Arrington-Bey v. City of Bedford Heights

• Citation: 858 F.3d 988
• Decision Date: 24 February 2017
• Docket Number: No. 16-3317,16-3317
• Parties: Anita ARRINGTON-BEY, Administratrix of the Estate of Omar K. Arrington-Bey, Plaintiff–Appellee, v. CITY OF BEDFORD HEIGHTS, OHIO ; Tim Honsaker; Maurice Ellis; Phillip Chow ; David Leonardi; Jeffrey Mudra; Cheryl Sindone; Cynthia Lee; Carolyn Hill, Defendants–Appellants.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (6th Circuit)

858 F.3d 988

Anita ARRINGTON-BEY, Administratrix of the Estate of Omar K. Arrington-Bey, Plaintiff–Appellee,

v.CITY OF BEDFORD HEIGHTS, OHIO ; Tim Honsaker; Maurice Ellis; Phillip Chow ; David Leonardi; Jeffrey Mudra; Cheryl Sindone; Cynthia Lee; Carolyn Hill, Defendants–Appellants.

No. 16-3317

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

Argued: February 1, 2017

Decided and Filed: February 24, 2017^*

Rehearing En Banc Denied July 5, 2017

ARGUED: James A. Climer, MAZANEC, RASKIN & RYDER, CO., L.P.A., Cleveland, Ohio, for Appellants. Terry H. Gilbert, FRIEDMAN & GILBERT, Cleveland, Ohio, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: James A. Climer, Frank H. Scialdone, John D. Pinzone, MAZANEC, RASKIN & RYDER, CO., L.P.A., Cleveland, Ohio, for Appellants. Terry H. Gilbert, Jacqueline C. Greene, FRIEDMAN & GILBERT, Cleveland, Ohio, for Appellee. Ashlie Case Sletvold, THE CHANDRA LAW FIRM LLC, Cleveland, Ohio, for Amici Curiae.

Before: BATCHELDER, SUTTON, and KETHLEDGE, Circuit Judges.

OPINION

SUTTON, Circuit Judge.

When Omar Arrington-Bey died in a Bedford Heights jail cell, that was not an obvious consequence of his arrest for disturbing the peace at a Lowe's store. The question is whether bad luck, negligence by the relevant local law enforcement officials, or deliberate indifference by them caused his death. In suing the officers involved in his arrest and detention and the City, Omar's mother, Anita Arrington-Bey, took the position that the officers' deliberate indifference and lack of adequate training caused her son's death, making them liable under the Fourteenth Amendment and Ohio law. The district court largely agreed. It denied federal and state immunity to all but one defendant, dismissed the state law and punitive damages claims against the City, and denied summary judgment to the City on the federal constitutional claim. We must reverse, however, because there was no violation of a clearly established constitutional right, and the officers did not act with the recklessness that would permit them to be liable under Ohio law.

Here is what happened. On June 21, 2013, Anita drove Omar to the Lowe's in Bedford Heights, where he'd recently been fired after failing to show up to work for over a week, to pick up his last paycheck. When the assistant manager, Russell Nelson, came over to see him, Omar "started talking a lot of gibberish," including about selling $5,000 gloves to Lowe's or Kohl's. R. 39-7 at 5. Nelson knew that "something was a little off" and started guiding Omar out of the store. Id. Omar went back inside, demanded his paycheck, and began kicking and throwing paint cans. In response to a 911 call from the store, Bedford Heights dispatched police officers Tim Honsaker and Maurice Ellis.

The officers spotted Omar's car pulling out of the Lowe's parking lot and stopped it nearby. Omar was in the passenger seat, had changed his shirt, and was evasive when they asked him whether he was the one causing trouble at Lowe's. But he was compliant and calm when they asked him to step out of the car. During the pat-down, the officers discovered pills in a container, which they placed back in Omar's pocket after handcuffing and detaining him. Honsaker recalled Omar saying that the pills were for a psychiatric condition and that he had not taken his medication for days or weeks. Anita told Ellis that Omar was bipolar, that the pills were Seroquel

, and that he had not taken his medication for some time.

Everyone returned to the Lowe's parking lot while the police continued their investigation. According to Honsaker, Omar "was rambling and ranting and raving about every possible topic he could think of" and became angry if Honsaker interjected. R. 41-4 at 43. Omar claimed, among other things, that he made lots of money through internet businesses, that he had a million-dollar cell phone, and that his father was the son of Satan. That behavior led Honsaker to ask Anita if Omar was on any psychiatric medication, and she told him just what she'd told Ellis: that Omar was bipolar and hadn't been taking his medicine. Phillip Chow, the supervising officer at the scene, got much of the same information—that Omar had been found with Seroquel

, that he was talking non-stop, and that he had claimed to be a state trooper.

Honsaker delivered Omar to the jail, where correctional officers Cynthia Lee and Carolyn Hill processed his intake. Honsaker told Lee and Hill about Omar's agitated rambling in the back of the cruiser, and they acknowledged that they had already heard that Omar had been arrested for going "crazy" at Lowe's. R. 38-3 at 15. They found Omar's pills during a pat-down but did not ask what they were. Hill decided to delay booking (and the included psychological screening) until Omar calmed down, because Hill and Lee, both female, were the only two correctional officers on duty. They put Omar in the segregation room. When they uncuffed him and he removed his belt, Omar acted like he was performing a striptease.

Over the next several hours, Omar would calm down from time to time but then return to rambling, talking to himself, and engaging in other unusual behavior. For example: He kicked the door of the interview room, sang and rapped, and talked some more about his million-dollar music contract. When Honsaker and Chow escorted him to the bathroom, Omar shook his penis and asked Honsaker if he'd like to hold it. He told Chow that he needed his cell phone because there were million dollar plans on it. At one point, Assistant Police Chief David Leonardi—who'd been told about Omar's pills, bizarre behavior, and possible mental problems—went to find out why Omar was pounding on the door of the interview room. Omar responded with racial slurs until Leonardi threatened to put him in the restraint chair.

Correctional officers Jeffrey Mudra and Cheryl Sindone began their shift at 3:00 PM. Lee and Hill briefed them on Omar's agitated behavior and warned them to use double-escorting whenever Omar was out of the interview room. When Omar was calm and had stopped talking to himself, Mudra and Sindone went to serve him some food. Even though he had a spoon, Omar ate with his hands and spilled food all over himself. But he was calm, and Mudra and Sindone decided to book him. During the medical screening—performed by an officer trained to give the survey but not a nurse or doctor—Omar was compliant and cooperative, and he answered "no" when Mudra asked him if he'd seen a doctor for any psychiatric issue or took any psychiatric medications. Mudra later found Omar's pills and filled out a second property form, but he didn't ask what the pills were for or revisit the medical screening.

At 6:30 PM, Mudra let Omar out of the interrogation room without handcuffs so that Omar could make a phone call. Without warning, Omar threw Mudra to the floor and began choking him. Sindone called for backup, then jumped on Omar's back. Omar started choking her too. Police officers rushed into the jail and pulled Omar into the restraint chair. At that point, Leonardi noticed something wrong. They took Omar's pulse: weak. Then they got him out of the restraint chair, laid him prone on the floor, and tried to resuscitate him. Leonardi called the emergency rescue squad, which transported Omar to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The autopsy explained that Omar had "died as a result of a sudden cardiac event during a physical altercation in association with bipolar disease

." R. 39-15 at 4.

Anita Arrington-Bey sued the individual officers, the doctor responsible for medical policies at the jail, and the City for violations of Omar's federal and state rights. The defendants moved for summary judgment. The district court granted qualified immunity to the doctor, who had never come into contact with Omar, and dismissed the state law claims against the doctor and the City. But it denied qualified immunity to all of the officers and denied the City's motion for summary judgment on the Fourteenth Amendment due process claim.

Standard of review . Summary judgment is proper if "there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a). We give fresh review to the district court's application of that standard. T.S. v. Doe, 742 F.3d 632, 635 (6th Cir. 2014). And we draw all inferences in the evidence in favor of the nonmovant. Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp. , 475 U.S. 574, 587–88, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 89 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986).

Qualified immunity. In § 1983 constitutional torts like this one, qualified immunity prevents government officials from being held liable if (1) the officers did not violate any constitutional guarantees or (2) the guarantee, even if violated, was not "clearly established" at the time of the alleged misconduct. Pearson v. Callahan , 555 U.S. 223, 232, 129 S.Ct. 808, 172 L.Ed.2d 565 (2009).

The second prong resolves this case. Because no case clearly established the unlawfulness of the decisions made during Omar's arrest and detention, the officers involved are entitled to qualified immunity. Yes, "a pretrial detainee's right to medical treatment for a serious medical need has been established since at least 1987." Est. of Carter v. City of Detroit , 408 F.3d 305, 313 (6th Cir. 2005). And yes, that right encompasses physiological and psychiatric ailments. See Clark-Murphy v. Foreback , 439 F.3d 280, 292 (6th Cir. 2006).

But these principles do not suffice on their own. "[C]learly established law" may not be defined at such "a high level of generality." Ashcroft v. al-Kidd , 563 U.S. 731, 742, 131 S.Ct. 2074, 179 L.Ed.2d 1149 (2011). It must be more "particularized" than that. Anderson v. Creighton , 483 U.S. 635, 640, 107 S.Ct. 3034, 97 L.Ed.2d 523 (1987) ; see Hagans v. Franklin Cty. Sheriff's Office , 695 F.3d 505, 508–09 (6th Cir. 2012). The Supreme Court recently reminded us that a plaintiff must identify a case with a similar fact pattern that would have given "fair and...