Case Information
*2 Before: GRABER and TALLMAN, Circuit Judges, and RAKOFF, [***] Senior District Judge.
Defendants James Nuti, Amanda Nuti, Carol Capas, Nick Capas, Alison Hadfield, Scott Hadfield, Nate Tasch, Erin Tasch, Sean Gijanto, Heather Gijanto, Forest Hauser, and Joyce Hauser appeal the district court’s denial of their motion to dismiss on the ground that they are entitled to qualified immunity. We affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand.
We review de novo a district court’s denial of a motion to dismiss on the
ground of immunity. Morley v. Walker,
In his second amended complaint, Plaintiff alleges that Defendant James Nuti violated his rights through several actions, including: driving an SUV toward Plaintiff in a threatening manner; initiating a meritless manhunt in search of Plaintiff by falsely reporting that Plaintiff pointed a gun at him and, later, slightly changing his story to falsely report that Plaintiff had pointed a gun at the ground; *3 attacking Plaintiff on Highway 82; arresting Plaintiff without probable cause; pointing a gun at Plaintiff after he had been handcuffed and was lying on the floor; threatening Plaintiff that he had to leave Cochise County after he got out of jail; and, after Plaintiff was released from jail, submitting falsified reports to the prosecutor’s office stating that Plaintiff had pointed a gun at the ground during their initial altercation. Assuming, as we must, those allegations to be true, we conclude that Nuti is not entitled to qualified immunity as to Plaintiff’s first, fifth, and eighth claims.
Because Plaintiff’s first claim alleges physically intrusive governmental
conduct, we review it under the "Fourth Amendment and its ‘reasonableness’
standard, rather than under a ‘substantive due process’ approach." Graham v.
Connor,
Plaintiff’s fifth claim alleges that Nuti unlawfully arrested Plaintiff even
though he knew that Plaintiff had never pointed a gun at him or at the ground.
*4
Taking the facts alleged in the complaint to be true, Nuti is not entitled to qualified
immunity on this claim. See Dubner v. City of San Francisco,
Plaintiff’s eighth claim alleges that Nuti unlawfully detained Plaintiff for
64.5 hours despite having fabricated all the evidence against Plaintiff. Taking the
facts alleged in the complaint to be true, Nuti is not entitled to qualified immunity
on this claim. See Lee v. City of Los Angeles,
After careful consideration of all the remaining claims raised in Plaintiff’s second amended complaint—and to the degree that any of Plaintiff’s claims apply to any other Defendants—we hold that those Defendants are entitled to qualified immunity. We reverse the district court’s decision relating to those remaining federal claims and remand with instructions to dismiss all claims as to all Defendants other than Nuti and to dismiss all claims as to Nuti, with the exception of Plaintiff’s first, fifth, and eighth claims. [1]
AFFIRMED in part; REVERSED in part and REMANDED with instructions. The parties shall bear their own costs on appeal.
Notes
[***] The Honorable Jed S. Rakoff, United States Senior District Judge for the Southern District of New York, sitting by designation.
[1] This instruction to dismiss, of course, does not apply to Plaintiff’s state-law
slander and defamation claim, which Defendants concede we do not have
jurisdiction to review. See Billington v. Smith,
