Jones v. City and County of Denver, Colo.

• Decision Date: 12 August 1988
• Docket Number: No. 87-2167,87-2167
• Parties: Charles F. JONES, Jr., for himself and his minor son, Arronamus J. Jones, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. CITY AND COUNTY OF DENVER, COLORADO; M. Fiori; M. Staskin; Denver Police Department; and Does 1 Through 30, Defendants, and J. Vacca; Sgt. Thiede; and Officer Webb, Defendants-Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit

Page 1206

854 F.2d 1206

Charles F. JONES, Jr., for himself and his minor son,

Arronamus J. Jones, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. CITY AND COUNTY OF DENVER, COLORADO; M. Fiori; M. Staskin;

Denver Police Department; and Does 1 Through 30,

Defendants,

and

J. Vacca; Sgt. Thiede; and Officer Webb, Defendants-Appellants.

No. 87-2167.

United States Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit.

Aug. 12, 1988.

Robert Mark Liechty (Theodore S. Halaby of Halaby & McCrea, Denver, Colo., and H. Alan Dill of Dill, Dill & McAllister, Denver, Colo., with him on the brief), of Halaby & McCrea, Denver, Colo., for defendants-appellants.

William A. Richardson, Denver, Colo., for plaintiffs-appellees.

Before LOGAN, MOORE, and TACHA, Circuit Judges.

TACHA, Circuit Judge.

This appeal is from the district court's denial of defendants' motion for summary judgment on qualified immunity grounds, and it raises two issues. First, we must decide whether an order denying a summary judgment motion proffered on qualified immunity grounds is immediately appealable when a plaintiff has requested injunctive relief in addition to money damages. If we answer that question affirmatively, we must determine whether the district court properly denied the summary judgment motion in this case. We hold that the denial order here is immediately appealable, and we reverse the trial court's denial of the motion for summary judgment.

I.

This civil rights suit arises out of a series of incidents between members of the Denver Police Department and the plaintiff Charles Jones. This appeal relates to searches and/or arrests that occurred on June 18, 1984, April 18, 1985, and September 1, 1985. ¹ Jones alleges that the three Denver police officers pursuing this appeal acted under color of state law to deny him his fourth amendment right to be free of unreasonable searches and seizures in violation of 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983. Jones also alleges that one of the officers filed groundless charges against him in order to increase the bond required for Jones's release. Jones seeks both monetary and injunctive relief for these alleged violations. Before any discovery occurred, the defendants filed motions for summary judgment on qualified immunity grounds. The district court denied the defendants' motions because, in its view, there were disputed facts at issue that precluded a ruling on the qualified immunity question. The court did not specify which factual disputes precluded such a ruling. Three of the defendants, Officer Vacca, Sergeant Thiede, and Officer Webb, all of the Denver Police Department, appeal.

II.

The plaintiff argues initially that this court lacks jurisdiction to review the district court's ruling on the summary judgment motion. Jones contends that because he seeks injunctive relief in addition to money damages, the court's denial order does not constitute a final order within the meaning of 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1291. While the Supreme Court in Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 105 S.Ct. 2806, 86 L.Ed.2d 411 (1985), held that a district court's denial of a summary judgment motion based on qualified immunity is immediately appealable, the Court left open the question whether such denial is appealable when a claim for injunctive relief is pending and will be tried regardless of the outcome on the qualified immunity question. ² Id. at 519 n. 5, 105 S.Ct. at 2812 n. 5. This question has split the courts of appeal. Compare Scott v. Lacy, 811 F.2d 1153 (7th Cir.1987) (per curiam) (appealable); Kennedy v. City of Cleveland, 797 F.2d 297, 306 (6th Cir.1986) (same), cert. denied, 479 U.S. 1103, 107 S.Ct. 1334, 94 L.Ed.2d 185 (1987); De Abadia v. Izquierdo Mora, 792 F.2d 1187, 1190 (1st Cir.1986) (same) and Tubbesing v. Arnold, 742 F.2d 401, 404 (8th Cir.1984) (same) with Riley v. Wainwright, 810 F.2d 1006, 1007 (11th Cir.1987) (per curiam) (presence of claim for injunctive relief alternative ground for denying appeal) and Bever v. Gilbertson, 724 F.2d 1083, 1086-87 (4th Cir.) (not appealable), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 948, 105 S.Ct. 349, 83 L.Ed.2d 285 (1984). Recently, this court joined the majority of circuit courts that have addressed the question. We held that a pending claim for injunctive relief does not preclude appellate jurisdiction over an interlocutory appeal of an order denying a summary judgment motion based on a defense of qualified immunity to a damages claim. DeVargas v. Mason & Hanger-Silas Mason Co., 844 F.2d 714, 717-18 (10th Cir.1988). DeVargas forecloses any contention that the presence of a claim for injunctive relief curtails our jurisdiction in this case, and we proceed to review the district court's resolution of the qualified immunity question.

III.

Qualified immunity is an affirmative defense that shields governmental officials from personal liability unless their actions violate "clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known." Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 818, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 2738, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982); Pueblo Neighborhood Health Centers, Inc. v. Losavio, 847 F.2d 642, 645 (10th Cir.1988). In two recent cases the Supreme Court has defined the scope of qualified immunity for police officers sued when the actions they have taken implicate fourth amendment interests. In Malley v. Briggs, 475 U.S. 335, 106 S.Ct. 1092, 89 L.Ed.2d 271 (1986), the Court held that officers applying for arrest or search warrants will lose the shield of immunity "[o]nly where the warrant application is so lacking in indicia of probable cause as to render official belief in its existence unreasonable." Id. at 344-45, 106 S.Ct. at 1097-98. In Anderson v. Creighton, --- U.S. ----, 107 S.Ct. 3034, 97 L.Ed.2d 523 (1987), the Court held that the shield of immunity protects police officers from liability for warrantless searches as long as the "objective (albeit fact-specific) question whether a reasonable officer could have believed [the] warrantless search to be lawful" can be answered affirmatively. Id. 107 S.Ct. at 3040. We hold that an analogous inquiry appropriately determines whether immunity will protect an officer from liability for a warrantless arrest.

Jones contends that his clearly established fourth amendment rights were violated in four ways. First, he claims the searches that preceded his June and April arrests were not supported by probable cause. Second, he argues that the June and April arrests themselves were improper because they were executed without arrest warrants. Third, he contends that his June and April arrests, as well as his September arrest, were unsupported by probable cause. Finally, Jones alleges that one of the officers filed a groundless escape charge against him in order to increase the bond Jones would need to pay in order to secure his release after he turned himself in to police on July 2, 1984. We examine each of these claims.

A.

A reasonable officer could conclude that search warrants issued before each of Jones's first two arrests were supported by probable cause. On June 14, 1984, Detective Fiori submitted an affidavit for a warrant to search Jones's residence. The affidavit disclosed that a claims adjuster had good reason to believe that Jones was involved in a scheme to obtain a fraudulent insurance settlement for stolen goods that had been damaged in an automobile accident. The Fiori affidavit also revealed that there was good reason to believe that the stolen property, two color television sets and two VCRs, was at the Jones residence.

On April 18, 1985, Detective Webb submitted an affidavit indicating that a reliable confidential informant had observed Jones forging business checks that were subsequently passed to local stores for cash. Based on the information provided by the informant, Webb requested a search warrant to recover, from Jones's place of business, those implements and devices that could be used to commit such forgery.

In each instance, a reasonable officer could conclude that the decision to issue a search warrant was supported by probable cause. The objects of the searches were described with particularity in each of the warrants and the information provided in the affidavits was obtained from reliable sources.

B.

Jones's second contention is that his arrests were invalid because the officers did not obtain arrest warrants. He relies on Colorado statutory and decisional law to argue that clearly established law requires arrest warrants in all cases. Section 1983 does not, however, provide a basis for redressing violations of state law, but only for those violations of federal law done under color of state law. Gomez v. Toledo, 446 U.S. 635, 640, 100 S.Ct. 1920, 1923, 64 L.Ed.2d 572 (1980). Thus, only if federal law required arrest warrants does Jones have a cognizable claim in this regard against these defendants for arresting without such warrants. Federal law does not impose such a requirement for either of Jones's arrests.

The June arrest occurred in Jones's home immediately after officers searched his home pursuant to a search warrant. Jones argues that because he was arrested at home, federal law requires an arrest warrant. His argument appears to rest on the Supreme Court's decision in Payton v. New York, 445 U.S. 573, 100 S.Ct. 1371, 63 L.Ed.2d 639 (1980). In Payton, police officers without any warrant entered a suspect's home in order to arrest him. The Supreme Court invalidated the arrest and held that the fourth amendment prohibits police officers from making warrantless and nonconsensual entries into suspects' homes to make routine felony arrests. Jones apparently reads Payton to say that home arrests are invalid unless accomplished pursuant to an arrest warrant even when police possess a search warrant. Plaintiff's contention fails to recognize, however, that after deciding that the fourth amendment prohibits a warrantless entry into a suspect's home in order to arrest him or her, the Payton Court went on to consider whether an arrest...