People ex rel. Concerning S.A., 29413-r-SPM
| Decision Date | 29 September 2021 |
| Docket Number | 29413-r-SPM |
| Parties | The People of the State of South Dakota in the Interest of N.A., Child, and Concerning S.A. and N.G., Respondents. |
| Court | South Dakota Supreme Court |
CONSIDERED ON BRIEFS MAY 25, 2021
APPEAL FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE SEVENTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT PENNINGTON COUNTY, SOUTH DAKOTA THE HONORABLE MATTHEW M BROWN Judge
JOANNA LAWLER LORI KAY GOAD of Pennington County Public Defender's Office Rapid City, South Dakota Attorneys for child and appellant.
JASON R. RAVNSBORG Attorney General ERIN E. HANDKE Assistant Attorney General Pierre, South Dakota Attorneys for petitioner and appellee State of South Dakota.
[¶1.] Officer Brandon Bassett (Officer Bassett) responded to a possible drive-by shooting at N.A.'s family's apartment. When Officer Bassett arrived at the apartment N.A. informed him that the messages she had sent to her mother reporting the drive-by shooting were a prank. Acting on his belief that N.A. was impeding the investigation by interfering with his attempts to obtain information from her mother during a telephone conversation, Officer Bassett grabbed N.A., pulled her down onto a mattress on the floor, and handcuffed her. During the interaction, N.A. kicked Officer Bassett. The State filed a petition alleging that N.A. was a delinquent child because she assaulted a law enforcement officer. Following an adjudicatory hearing, the circuit court declared N.A. a delinquent child. N.A. appeals the circuit court's determination, arguing that she justifiably acted in self-defense because Officer Bassett used excessive force to detain her. We reverse and remand.
[¶2.] N.A., a teenage girl, sent her mother several text messages in which she claimed that the family's apartment in Rapid City had been the target of a drive-by shooting by another juvenile, J.W.B.[1] N.A.'s mother relayed this information to police dispatch. At around 2:14 a.m., on November 16 2019, dispatch sent Officer Bassett and Officer Andrew Kimbell (Officer Kimbell) to investigate the report. The officers contacted N.A. at the family's apartment. When they knocked on the door, N.A. answered, and while the officers were talking to her, the lights in the apartment were off. Officer Bassett asked N.A. about the shooting and whether anybody was hurt inside the apartment. N.A. claimed the shooting had not occurred and that her messages were sent as a prank on her mother. She stated that she did not intend the prank to go this far. Officer Bassett then asked N.A. about her relationship with J.W.B. She responded that she did not like him. The officers requested to enter the apartment to confirm that everyone was safe and to investigate whether a shooting occurred. N.A. allowed them inside.
[¶3.] N.A. continued to tell the officers, after they had entered the darkened apartment, that the messages to her mother were a prank. Officer Bassett explained that he was aware that her family had many issues with J.W.B., and N.A. confirmed that they did. He again asked her if her messages were a prank and if she found the situation funny. She ignored him briefly and then again claimed the messages were just a prank. Officer Bassett continued to ask her if the prank "was worth it" and if she found it funny. He then asked if she had heard the story about the little boy who cried wolf and inquired whether she wanted to be that person. While Officer Bassett questioned N.A. in the living room, Officer Kimbell performed a protective sweep of the apartment using his flashlight. He found N.A.'s boyfriend in a bedroom. N.A.'s younger brother was also present in an adjacent bedroom. Officer Bassett testified that the apartment showed no signs that a shooting had occurred.
[¶4.] After Officer Kimbell reviewed the text messages N.A. had sent her mother, Officer Bassett then instructed N.A. to call her mother and to place the call on speakerphone. She was to tell her mother that her messages were a prank. N.A. complied, placing the call on speakerphone so Officer Bassett and Officer Kimbell could hear the conversation. During this initial conversation, N.A.'s mother asked to speak to law enforcement because she did not believe the texts were a prank. After the officers informed N.A.'s mother that the call was on speakerphone, she told the officers that her daughter had sent her some scary messages. She said the text messages stated that J.W.B. showed up at the apartment, resulting in a fight involving a gun. N.A.'s mother stated that she then called her son, N.A.'s younger brother, and he informed her that somebody was in the apartment, but he had stayed in his bedroom because he was scared. N.A. interrupted to deny that she had said somebody fired shots. When her mother disputed N.A.'s statement, N.A. yelled at her mother, saying her mother was drunk, and then hung up on her mother. During the conversation, Officer Kimbell escorted N.A.'s boyfriend outside the apartment so that he could call the boyfriend's parents.
[¶5.] Officer Bassett asked N.A. why she ended the call. N.A. responded that the messages were a prank. Officer Bassett told N.A. to call her mother back and not to hang up the phone. He told N.A. that she could go to jail for false reporting and commented that "this obviously isn't a joke." N.A. complied and again placed the call on speakerphone. At this point, Officer Kimbell was outside with N.A.'s boyfriend. N.A. remained silent after her mother answered the call, so Officer Bassett took the phone from her. N.A.'s mother asked him to read the text messages because she thought her daughter was lying to the officers. N.A. then yelled, "I'm fucking laughing." Officer Bassett yelled, "Stop, Stop, shut your mouth right now!" N.A. responded, "I should shut my mouth?" Officer Bassett testified that throughout this interaction he was still investigating the alleged shooting.
[¶6.] Due to N.A.'s behavior, Officer Bassett decided to detain her and place her in handcuffs. Without warning of his intentions, he grabbed N.A. by the arm. She started pulling away and thrashing her body, screaming, "leave me alone, leave me alone." Officer Bassett then pulled her down onto a mattress on the floor. The fall to the mattress allegedly broke N.A.'s glasses. He was able to put his knee into or over N.A.'s back and place handcuffs on her. Officer Bassett testified that, while he was handcuffing her, N.A. kicked him one time in the right leg. During the interaction, Officer Bassett's body camera video picked up N.A.'s brother screaming in the background. The interaction lasted roughly thirty seconds. Throughout this incident, the lights of the apartment were off.[2] When Officer Kimbell returned to the apartment after dealing with N.A.'s boyfriend outside, he turned on the apartment's lights. The video showed N.A. handcuffed and yelling, "let me go." Due to Officer Bassett's movement and the lights being off in the apartment, the video from Officer Bassett's camera does not clearly show details of the physical portion of the incident.
[¶7.] Officer Bassett walked N.A. to his patrol car. N.A., who was barefoot throughout the incident, continued to thrash her body and allegedly attempted to kick Officer Bassett a second time during their walk.[3] Officer Bassett asked N.A. if she thought "it [wa]s okay to act like that?" He also commented about N.A. "trying to kick him." After telling N.A. that she was "going to learn a lesson today[, ]" he placed her in his patrol car.
[¶8.] Leaving N.A. in his patrol car, Officer Bassett returned to the apartment to talk to Officer Kimbell. He explained to Officer Kimbell that N.A. tried to kick him while he was taking her down and then again outside. Officer Bassett then returned to his patrol car to transport N.A. to the juvenile service center. In his patrol car, he told N.A., "You are under arrest by the way." Officer Bassett is 240 pounds and, during the interaction, was in uniform, had a gun, taser, and handcuffs on his person. N.A. is a sixteen-year-old female of average stature. Officer Bassett did not suffer any injuries during the incident. He testified that he decided to detain N.A. and place her in handcuffs because she was preventing him from investigating the alleged drive-by shooting.
[¶9.] Later that month, the State filed a delinquency petition alleging that
N.A. committed simple assault on a law enforcement officer and disorderly conduct. N.A. denied the allegations. During N.A.'s adjudicatory hearing, the circuit court heard Officer Bassett's testimony, watched his body camera video, and reviewed another video involving Officer Bassett presented for impeachment purposes. At the close of evidence, N.A. requested additional briefing on the standard for when an individual is permitted to use self-defense against a law enforcement officer. The State agreed to brief the issue, and a briefing schedule was established.
[¶10.] In the State's brief to the circuit court, it claimed N.A. did not introduce evidence at the adjudicatory hearing related to self-defense and claimed Officer Bassett was acting within his lawful authority. In N.A.'s brief to the circuit court, she argued that a citizen is justified in using force to resist a law enforcement officer's use of excessive force. Accordingly, she claimed that if she assaulted Officer Bassett, she acted in self-defense to deter Officer Bassett's use of excessive force.
[¶11.] The circuit court issued its decision in the form of findings of fact and conclusions of law.[4] It determined that Officer Bassett did not use excessive force to detain N.A. Based upon that determination, the circuit court concluded that N.A. was not entitled to assert that she acted in self-defense. Consequently, the...
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