Jackson v. Sauls

• Decision Date: 17 March 2000
• Docket Number: No. 98-8980,98-8980
• Citation: 206 F.3d 1156
• Parties: (11th Cir. 2000) Brenda L. JACKSON, as Surviving Mother and Administratrix of the Estate of Willie Jerry Jackson, deceased, Quentin K. Wimbish, Toddrick R. Williams, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. Willie T. SAULS, Ivant T. Fields, Waine L. Pinckney, Defendants-Appellants, City of Atlanta, John Does 1-5, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

Page 1156

206 F.3d 1156 (11th Cir. 2000)

Brenda L. JACKSON, as Surviving Mother and Administratrix of the Estate of Willie Jerry Jackson, deceased, Quentin K. Wimbish, Toddrick R. Williams, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. Willie T. SAULS, Ivant T. Fields, Waine L. Pinckney, Defendants-Appellants, City of Atlanta, John Does 1-5, Defendants.

No. 98-8980.

United States Court of Appeals,

Eleventh Circuit.

March 17, 2000.

[Copyrighted Material Omitted]

[Copyrighted Material Omitted] Appeals from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.

Before ANDERSON, Chief Judge, and COX and HULL, Circuit Judges.

HULL, Circuit Judge:

These 1983 civil rights actions allege that three Atlanta police officers conducted an illegal investigatory stop and used excessive force during that stop. This appeal is from the district court's summary judgment order which held that the Defendant officers were not entitled to qualified immunity. After review, we affirm the district court's denial of summary judgment to Defendants on Plaintiffs' illegal stop claims but reverse the denial of summary judgment to Defendants on Plaintiffs' excessive force claims. We also reverse the district court's grant of summary judgment to Plaintiffs on Defendants' qualified immunity defenses.

I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND

This case concerns a shooting incident involving Jerry Jackson, Quentin Wimbish, and Toddrick Williams (collectively the "Plaintiffs") and Officers Sauls, Fields, and Pinckney (collectively the "Defendants").¹ Although the parties' versions of the shooting incident differ drastically, the summary judgment posture of this case requires us to consider first the events in the light most favorable to Plaintiffs. We then examine Defendants' qualified immunity defenses.

A.The Initial Encounter

At approximately 11:00 a.m. on December 7, 1995, Plaintiffs Jackson, Wimbish, and Williams and their friend Corey Dean, young African-American males, were in Jackson's blue Pontiac 6000, bearing Georgia tag number 8BK94. No one was armed. Driving east on Bankhead Highway, Jackson was on his way to the Moto Cycle Shop at 441 Marietta Street to check on his motorcycle. Jackson left his motorcycle at the Shop for repairs and, that morning, spoke to the Shop's owner about the estimated repair cost.

That day, Defendants Sauls, Pinckney, and Fields, also African-American males, were operating undercover in plain clothes and were in an unmarked gray Pontiac 6000 traveling east on Bankhead Highway. As members of a Field Investigation Team ("Team") of the Atlanta Police Department ("APD"), they were assigned to the 1995 APD Crime Suppression Task Force. The Task Force's mission was to seek out street crimes on a broad and proactive basis.² Defendants were on their way to meet with their supervisor to receive their assignments for the day. Defendant Fields, the senior officer in the group, was driving the gray Pontiac 6000, was armed with a nine millimeter pistol, and was wearing a black cap, a gray plaid shirt, blue jeans, and boots. Defendant Sauls was in the front passenger seat, was armed with a nine millimeter pistol and a .38 caliber revolver, and was wearing a green sweatshirt, blue jeans, and boots. Defendant Pinckney was sitting in the back seat, was armed with a nine millimeter pistol, and was wearing earrings, a brown cap, a navy blue sweatshirt, blue jeans, and boots.

Each Defendant officer had served about one month in a plainclothes law enforcement capacity and did not have any specialized training beyond that received during the police academy basic training program. Prior to this shooting incident, some other Team members had expressed concern that Defendants were too aggressive. Additionally, Officer Fields had a history of complaints against him. Officers Sauls and Pinckney had been disciplined for abusing their authority and failing to conform to directives arising from an incident during which they forced third parties to the floor for half an hour.³

While the two Pontiacs were traveling down Bankhead Highway, Defendants' gray Pontiac approached Plaintiffs' blue Pontiac from behind. Defendants do not claim that Plaintiffs were driving erratically or unlawfully. Instead, Defendants assert that they drew closer to Plaintiffs' blue Pontiac because they thought that its occupants might be fellow Team members. Defendants based this assumption on their knowledge that the Pontiac 6000 is a popular model of car for police undercover work.

Defendants claim that as they approached Plaintiffs' car, the driver Jackson kept looking in the rearview mirror; however, this is disputed. All agree, however, that the officers' gray Pontiac pulled along side Plaintiffs' blue Pontiac. According to Defendants, this made the occupants of the blue Pontiac nervous and Defendants attributed this nervousness to their assumptions that the occupants recognized Defendants as police officers. Defendant Sauls claims that he saw one of the occupants nudge Jackson and mouth the words "Oh shit," but Plaintiff Williams avers that there was no conversation in the blue Pontiac about the officers' gray Pontiac. Although Defendant Pinckney claims that Plaintiff Wimbish stared at him, Wimbish testified only that he "looked back" at one of the occupants, presumably Pinckney, who had looked at him first. Defendants also claim that the occupants in the blue Pontiac looked around but tried not to make eye contact with Defendants.

As Plaintiffs' blue Pontiac continued east on Bankhead Highway and turned south onto Marietta Street toward the Moto Cycle Shop, Defendant Fields followed in the gray Pontiac and then drove in front of the blue Pontiac. Officer Sauls claims that it was at some point during his observation of the occupants of the blue Pontiac that he recalled that a Pontiac 6000 was an easy car to steal. Defendants did not recognize anyone in the blue Pontiac. No one in blue Pontiac recognized Defendants or assumed that Defendants were undercover police officers. By the time the two cars approached the Moto Cycle Shop, Defendant Fields' gray Pontiac was in front of the blue Pontiac. According to Defendants, at some point they decided to move on because they realized that the occupants of the blue Pontiac were not fellow police officers.

B.The Parking Lot

While the officers' car continued on, Jackson turned the blue Pontiac left into the parking lot of the Moto Cycle Shop. The parking lot was on the south side of the shop which faced west toward Marietta Street. Jackson parked next to a dumpster in the parking lot. The three Plaintiffs and Dean got out of their car and walked into the Moto Cycle Shop to check on Jackson's motorcycle. Also present in the Shop were the owner Robert Lebus, and mechanics Tony Delly, Danny Jackson, Thomas Stearns, and Tony Thompson.

After realizing that Jackson's blue Pontiac was no longer behind them, Officer Fields turned his gray Pontiac around and drove to the parking lot next to the Moto Cycle Shop. Defendants based their decision to turn around on a suspicion that the blue Pontiac had been stolen. Defendants aver that their suspicion was based on their observation of the alleged nervousness of the occupants, their knowledge that the Pontiac 6000 is an easy car to steal, and their assertion that the blue Pontiac made such an abrupt turn into the parking lot. However, Plaintiffs' evidence shows that their blue Pontiac turned in a regular fashion and reveals no nervousness by its occupants.

After reaching the Shop's parking lot, Officer Fields pulled his vehicle up on the sidewalk to the rear of Jackson's car partially blocking its movement from the parking lot. Officer Sauls got out of the car and inspected the empty blue Pontiac. There was no physical evidence indicating that Jackson's blue Pontiac had been stolen, such as a broken window or broken ignition, nor was the door ajar.⁴ Officer Sauls also looked in the dumpster but did not find anything suspicious. Neither Sauls, Pinckney, nor Fields called into the APD dispatcher to advise of their stop, its purpose, or its location. The officers had no outside information that Jackson or any of his friends had committed any criminal acts or were about to commit any criminal acts. At some point, Officer Pinckney called in a registration check on the blue Pontiac's license plate.⁵

C.The Moto Cycle Shop

Approximately one minute after Defendants arrived at the parking lot of the Moto Cycle Shop, there was a two-car wreck at a nearby intersection. The crash was loud enough to be heard by the people inside the Moto Cycle Shop and by other persons in the area. Plaintiffs, their friend Dean, and mechanic Delly had been looking at motorcycles, and, in response to the wreck, they walked outside onto the sidewalk in front of the Moto Cycle Shop. They looked toward the accident scene at the intersection of Marietta and Jones Streets, which was in the opposite direction of the parking lot, the two Pontiacs, and the Defendant officers.

After hearing the wreck, Defendants observed that some of the men exiting the Moto Cycle Shop appeared to be the men who had been in the blue Pontiac. According to Plaintiffs, the blue-jean-clad Defendants had their police badges concealed so that nothing visually identified them as police officers. With guns drawn, the three Defendants then approached the men outside and did not verbally identify themselves as police officers. Defendants yelled and cursed at everyone to get back into the Shop and lie down. Officer Sauls stood in the doorway facing the inside of the Shop. Officers Fields and Pinckney were behind Sauls with Fields on the right and Pinckney on the left.⁶ While in the doorway, Defendants swept the Shop's interior with their guns.

There is considerable testimony that at this point everybody in the Moto Cycle Shop thought that Defendants were armed robbers about to harm them because the Defendants yelled obscenities at them, screamed...