Rushing v. Parker

• Decision Date: 16 March 2010
• Docket Number: No. 09-12637,09-12637
• Citation: 599 F.3d 1263
• Parties: Scott R. RUSHING, PlaintiffAppellant, v. Sean R. PARKER, Personal Representative of the Estate of Ernest R. Mincey, David Last, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

599 F.3d 1263

Scott R. RUSHING, PlaintiffAppellant, v. Sean R. PARKER, Personal Representative of the Estate of Ernest R. Mincey, David Last, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 09-12637

United States Court of Appeals

Eleventh Circuit.

Decided: March 16, 2010.

Non-Argument Calendar.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Yardley Drake Buckman, II, Amiee Ruth Buckman, Buckman & Buckman P.A., Sarasota, FL, for Rushing.

Hank B. Campbell, Jack Pettus James III, Valenti, Campbell, Trohn, Tamayo &amp Aranda, P.A., Lakeland, FL, for Defendants-Appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida.

Before BIRCH, HULL and COX Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM:

Defendants Ernest R. Mincey and David Last, officers at the Polk County Sheriff's Office, misidentified and arrested Plaintiff Scott R. Rushing. The victim of a crime Richard Wickman, reported to the Sheriff's office that a roofer he hired to repair hurricane damage to his roof had victimized him. The Plaintiff was arrested after an investigation. However, the state attorney's office later dropped the charges after it determined that the Plaintiff was misidentified and was not the perpetrator.

The Plaintiff sued the Defendants, alleging that his false arrest violated his civil rights under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The district court granted the Defendants' motion for summary judgment based on the doctrine of qualified immunity. The Plaintiff appeals the district court's order. In sum, Rushing contends that the district court erred in granting the Defendants' summary judgment motion because the Defendants' investigation of the Plaintiff was deficient, and therefore the Defendants are not entitled to receive qualified immunity.

Section 1983 provides individuals with a federal remedy for the deprivation of rights protected by the U.S. Constitution. Von Stein v. Brescher, 904 F.2d 572, 578 (11th Cir.1990). Law enforcement violates a person's Fourth Amendment rights when it arrests him or her without probable cause, and a claim arises under § 1983. Madiwale v. Savaiko, 117 F.3d 1321, 1324 (11th Cir.1997). Probable cause is present "when law enforcement officials have facts and circumstances within their knowledge sufficient to warrant a reasonable belief that the suspect had committed... a crime." United States v. Gonzalez, 969 F.2d 999, 1002 (11th Cir.1992) (citation omitted). The "existence of probable cause at the time of arrest constitutes an absolute bar to a section 1983 action for false arrest." Case v. Eslinger, 555 F.3d 1317, 1326-27 (11th Cir.2009) (quotations and citation omitted).

Related to probable cause in this context is the issue of qualified immunity. See Von Stein, 904 F.2d at 578. "[Q]ualified immunity protects government officials from liability for civil damages insofar as their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known." Pearson v. Callahan, — U.S. —, 129 S.Ct. 808, 815, 172 L.Ed.2d 565 (2009) (quotations and citation omitted). In order to receive qualified immunity, a government official must first demonstrate that he was engaged in a "discretionary function" when he committed the alleged violations. Holloman ex rel. Holloman v. Harland, 370 F.3d 1252, 1263-64 (11th Cir.2004). Assuming the government official demonstrates that he was acting within his discretionary function, the plaintiff then bears the burden to overcome qualified immunity. Case, 555 F.3d at 1325. In order to defeat the government official's qualified immunity defense, the plaintiff must prove that (1)the official "violated her federal constitutional or statutory rights, and (2) that those rights were clearly established at the time the officer acted." Douglas Asphalt Co. v. Qore, Inc., 541 F.3d 1269, 1273 (11th Cir.2008).

"In determining whether qualified immunity exists, the issue is not probable cause in fact but arguable probable cause." Von Stein, 904 F.2d at 579 (quotations and citations omitted); see also Case, 555 F.3d at 1327. A defendant need only demonstrate that arguable probable cause existed in order to be protected by qualified immunity. Savaiko, 117 F.3d at 1324; see also Kingslanal v. City of Miami 382 F.3d 1220, 1232 (11th Cir.2004) (noting that "officers who make an arrest without probable cause are entitled to qualified immunity if there was arguable probable cause for the arrest."); see also Gold v. City of Miami, 121 F.3d 1442, 1445 (11th Cir. 1997). "Arguable probable cause exists where reasonable officers in the same circumstances and possessing the same knowledge as the Defendant could have believed that probable cause existed to arrest." Case, 555 F.3d at 1327 (quotations and citations omitted).

With these principles in mind, the question before this court is whether reasonable law enforcement officials "in the same circumstances and possessing the same knowledge as [the Defendants] could have believed that probable cause existed to arrest [the] Plaintiff." (R.l-48 at 18, quoting Von Stein, 904 F.2d at 579.) We answer this question in the affirmative.

"The essence of qualified immunity analysis is the public official's objective reasonableness, regardless of his underlying intent or motivation." Kingsland, 382 F.3d at 1231 (citation omitted). "The standard is an objective one, and therefore does not include an inquiry in the officers' subjective intent or beliefs." Von Stein, 904 F.2d at 579 (citations omitted). In fact, the Defendants' "subjective beliefs about the matter, however induced, are actually irrelevant to the inquiry." Sevigny v. Dicksey, 846 F.2d 953, 957 n. 5 (4th Cir. 1988) (quotations and citation omitted). Although the district court set forth the correct objective standard, ¹ it seemed to venture into an analysis involving the Defendants' states of mind.² Nevertheless, the district court's look into the subjective intents of the Defendants does not alter our view that the Defendants had at least arguable probable cause to arrest. See Case, 555 F.3d at 1327.

I.

In Post v. City of Fort Lauderdale, 7 F.3d 1552 (11th Cir.1993), officers arrested a restaurant owner for allegedly violating the maximum occupancy code in his restaurant, The officers counted people in excess of the restaurant's maximum capacity (twenty-two). However, there were less than twenty-two people in the restaurant; so, there was actually no violation. The owner sued for false arrest, among other claims. The officials put forth a qualified immunity defense. This court, in affirming qualified immunity to the officers, wrote, "[h]ere, the issue is not whether the [officers'] head counts were, in fact, correct;... [instead, t]he issue material to qualified immunity is whether a reason-able officer in [the officers'] place-that is, in these circumstances-could have believed that more than 22 customers were present." Id. at 1558.

In Rodriguez v. Farrell, 280 F.3d 1341 (11th Cir.2002), Joe Rodriguez, the plaintiff, alleged that officers violated his constitutional rights by arresting him pursuant to a warrant for the actual perpetrator who also used the name "Joe Rodriguez." Id. at 1343. The plaintiff and the other individual had many similar physical features. Nevertheless, they had several distinguishing features, including, most prominently, a difference in height: the plaintiff was 5' 11", whereas the actual perpetrator was 5'6". We held, "in the context of this case, a mistaken estimate of no more than five inches does not equal a constitutional violation." Id. at 1348.

We agree with the Plaintiff that Rodriguez is not directly controlling to our facts because that case "concerned the officer's on-the-scene decision to arrest someone he mistakenly thought was the subject of an active, valid warrant, while Mincey and Last had many months to determine the true identity of the perpetrator of the crime, and objective exculpatory evidence." (Appellant's Reply Br. at 1.) However, it is nevertheless accurate that "the principles set forth in Rodriguez still apply to the case at bar in that the reasonableness of the officers' decisions with respect to probable cause must be viewed in light of the totality of the circumstances surrounding the arrest." (Appellee's Br. at 29-30.)

Despite the fact that the officers in Rodriguez "were in the field [and] not in a police station, " Rodriguez. 280 F.3d at 1348, officers were given constructive notice that they may be arresting the wrong person because of the height difference between the plaintiff and the actual perpetrator. Similarly, in Cannon v. Macon County, 1 F.3d 1558 (11th Cir.1993), modi-fied, 15 F.3d 1022 (11th Cir.1994), the court found that the officer acted with indifference and was not entitled to qualified immunity. There, the officer was on notice that the plaintiff may not be the perpetrator because the plaintiff repeatedly maintained it was a case of mistaken identity and the description from the fugitive report did "not accurately describe the plaintiff." Id. at 1560.

II.

In contrast to Rodriguez and Cannon, where officers had some indication that they may be arresting the wrong person, here "there is no proof that Mincey had doubts as to Rushing's identity when he completed the affidavit to obtain a warrant." (R.1-48 at 14.) Just as we held in Post that "a 'mistaken but reasonable count' was sufficient for [ ] agents to establish arguable probable cause, " Kingsland 382 F.3d at 1233 (quoting Post, 7 F.3d at 1558), we believe that Mincey's arrest affidavit, although mistaken, was such that "reasonable officers in the same circumstances and possessing the same knowledge as the Defendant[s' knowledge] could have believed that probable cause existed to arrest." Case, 555 F.3d at 1327 (quotations and citations omitted). Mincey's conduct here is the type that qualified immunity is meant to protect: "a reasonable mistake in the legitimate performance of [an officer's] duties." Kingsland, 382 F.3d at 1233.

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