Allen ST. JOHN, Plaintiff–Appellant, v. David HICKEY, Sheriff, Vinton County, Ohio, in his individual and official capacities; Charles Boyer, Corporal, Vinton County Sheriff‘s Department, in his individual and official capacities; Greg Wolfe, Officer, Vinton County Sheriff‘s Department, in his individual and official capacities, Defendants-Appellees.
No. 04-3388.
United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.
Argued: March 16, 2005. Decided and Filed: June 20, 2005.
411 F.3d 762
OPINION
CLAY, Circuit Judge.
Plaintiff Allen St. John appeals the district court‘s grant of summary judgment to Defendants David Hickey, the Sheriff of Vinton County, Ohio, and two of his deputies, Corporal Charles Boyer and Officer Greg Wolfe with respect to St. John‘s excessive force and wrongful arrest claims, which he brought under
I. BACKGROUND
This case arises out of an acrimonious dispute between neighbors in the small town of Hamden, Ohio, which is located in Vinton County. Because the case comes to this Court following entry of summary judgment in favor of Defendants, we consider the facts in the light most favorable to St. John. Between the spring and fall of 2000, St. John, confined to a wheelchair by his muscular dystrophy, frequently complained to the Vinton County Sheriff‘s Department that members of the McManus family were parking on his grass and hitting his trash cans with their cars. The McManuses, who lived across the street from St. John and his family, had refused St. John‘s requests to cease these practices. St. John alleges that members of the McManus family, including six adult children, had begun to threaten him. These threats peaked when St. John took his grievance to the city council, who ruled that the McManuses were to park only on their side of the street and St. John only on his. When Jesse McManus died in June 2000, several of his sons and relatives surrounded St. John‘s car, preventing him from exiting. Keith McManus, Jesse‘s son, threatened to “put a bullet between [St. John‘s] eyes.”
In the wake of these threats, St. John became concerned for his safety and decided to install security lights on his garage. During June 2000, the McManuses complained about the lights to Sheriff David Hickey, a defendant herein. Hickey came to St. John‘s house, informed him of the complaints and, at St. John‘s suggestion, adjusted the lights. On October 27, 2000, St. John was charged by Corporal Boyer of the sheriff‘s department, also a defendant herein, with disorderly conduct on the grounds that the lights were bothering several neighbors, including the McManuses. On November 2, 2000, St. John was again charged with disorderly conduct,
On November 9, 2000, Mrs. McManus complained to Sheriff Hickey that St. John‘s lights were again shining on her house. Hickey instructed Boyer to assess whether the lights were pointed in the same direction as when Boyer had cited St. John for disorderly conduct on October 27, 2000; Boyer confirmed that they were. In addition, Hickey spoke with Mrs. McManus who alleged that St. John had added another light on his garage such that two lights were now focused at the McManus residence. At his deposition, Hickey testified that “[t]he front of the McManus’ house was brightly lit due to the lights. I asked Ms. McManus to turn her inside lights in the living room off. The flood lights [from St. John‘s garage] illuminated the living room.”
Hickey and Boyer then proceeded to St. John‘s house, knocked on the door, and were permitted to enter by St. John‘s wife. St. John insisted that he had not adjusted the lights in any way since the day in June when Hickey adjusted them. According to Hickey, St. John used profanities and refused to shut off the lights without written assurance from the Sheriff that he and his family would be safe. Hickey said he could not make such a promise and threatened to arrest St. John if he refused to shut off the lights. Hickey then prepared to issue a citation to St. John but St. John refused to provide the necessary information; however, St. John‘s wife offered the information and St. John himself cooperated after Hickey explained that he could be charged with obstruction of justice. St. John instructed his wife to turn the lights off but when another officer arrived, officer Greg Wolfe, St. John instructed his wife to turn them back on. The officers then arrested St. John. Hickey asked St. John‘s wife for St. John‘s medication, which she provided. Boyer and Officer Wolfe carried St. John, while in his wheelchair, out of the house through the front door. Because there was a step to negotiate on the way out, the officers turned the wheelchair around and proceeded backwards. As they did this, St. John fell out of the wheelchair. The officers picked St. John up, placed him back in his wheelchair, and proceeded to a waiting police cruiser.
When they arrived at the cruiser, St. John explained that he could not fit in the back seat because he was unable to bend his legs. Officer Wolfe replied that he had successfully placed much bigger men in the back seat of the cruiser. The officers then attempted to put St. John into the back seat but were not able to do so because St. John‘s leg became caught between the rear door and the body of the cruiser. This caused injury to St. John‘s leg. As the officers attempted to remove St. John from the cruiser and return him to the wheelchair they twice dropped him. By now St. John was having difficulty breathing and the officers called paramedics to transport him to a hospital.
At his deposition, Sheriff Hickey admitted that he knew there was a wheelchair ramp attached to the back of St. John‘s house but did not explain why the officers nevertheless elected to exit through the front door. In addition, Hickey acknowledged that as of November 9, 2000, St. John‘s October disorderly conduct charge relating to his lights was still pending before a county court. Further, Hickey acknowledged that with the assistance of St. John‘s wife, he had been provided all the necessary information to issue a citation for disorderly conduct. Consequently, Hickey admitted that an arrest was not strictly necessary; the matter could have been left to the county court. However, each of the officers confirmed that the
St. John brought this action under
As for the individual capacity claims, the district court held that Defendants did not use excessive force in their arrest of St. John. The court observed that none of the Defendants’ decisions as they removed St. John from his house and attempted to place him in the cruiser were objectively unreasonable. Nor were the mishaps that occurred the result of excessive force; rather, the district court reasoned, “[a]t best, the plaintiff has demonstrated negligence, but not excessive use of force.” Finally, the district court held that Hickey and his colleagues had probable cause to arrest St. John because his persistent lack of cooperation elevated the initial disorderly conduct offense to fourth degree disorderly conduct, an arrestable offense under Ohio law. Accordingly, the district court granted summary judgment to Defendants in their individual capacities and dismissed St. John‘s state law claims without prejudice.
On appeal, St. John again asserts that (1) Hickey and his colleagues lacked probable cause to arrest him; (2) the officers used excessive force during the arrest; and (3) Vinton County‘s failure to train its Sheriff‘s Department regarding how to properly arrest handicapped suspects constitutes deliberate indifference to those suspects’ constitutional rights.
II. STANDARD OF REVIEW
St. John appeals the grant of summary judgment to Defendants. This Court reviews a district court‘s decision to grant summary judgment de novo. E.g., Cockrel v. Shelby County Sch. Dist., 270 F.3d 1036, 1048 (6th Cir. 2001). Summary judgment shall be granted when “the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there
III. DISCUSSION
A. Qualified Immunity
But as a precursor to the Harlow qualified immunity analysis, a court must first determine whether any constitutional violation occurred, let alone the violation of a clearly established right. E.g., Saucier v. Katz, 533 U.S. 194, 201, 121 S.Ct. 2151, 150 L.Ed.2d 272 (2001); Jackson v. Leighton, 168 F.3d 903, 909 (6th Cir. 1999). If the court finds no violation, then the case must be dismissed at this threshold stage because
Thus, in the present case, which comes to the Court in the summary judgment posture, we must permit the case to go to a jury if, first, there are genuine issues of material fact as to whether Defendants violated St. John‘s Fourth Amendment rights in an objectively unreasonable way and, second, those rights were clearly established at the time of St. John‘s arrest such that a reasonable officer would have known that his conduct violated them. Champion v. Outlook Nashville, Inc., 380 F.3d 893, 900-901 (6th Cir. 2004); Feathers v. Aey, 319 F.3d 843, 848 (6th Cir. 2003); Burchett, 310 F.3d at 942-43; Risbridger v. Connelly, 275 F.3d 565, 569 (6th Cir. 2002) (citing Williams v. Mehra, 186 F.3d 685, 691 (6th Cir. 1999) (en banc)).
B. Probable Cause
1. The Violation of a Constitutional Right
St. John contends the defendants lacked probable cause when they arrested him for disorderly conduct on November 9, 2000. The defendants had probable cause if at the moment they arrested St. John, “the facts and circumstances within their knowledge and of which they had reasonably trustworthy information were suffi-
Defendants do not indicate in their brief precisely which section of the disorderly conduct statute they had probable cause to believe St. John had violated, but there are at least two sections arguably implicated by the facts. First, as articulated by the complaint Hickey filed six days after the arrest, the officers might have had probable cause to believe that “[o]n or about November 9, 2000 ... St. John did recklessly cause inconvenience, annoyance, or alarm to another by: insulting, taunting, or challenging another, under circumstances in which that conduct is likely to provoke a violent response; in violation of [Ohio Revised Code § 2917.11(A)(3)].” (quoting statute). Second, the officers additionally or alternatively might have had probable cause to believe St. John recklessly caused inconvenience, annoyance, or alarm to another by “[c]reating a condition that is physically offensive to persons ... by an act that serves no lawful and reasonable purpose of the offender.”
Both theories of probable cause involve material factual disputes. According to the allegation that St. John probably violated
Nevertheless, fact questions preclude us from holding as a matter of law that the officers had probable cause to make the arrest; the most we can say is that the allegations of Hickey and his colleagues might amount to probable cause to
The same is true with respect to the second possible theory of probable cause, namely, that St. John had probably violated
2. The Right was Clearly Established
It is clearly established that officers must have probable cause to make an arrest. E.g., Radvansky, 395 F.3d at 310; Klein, 275 F.3d at 550; Donovan, 105 F.3d at 298. Here, the question is whether the officers’ allegations are true; if they are, then probable cause arguably existed and
C. Excessive Force
1. The Violation of a Constitutional Right
The Fourth Amendment to the Constitution guarantees that “[t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons ... against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated ....” U.S. Const. amend IV. Under the Fourth Amendment, “the ‘reasonableness’ of a particular seizure depends not only on when it is made, but also on how it is carried out.” Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386, 395, 109 S.Ct. 1865, 104 L.Ed.2d 443 (1989) (citing Tennessee v. Garner, 471 U.S. 1, 7-8, 105 S.Ct. 1694, 85 L.Ed.2d 1 (1985)). Thus there is a cause of action under
In Graham, the Supreme Court instructed reviewing courts to consider various factors in evaluating excessive force and unreasonable arrest claims. Accordingly, the “proper application” of the reasonableness inquiry “requires careful attention to the facts and circumstances of each particular case, including the severity of the crime at issue, whether the suspect poses an immediate threat to the safety of the officers or others, and whether he is actively resisting arrest or attempting to evade arrest by flight.” Id. at 396 (citing Garner, 471 U.S. at 8-9). These factors do not constitute an exhaustive list; the ultimate question is “whether the totality of the circumstances justifies a particular sort of seizure.” Id. Resolving this question in a particular case inherently requires the court to carefully balance the nature of the intrusion on the arrestee‘s Fourth Amendment rights against “the countervailing governmental interests at stake.” Garner, 471 U.S. at 8. Finally, as this Court has observed, “[t]his standard contains a built-in measure of deference to the officer‘s on-the-spot judgment about the level of force necessary in light of the circumstances of the particular case.” Burchett, 310 F.3d at 944.
Applying these principles to the circumstances of this case, we conclude there are genuine issues of material fact regarding whether Sheriff Hickey and his colleagues, Corporal Boyer and Officer Wolfe, acted reasonably when they attempted to place St. John in the cruiser
After Boyer and Wolfe carried St. John out of the house,3 they wheeled him to a cruiser. At this point, it is undisputed that St. John explained to the officers that he would not be able to fit in the back seat due to his muscular dystrophy. Specifically, in his affidavit, St. John states: “I told the officers that I would not fit in the back seat. Because of my disability, my legs would not bend. They paid no attention. Moreover, Officer Wolfe said that he had bigger men transported in the back seat. So the two officers continued to push with force to have me and my legs inside the cruiser. As they pushed, moved, turned, and twisted me and my legs, maneuvering me partially into the back seat, my leg got caught between the police cruiser and its back door, causing injury.” In addition, it is undisputed that after the officers ceased trying to situate St. John in the back seat, they attempted to return him to his wheelchair and dropped him twice in the process.
Defendants contend that their actions were reasonable because St. John did not assist in their attempts to place him into the back seat. Defendants further claim that it was reasonable to place St. John in the back seat because “they had transported men larger than [St. John] in the back of cruisers before.” In addition, Defendants assert that they were aware that St. John had been transported in a police cruiser in the past and therefore it was reasonable for him to be transported in a cruiser on this occasion. Regarding the first contention, we note that the record
Defendants’ second contention is plainly not responsive to St. John‘s objection to being placed in the back seat. St. John informed the officers that he could not fit because his legs would not bend in light of his disability. The officers responded that they had successfully transported “bigger men” in the back of police cruisers. Indeed, Wolfe testified at his deposition that because of prior experiences with bigger men in the back seat, “I knew it was not physically impossible to get him in the back of the cruiser.” Viewing the facts in the light most favorable to St. John, we cannot hold that the officers’ response was reasonable as a matter of law. St. John did not say he was too big to fit, but rather that his disability rendered it impossible to sit in the manner required to fit in the back seat. As for the officers’ third contention—that they were aware St. John had previously been transported in a cruiser—this, too, is not necessarily a reasonable basis for putting St. John in the back seat of the cruiser. St. John stated in his affidavit that after his arrest in June 2000, “Corporal Boyer transported me from the Nobel County Jail. On that occasion, Corporal Boyer transported me in his police cruiser in the front seat with oxygen equipment on hand that I used at the time. And there was no problem.” It is not clear from the record whether the officers 4 were relying on their memory of this occasion for their claim that it was reasonable to place St. John in the back seat. In any event, on these facts there is a colorable claim that the officers’ decision to place St. John in the back seat was unreasonable.
In sum, viewing the facts in the light most favorable to St. John, we conclude that a reasonable jury could find in his favor on the claim that Defendants used excessive force in attempting to place him into the back seat. St. John informed the officers that his legs would not fit and they knew he was disabled and wheelchair-bound. Indeed, Wolfe acknowledged at his deposition that St. John‘s legs would not bend; Wolfe further acknowledged that this may have been due to St. John‘s inability to bend them. Wolfe also testified that the officers attempted to push St. John such that he was facing forward and his legs fit in the car. Boyer testified that he expected St. John to assist the officers but instead St. John did “nothing.” Whether Boyer‘s assumption that St. John would assist was reasonable under the circumstances (Boyer testified that he knew that St. John drove a car and thus assumed he could enter and exit) is for the jury alone to determine because we cannot say the assumption was reasonable as a matter of law.
2. The Right was Clearly Established
Viewing the facts in the light most favorable to St. John, Defendants’ conduct was objectively unreasonable. We now consider whether this alleged conduct resulted in a violation of a clearly established constitutional right. Saucier v. Katz, 533 U.S. 194, 201-202, 121 S.Ct. 2151, 150 L.Ed.2d 272 (2001). In Saucier, the Supreme Court explained:
[T]here is no doubt that Graham v. Connor [ ] clearly establishes the general proposition that use of force is contrary to the Fourth Amendment if it is excessive under objective standards of reasonableness. Yet that is not enough. Rather, we emphasized in Anderson “that the right the official is alleged to have violated must have been ‘clearly established’ in a more particularized, and hence more relevant sense: The contours of the right must be sufficiently clear that a reasonable official would understand that what he is doing violates that right.” [Anderson v. Creighton, 483 U.S. 635, 640, 107 S.Ct. 3034, 97 L.Ed.2d 523 (1987)].
Saucier, 533 U.S. at 202. Accordingly, the Court held that “[t]he relevant, dispositive inquiry in determining whether a right is clearly established is whether it would be clear to a reasonable officer that his conduct was unlawful in the situation he confronted.” Id. Thus, “[i]f the law did not put the officer on notice that his conduct would be clearly unlawful, summary judgment based on qualified immunity is appropriate.” Id.
Novel factual circumstances, however, do not automatically require a finding of qualified immunity. Hope v. Pelzer, 536 U.S. 730, 741, 122 S.Ct. 2508, 153 L.Ed.2d 666 (2002); Champion v. Outlook Nashville, Inc., 380 F.3d 893, 902 (6th Cir. 2004). The critical question is whether the case law has put the officer on notice that his conduct is clearly unlawful. To resolve this question, this Court “must look first to decisions of the Supreme Court, then to decisions of this court and other courts within our circuit, and finally to decisions of other circuits.” Higgason v. Stephens, 288 F.3d 868, 876 (6th Cir. 2002). The Court can consider more than merely the factual context of a prior case: “the general reasoning that a court employs” also may suffice for purposes of putting the defendant on notice that his conduct is clearly unconstitutional. Feathers, 319 F.3d at 848.
Applying these principles to the present case, we conclude the right of a nonviolent arrestee to be free from unnecessary pain knowingly inflicted during an arrest was clearly established as of November 9, 2000, the day the defendants arrested St. John. Consequently, the defendants are not entitled to qualified immunity on St. John‘s claim that they violated his Fourth Amendment rights by attempting to place him in the back seat of the police cruiser after he specifically explained that his legs would not bend on account of his muscular dystrophy. Under these circumstances, a reasonable officer would have known that the manner of the arrest was clearly unlawful. See Saucier, 533 U.S. at 202.
First, as the Court observed in Saucier, the Graham analysis regarding excessive force claims was clearly established at the time of St. John‘s arrest. Thus, Sheriff Hickey and his colleagues were on notice that the legality of an arrest depends not only on when it is effectuated but also on how it is effectuated. See Graham, 490 U.S. at 393-96. In addition, the officers were aware that the Graham factors are applied by courts to determine the reasonableness of arresting officers’ conduct in a given case. Accordingly, the officers were aware that the Fourth Amendment required them to take into account the risk of violence or flight posed by St. John, the seriousness of the crime they suspected him of committing, and whether he was actively resisting arrest. Graham, 490 U.S. at 396. In this circuit, furthermore, police officers would have been aware as of 1983 that a Fourth Amendment seizure must be
In a more specific sense, a reasonable officer in 2000 would have known that excessive force does not require an allegation of assault and that the conditions under which officers detain a person are relevant for purposes of the Fourth Amendment. Cornwell v. Dahlberg, 963 F.2d 912, 915 (6th Cir. 1992) (recognizing that detaining someone face down on cold and muddy ground may constitute excessive force). Further, a reasonable officer would have known that the unnecessary infliction of pain on an arrestee constitutes a Fourth Amendment violation. Martin v. Heideman, 106 F.3d 1308, 1312-13 (6th Cir.1997); Walton v. City of Southfield, 995 F.2d 1331, 1342 (6th Cir.1993) (both holding that an excessive force claim may be based on officers’ handcuffing an arrestee unnecessarily tightly). Viewing the facts in the light most favorable to St. John, a reasonable jury could conclude that, having heard the protestations of an obviously disabled and wheelchair-bound man that his legs could not bend, the officers nevertheless pushed St. John into the back seat of the cruiser and attempted to bend his legs, causing him pain that was clearly unnecessary in light of the limited government interest at stake at that particular moment. Because a reasonable officer would have known as of November 9, 2000, that this conduct was clearly unlawful, the defendants are not entitled to qualified immunity to the extent they attempted to place St. John in the back seat of the cruiser after he explained the limitations of his legs.
D. Official Capacity Claim
St. John additionally contends that Sheriff Hickey must be held liable in his official capacity for failure to adequately train his deputies—and presumably himself—in the arrest and transportation of disabled and/or wheelchair-bound persons. In our view, the district court properly granted summary judgment to Defendants in their official capacities because St. John has not come forward with sufficient evidence that Vinton County was deliberately indifferent to citizens’ Fourth Amendment rights.
The Supreme Court has held that “[o]fficial capacity suits generally represent only another way of pleading an action against an entity of which an officer is an agent.” Monell v. Dep‘t of Soc. Serv. of City of New York, 436 U.S. 658, 691, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 56 L.Ed.2d 611 (1978). And as this Court very recently observed, where a
St. John presents no evidence tending to show that Sheriff Hickey and the Vinton County Sheriff‘s Department “ignored a history of abuse and [were] clearly on notice that the training in this particular area was deficient and likely to cause injury.” Fisher, 398 F.3d at 849. While St. John can point to evidence in the record tending to show that Sheriff Hickey did not provide specific training on the issue of detaining and transporting disabled and/or wheelchair-bound persons,5 this in and of itself does not support the conclusion that the need for such training was obvious in order to prevent violations of citizens’ constitutional rights. St. John does not argue that the Sheriff failed to provide training on the core constitutional obligations of arresting officers, such as the requirement that an arrest be supported by probable cause and that it be carried out in a reasonable manner under the circumstances. A complete lack of training on concepts so fundamental as these may enable a plaintiff to survive summary judgment “without showing a pattern of constitutional violations.” Brown, 520 U.S. at 409. But such a case is very rare; indeed, the plaintiff must show that a violation of constitutional rights is “a highly predictable consequence of a failure to equip law enforcement officers with specific tools to handle recurring situations.” Id. (emphases added). Although it is reasonable, as St. John contends, to assume that arresting officers in Vinton County will encounter disabled and/or wheelchair-bound persons, this assumption alone does not support the conclusion required for
Because St. John did not produce evidence that Sheriff Hickey ignored a pattern of constitutional violations, nor that the failure to train on the specific issue of arresting and transporting wheelchair-bound persons was highly likely to result in widespread violations of constitutional rights, this Court must affirm the district court‘s grant of summary judgment to Defendants in their official capacities. See Brown, 520 U.S. at 403, 407-409; Fisher, 398 F.3d at 849; Stemler, 126 F.3d at 865.
IV. CONCLUSION
We AFFIRM the judgment of the district court to the extent it relates to claims against Defendants in their official capacities but REVERSE the judgment to the