Morrison v. Board of Trustees of Green Tp.

• Decision Date: 08 October 2009
• Docket Number: No. 08-3051.,08-3051.
• Citation: 583 F.3d 394
• Parties: Amanda MORRISON, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF GREEN TOWNSHIP, et al., Defendants, Scott Celender, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

583 F.3d 394

Amanda MORRISON, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF GREEN TOWNSHIP, et al., Defendants, Scott Celender, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 08-3051.

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

Argued: June 19, 2009.

Decided and Filed: October 8, 2009.

ARGUED: Andrew E. Rudloff, Subashi, Wildermuth & Dinkler, Dayton, Ohio, for Appellant. Norman J. Frankowski II, Flagel & Papakirk, Cincinnati, Ohio, for Appellees. ON BRIEF: Nicholas E. Subashi, Subashi, Wildermuth & Dinkler, Dayton, Ohio, for Appellant. Norman J. Frankowski II, James Papakirk, Flagel & Papakirk, Cincinnati, Ohio, for Appellees.

Before: KEITH, CLAY, and GIBBONS, Circuit Judges.

OPINION

KEITH, Circuit Judge.

Defendant-Appellant Officer Scott Celender ("Officer Celender") appeals the district court's partial denial of his motion for summary judgment in this 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action, in which Plaintiff-Appellee Amanda Morrison ("Amanda") claims Officer Celender violated her constitutional right to be free from the use of excessive force when he: (1) refused to loosen her handcuffs during lawful detainment after receiving complaints that they were too tight; and (2) pushed her face into the ground multiple times after she was already handcuffed and subdued. Officer Celender raises a qualified immunity defense. For the following reasons, we AFFIRM the district court's partial denial of Officer Celender's Motion for Summary Judgment.

I.

A. Facts

This case stems from a domestic disturbance occurring at the Morrison household during daylight hours on October 30, 2002, when Tika Morrison ("Tika"), Amanda's sister, called 911 and reported that nineteen-year-old Amanda had a knife and was threatening suicide.¹ Mike Hopewell ("Deputy Hopewell"), a Hamilton County Deputy Sheriff, responded to the subsequent 911 dispatch and arrived on the scene to find Amanda sitting outside by herself in front of a neighbor's home. Amanda informed Deputy Hopewell that she had left her house following an argument with Cynthia Morrison ("Cynthia"), her mother, in which Amanda stated, "I could just kill myself."

Officer Celender of the Green Township Police Department arrived shortly thereafter and was asked by Deputy Hopewell to question the family members about the incident. After speaking with Cynthia, Officer Celender returned from the house to where Amanda and Deputy Hopewell were located. Deputy Hopewell testified that at that point he told Amanda they would have to take her to the hospital for a psychiatric evaluation.² While Deputy Hopewell was opening the police cruiser door, Officer Celender claimed he saw Amanda get up and run in the direction of her house, fleeing from the officers. In contrast, Amanda maintained she announced to the officers that she was going back inside, and simply walked away, thinking the police had finished with her. What followed next is undisputed — Officer Celender tackled Amanda from behind and handcuffed her hands behind her back.

Cynthia emerged from the house and saw Officer Celender kneeling on top of Amanda in a neighbor's yard. Cynthia testified that she ran over to where Amanda was lying face down and noticed that the handcuffs were pinching Amanda's skin, causing her skin to turn black and blue. Amanda claimed that the handcuffs also left "marks" on her wrists due to their tightness. Cynthia and Amanda both assert that they asked Officer Celender to loosen the handcuffs but that he refused their requests. Officer Celender denied this allegation and maintained he responded to the complaints by sticking his finger in between the handcuffs and Amanda's skin to make sure they were not "too tight."

Amanda alleged that while she was lying on her stomach and handcuffed, Officer Celender pushed her face into the ground every time she tried to talk. According to Amanda, this happened four to five times. Amanda described the injury resulting from the pushing as a "minor scratch, not even deep enough to cause [the skin] to bleed" and likened it to when "you scratch yourself with your fingernail [and] it just kind of turns red." Officer Celender acknowledged that Amanda was entirely compliant with his directions while she was handcuffed and that at no point did she attempt to struggle or flee. Amanda admitted to screaming while restrained, but alleged that she did so out of pain because of an injury to her ankle that she suffered when Officer Celender tackled her.

Sometime after Officer Celender handcuffed Amanda, Lieutenant David Luke, a Hamilton County Deputy Sheriff, and Sergeant Dan Eagle, a Green Township police officer, arrived on the scene. They were followed by Dennis Morrison ("Dennis"), Amanda's father. Dennis came home after receiving word that there was an emergency at the house and that "something about suicide was mentioned." Amanda testified that Officer Celender immediately reacted to the appearance of Dennis by exclaiming, "Shit, it's the father. Get him." After getting out of his car, Dennis identified himself to the officers as Amanda's father, and attempted to approach Amanda, who was screaming that her ankle was broken. According to Dennis, Deputy Hopewell and Officer Celender blocked his path and Officer Celender pushed him and told him to shut up and calm down. It was alleged that Officer Celender again pushed Dennis after he continued to inquire into what had happened, at which point Dennis warned Officer Celender to "keep his hands off [him.]"

Dennis testified that while Amanda was being treated for her ankle injury by paramedics, who were called by the police, one of the officers told her to "shut up" when she tried to explain her injuries. Dennis protested in response and, as a result, Deputy Hopewell was ordered by Lieutenant Luke to "get [Dennis] out of there." While Dennis maintained he was calm during the confrontation, the officers testified below that he repeatedly charged them in a hostile manner and, thus, was taken down to the ground by the police and placed under arrest. Both Cynthia and Tika, who were standing outside at the time, denied that Dennis acted aggressively during the encounter.

The paramedics treated Amanda at the scene for a sprained ankle and then transported her to the hospital. Amanda was released from the hospital later that day.

B. Procedural History

Amanda, Dennis, and Cynthia brought the underlying lawsuit in the Southern District of Ohio against the Board of Trustees of Green Township; Board of County Commissioners of Hamilton County, Ohio; Green Township Police Department; Hamilton County Sheriff's Department; Officer Celender; Deputy Hopewell; and unknown police officers and political subdivisions or agencies. Amanda and Dennis raised claims of excessive force, seizure without probable cause, failure to train, and failure to discipline pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983. They also asserted various state law claims. Cynthia separately alleged loss of consortium.

On February 25, 2005, all of the defendants moved for summary judgment. On November 29, 2007, the district court granted the motion in favor of the defendants on all claims with the exception of denial of summary judgment regarding Amanda's claim of excessive use of force against Officer Celender. See Morrison, 529 F.Supp.2d at 835-36. The district court denied the motion because it found that he was not entitled to qualified immunity with respect to Amanda's allegations that he failed to loosen Amanda's handcuffs and that he repeatedly pushed Amanda's head into the ground after she had been handcuffed and subdued. Id. at 832-33. Officer Celender filed the instant interlocutory appeal.³

II.

We review the "denial of summary judgment on grounds of qualified immunity de novo because application of this doctrine is a question of law." McCloud v. Testa, 97 F.3d 1536, 1541 (6th Cir.1996).

"The question on summary judgment is whether the moving party has demonstrated that the evidence available to the court establishes no genuine issue of material fact such that it is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law." Dobrowski v. Jay Dee Contractors, Inc., 571 F.3d 551, 554 (6th Cir.2009). The party moving for summary judgment bears the initial burden of showing that there is no material issue in dispute. Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 323, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986). In evaluating a party's summary judgment motion, a court "must view the facts and any inferences reasonably drawn from them in the light most favorable to the party against whom judgment was entered." Kalamazoo Acquisitions, L.L.C. v. Westfield Ins. Co., 395 F.3d 338, 342 (6th Cir.2005).

Because this appeal from the denial of qualified immunity is interlocutory, this Court may only exercise jurisdiction over the appeal "to the extent that a summary judgment order denies qualified immunity based on a pure issue of law." Gregory v. City of Louisville, 444 F.3d 725, 742 (6th Cir.2006). Accordingly, "a defendant entitled to invoke a qualified immunity defense may not appeal a district court's summary judgment order insofar as that order determines whether or not the pretrial record sets forth a `genuine' issue of material fact for trial." Johnson v. Jones, 515 U.S. 304, 319-20, 115 S.Ct. 2151, 132 L.Ed.2d 238 (1995). "If . . . the defendant disputes the plaintiff's version of the story, the defendant must nonetheless be willing to concede the most favorable view of the facts to the plaintiff for purposes of the appeal." Berryman v. Rieger, 150 F.3d 561, 563 (6th Cir.1998). The only issue a defendant denied qualified immunity may appeal is the question of "whether the facts alleged by the plaintiff constitute a violation of clearly established law." Id.

III.

Officer Celender argues the district court erred in partially denying his motion for summary judgment because the doctrine of qualified immunity bars Amanda's excessive force claim against him. Specifically, he claims that the evidence offered below cannot...