Lawyer v. City of Council Bluffs

• Decision Date: 26 March 2004
• Docket Number: No. 03-1032.,03-1032.
• Citation: 361 F.3d 1099
• Parties: Timothy LAWYER; Michael Lawyer, Plaintiffs — Appellants, v. CITY OF COUNCIL BLUFFS, a municipal corporation; Defendant, John Clark, individually and in his official capacity as a Council Bluffs police officer; Dan Newby, individually and in his official capacity as a Council Bluffs police officer, Defendants — Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

361 F.3d 1099

Timothy LAWYER; Michael Lawyer, Plaintiffs — Appellants, v. CITY OF COUNCIL BLUFFS, a municipal corporation; Defendant, John Clark, individually and in his official capacity as a Council Bluffs police officer; Dan Newby, individually and in his official capacity as a Council Bluffs police officer, Defendants — Appellees.

No. 03-1032.

United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

Submitted: December 12, 2003.

Filed: March 26, 2004.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

William C. Dunning, argued, St. Louis, MO (Gregory C. Mollett, on the brief), for appellant.

Michael A. Sciortino, argued, Council Bluffs, IA, for appellee.

Before LOKEN, Chief Judge, MELLOY and COLLOTON, Circuit Judges.

COLLOTON, Circuit Judge.

Timothy and Michael Lawyer appeal the district court's¹ grant of summary judgment in favor of police officers John Clark and Dan Newby in this lawsuit arising from a traffic stop in Council Bluffs, Iowa. We affirm.

I.

On March 26, 1999, at approximately 2:24 a.m., Officer John Clark of the Council Bluffs Police Department stopped Michael Lawyer for driving 85 miles per hour in a 55 mile-per-hour zone. The encounter was videotaped with audio from Officer Clark's police cruiser, leaving many of the facts in this case undisputed. Michael, then age 17, was driving with his 21-year-old brother, Timothy Lawyer, in the passenger seat. The siblings were traveling east along Interstate 80 while going home to Wisconsin after a ski trip in Colorado.

After stopping the car, Clark approached on the passenger side of the vehicle. He asked to see Michael's license, registration, and proof of insurance. As he shined his flashlight inside the car, he saw Timothy zip up a small red pouch and place it in the glove compartment. When Clark asked Timothy, "just out of curiosity," what was in the bag, Timothy replied that it was nothing important. Clark asked Timothy whether he would "mind if I take a look at it," and Timothy replied that he would "rather not" show the bag to Clark. Clark then stated repeatedly that the contents of the bag "looked like drug paraphernalia." Timothy asked Clark what kind of drug paraphernalia he thought he had seen in the bag, but at that time, Clark specifically identified only an Altoids container. Altoids are mint candies available in a small, rectangular metal container. In his police report prepared after the incident, Clark wrote that he also had observed in the pouch what he thought was a marijuana pipe.

After twice requesting that Timothy permit Clark to look in the bag, Clark eventually commanded Timothy, "Hand me the bag." When Timothy continued to refuse, Clark said, "we can do it the easy way, or the hard way." When Timothy still would not allow access to the bag, Clark demanded that Timothy exit the vehicle. He repeated his command several times over approximately a ten second period, but Timothy did not comply. Clark then stated that he would "start spraying pepper spray into the car," and again demanded that Timothy exit the vehicle.

At this point, Clark reached over and opened the passenger side door. He told Timothy, "It's entirely up to you. Open it up." Timothy then removed the red pouch from the glove compartment, and emptied its contents. The bag contained only candy, including the Altoids container that Clark had identified. One of the brothers explained that the contents included various types of candy: Sour Patch Kids, Winterfresh gum, and Fruit Roll-Ups.

Officer Dan Newby arrived at the scene during the encounter between Clark and Timothy. Following Timothy's emptying of the pouch, Clark returned to his patrol car to write Michael a citation for speeding and to confer with Officer Newby. When Clark finished filling out the citation, he placed it on the hood of his police cruiser. Clark approached the driver's side window of the Lawyer vehicle. He asked Michael to exit the vehicle and sign the citation on the hood of his patrol car, where he could be filmed by the officer's video camera. Michael refused to get out of his vehicle, stating that he was cold, he did not want to be filmed, he was afraid of the traffic, and he felt threatened by Clark.

Clark tried to explain to Michael that he would be arrested if he did not sign the citation. Clark explained that each person he cited was required to exit his or her vehicle to sign the ticket. Michael asserted to Clark on several occasions that he wanted to sign the citation, but did not want to exit his vehicle to do so. Clark continued to attempt to explain to Michael the possibility of arrest if he did not get out and sign the ticket. During this period, Clark was interrupted numerous times by Michael and by Timothy, who was "counseling his brother not to leave the car." (Brief of Appellants at 19). Newby shortly informed Clark that the officers had received permission from their superior to arrest Michael for not signing the ticket.

At this point, Clark told Michael that he was under arrest, and asked Michael to step out of the vehicle. Michael did not exit. Clark tried the door handle, but found that the door was locked. Clark and Newby asked that the door be unlocked at least nine times, but the door remained locked. Thereafter, Clark reached inside Michael's open window to unlock and open the door. Michael's window then began to roll up on Clark's arm. Newby stepped in to prevent the window from completely rolling up, and threatened to break the window. As Newby held the window, Clark reached for his pepper spray and began spraying inside the vehicle. Michael was sprayed first; the substance also hit Timothy in the face when Michael turned his head to avoid it.

The officers again demanded that the door be unlocked, after which both Michael and Timothy got out of the car through their respective doors. The Lawyers were placed on the ground and handcuffed. Clark informed the brothers that Michael was being arrested for "failure to sign the ticket for the speeding violation," and Timothy was being arrested for "interference." Michael and Timothy were both taken to the back of Clark's police cruiser. Pursuant to Council Bluffs police department policy, Officer Clark took the brothers to a local hospital to be examined and have their eyes washed out. Thereafter, the Lawyers were taken to a juvenile detention facility, where Michael was processed and released into the custody of Timothy. Timothy was released upon his signing of a citation for disobedience to a police officer and interference with official acts.

Timothy and Michael Lawyer brought suit against the City of Council Bluffs, Officer Clark, and Officer Newby, based on both federal and state law. The district court found that all of the Lawyers' claims arose out of three components of the traffic stop and subsequent events: the search of the red pouch, the arrests, and the use of force by means of the pepper spray. The district court granted summary judgment for the officers, as well as the City of Council Bluffs, on all counts. The Lawyers appeal only the portion of the ruling relating to the two officers, alleging that the officers were not entitled to qualified immunity, and that summary judgment was improperly granted.

II.

"Under the doctrine of qualified immunity, state actors are protected from civil liability when `their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known.'" Sexton v. Martin, 210 F.3d 905, 909 (8th Cir.2000) (quoting Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 818, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982)). A court engaged in a qualified immunity inquiry uses a two-step process. First, the court asks, "Taken in the light most favorable to the party asserting the injury, do the facts alleged show the officer's conduct violated a constitutional right?" Saucier v. Katz, 533 U.S. 194, 201, 121 S.Ct. 2151, 150 L.Ed.2d 272 (2001). Second, if a violation is found, the court must determine whether, in "the specific context of the case," the right was clearly established. Id. For a right to be considered clearly established, the "[t]he contours of the right must be sufficiently clear that a reasonable official would understand that what he is doing violates that right." Anderson v. Creighton, 483 U.S. 635, 640, 107 S.Ct. 3034, 97 L.Ed.2d 523 (1987). We review a grant of summary judgment de novo, determining "whether the record, viewed in a light most favorable to the non-moving party, shows that there is no genuine issue of material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Earnest v. Courtney, 64 F.3d 365, 366-67 (8th Cir.1995).

A.

The Lawyers argue that Clark violated their clearly established rights under the Fourth Amendment by searching the red pouch without sufficient justification. The officers do not directly contest the district court's assumption that Timothy's emptying of the pouch was a "search" for purposes of the Fourth Amendment. Although Clark did not physically empty the pouch, he did direct Timothy to produce or open the pouch before it was emptied. Citizens are expected to obey commands from law enforcement officers; indeed, Council Bluffs Ordinance 8.56.040 provides that "[n]o person shall wilfully fail or refuse to comply with any lawful order or direction of a peace officer," and a violation constitutes a misdemeanor. Thus, actions taken in response to a demand under color of authority may constitute a search, even where the officer conducts no physical search. United States v. Conner, 127 F.3d 663, 666 (8th Cir.1997). While it could be argued that Timothy's decision to open the pouch rather than comply with Clark's lawful command that he exit the vehicle amounted to voluntary consent by Timothy, we believe there is a genuine issue of fact whether a reasonable officer would have believed Timothy's action to be a response to Clark's commands (and thus a search) or voluntary consent. See Pace v. City of Des Moines,...