Akima v. Peca
| Docket Number | 22-2058 |
| Decision Date | 26 October 2023 |
| Parties | Ryohei Akima, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Caitlyn M. Peca, individually and in her official capacity as a Public Safety Officer, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit |
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan at Detroit. No. 2:21-cv-10080-David M Lawson, District Judge.
ON BRIEF:
Kali May Lester Henderson, T. Joseph Seward, SEWARD HENDERSON PLLC, Royal Oak, Michigan, for Appellant.
Christopher P. Desmond, JOHNSON LAW, PLC, Detroit, Michigan for Appellee.
Before: MOORE, GIBBONS, and STRANCH, Circuit Judges.
In early 2020, Ryohei Akima was arrested for operating a vehicle while intoxicated based on his performance on a three-part field sobriety exam and a preliminary breathalyzer test. Arresting Officer Caitlyn Peca determined that he failed the assessments across the board, but that proved to be incorrect. The Officer had both administered the field sobriety tests improperly and misread the breathalyzer by a factor of ten.
Although Akima blew a blood alcohol content of 0.02, well below the legal limit of 0.08, Peca read the result as 0.22 and arrested him, causing Akima, a Japanese citizen, to lose his work visa and to be deported. When a blood test confirmed the Officer's error, Akima sued, alleging constitutional violations and common law torts. Officer Peca moved to dismiss, and later for summary judgment, based on qualified immunity. The district court permitted Akima's constitutional claims to proceed, concluding that a reasonable jury could determine the Officer lacked probable cause and was not entitled to qualified immunity. We AFFIRM.
On the night of February 19, 2020, Officer Peca arrested Ryohei Akima in Fowlerville, Michigan. At the time, Akima was in the United States on a valid work visa as an employee of a Michigan-based technology company. Officer Peca was in her first six months as a member of the Fowlerville Police Department.[1]
The Officer pulled Akima over for driving with an inoperative headlight, and after effecting the stop, approached his vehicle from the driver's side. Akima greeted her with his window down, and she explained that she was stopping him because of a broken headlight. In an accented voice, Akima replied, "What?" The question prompted Officer Peca to reiterate her explanation, this time speaking more slowly and gesturing to the front of the car. Akima then opened his door and exited the vehicle to inspect the issue she had flagged. Seeing the defunct headlight, Akima expressed comprehension, exclaiming "oh, okay," before returning to the driver's seat. As he reentered the vehicle, Akima spoke briefly in a foreign language, apparently explaining the situation to a colleague in the passenger's seat.
Officer Peca requested Akima's license and registration, continuing in the same methodical tone and using her hands to punctuate her orders. After a little over a minute, Akima produced a handful of documents and stated simply, "international driver's license."
As Akima handed Officer Peca his materials, she asked if he had been drinking. He acknowledged he had been. When Officer Peca asked how much, Akima said, "just a little bit out of the bottle." The Officer ended the inquiry there, directing Akima to look for his insurance and registration while she returned to her vehicle with his paperwork.
Officer Peca began processing the stop by radioing a colleague, Deputy Sheriff Adam Jaime, for advice. She said that Akima could "barely speak English" and was "not going to understand anything"; had given her his Japanese passport and U.S. visa; and had apparently been drinking. She expressed frustration at the situation throughout the call, repeatedly stating, "I don't know," "I don't know." Ultimately, Officer Peca explained that Akima smelled like vodka, had eyes consistent with alcohol consumption, had been drinking, quote, "from the bottle," and had acted erratically during their interaction. The consultation concluded with the officers agreeing that she should run field sobriety tests.
Officer Peca put Akima through a three-part evaluation, starting with an eye exam known as a "horizontal gaze nystagmus" test, a process that "involves moving a stimulus from side to side while the subject follows it with" their eyes. Green v. Throckmorton, 681 F.3d 853, 857 (6th Cir. 2012). The administrator watches for "involuntary jerking of the eye," a reflex that becomes more pronounced with intoxication. See id. Officer Peca testified in her deposition that Akima's performance on this exam was "consistent with an individual being under the influence of alcohol or drugs," though the video is not clear enough to confirm this result. Deputy Jaime reviewed the video and later testified that Officer Peca ran the exam improperly.
Next, Officer Peca conducted a walk-and-turn test, instructing Akima to take nine steps heel-to-toe in one direction before turning and retracing his steps. The video shows Akima swaying moderately as he prepares to start the task, holding both arms out for balance as he walks, and tilting sideways unevenly when he makes the turn. Deputy Jaime testified that each of these behaviors indicated intoxication, and Officer Peca testified that Akima failed the exam.
Deputy Jaime also testified that Peca should have asked Akima if he had any medical conditions or disabilities that might affect his performance on the drill, and that language barriers could affect the outcome of the test.
Last, Officer Peca administered a one-legged-stand test, instructing Akima to stand on one foot while holding his other foot six inches above the ground. Akima held the position with relative stability, though with some wobbling, for around twenty-five seconds before teetering sideways in a near fall. Officer Peca testified that Akima's performance was "consistent with him not completing that task." Deputy Jaime agreed, but also acknowledged that a subject's medical conditions, disabilities, and communication difficulties may affect the results of the one-legged-stand test, just as they may interfere with the walk-and-turn test.
Determining that Akima's performance on these three initial tests suggested intoxication, Peca conducted a preliminary breathalyzer test. She instructed Akima to blow into the breathalyzer, which required four attempts before Akima registered a reading. Officer Peca interpreted the test as showing an alcohol content of 0.22, well above Michigan's legal limit of 0.08. In reality, however, the breathalyzer had reported 0.02, well under the legal limit. Upon making the mistaken reading, the Officer placed Akima under arrest for operating while intoxicated and detained him in the back of her police unit.[2]
Officer Peca then took her place in the front of her vehicle to process the arrest, and Deputy Jaime soon joined her. After several minutes of reviewing Akima's information, the officers reengaged with him, asking how long he would be in the country and whether he had any form of U.S. identification. Akima explained the details of his visa, that he had an international, not a U.S., driver's license, and that the license should be in his vehicle but that he had not had time to locate it at the beginning of the encounter. Akima then sought permission to retrieve his international license from his car, but the officers said it was now "irrelevant." It is undisputed that Akima's international license was, in fact, in his vehicle during the arrest.
Officer Peca spent the next half-hour on paperwork, requesting a warrant to draw Akima's blood. During that time, she made several comments about her ability to complete the arrest. At the beginning, she chastised herself for being "so unprepared." Later, she told a colleague over the radio, "I have no idea what I'm doing." At the end, she thanked the same colleague for his help, reiterating, "I literally had no idea what I was doing."
Officer Peca eventually completed the paperwork, obtained a search warrant, and transported Akima to the hospital for a blood draw before booking him at the county jail. The blood draw took place around an hour-and-a-half after the initial stop. When the results came back a week later, they revealed a blood alcohol content of 0.014, which, like Akima's breathalyzer score, falls well below Michigan's legal limit. Soon after, the charges against Akima for operating while intoxicated were dismissed.
Akima sued Officer Peca for false arrest, false imprisonment, and intentional infliction of emotional distress in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. He alleged that, as a result of the arrest and notwithstanding the ultimate dismissal of charges against him, his U.S. visa was revoked and he was deported to Japan. According to the complaint, Akima was required to complete substance abuse courses in Japan before he could renew his visa, and the process interrupted his ability to work in the United States for several months.
Seeking compensation for this ordeal, Akima filed a complaint on January 11, 2021. Officer Peca moved for judgment on the pleadings the next month, asserting qualified immunity, and then moved to stay discovery pending the resolution of her motion. The district court granted the stay motion, citing Peca's qualified immunity defense, but denied without prejudice the motion for judgment on the pleadings, permitting Akima to amend his complaint.
Akima filed an amended complaint in September 2021. The district court then sua sponte lifted the stay, explaining that it had reviewed the amended complaint and determined it contained "facts that...
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