Mwangangi v. Nielsen

• Decision Date: 15 September 2022
• Docket Number: s. 21-1576,21-1577,21-1971
• Citation: 48 F.4th 816
• Parties: Daudi M. MWANGANGI, Plaintiff-Appellee/Cross-Appellant, v. Taylor NIELSEN, et al., Defendants-Appellants/Cross-Appellees, and City of Lebanon, Indiana, Defendant/Cross-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

48 F.4th 816

Daudi M. MWANGANGI, Plaintiff-Appellee/Cross-Appellant,

v. Taylor NIELSEN, et al., Defendants-Appellants/Cross-Appellees,andCity of Lebanon, Indiana, Defendant/Cross-Appellee.

Nos. 21-1576

21-1577

21-1971

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued January 11, 2022

Decided September 15, 2022

Edward G. Bielski, Attorney, Bielski Law LLC, Indianapolis, IN, for Plaintiff-Appellee of Nos. 21-1576, 21-1577, 21-1971.

Daniel J. Layden, Daniel J. Paul, Attorneys, Williams, Barrett & Wilkowski, Greenwood, IN, for Defendant-Appellant Blayne Root of Nos. 21-1576, 21-1971.

Lisa A. Baron, Attorney, Knight Hoppe Kurnik & Knight, LTD., Merrillville, IN, for Defendants-Appellants Taylor Nielsen, Frank Noland, Trey Hendrix, Ben Phelps of Nos. 21-1577, 21-1971.

Lisa A. Baron, Attorney, Knight Hoppe Kurnik & Knight, LTD., Merrillville, IN, for Defendant-Appellee City of Lebanon, Indiana of No. 21-1971.

Before Easterbrook, Scudder, and Kirsch, Circuit Judges.

Scudder, Circuit Judge.

Daudi Mwangangi provided roadside assistance in the greater Indianapolis area. On October 7, 2017, he got a service request from a driver in need of a jumpstart in nearby Lebanon, Indiana, and Mwangangi set out to help in his used Crown Victoria. On the way there he activated clear strobe lights on the outside of his car, and a driver that Mwangangi passed on the highway twice called 911 to report him as a police impersonator. Shortly after Mwangangi got the stranded Toyota Camry back up and running and on its way, he found himself at a Speedway gas pump surrounded by seven police officers from several surrounding jurisdictions.

The encounter escalated from there. Mwangangi was ordered from his car, handcuffed, patted down twice, and eventually arrested for police impersonation—charges that were not dropped until two years later, when everyone realized he had been telling the truth all along about his roadside assistance job. Sprawling litigation followed. The district court entered summary judgment for Mwangangi on many of his Fourth Amendment-based claims—and, in doing so, denied the police officers involved the protection of qualified immunity—but found for the City of Lebanon and individual officers as to others. Having taken our own close look at what transpired, we affirm some of the district court's rulings and reverse others.

I

A

Daudi Mwangangi worked for Finderserve, LLC, providing roadside assistance in and around Indianapolis. Around 9:30 p.m. on October 7, 2017, the company notified him that a driver in nearby Lebanon needed a jumpstart, so he set out for the job in his dark blue 2003 Ford Crown Victoria. Mwangangi arrived at a Speedway gas station about 45 minutes later and found the driver of a Toyota Camry parked at a gas pump and awaiting assistance. He parked his Crown Victoria nose-to-nose with and about two car lengths from the other driver, activated his clear flashing strobe lights for added visibility, and jumpstarted the Camry. Within minutes the Camry's driver was back on the road on his way to Cincinnati. Mwangangi turned off his strobe lights and pulled up to the gas pump to log the service call, fill his tank, and return home.

Unbeknownst to Mwangangi, however, the local police were looking for him. Dustin Washington, a driver that Mwangangi had passed on the highway en route to Lebanon, called 911 to report that a Crown Victoria with the license plate SR393 had "attempt[ed] to pull [him] over with strobe lights in their headlights." The 911 dispatcher relayed that information to law enforcement officers in the Lebanon area, advising them to "investigate for a possible police impersonator" driving a "Crown Vic with strobe lights." Washington called back a short time later when he happened to spot Mwangangi parked at the Lebanon Speedway. In his second 911 call, Washington reported that the same "unmarked Crown Vic that was impersonating a police officer" was now at the Speedway gas station "with his strobe lights flashing behind another car."

This second call touched off additional radio dispatches to local law enforcement. In the first two, the dispatcher informed officers that the "possible police impersonator" was at the Speedway with its strobe lights on and a "vehicle pulled over." In the third, the dispatcher advised that "the vehicle they thought they had pulled over left" the gas station, but that the "blue Crown Vic" was still "pulled over by a pump" and the driver was in the vehicle.

All four City of Lebanon police officers on duty that night—Sergeant Ben Phelps, Officer Taylor Nielsen, Officer Trey Hendrix, and Officer Frank Noland—responded to the Speedway station. Three officers from nearby jurisdictions provided backup as well, including Officer Blayne Root from the neighboring Town of Whitestown.

Officer Nielsen arrived first, just a few minutes after Mwangangi jumpstarted the stranded Camry. When she pulled into the Speedway and parked behind Mwangangi's Crown Victoria, she immediately noticed a lightbar stretching across the vehicle's rear window and a sheriffs-supporter specialty license plate with a plate number matching the one that came over the radio dispatches. Officer Nielsen activated her red and blue lights and approached the front passenger-side window to ask Mwangangi a few questions. She saw reflective traffic vests, a mounted flashlight and tablet, and what appeared to be radar equipment inside the Crown Victoria, and so she asked Mwangangi to step outside his car to continue the questioning.

By this point, all the responding officers had arrived on the scene and, like Officer Nielsen, activated their lights. Officer Root met Mwangangi as he stepped out of the Crown Victoria and immediately turned him around and patted him down. The frisk turned up no weapons, but Officer Root proceeded to handcuff Mwangangi and move him away from the Crown Victoria. At that point Officer Root handed Mwangangi off to Officer Noland, who performed a second, more extensive pat down over Mwangangi's torso and arms, in between his spread legs, and inside his reflective safety vest. Mwangangi remained handcuffed the entire time. The second pat down also did not turn up any weapons or contraband.

While this was unfolding, the Boone County dispatcher informed the officers at the scene that the 911 caller, Dustin Washington, was there too. Two officers then talked to Washington and the person with him and got a more complete account of what prompted the 911 calls. Washington stated that the Crown Victoria tailgated him on the highway, activated its strobe lights, and turned on its lefthand turn signal before passing him in the right lane. By chance, when Washington got off the highway a few minutes later, he spotted the same Crown Victoria parked nose-to-nose with another vehicle in the Speedway parking lot.

Armed with this new information, the officers huddled to discuss what they had learned so far and to decide next steps. Based on that conversation, Officer Nielsen returned to Mwangangi, read him his Miranda rights, and asked him a series of questions, including where he lived, what he did for a living, the nature of his visit to the Speedway, and the like. Mwangangi answered truthfully and told Officer Nielsen that he worked for a company named Finderserve and was at the gas station responding to a roadside assistance call from a motorist on his way to Cincinnati who needed a jumpstart. Officer Root, standing nearby and seeking to corroborate Mwangangi's story, ran a Google search for "Finda serve"—only and unsurprisingly (given the mistaken spelling) to find nothing. Mwangangi offered to pull up his call log for officers if they removed his handcuffs. He then declined their request to search his cell phone.

The officers conferred once more. In their view, Mwangangi's account did not add up: they found no trace of Mwangangi's supposed employer on the internet, he had refused the officers’ request to review his logbook, and they did not understand his recounting of the jumpstarted Camry's comings and goings. All of this led Sergeant Phelps, the ranking officer at the scene, to decide that they would "J3 and hook and search"—arrest Mwangangi and tow and perform an inventory search of the Crown Victoria—and let the prosecutors decide whether criminal charges should follow. So with that the officers took Mwangangi to the Boone County Jail, where he remained for two days.

Local prosecutors ultimately charged Mwangangi with impersonating a police officer, in violation of Indiana Code § 35-44.1-2-6(b). Law enforcement also secured a warrant to search his cell phone and iPad, which the police kept for five months. Mwangangi defended himself against the charge until it was finally dismissed two years later in October 2019.

Mwangangi brought a lawsuit of his own later that same month. He filed a complaint including causes of action that fell into three general buckets. First , he invoked 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and alleged that the individual police officers involved in his stop and arrest violated his Fourth Amendment rights. His theories of liability were wide-ranging, including challenging the initial investigatory stop, the two pat downs, the handcuffing, and the ultimate arrest decision. Second , Mwangangi sought to impose Monell liability against the City of Lebanon based on its handcuffing and vehicle inventory search policies. Third , he alleged state law theories of false arrest, false imprisonment, battery, negligence, and negligent training and supervision against the City and individual Lebanon police officers.

Following discovery, the parties filed cross-motions for summary judgment.

B

The district court's decision was a mixed bag for all involved. The court entered partial summary judgment for Mwangangi on four issues: (1) that Officer Root's pat down was an unreasonable search; (2) that the officers’ decision to handcuff Mwangangi was unreasonable and converted his detention into an arrest without probable...