Meyers v. Balt. Cnty.
| Decision Date | 01 February 2013 |
| Docket Number | No. 11–2192.,11–2192. |
| Citation | 713 F.3d 723 |
| Parties | William MEYERS, Sr., Individually; as the next friend of and Personal Representative of the Estate of Ryan Meyers; Anna Mae Meyers, Individually; as the next friend of and Personal Representative of the Estate of Ryan Meyers, Plaintiffs–Appellants, v. BALTIMORE COUNTY, MARYLAND; Stephen Mee, Police Officer, Baltimore County Police Department in both his official and individual capacities; Vincent Romeo, Police Officer, Baltimore County Police Department in both his official and individual capacities; Karen Gaedke, Police Officer, Baltimore County Police Department in both her official and individual capacities, Defendants–Appellees, and Allison Paladino, Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
ARGUED:Gregory L. Lattimer, Law Offices of Gregory L. Lattimer, Washington, D.C., for Appellants. Paul M. Mayhew, Baltimore County Office of Law, Towson, Maryland, for Appellees. ON BRIEF:Ted J. Williams, Washington, D.C., for Appellants. Michael E. Field, County Attorney, Baltimore County Office of Law, Towson, Maryland, for Appellees.
Before SHEDD, KEENAN, and WYNN, Circuit Judges.
Affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded by published opinion. Judge KEENAN wrote the opinion, in which Judge SHEDD and Judge WYNN joined.
In this appeal, we consider the district court's summary judgment holding that certain officers of the Baltimore County Police Department were entitled to qualified immunity. The conduct at issue involved the officers' entry into the residence of Ryan Meyers (Ryan) in responding to a report of domestic violence involving Ryan and members of his family. While attempting to arrest Ryan, one of the officers directed his conducted energy device, commonly known as a “taser,” at Ryan ten times, leading to Ryan's death.
Ryan's parents, William Meyers, Sr. (Mr. Meyers) and Anna Mae Meyers (Mrs. Meyers)(collectively, the plaintiffs), filed an amended complaint (the complaint) in the district court, alleging under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 that the officers' actions leading to Ryan's death violated his Fourth Amendment rights. The plaintiffs also alleged in their complaint that the officers' conduct violated certain provisions of Maryland state law. The district court held that all three officers involved in the incident were entitled to qualified immunity and awarded summary judgment in their favor. Meyers v. Baltimore Cnty., Md., 814 F.Supp.2d 552 (D.Md.2011).
Upon our review, we hold that the district court did not err in concluding that two of the officers were entitled to qualified immunity, but that the court erred in awarding summary judgment in favor of the officer who repeatedly activated his taser at Ryan. We reach this conclusion based on our holding that: (1) the one officer's use of the taser was not objectively reasonable after Ryan ceased actively resisting arrest; and (2) a reasonable person in the officer's position would have known that the use of a taser in such circumstances violated clearly established constitutional rights. Accordingly, we affirm in part, and reverse in part, the district court's award of summary judgment.
We review the facts in the light most favorable to the plaintiffs, the non-moving party in the district court. See Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co., Ltd. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 587–88, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 89 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986); Henry v. Purnell, 652 F.3d 524, 527 (4th Cir.2011) (en banc). The following facts are taken from the record, including the complaint and the deposition testimony of Ryan's family members and the police officers who were present during the events at issue.
Ryan Meyers was forty years old at the time of his death. He had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder at the age of fifteen, and struggled with this mental illness throughout his adulthood. He “dropped out” of school after the ninth grade, and lived with his parents his entire life. Prior to the events at issue, the Meyers family had contacted law enforcement authorities on five occasions to have Ryan forcibly detained and transported to a mental health facility for psychiatric evaluation, including three times during the previous ten years.
On the evening of March 16, 2007, Mrs. Meyers placed a telephone call to a “911 operator” to report that Ryan and his brother, William Meyers, Jr. (Billy), were engaged in a fight. When the 911 operator attempted to obtain additional information from Mrs. Meyers, she did not respond. However, the 911 operator heard “screaming in [the] background.” Based on this telephone call, officers from the Baltimore County Police Department (the Department) were dispatched to the Meyers' residence (the residence).
Officer Vincent Romeo was the first officer to arrive at the residence, where he found Mr. Meyers and Billy in the front yard. Mr. Meyers was holding a towel against his face to cover a laceration on his nose, which also was swollen. Mr. Meyers informed Officer Romeo that Ryan was inside the home, and that Mrs. Meyers had fled and would not return until the police had removed Ryan from the premises. From his vantage point on the porch of the residence, Officer Romeo could see that Ryan was pacing inside the house carrying a baseball bat.
Before attempting to enter the residence, Officer Romeo spoke with Billy about the events that had occurred. Billy stated that when he arrived at the house that evening, he heard his mother exclaim, Billy responded by punching Ryan, and a fistfight ensued, causing Mrs. Meyers to contact the police. Billy also told Officer Romeo that Ryan “has problems upstairs and he's bipolar.”
Officer Karen Gaedke later arrived at the residence in response to Officer Romeo's request for additional assistance. Officer Gaedke was familiar with Ryan's mental illness, having recently arrested him due to an incident at a nearby convenience store. After Officer Gaedke arrived at the residence, she and Officer Romeo began speaking with Ryan to convince him to surrender peacefully, but he rebuffed their efforts, stating, “No, you're going to kill me.”
Officer Romeo concluded that Ryan would not voluntarily leave the residence, that he was in an “agitated state,” and that he posed a threat to the officers' safety because he was carrying a baseball bat. Accordingly, Officer Romeo contacted a police dispatcher, asking that an officer trained to use a taser be sent to the residence.
Officer Stephen Mee, who was authorized by the Department to use a taser, 1 responded to Officer Romeo's request. Upon arriving at the residence, Officer Mee unsuccessfully engaged in a dialogue with Ryan in an attempt to have him surrender voluntarily. Thereafter, Officer Mee, Officer Romeo, Officer Gaedke, and Officer Andrew Callahan, IV, who also had responded to the scene, (collectively, the officers) gained access to the home by using a key provided by Billy. Billy entered the home at the same time and was a witness to the events described below.2
Upon entry, Officer Mee ordered Ryan to drop the baseball bat. According to Billy, Officer Mee deployed his taser almost immediately after ordering Ryan to drop the bat, without giving Ryan time to comply with the officer's command. However, it is undisputed that Ryan was holding the bat when he first was struck by the taser's probe, and that Ryan may have taken a step toward the officers immediately before the probe made contact with his body.
During Officer Mee's first three deployments of the taser, the device was in “probe mode,” during which two probes attached to thin electrical wires were fired from the taser, causing an electric shock to be delivered to Ryan upon contact.3 The first taser probe fired by Officer Mee struck Ryan on his upper body, registering a shock of about 60,000 volts that lasted five seconds. Ryan, who was about six feet in height and weighed about 260 pounds, did not drop his bat or fall to the floor in response to the first taser shock. Officer Mee stated that, after the first taser shock, Ryan was still holding the baseball bat and took two more steps toward the officers. According to Billy, however, Ryan went into convulsions and exclaimed,
Officer Mee again directed his taser in probe mode at Ryan, resulting in an additional 60,000–volt shock that lasted five seconds. This second taser shock caused Ryan to drop his bat, but he remained standing and again advanced toward the officers. Officer Mee directed his taser at Ryan a third time, delivering another 60,000–volt shock that lasted five seconds and caused Ryan to fall to the ground.
After Ryan fell, Officer Mee, Officer Callahan, and one other officer sat on Ryan's back. While the other officers remained seated on Ryan's back, Officer Mee fired his taser a fourth time in probe mode.4 Officer Mee thereafter changed the taser's mode from “probe mode” to “stun mode” and, during a period slightly exceeding one minute, delivered six additional taser shocks to Ryan, which each lasted between two and four seconds.5
After Officer Mee's tenth use of the taser on Ryan, the officers observed that Ryan appeared to be unconscious. Thereafter, an ambulance, which had been requested after Officer Mee first used the taser, arrived at the residence. The responding paramedics found Ryan in a state of cardiac arrest, and they were unable to revive him.
The parties gave conflicting accounts regarding Ryan's actions during Officer Mee's use of his taser for the fourth through the tenth times (the seven additional taser shocks). According to some of the officers, Ryan was actively resisting the officers' efforts to place him in handcuffs. These officers testified that Ryan was able to regain control of the baseball bat while he was on the ground, and tried to bite the officers when he again lost control of the bat. These officers...
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