Meredith v. Erath

• Court: U.S. District Court — Central District of California
• Writing for the Court: Cooper
• Citation: Meredith v. Erath, 182 F.Supp.2d 964 (C.D. Cal. 2001)
• Decision Date: 19 September 2001
• Docket Number: No. CV99-13100 FMC(MANx).,CV99-13100 FMC(MANx).
• Parties: Lynn MEREDITH, et al., Plaintiffs, v. Andrew ERATH, et al., Defendants.

182 F.Supp.2d 964

Lynn MEREDITH, et al., Plaintiffs, v. Andrew ERATH, et al., Defendants.

No. CV99-13100 FMC(MANx).

United States District Court, C.D. California.

September 19, 2001.

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Lynne Meredith, Sunset Beach, CA, pro se.

Gayle Bybee, Sunset Beach, CA, pro se.

Jenifer Meredith, Sunset Beach, CA, pro se.

Bernadette Keller, Sunset Beach, CA, pro se.

Carla Figaro, Sunset Beach, CA, pro se.

Edward M. Robbins, Jr., Darwin Thomas, Richard G. Stack, AUSA Office of U.S. Attorney Tax Division, Los Angeles, CA, for defendants.

ORDER GRANTING IN PART AND DENYING IN PART DEFENDANTS' MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT

COOPER, District Judge.

This matter is before the Court on Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment. The Court deems this matters appropriate for decision without oral argument. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 78; Local Rule 7.11. After considering all relevant filings from all parties, the Court issues the following decision.

I. Introduction

On July 10, 1998, agents from the Internal Revenue Service ("the IRS") executed simultaneous searches of two properties owned by plaintiff Lynne Meredith ("Meredith") pursuant to a court-issued search warrant. Defendants searched Meredith's home and place of business, located at 16585 Pacific Coast Highway, Sunset Beach, California (the "Sunset Beach property"). Defendants also searched a second residence where Meredith's daughter, plaintiff Jenifer Meredith ("Jenifer") resided, located at 16963 Roundhill Drive, Huntington Beach, California (the "Huntington Beach property"). At the time the searches were conducted, plaintiff Gayle Bybee ("Bybee") resided at the Sunset Beach property. Plaintiff Bernadette Keller ("Keller"), Meredith's mother, was present at the Sunset Beach property on the day the search warrant was executed. Plaintiff Carla Figaro ("Figaro") did not reside at either but was employed by Meredith and worked at the Sunset Beach property.

The remaining claims in this action involve, in one way or another, the manner in which the search warrants were executed at the Sunset Beach property and the Huntington Beach property. Plaintiffs allege that defendants violated their constitutional rights by failing to knock and announce before entering the properties, by failing to present the search warrant immediately upon the request by the occupants of the properties, by using excessive force in executing the warrants, and by unconstitutionally detaining the occupants of the properties.

Defendants have moved for summary judgment as to all claims, and argue that they are entitled to qualified immunity as to all these claims. They are only partly correct.

II. Factual Background

Many of the facts at issue in this action are disputed. The relevant factual background, as well as the relevant factual disputes, may be summarized as follows.

A. Sunset Beach Property

1. Second-Floor Entry

Plaintiff Keller testified that she was at her desk in the second floor office when a man came in with a rifle or shotgun and pointed it at her. Defendants dispute that any firearms other than handguns were present at the property. Keller testified that there was another man behind the one with the gun, and that he carried a battering ram or an ax. These men told her they wanted her keys. Keller testified that the men did not identify themselves as federal agents, and the fronts of their raid jackets contained no identifying marks. Keller testified that later she saw the writing on the backs of the agents' jackets that identified them as federal agents. The agents questioned her, but no one told her they had a warrant. Agent Mazon's testimony confirms that no one on the second floor was served with a search warrant. Keller was eventually told that she was free to leave, but because her daughter, Meredith, was still upstairs, she elected to stay the entire day.

Plaintiff Carla Figaro also testified regarding the raid team's entry into the second-floor office. Figaro testified that she became aware that police were entering the office, and she approached the door of the room she was in on the second floor. It had been her intention to go to the third floor to check on Meredith and Bybee. She was approached by an agent, who pointed a gun at her and ordered her to back up and get back into the room. Figaro does not recall how long the gun was pointed at her. Figaro was detained in an office or room with other employees, but was taken to another room to be interviewed by agents separately from the other employees. Figaro observed the other employees being taken to separate offices as well, and she assumed that those employees were also being interviewed. Figaro was not told she was free to go until some time after noon. Although she did not ever ask if she was free to go, another employee did ask, and was told by the agents that the employees could leave when the agents were finished. The employees were not permitted to answer the phone. Figaro, when faced with nature's call, had to ask to use permission to use the restroom, and was escorted to the restroom and back by an agent.

2. Third-Floor Entry

Plaintiff Bybee testified that Defendant Special Agent Erath ("Erath") and the raid team came through the door to the third floor residence without knocking or announcing. Bybee also testified that one of the doors of the double doors to the residence (accessed from the second floor office) was open. Plaintiff Lynne Meredith testified that she did not hear the agents knock or announce their presence before entering the third floor.

Erath testified that he knocked on the outside of the door to the third floor, waited about three or four seconds, and then entered. Agent Erik Newberry testified that he heard Erath state that they were "Federal agents with a search warrant" at least once. He stated that the door was open, and that the raid team went in. Agent Kenneday testified that Erath announced that they were special agents with a warrant, and that at least five seconds passed before they entered.

Kenneday testified that the front of the raid jacket is embroidered with "IRS POLICE."

3. Bybee's Request for Search Warrant and Subsequent Detention

Upon the team's entry into the third floor, it is undisputed that they almost immediately encountered Bybee, who was carrying either a box or a crate and who repeatedly demanded to see the search warrant. The agent in charge, Erath, did not have a copy of the search warrant because it had been left in the car.

Bybee called, loudly, for plaintiff Lynne Meredith, expressing her concerns that the search was illegal, that the officers had not shown her a search warrant, and that the ongoing situation was, in her assessment "just like Ruby Ridge."¹ It is undisputed that Erath forced Bybee to the ground in his attempt to control and handcuff her. Erath himself testified that he did so notwithstanding the fact that he did not find Bybee threatening.

Bybee testified that she did not try to flee from the officers, but that Erath grabbed her arms and caused extensive bruising. Bybee admits she resisted being handcuffed by pulling her arms and legs into her body. Bybee denies having struck Erath or any other officer. Erath's post-search interview reiterated Bybee's account that she did not strike Erath, and that she "curled up in a ball" and passively resisted his attempts to handcuff her. Agent Kenneday testified that he saw Bybee in a prone position on the floor with agents holding her down. Kenneday did not see or hear her struggling, although she was calling for plaintiff Lynne Meredith and repeating that the agents had no right to be there. By Kenneday's account, Bybee continued to ask for the search warrant while in this prone position.

Agent Sparkman's account of handcuffing Bybee differs from that offered by Bybee and the other agents. Sparkman testified that she was on the second floor of the Sunset Beach property when she heard screaming and ran to investigate. She saw Bybee fighting with Erath; Erath had Bybee in a "bear hug" and was trying to control her. Sparkman saw Bybee hitting and kicking Erath. Sparkman was concerned that Bybee was attempting to take Erath's gun from him. Sparkman characterized Bybee's resistance to being handcuffed as active, rather than passive, resistance.

Bybee testified that the defendants detained her for over thirty minutes in tight handcuffs. Agent Molt indicated in a post-search interview that she checked the handcuffs after Bybee complained they were too tight and found them to be sufficiently loose. Agent Sparkman loosened Bybee's handcuffs, even though she believed they were loose enough already. Sparkman also "double-locked" the handcuffs in order to keep them from inadvertently tightening. Bybee acknowledges in her deposition that the handcuffs were eventually loosened after she complained they were too tight.

Erath testified that Bybee was initially handcuffed to maintain control over her while the raid team searched for weapons; however, Bybee remained handcuffed for up to thirty minutes because she had not calmed down. After Bybee was released from the handcuffs, she stayed in the third-floor residence reading a book for four or five hours, even after she was informed she was free to go.

Erath testified that he did not take his gun out of its holster when he was on the third floor. Agent Kenneday's testimony controverts this fact; he testified that Erath had his gun drawn when he entered the third floor.

4. Encounter with Lynne Meredith

The raid team also encountered Lynne Meredith upon their entry on the third floor. The team's encounter with Meredith was less eventful. Agent Molly Molt and another agent encountered Meredith in a closet where Meredith was getting dressed. Agent Molt informed Meredith that she was a special agent with the IRS, that she had a search warrant, and that Meredith needed to get dressed. Meredith ...