Jones v. Buchanan

• Decision Date: 15 April 2003
• Docket Number: No. 01-2280.,01-2280.
• Citation: 325 F.3d 520
• Parties: Edward Arthur JONES, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Richard BUCHANAN, individually and in his official capacity as Sheriff of Avery County; Lee Keller, individually and in his official capacity as a Deputy of the Avery County Sheriff's Department, Defendants-Appellees, and Eddie Hughes, individually and in his official capacity as a Deputy of the Avery County Sheriff's Department; Avery County, North Carolina, a Body Corporate and Politic, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

325 F.3d 520

Edward Arthur JONES, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Richard BUCHANAN, individually and in his official capacity as Sheriff of Avery County; Lee Keller, individually and in his official capacity as a Deputy of the Avery County Sheriff's Department, Defendants-Appellees, and Eddie Hughes, individually and in his official capacity as a Deputy of the Avery County Sheriff's Department; Avery County, North Carolina, a Body Corporate and Politic, Defendants.

No. 01-2280.

United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

Argued: October 29, 2002.

Decided: April 15, 2003.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

ARGUED:

Eric Robert Bellas, Simpson, Kuehnert, Vinay & Bellas, P.A., Morganton, North Carolina, for Appellant. Rachel Ellen Daly, Womble, Carlyle, Sandridge & Rice, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, for Appellees.

ON BRIEF:

Daniel A. Kuehnert, Simpson, Kuehnert, Vinay & Bellas, P.A., Morganton, North Carolina; Robert M. Elliot, Elliot, Pishko, Gelbin & Morgan, P.A., Winston-Salem, North Carolina, for Appellant. Tyrus V. Dahl, Jr., James R. Morgan, Jr., Womble, Carlyle, Sandridge & Rice, Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Kimberly C. Stevens, Stevens & Withrow, P.L.L.C., Winston-Salem, North Carolina, for Appellees.

Before LUTTIG and MOTZ, Circuit Judges, and DAVIS, United States District Judge for the District of Maryland, sitting by designation.

Reversed and remanded by published opinion. Judge DIANA GRIBBON MOTZ wrote the majority opinion, in which Judge DAVIS joined. Judge LUTTIG wrote a dissenting opinion.

OPINION

DIANA GRIBBON MOTZ, Circuit Judge:

This appeal arises out of an incident in which a North Carolina deputy sheriff knocked Edward Arthur Jones to the floor in the sheriff's office and then jumped on him, crushing Jones's nose, lacerating his lips and nose, and bruising his ribs. Prior to the deputy's use of force, Jones, although drunk and yelling obscenities, was unarmed and in a secured room; moreover, Jones maintains that his wrists were handcuffed behind him. It is undisputed that, at the time the deputy initiated force, Jones was not under arrest or suspected of any crime; rather, he had voluntarily come to the sheriff's office seeking assistance.

After Jones filed this action, alleging that the deputy's conduct constituted excessive force, in violation of Jones's constitutional rights and state law, a magistrate judge granted summary judgment to the deputy. The judge held, as a matter of law, that the deputy did not subject Jones to excessive force. For the reasons stated within, we reverse.

I.

We set forth the facts "in the light most favorable to the party asserting the injury," in this case, Jones. See Saucier v. Katz, 533 U.S. 194, 201, 121 S.Ct. 2151, 150 L.Ed.2d 272 (2001); Brown v. Gilmore, 278 F.3d 362, 369 (4th Cir.2002) ("[W]e are required to consider whether the facts, taken in the light most favorable [to the injured party], show that [the officer's] conduct violated a constitutional right.").

On the morning of November 3, 1999, Jones began drinking Canadian Mist whiskey, and he continued doing so throughout the day. At around 4:30 in the afternoon, Jones remembered that he "had to go to court the next day," and he concluded that his "best bet" was "to call somebody to come get [him] so [he] could sober up." He determined that he would "just to go to jail and sleep it off." Afraid that he would be held in contempt or lose his job if not sober, he wanted law enforcement authorities "to verify that [he] hadn't had anything else to drink."

Jones called 911 and told the operator that he was "drunk" and would like "for an officer to come get [him] and take [him] to jail so [he could] get sober." Jones waited at his home for about 30 to 45 minutes. When the police failed to arrive, he walked to the home of a neighbor, Lake Ollis, to "get [Ollis] to take [him] to jail." While Jones waited for Ollis's son to get dressed, Avery County Sheriff Richard Buchanan and Detective Pamela James arrived. Sheriff Buchanan testified that, after Jones threatened to kill himself unless the officers took him to jail, the Sheriff decided "that there was a possibility of suicide" and so that it was appropriate to transport Jones to the sheriff's department. Before leaving, Detective James asked Jones if he had any weapons. Jones responded that he had a pocket knife. Detective James removed the knife from Jones's pocket along with a can of beer from another pocket.

Sheriff Buchanan and Jones both testified that Jones then agreed to be handcuffed. The Sheriff testified that this was in keeping with "standing" department policy for transporting persons to the sheriff's department. Notwithstanding the handcuffs, Jones related that the Sheriff and Detective James were "nice" to him and that he, in turn, was polite, answering "yes, sir" and "yes, ma'am" to their questions. Ollis's son also remembered that, even though handcuffed, Jones responded to the officers' questions with "[y]es, sir" and "no, sir."

Jones related that while handcuffed in the police car on the way to the department, "the only thing [he] want [ed] to do [was] lay down and go to sleep." About a mile into the ride, Jones believes that he passed out. Sheriff Buchanan recalls that Jones was not a "problem" during the ride. Upon arriving at the sheriff's department, one officer told Jones to "[g]et out of the car." Another "grabbed" Jones, who was still handcuffed behind his back, by the "center part of the handcuffs" and "got [him] out of the car ... because [he] was leaned over in the back seat ... with [his] head laying down on the seat." An officer then "jerked" Jones out of the car and "grabbed [him] by the shoulders and took [him] in the jail."

Inside the sheriff's department, while in the processing room, the officers "slammed [Jones] down in the chair with [his] hands behind [his] back." He "was drunk and got to cussing" because the officers hurt him when they got him out of the car "by [his] handcuffs." As soon as Jones was settled in the processing room, Officer Eddie Hughes testified that he locked the "exit doors" of the room, locking Jones inside.

Meanwhile, Deputy Lee Keller was meeting in an adjacent area with three local college students who needed fingerprinting for childcare work. Deputy Keller testified that he had to take the students by Jones in the processing room to reach the fingerprinting machine, and he did not want to take the students by Jones until Jones "was going to be quiet and settle down or we got him put in a holding cell or whatever."

When Jones asked the officers to "unhandcuff [him]" because he "was smothering," Deputy Keller called to him to quiet down. According to Jones, an officer "told [him] to shut the f___k up." Jones admits that he, too, used "pretty foul language [,]" but he maintains that he did not push, kick, or even threaten any of the officers. When the handcuffs were not removed, Jones "started to get mad" and then began to stand up "just a little bit," in an effort to alleviate his breathing difficulties by attempting to move his handcuffed hands to the front of his body by taking his hands around his back and under his feet.

As Jones started to stand up, "the next thing" he knew, an officer "knocked [him] down on the floor and jumped on [him]." Jones "felt a big knee ... in the back of [his] neck and one in [his] ribs." When he hit the floor, he felt the knee in his back and across his neck. Jones immediately knew that he had been hurt; he felt his nose go "whaa" and saw a "puddle of blood." Although Jones could not identify the officer who hurt him, Deputy Keller admits that he injured Jones.¹ Deputy Keller himself suffered no injuries from the incident, except a scratch on his hand.

Other than hazy memories of seeing "all that blood," of someone "hollering, `Get the blood off of him,'" of not being able to breathe, and of some officers trying to help him, Jones recalls nothing more until the ambulance ride to the hospital. Deputy Keller and his fellow officers testified that after Keller knocked Jones to the floor, breaking his nose, Jones was angry and resisted, and that, as Officer Hughes "pushed" Jones into a holding cell, Jones hit the wall of the cell with the side of his head. Shortly thereafter, Jailer Alicia Blackburn saw Jones, "lying on the floor in a fetal position." She observed "blood on the floor next to his head and big clots of blood coming out of [his] nose." Officer Hughes testified that he too saw a puddle of blood about the size of a "basketball" on the floor next to Jones and noted that Jones was crying.

After Jailer Blackburn called for emergency medical services, an ambulance took Jones to the hospital. Dr. Michael Tomlinson diagnosed Jones with a "depressed comminuted fracture of the nasal bones," which is a fracture in which "the bone is splintered or crushed into numerous pieces,"² a 1.5 "centimeter laceration over the bridge of his nose," a 1.5 "centimeter laceration of the upper lip mucosal surface, which was gaping somewhat," and bruised ribs. Jones also had a blood alcohol level of .42. Ten sutures were needed to repair Jones's lip and nasal lacerations, and Jones then had surgery to repair his "severe," "significant[ly] displac[ed]" nasal fracture.

Sheriff Buchanan testified that immediately after the incident, Deputy Keller "made it clear" that he "had hit" Jones "with his fist." Deputy Keller "came through shaking his hand" and told Sheriff Buchanan that Jones has "`got a tough mouth.'" According to the Sheriff, Deputy Keller "was acting like he was proud of" hitting Jones with his fist. (At oral argument, Deputy Keller's counsel conceded that it would constitute excessive force, under the circumstances of this case, for Deputy Keller to have hit Jones with his fist.) Deputy Keller also "bragged" about the incident to the Sheriff's son. Officer Hughes testified that Keller commented "that'[his] knee accidentally hit [Jones's] nose.'" What happened...