Richmond v. City of Brooklyn Center

• Decision Date: 21 June 2007
• Docket Number: No. 05-3771.,No. 05-3770.,05-3770.,05-3771.
• Citation: 490 F.3d 1002
• Parties: Courtney RICHMOND, Appellant/Cross-Appellee, v. CITY OF BROOKLYN CENTER, a municipal corporation; Brian Robert Bruce, individually and in his capacity as a police officer in the Police Department of the City of Brooklyn Center; Garrett Flesland, individually and in his capacity as a police officer in the Police Department of the City of Brooklyn Center; Mike Reynolds, individually and in his capacity as a police officer in the Police Department of the City of Brooklyn Center, Appellees/Cross-Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

490 F.3d 1002

Courtney RICHMOND, Appellant/Cross-Appellee, v. CITY OF BROOKLYN CENTER, a municipal corporation; Brian Robert Bruce, individually and in his capacity as a police officer in the Police Department of the City of Brooklyn Center;

Garrett Flesland, individually and in his capacity as a police officer in the Police Department of the City of Brooklyn Center; Mike Reynolds, individually and in his capacity as a police officer in the Police Department of the City of Brooklyn Center, Appellees/Cross-Appellants.

No. 05-3770.

No. 05-3771.

United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

Submitted: June 16, 2006.

Filed: June 21, 2007.

Counsel who presented argument on behalf of the appellant-cross/appellee was Paul Applebaum of St. Paul, Minnesota. Also appearing on the brief was Scott W. Swanson.

Counsel who presented argument on behalf of the appellee-cross/appellant was Jon. K. Iverson of Bloomington, Minnesota. Also appearing on the brief was Jason J. Kuboushek.

Before MELLOY,¹ SMITH and GRUENDER, Circuit Judges.

GRUENDER, Circuit Judge.

Courtney Richmond sued the City of Brooklyn Center, Minnesota and three of its police officers, Robert Bruce, Garrett Flesland and Mike Reynolds, for alleged civil rights violations arising from a strip search of Richmond in his motel room. A jury found that Officer Bruce conducted the strip search in an unreasonable manner but that the search did not cause actual injury to Richmond. As a result, the district court reduced the jury's $35,000 "nominal" damages award to one dollar. Richmond appeals the reduction of damages, while Officer Bruce cross-appeals the district court's denial of qualified immunity. For the reasons discussed below, we reverse the district court's denial of qualified immunity and direct entry of judgment for Officer Bruce.

I. BACKGROUND

On April 29, 2001, Brooklyn Center police received an anonymous tip that drugs were being sold from three identified rooms at a local Motel 6. Officers Bruce, Flesland and Reynolds were dispatched to the Motel 6. The officers knocked at all three rooms, but they received a response from only one room. The officers were allowed entry into that room, where they smelled marijuana and observed marijuana cigarettes. The officers then proceeded to the motel's front desk and obtained a guest list. Officer Bruce called one of the two remaining rooms on his cell phone, and Richmond answered. Officer Bruce did not identify himself. According to Richmond, Officer Bruce asked about buying drugs, and Richmond simply hung up the phone. Officer Bruce, on the other hand, claimed that he made no mention of drugs and that he pretended he had dialed a wrong number.

After the phone call, the officers returned to Richmond's motel room, and Richmond came to the door. The officers spoke with Richmond through the partially open door, informing him that they had received a report about possible narcotics activity in his room. Richmond stated that his name was Tyrone Johnson and gave a date of birth. The officers requested a computer check of the name and date of birth and received a response of "not on file." The officers informed Richmond that they believed he had given a false name. Richmond soon told police that his real name was Courtney Richmond and admitted that there was an outstanding warrant for his arrest. The officers entered the room and arrested Richmond.

The ensuing search revealed a small amount of marijuana in Richmond's shirt pocket and over $1,300 in cash in Richmond's pants, as well as cell phones, pagers and "tear-offs."² The officers requested a computer check of Richmond's real name and learned that Richmond had several previous felony narcotic arrests. Officer Bruce informed Richmond that he believed Richmond likely was concealing drugs on his person and that Bruce was going to check his "crotch area." Officer Flesland held Richmond, who was handcuffed, above the elbow to prevent him from pulling away or pivoting. Officer Bruce unbuckled Richmond's belt and let Richmond's pants fall to the ground. Officer Bruce then lowered Richmond's boxer shorts with two hands and visually inspected, without touching, Richmond's genitalia and buttocks. Officer Bruce observed that Richmond was clenching his buttocks. Richmond testified that Officer Flesland then forcibly bent him over a table, while Officers Bruce and Flesland testified that Richmond leaned forward on his own at Officer Bruce's request and that there was no table in front of him. When Richmond was positioned forward, Officer Bruce observed a piece of tissue protruding from Richmond's buttocks. Officer Bruce put on a latex glove and, according to Officer Bruce, grabbed the corner of the tissue with a quick swiping motion, avoiding contact with Richmond's skin, and threw the tissue to the ground. According to Richmond, Officer Bruce penetrated Richmond's anus to retrieve the tissue and then reinserted two or three fingers into Richmond's anus and "moved them around." Richmond yelled and swore during the search and testified that he felt as though he was being raped. The tissue retrieved from Richmond's buttocks contained 3.7 grams of cocaine.

In Richmond's state criminal prosecution, the state court suppressed the 3.7 grams of cocaine as the fruit of an illegal search, and the charges against Richmond were dismissed. Richmond later filed the instant action against the City of Brooklyn Center and Officers Bruce, Flesland and Reynolds, claiming damages under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for an unreasonable search. The district court denied the defendants' motion for summary judgment based on qualified immunity, finding, inter alia, a disputed question of material fact as to whether a body-cavity search occurred and concluding that qualified immunity was not appropriate on the facts as set forth by Richmond. The defendants did not pursue an interlocutory appeal.

The case proceeded to a four-day jury trial on Richmond's claims that the officers performed an unreasonable strip search or body-cavity search, used excessive force, and committed assault and battery. The district court submitted to the jury a special verdict form with 31 special interrogatories. The jury found that (1) no officer used excessive force, assaulted or battered Richmond; (2) the alleged body cavity search of Richmond did not occur; (3) exigent circumstances were present to justify a body cavity search, had one occurred; (4) the officers had reasonable suspicion to support the strip search; (5) Officer Bruce did not conduct the strip search in a reasonable manner;³ and (6) the strip search was not a direct cause of injury to Richmond. Despite the finding of no actual damages and a jury instruction stating that, in the absence of damages, nominal damages should be $1, the jury awarded nominal damages of $35,000.

Richmond moved for a new trial on the issues of whether the strip search caused actual damages, whether the officers had reasonable suspicion to conduct a strip search, whether Officer Flesland behaved reasonably and whether a body cavity search occurred. Officer Bruce moved for judgment as a matter of law based on qualified immunity and for a reduction of the nominal damages award to $1. The district court denied all post-trial motions save Officer Bruce's motion to reduce the nominal damages to $1. Richmond now appeals the reduction of nominal damages and the denial of his motion for a new trial on the issue of whether he suffered actual damages, while Officer Bruce cross-appeals the denial of qualified immunity and the exclusion of certain evidence.

II. DISCUSSION

We first address Officer Bruce's cross-appeal of the denial of his post-trial motion for judgment as a matter of law based on qualified immunity. "Qualified immunity protects a government official from liability in a section 1983 action unless the official's conduct violated a clearly established constitutional or statutory right of which a reasonable person would have known." Henderson v. Munn, 439 F.3d 497, 501 (8th Cir.2006). To determine whether an officer is entitled to qualified immunity, we ask first whether the officer's conduct violated a constitutional right, and second whether that right was clearly established at the time of the deprivation "in light of the specific context of the case." Saucier v. Katz, 533 U.S. 194, 201, 121 S.Ct. 2151, 150 L.Ed.2d 272 (2001). We review the district court's determination of qualified immunity de novo. Hill v. McKinley, 311 F.3d 899, 902 (8th Cir.2002). Where qualified immunity is asserted in a motion for judgment as a matter of law, we view the facts in the light most favorable to the prevailing party at trial. See id. In particular, we rely on the jury's factual findings on the special verdict form in making our qualified immunity ruling. Littrell v. Franklin, 388 F.3d 578, 585 (8th Cir.2004). On some of these special findings Richmond prevailed at trial, while on others the defendants prevailed. To the extent facts covered by a special interrogatory affect the qualified immunity analysis, we must view those facts in the light most favorable to the jury's special verdict.

The Fourth Amendment reasonableness of a strip search turns on "the scope of the particular intrusion, the manner in which it is conducted, the justification for initiating it, and the place in which it is conducted." Bell v. Wolfish, 441 U.S. 520, 559, 99 S.Ct. 1861, 60 L.Ed.2d 447 (1979). The facts regarding the location, justification and scope of the strip search in the instant case are relatively well-defined. It is undisputed that the search took place in Richmond's motel room. With regard to justification, there is no challenge on appeal to the jury's finding that the officers had reasonable suspicion to conduct a strip search. Cf. Jones v. Edwards, 770 F.2d 739, 741-42 (8th Cir. 1985) (finding a strip search of an arrestee violated the Fourth Amendment where authorities had no reasonable suspicion...