Katz v. Dist. of Columbia

• Decision Date: 15 December 2022
• Docket Number: 18-CV-111
• Citation: 285 A.3d 1289
• Parties: Mitchell A. KATZ, Appellant, v. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, et al., Appellees.
• Court: D.C. Court of Appeals

285 A.3d 1289

Mitchell A. KATZ, Appellant,

v.DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, et al., Appellees.

No. 18-CV-111

District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

Argued September 11, 2019

Decided December 15, 2022

David C. Tobin, with whom Javad Khan was on the brief, Washington, for appellant.

Richard S. Love, Senior Assistant Attorney General, with whom Karl A. Racine, Attorney General, Loren L. AliKhan, Solicitor General at the time of argument, and Caroline S. Van Zile, Deputy Solicitor General, were on the brief, for appellees.

Before Blackburne-Rigsby, Chief Judge, Beckwith, Associate Judge, and Washington, Senior Judge.

Beckwith, Associate Judge:

Appellant Mitchell Katz challenges the grant of summary judgment to the District of Columbia and Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) Officers Gerri Cherry, Tanya Butler, and Travis Maguire on various claims arising from his arrest following an altercation with Rafeena Ahmad and Philip Goyette. We affirm in part and reverse in part.

I.

The facts surrounding the circumstances of Mr. Katz's arrest remain heavily disputed at this stage. As we are reviewing a grant of summary judgment, we view the evidence in the light most favorable to Mr. Katz, the party opposing the motion. See Kotsch v. District of Columbia , 924 A.2d 1040, 1042 (D.C. 2007).

A. The Altercation Between Mr. Katz and Mr. Goyette

Mr. Katz testified in his deposition to the following events. Early one summer morning in 2014, Mr. Katz left the Heist nightclub with a group of acquaintances, one of whom hailed a taxi van. Mr. Katz watched his friends enter the rear driver's side door and walked around the vehicle to enter the rear passenger door, but his entry was blocked by Mr. Goyette, who began to argue with Mr. Katz over who had hailed the taxi. Mr. Katz pointed out that his group was already in the taxi and tried to squeeze past Mr. Goyette, who then elbowed Mr. Katz hard enough to leave a bruise, knocking the wind out of him and causing him to fall. As Mr. Katz fell backwards, he grabbed Mr. Goyette's backpack in an attempt to maintain his balance, but both of them fell into a sidewalk planter.

When he stood up, still arguing with Mr. Goyette, Mr. Katz saw that the taxi had departed. Ms. Ahmad, who had been standing with Mr. Goyette, also began yelling at Mr. Katz. Mr. Katz walked away from them and attempted to hail his own taxi. Mr. Goyette and Ms. Ahmad followed him and asked for his business card, stating that Mr. Goyette's computer broke when Mr. Katz pulled him down. Mr. Katz felt threatened because Mr. Goyette and Ms. Ahmad were both screaming and challenging Mr. Katz to fight. Mr. Katz asked them to leave him alone multiple times and kept walking away from them, but Mr. Goyette, Ms. Ahmad, and two of their friends continued to pursue and provoke him, "circling [him]" such that he could not get away.

As the argument got "much louder," Mr. Katz saw Mr. Goyette raise a skateboard "over his head like [he was] going to strike [Mr. Katz] with it." As Mr. Katz was turning to face Mr. Goyette in order to protect himself from the skateboard, Ms. Ahmad tore off Mr. Katz's shirt, scratching his chest. "Almost instantaneously," Mr. Goyette hit Mr. Katz's right shoulder with the skateboard, knocking him to the ground and causing more bruises. Mr. Katz got up "very quickly" and ran away from the group when "[t]here was an opening."¹

B. The Encounter with MPD Officers

Mr. Katz testified at his deposition that as he was running, he saw some police cars in the middle of the road and "ran [down Connecticut Avenue] to them," with Mr. Goyette chasing "right behind [him]" and "swinging the skateboard." Mr. Katz "ran to the police for help," telling the group of "[t]hree or four" officers that he had just been attacked. In response, the officers put him in handcuffs "just seconds" later, without first asking any questions. Mr. Katz testified that the officers "did not tell [him he] was under arrest," but told him that they placed him in handcuffs "[f]or everybody's protection, and they were going to investigate." While in handcuffs, Mr. Katz told the officers the details of the attack, informing them that he was scratched when his shirt was ripped off of him.

Mr. Katz testified that he repeatedly complained to all of the officers present that the handcuffs were too tight. He stated that less than half an hour after being handcuffed, an African American male officer "slammed" him into the back of a police car, causing pain to his chest, and made an adjustment to the handcuffs that "didn't exactly loosen" them. Mr. Katz "continue[d] to complain that the handcuffs were tight" until an officer eventually "loosened them." Mr. Katz testified that it "felt like a long time" between when he was slammed against the police car and when the cuffs were loosened. His wrists were sore and had "red indentions" [sic] on them for "[a] couple days" after the incident, and his shoulders were sore for four or five days from having his arms tightly pushed behind him.

Other individuals testified to a different version of events surrounding Mr. Katz and Mr. Goyette's encounter with the officers. Mr. Goyette testified in his deposition that Mr. Katz changed his direction as the two were running to turn toward the group of officers. Mr. Goyette testified that he told officers, "He just punched my girlfriend" (referring to Mr. Katz), and that Mr. Katz was "detained" at the moment the police "ascertained the situation." Once Mr. Goyette had told officers that Mr. Katz had punched his girlfriend—but had provided no other information to the police—Mr. Katz was "clearly in the custody of police" and Mr. Goyette was permitted to leave to "go back and check on [Ms. Ahmad]."² Mr. Goyette noticed Mr. Katz being placed in handcuffs as he walked away to check on Ms. Ahmad.

The record includes two sources of testimony from Officer Cherry: her testimony at Mr. Katz's subsequent criminal trial and her deposition in this case. At Mr. Katz's trial, Officer Cherry testified that she saw Mr. Katz and Mr. Goyette running down Connecticut Avenue, and "the manner in which [Mr. Goyette] was holding the skateboard" above his head caused her to stop the two men as she was not "completely sure what was going to happen next." Mr. Katz appeared to be "trying to get away from [Mr. Goyette] for whatever reason" and Mr. Goyette appeared "pretty upset" and was "chasing behind" Mr. Katz like he was "trying to stop him." She testified that neither individual called out to the officers as they were running.

In her deposition, Officer Cherry again testified that she could not initially determine whether Mr. Goyette was wielding the skateboard defensively or offensively. She and another officer crossed the street to apprehend the men, and yelled at them to stop. She then interviewed Mr. Goyette, who claimed that Mr. Katz had shoved him by the taxi, then started following him and Ms. Ahmad as they began to walk away, running up to Ms. Ahmad and punching her in the face after she asked Mr. Katz to leave them alone. When Officer Cherry asked Mr. Goyette why he was running down the street with a skateboard, he stated that "he was chasing or trying to stop Mr. [Katz] from getting away out of self-defense." After hearing Mr. Goyette's account of the incident, Officer Cherry interviewed Mr. Katz while Mr. Goyette stood by. According to Officer Cherry, Mr. Katz did not tell her he had been attacked and she did not initially notice any injuries on him. She then interviewed Ms. Ahmad and a cab driver who claimed to have witnessed the assault,³ while Sergeant Maguire, who was the supervising officer on the scene, stayed with Mr. Katz. To Officer Cherry's knowledge, Mr. Katz was not in handcuffs at that time. Officer Cherry then conducted a show-up with Ms. Ahmad and Sergeant Maguire conducted a show-up with Mr. Goyette.⁴ Both Ms. Ahmad and Mr. Goyette identified Mr. Katz, and Officer Cherry told them they were free to leave.

According to Officer Cherry's deposition testimony, she then informed Mr. Katz "that he was going to be placed under arrest for simple assault." She testified that she conducted a warrantless arrest because, after interviewing the witnesses including the cab driver, she concluded that Mr. Katz might "possibly assault someone else." While Mr. Katz was in Officer Cherry's presence, however, she did not perceive him as presenting a threat to anyone's wellbeing. Officer Cherry testified that a male officer handcuffed Mr. Katz at the time she told Mr. Katz he was being arrested. Mr. Katz then began to complain about pain to his chest, and Sergeant Maguire noticed a scratch on Mr. Katz's chest at that time and filled out an incident report accordingly.⁵ Officer Cherry testified that she did not hear Mr. Katz complain about the handcuffs being tight.

Sergeant Maguire testified that he did hear Mr. Katz complain about the tightness of the handcuffs. After Mr. Katz complained, Sergeant Maguire "checked the handcuffs to make sure that they were double-locked and that there was adequate spacing, which would be the pinky's width between [Mr. Katz's] wrist bone and the handcuff inner diameter." Sergeant Maguire testified that he determined that the handcuffs were "properly applied" and that he "tried to explain to [Mr. Katz that] handcuffs are extremely uncomfortable." He also testified that he "kept on trying to reassure [Mr. Katz] that [he] underst[ood] it's extremely painful, it's just how handcuffs feel, and that they definitely were put on properly" and would be "taken off as soon as possible." It is not clear from the portions of the deposition testimony in the record when this conversation occurred.

C. Aftermath of the Arrest

The following facts are not in dispute. According to Mr. Katz's deposition testimony, officers put him into a police transport van, still handcuffed, and brought him to a hospital to treat his scratch wound. Mr. Katz "was in police custody the entire time" he was at the hospital,...