United States v. Montero-Camargo
,
Here, many of the factors Pirone listed as his basis for
suspecting the group of being the fighters he was looking for
are, by themselves, innocuous. Other than their race, Pirone
cited the group’s attempt to elude him on the train platform,
but see Florida v. Royer
, 460 U.S. 491, 497–98 (1983)
(holding that one does not arouse reasonable suspicion merely
by attempting to walk away from the police), and the fact that
its members were standing and talking near the train car from
which the fight was reported. Whether combining these
factors creates sufficient suspicion to stop the group is a
difficult question, but it is one we need not resolve, because
Pirone’s stop was constitutionally unsound in another respect:
when Pirone arrived on the platform, it is undisputed that no
crime was afoot. Pirone was instead, as he conceded at
argument, investigating a completed misdemeanor, and we
held—priоr to the events at issue here—that the Fourth
Amendment constrains officers who conduct stops to
investigate completed misdemeanors.
United States v. Grigg
In determining whether the Fourth Amendment permits an officer to detain a suspected misdemeanant, Grigg requires us to “consider the nature of the misdemeanor offense in question, with particular attention to the potential for ongoing or repeated danger ( e.g. , drunken and/or reckless driving), and any risk of escalation ( e.g. , disorderly conduct, assault, *26 domestic violence).” Id. at 1081; see also United States v. Hensley , 469 U.S. 221, 228 (1985) (“[T]he exigent circumstances which require a police officer to step in before a crime is committed or completed are not necessarily as pressing long afterwards. Public safety may be less threatened by a suspect in a past crime who now appears to be going about his lawful business . . . .”). Here, Pirone came upon a group of black men who were doing nothing but talking when he arrived. There is an insufficient basis to conclude, from anything Pirone witnessed, that there was a likelihood for “ongoing or repeated danger,” or “escalation.” Pirone nevertheless pulled a weapon (his Taser) on the young men, admittedly for the purpose of “intimidation,” and using profanity, ordered them to be seated.
Would our hypothetical reasonable officer, given the law we articulated in Grigg and his task of avoiding constitutional violations, have behaved as Pirone did? We think not. Whether or not Pirone articulated facts sufficient to support his suspicion of Reyes, the Brysons, and Greer, we conclude that given the questionable nature of Pirone’s authority to detain the group for a misdemeanor that abated before his arrival, the district court properly denied Pirone qualified immunity—at this stage of the proceedings and on the record before it—from their claim of unlawful detention. 2. Pirone is not entitled to qualified immunity for
conducting a de facto arrest of Reyes and the Brysons. The district court found that Pirone, in pulling his Taser on Reyes and the Brysons to facilitate their detention, may have effectively placed them under arrest without the requisite probable cause. The district court denied Pirone qualified immunity from Reyes’s and the Brysons’ claims that he unlawfully arrested them, allowing a jury to determine whether Pirone behaved reasonably in using a Taser to facilitate an investigatory stop. Pirone argues that the district court erred, and that he is entitled to qualified immunity from the Brysons’ and Reyes’s unlawful arrest claims, because *27 34 J OHNSON V . BART brandishing his Taser did not transform an investigatory stop into a de facto arrest, or if it did, that Pirone made a reasonable mistake in doing it.
Courts “examine the ‘totality of the circumstances’ in
deciding ‘whether an investigative detentiоn has ripened into
an arrest,’” focusing “on the perspective of the person seized,
rather than the subjective beliefs of the law enforcement
officers.”
United States v. Charley
,
The district court applied this standard and determined that Pirone threatened Reyes and the Brysons with his Tаser even though “there appeared to be no objective indication of violent activity or of any criminal activity for that matter,” and Pirone’s limited knowledge of the fight aboard the train included that no weapons were used. The court therefore found that a jury “could conclude that a reasonable person would not believe that he was at liberty to leave.” Pirone contends that “from the perspective of a reasonable officer on *28 the scene,” brandishing a Taser was appropriate: Pirone was outnumbered, responding to a violent crime, had no way of knowing whether the men were armed (he knew only that no weapons were used in the fight), and was surrounded by intoxicated BART patrons. Moreover, Pirone argues, the stop lasted only a few minutes, and when he attempted to make the stop, Grant and Greer fled on to the train. And at no time did Pirone strike or handcuff Reyes or the Brysons.
We note that the specific quantum of force involved in
using
a Taser was not clearly established at the time that
Pirone merely
threatened
its use,
see Bryan v. MacPherson
a Taser’s application had yet to be established at the time of
these events, it was already established that using a Taser
constitutes
some
level of force,
Bryan
,
Despite Pirone’s argument about the conditions on the
platform when he arrived, Pirone testified he pulled his Taser
on the young men for the purpose of “intimidation,” and not
because he feared for his safety or the safety of anyone else
on the platform.
[7]
A desire to cow suspects into compliance
*29
is not one of the previously enumerated reasons for which we
countenance the use of weapons during an investigatory stop.
Moreover, Pirone testified that he drew his Taser before he
[7]
Moreover, while we recognize video recordings may offer an imperfect
account of an event for a number of reasons,
e.g.
, because of acts
occurring outside the camera’s field of vision, we note that video from the
platform security camera does not appear to support Pirone’s contention
that the Fruitvale platform was crowded with intoxicated passengers when
he arrived.
See Terry
,
“made contact” with the group, belying an argument that he did so to рrevent Reyes or the Brysons, or anyone else, from taking flight—a flight which would have been futile, since the train on to which they might have fled could not leave the Fruitvale Station until BART released it. And not knowing whether a suspect is armed is not the same as having reason to believe the suspect is actually armed.
We are therefore left with the question whether it was reasonable, on the facts with which he was presented, for Pirone to use, or threaten to use, any weapon at all in conducting an investigatory stop—or whether Pirone effectively arrested Reyes and the Brysons. [8] That question must be resolved by a jury. Accordingly, we affirm the district court’s decision to deny Pirone qualified immunity from Reyes’s and the Brysons’ claims that by drawing his Taser, Pirone arrested them unlawfully.
[8]
The cases cited by Pirone are not to the contrary; all involve
circumstances under which a suspect was uncooperative or likely armed.
See, e.g.
,
Allen v. City of L.A.
,
3. Pirone is not entitled to qualified immunity from
Greer’s unlawful arrest claim.
Lastly, Pirone argues the district court incorrectly denied him qualified immunity for arresting Greer, whom he pulled from the idling train, threw to the ground, and handcuffed. Pirone contends he had probable cause to arrest Greer for impeding him in the performance of his duties—a violation of California Penal Code § 148—because by returning to the train, Greer evaded Pirone’s attempt to detain and question the entire group of young men. The district court found that because Pirone lacked both “probable cause to believe that plaintiffs had committed any underlying criminal violation,” and “reasonable suspicion to detain plaintiffs for investigatory purposes,” Pirone also lacked probable cause to arrest Greer for violating section 148.
A suspect cannot be arrested for violating section 148
because he evaded an officer’s attempt to arrest him
unlawfully.
See, e.g.
,
Blankenhorn v. City of Orange
J OHNSON V . BART 39 and Grant, and therefore had no lawful basis to pursue and arrest Greer for not acceding to the investigatory stop. A reasonable officer, it continued, would have known as much after Blankenhorn . Because we agree with the district court that Pirone had no lawful basis to detain the group initially, we also agree with the district court that he is not entitled to qualified immunity for arresting Greer over Greer’s refusal to accede to the unlawful detention.
C.
Marysol Domenici
Domenici raises only one issue on appeal: she contends
that she is entitled to qualified immunity for Reyes’s, Greer’s,
Anicete’s, and the Brysons’ prolonged detentions at BART
headquarters, because like Mehserle, there is no evidence of
her involvement in those detentions. Unlike Mehserle,
however, the district court
did
make a factual finding
regarding Domenici’s involvement in the extended detentions
of the Brysons and Reyes, pointing to her appearance in
eyewitness video of the incident, after Mehserle shot Grant,
and therefore observing that the “[e]vidence suggests that
nonetheless Domenici continued to participate in [the]
detentions up until the time that Mehserle shot Grant
and
thereafter
” (emphasis added). The district court reached no
conclusions about Domenici’s immunity from claims arising
out of Greer’s and Anicete’s extended detentions, relying
improperly on
Dubner
(as it did with Mehserle). To the
extent the district court relied solely on
Dubner
to deny
Domenici immunity from any of the plaintiffs’ claims, we
remand to the district court to determine whether the facts
support granting Domenici immunity from those claims.
To the extent the district court relied upon disputed facts
to deny Domenici immunity, we lack jurisdiction to review
that denial.
Johnson
,
Domenici nevertheless urges us to review the issue here,
because the district court never gave her the opportunity at
summary judgment to address her presence in the eyewitness
video. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56(е) or (f), Domenici
argues, requires the district court to permit her to respond to
what she characterizes as the district court’s sua sponte denial
of her motion for summary judgment. But the ability to
appeal
any
denial of summary judgment is the narrow
exception, not the rule.
Mohawk Indus., Inc. v. Carpenter
IV.
We conclude by returning to basic principles. “The
resolution of immunity questions,” like those presented by
these appeals, “inherently requires a balance between the
evils inevitable in any available alternative.”
Harlow v.
Fitzgerald
,
Bearing that expectation in mind, we are presented with the plaintiffs’ account of facts in which one officer, Pirone, responded to a call regarding a misdemeanor scrape on a train—which concluded before he arrived—by pulling a weapon on a group of men who were standing around talking. Pirone sought to intimidate the group, which he assumed may have been responsible for the fight. Pirone then sought out two of the men who walked away from him by pacing the platform and screaming profanities in his search for them. The men were all handcuffed and held overnight—but never charged with a crime—after another officer, Mehserle, shot and killed one among them. It is possible that a jury will conclude, after weighing all the facts, that the officers committed no constitutional wrongs. But our task at this stage in the litigation is not to attempt to weigh the facts and resolve the issues definitively in favor of one party or
J OHNSON V . BART 43 another. It is instead to construe the facts in the manner most favorable to the plaintiffs, who have a right to their day in court, and then ask if our solicitude of the judgment of law enforcement in this case requires us to shield the officers from further participation in this lawsuit. (Even though “an action for damages may offer the only realistic avenue for vindication of constitutional guarantees.” Id. at 814.) Construing the facts in the plaintiffs’ favor, we agree lаrgely with the district court that the officers should stand trial for the constitutional violations of which they are accused. Accordingly, we hold:
• Mehserle is not entitled to qualified immunity from Oscar
Grant, Jr.’s Fourteenth Amendment claim, and AFFIRM the district court’s judgment; • We lack jurisdiction to review the district court’s
judgment denying Mehserle qualified immunity from the plaintiffs’ California Civil Code § 52.1 claim, and DISMISS that portion of Mehserle’s appeal; • Mehserle is entitled to qualified immunity from Fernando
Anicete, Jr.’s unlawful arrest claim, and REVERSE the district court’s judgment; • Because the district court relied improperly on Dubner in
denying Mehserle qualified immunity as to their extended detention claims, its judgment is VACATED, and on remand, the district court shall determine whether there is any evidence that Mehserle is responsible for the extended detentions of Fernando Anicete, Jr., Carlos Reyes, or Nigel Bryson;
• Mehserle is not entitled to qualified immunity from Jack
Bryson, Jr.’s unlawful arrest claim, and AFFIRM the district court’s judgment; *35 • Pirone is not entitled to qualified immunity from Reyes’s,
the Brysons’, and Greer’s claim for unlawful detention, and AFFIRM the district court’s judgment; • Pirone is not entitled to qualified immunity from Reyes’s
and the Brysons’ claim for unlawful arrest, and AFFIRM the district court’s judgment; • Pirone is not entitled to qualified immunity from Michael
Greer’s unlawful arrest claim, and AFFIRM the district court’s judgment; and
• To the extent the district court relied on Dubner to deny
Domenici immunity, its judgment is VACATED, and it shall reconsider its decision on remand in accordance with this opinion; beyond that, we lack jurisdiction to review Domenici’s appeal.
• Each party shall bear its own costs on appeal.
AFFIRMED IN PART, REVERSED IN PART, VACATED IN PART, DISMISSED IN PART, AND REMANDED.