Crabbs v. Pitts
| Decision Date | 30 June 2020 |
| Docket Number | No. 19-4057,19-4057 |
| Parties | ANNE CRABBS, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. RASHAD PITTS, Defendant-Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit |
HELENE N. WHITE, Circuit Judge. Plaintiffs James Crabbs and Anne Crabbs, individually, and as the representative of Keith Crabbs, their deceased son, appeal the judgment entered on a jury verdict in favor of Defendant Rashad Pitts and the denial of their motion for judgment as a matter of law (JMOL) in this action involving Pitts's entry into Plaintiffs' house without a warrant to arrest Keith Crabbs. The district court submitted the question whether the entry was justified by exigent circumstances to the jury, and the jury found that it was. Because the evidence was sufficient to support the verdict, we AFFIRM.
On the evening of September 30, 2014, the Delaware County Sheriff's Office received a 911 call from Roland D'Amato. Mr. D'Amato reported that his neighbor, Keith Crabbs, had just approached him and his wife in his car and had threatened to kill Mrs. D'Amato. Mr. D'Amato told the dispatcher that he believed Crabbs had been arrested for murder sometime before, and that he was "unstable." (R. 178-4, PID 3922.)
Deputies Pitts, Wilson, Lee, and Elverson were dispatched to the D'Amatos' home. The dispatcher told the deputies that Crabbs had made threats of violence against the D'Amatos and had driven by the 911 caller at a high rate of speed. The dispatcher also told the deputies that Crabbs had been charged and acquitted of manslaughter and that he had an in-house caution alert against him because he had a history of threatening law enforcement officers.
When the deputies arrived at the D'Amatos' home, Mrs. D'Amato appeared "visibly shaken." (R. 176, PID 3743.) Mrs. D'Amato told the deputies that Crabbs had threatened to kill her while she was walking her dog. Mr. D'Amato told the deputies that Crabbs had driven by him at a high rate of speed. The D'Amatos stated that Crabbs "had not been right" since he was acquitted of manslaughter and that he had been harassing Mrs. D'Amato for years, including "mak[ing] erratic statements" and swearing at her when she was walking or driving by his house. (R. 176, PID 3759; R. 188, PID 4813-14.)
Mrs. D'Amato had recorded the incident on her iPhone and shared the video with the deputies. On the recording, a car horn can be heard honking repeatedly for several seconds. Mrs. D'Amato then approaches her neighbor's house and tells him that she came to his door because the man honking at her frightened her and was harassing her. As Mrs. D'Amato speaks with the neighbor, identified at trial as Jack Whitlinger, a man in the background shouts that he is going to "fucking kill that woman" and yells "call the Sheriff, Jack[,] and I'll kill you too, bitch." (R. 188, PID 4937, Ex. D11, 02:05-02:17.) At trial, Mrs. D'Amato testified that the car horn heard in the recording was Crabbs's and that it was Crabbs shouting threats at her and Whitlinger.
After interviewing the D'Amatos and Whitinger and reviewing the recording, Deputy Wilson determined that there was probable cause to arrest Crabbs for aggravated menacing1 based on the threats against Mrs. D'Amato. By that time, the deputies had learned that Crabbs had a conceal and carry (CCW) permit.
The deputies left the D'Amatos' home and drove toward Crabbs's home, intending to arrest Crabbs. Deputies Lee and Elverson waited in their cars nearby while Pitts and Wilson knocked on the front door. Anne Crabbs, Keith Crabbs's mother, answered the door.2 Pitts and Wilson asked Mrs. Crabbs where Keith was. Mrs. Crabbs told the officers that Crabbs was out but would be home soon.3 The deputies asked Mrs. Crabbs if she would have him call when he returned, and she said yes.
Deputies Lee and Elverson tried to locate Crabbs while Pitts and Wilson returned to the D'Amatos' house to collect witness statements. While they were at the D'Amatos' house for the second time, Pitts and Wilson saw a black Cadillac speed toward Crabbs's home. They got in their cruisers, and Pitts followed Crabbs's car while Wilson drove in the opposite direction to block Crabbs in case he tried to drive away.
As Crabbs backed his car into his driveway, Pitts pulled in front of the driveway and turned on his emergency lights to initiate a stop. Pitts testified that instead of stopping, Crabbs exited his car quickly and was "blading"—touching or looking at the area where his weapon was on his body to make sure it was there—as he exited his car. (R. 176, PID 3799.) The dashcam video fromPitts's cruiser is consistent with Pitts's account of these events: as Pitts's vehicle parks in front of Crabbs's driveway, Crabbs quickly exits his car; Crabbs looks very briefly toward Pitts's cruiser, turns away, and walks quickly toward the house's front door; as Crabbs walks toward the door, he briefly touches or brushes his hand against the right side of his waist.
Pitts testified that he yelled multiple times for Crabbs to stop and that Crabbs ignored his commands. Again, the video is consistent with Pitts's account of the incident: Pitts yells for Crabbs to stop and Crabbs continues walking toward his front door; Pitts walks quickly toward Crabbs with his gun raised as he commands Crabbs to stop for a second time; Crabbs then turns toward Pitts and stops. At trial, Pitts testified that he pulled his weapon out because he believed that Crabbs likely had a weapon and was concerned that Crabbs was ignoring his commands.
Because Pitts left his microphone in his cruiser when he followed Crabbs toward the door, the audio on the recording is indiscernible beyond Pitts's initial calls for Crabbs to stop. Pitts testified that as he approached Crabbs at the front door, Crabbs said, (R. 176, PID 3801.) Plaintiffs dispute that Crabbs said he had a gun, pointing to Pitts's deposition testimony that Crabbs did not tell him whether he had a weapon.4
After Crabbs stopped in front of the door, he and Pitts engaged in an exchange. Pitts told Crabbs "I just need to talk to you," and Crabbs stated that he "knows his rights" and that "we don't need to be on [my] property." (R. 187, PID 4765-66.) Pitts did not tell Crabbs that he was under arrest because "if I said he was going to jail, things would have definitely escalated even more." (R. 176, PID 3814.) Pitts testified that Crabbs was agitated and "cussing at [him]." (R. 187, PID 4746.) However, he also testified that Crabbs eventually showed him his hands and seemed to"calm[] down a little bit," and that he re-holstered his firearm because he believed that Crabbs "wasn't posing a threat at that time." (R. 176, PID 3836-37.)
The dashcam video shows that this exchange lasted for about twenty-five seconds, after which Crabbs turned away from Pitts and reached toward the door.5 With his hand on the door, Crabbs looked briefly back toward Pitts, then turned back toward the door, pushed it open quickly, and began to walk inside.
Pitts testified that he grabbed Crabbs's arm while he (Pitts) was still outside the threshold of the door to stop him from going inside. The dashcam video confirms that Pitts grabbed Crabbs's arm as Crabbs pulled away and moved through the door. Pitts testified that he grabbed Crabbs because (R. 176, PID 3839.) He testified that as Crabbs pulled away, he followed him into the house and grabbed him by the shirt. The dashcam video shows that Pitts entered the house within one second of Crabbs. Deputy Wilson entered the house a few seconds later.
Inside the house, the deputies tased Crabbs and placed him under arrest.
Plaintiffs brought this action against the Delaware County Sheriff and several Delaware County deputies, including Pitts, asserting various claims.6 As relevant to this appeal, Plaintiffs alleged that the deputies' warrantless entry into the Crabbs's home constituted an unconstitutional search and seizure in violation of the Fourth Amendment. The district court denied summary judgment to both parties on that claim.7
Plaintiffs proceeded to trial on several claims, including the unconstitutional-entry claim against Defendants Pitts, Wilson, and Lee. At trial, Plaintiffs made two oral motions for judgment as a matter of law on the unconstitutional entry claim against Pitts pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 50. The district court denied both motions on the basis that Defendants had presented evidence which, if believed, could lead a jury to find that Pitts was in fear for his or others' safety when he entered the home, thereby justifying his entry.8
The jury returned a verdict for Defendants on all claims, and the court entered judgment in their favor. Plaintiffs filed a post-trial motion for judgment as a matter of law on their unconstitutional entry claim against Pitts. Plaintiffs also moved for a new trial under Rule 59(a) on that claim, arguing that the verdict was against the weight of the evidence and that the court's jury instructions were erroneous. The district court denied both motions, again finding that a jury could conclude that exigent circumstances justified Pitts's entry into Plaintiffs' home.
Plaintiffs appeal the judgment as to Defendant Pitts and the district court's denial of their motion for judgment as a matter of law.
We review de novo the denial of a motion for judgment as a matter of law made pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure...
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