Thornton v. City of Macon

• Citation: 132 F.3d 1395
• Decision Date: 13 January 1998
• Docket Number: No. 95-8672,95-8672
• Parties: 11 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. C 946 Mark Lee THORNTON, Tommy Cravey, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. The CITY OF MACON, a Municipal Corporation, Defendant, D. Coleman, J. Lodge, Defendants-Appellants, Stanley Hunnicutt, Defendant, Ziva Beddingfield, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (11th Circuit)

Page 1395

132 F.3d 1395

11 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. C 946

Mark Lee THORNTON, Tommy Cravey, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. The CITY OF MACON, a Municipal Corporation, Defendant D. Coleman, J. Lodge, Defendants-Appellants Stanley Hunnicutt, Defendant Ziva Beddingfield, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 95-8672.

United States Court of Appeals Eleventh Circuit.

Jan. 13, 1998.

Randall D. Russell, Faulkner & Russell, P.C., Macon, GA, for Defendants-Appellants.

Charles T. Erion, Macon, GA, Clifford H. Hardwick, Roswell, GA, for Plaintiffs-Appellees.

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

Before HATCHETT, Chief Judge, TJOFLAT, Circuit Judge, and GODBOLD, Senior Circuit Judge.

PER CURIAM:

This case arises out of the arrests of Mark Thornton and Tommy Cravey by City of Macon police officers Stanley Hunnicutt, Desmond Coleman, Jhristian Lodge, and Ziva Beddingfield. Thornton and Cravey filed a complaint in the district court under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (1994) alleging that, in accordance with the custom, practice, or policy of the City of Macon, Georgia, the four police officers violated their rights under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments by arresting them without probable cause and by using excessive force to carry out those arrests. The complaint sought compensatory and punitive damages against each defendant. ¹ The four police officers jointly moved the district court for summary judgment on Thornton's and Cravey's claims on the ground that they were entitled to qualified immunity. The district court denied the motion with respect to officers Coleman, Lodge, and Beddingfield, but did not rule on the motion with respect to officer Hunnicutt. ² Coleman, Lodge and Beddingfield then appealed. ³

We have jurisdiction to consider an interlocutory appeal of an order denying a motion for summary judgment on qualified immunity grounds. See Johnson v. Jones, 515 U.S. 304, 310-14, 115 S.Ct. 2151, 2155-56, 132 L.Ed.2d 238 (1995). We review such orders de novo, and resolve all issues of material fact in favor of the plaintiff. See Cottrell v. Caldwell, 85 F.3d 1480, 1486 & n. 3 (11th Cir.1996). We then answer the legal question of whether the defendants are entitled to qualified immunity under that version of the facts. Id. Accordingly, in part I we state the facts of the case in the light most favorable to Thornton and Cravey. In part II, we explain why the officers are not entitled to qualified immunity on that version of the facts, and therefore were not entitled to summary judgment.

I.

Marjorie Mullis called the Macon city police department on June 5, 1990. She explained to the dispatcher that she wanted the assistance of a police officer in resolving a dispute between Thornton and herself. Mullis and Thornton had lived together in Thornton's apartment, but had parted ways over two years earlier. Mullis explained that she had a set of keys to Thornton's car, which she used periodically, and that Thornton wanted her to return those keys. She had told Thornton that if she had to return the keys, then he would have to return a mattress that she had left in his apartment. Mullis explained that she wanted an officer to assist her in exchanging the keys for the mattress.

Officer Coleman was dispatched to Mullis' residence. Mullis explained the situation to Coleman and asked him to take the keys to Thornton. Coleman agreed to do so and proceeded to Thornton's apartment, which was located across the street in the same block as Mullis' apartment. When Coleman arrived, Thornton was standing on the front porch of his apartment, which was on the ground floor of the apartment house. ⁴ Coleman explained to Thornton that he was there to return the keys and to pick up Mullis' mattress. Thornton responded by telling Coleman that he had done nothing wrong and that he wanted Coleman to leave the premises. At some point during this initial exchange, Mullis arrived on the scene. Thornton became upset and entered his apartment, closing a screen door behind him. Once inside, Thornton stood at the screen door and repeatedly told Coleman and Mullis to leave.

Instead of leaving, Coleman called for backup. Less than a minute later, Officers Lodge and Beddingfield arrived on the scene. Coleman briefed them on the situation. Thornton repeated his desire that the officers leave. The officers tried unsuccessfully to get Thornton to come out on the porch and talk to them. Finally, they told him that if he opened the screen door, they would give him his car keys.

As Thornton opened the door to get the keys, the officers charged into the apartment. One of the officers grabbed Thornton's arms, and another grabbed Thornton around the neck. The officers threw Thornton to the floor, cuffed his hands behind his back, picked him up by his arms, dragged him outside and shoved him into a police car. ⁵

Cravey was an acquaintance of Thornton's and had been doing some repair work on the apartment house. When the officers arrived, Cravey was sitting in a pickup truck parked in the apartment house driveway; he had come to the house to check on his brother Earl, who was working there that day. While in the truck, Cravey observed the officers arrest Thornton and put him in the patrol car. As the officers took Thornton to the car, Thornton yelled to Cravey; he wanted Cravey to call his mother and his lawyer and to lock his apartment. Cravey got out of the truck and approached the officers to ask if he could enter the apartment to use the phone. One of the officers responded by patting Cravey down; he found a pocket knife on Cravey's person. The officer charged Cravey with "obstruction," slammed him down on the hood of a police car, and cuffed his hands behind his back. The officer placed Cravey in the back seat of the police car with Thornton.

With Thornton and Cravey in the car, the officers directed Mullis to go into the apartment and get her mattress. When Mullis hesitated, one of the officers told her that if she refused, she would be arrested. Mullis explained that she had a bad back and could not lift the mattress. The officers then helped her carry the mattress to the front porch, where they left it. Thornton and Cravey were taken to jail and charged with felony obstruction of a law enforcement officer in violation of O.C.G.A. § 16-10-24 (1996). The charges were later dismissed.

II.

Coleman, Lodge, and Beddingfield contend that they are entitled to qualified immunity from Thornton and Cravey's false arrest claims. A public official is entitled to qualified immunity from a § 1983 damages action if his actions did not violate clearly established law. It is clearly established that an arrest made without probable cause violates the Fourth Amendment. See Von Stein v. Brescher, 904 F.2d 572, 579 (11th Cir.1990). An officer is entitled to qualified immunity where the officer had "arguable probable cause," that is, where "reasonable officers in the same circumstances and possessing the same knowledge as the Defendants could have believed that probable cause existed to arrest" the plaintiffs. Id. at 579 (internal quotation marks and citations omitted).

A.

Thornton was arrested for "obstruction of a law enforcement officer." Under Georgia law, a person is guilty of obstruction when he "knowingly and willfully obstructs or hinders any law enforcement officer in the lawful discharge of his official duties." O.C.G.A. § 16-10-24 (1996). Even if we concluded that the officers had arguable probable cause to believe that Thornton obstructed or hindered them in some fashion, the officers would not be entitled to qualified immunity because no reasonable officer would have believed that these officers were engaged "in the lawful discharge of [their] official duties".

Officer Coleman was dispatched to Mullis' house to address a civil dispute, and had "the general duty"--and the authority--"to enforce the law and maintain the peace." Duncan v. State, 163 Ga.App. 148, 148, 294 S.E.2d 365, 366 (Ga.App.1982). Coleman's and the other officers' actions here far exceeded that authority. Coleman lawfully could peaceably approach the front door of Thornton's apartment and attempt to deliver the keys and retrieve the mattress; in so doing he would merely be attempting to mediate and defuse a contentious situation. He and the other officers could not force Thornton to make such an exchange, however, and they could not remain on Thornton's property after Thornton had refused to make the exchange. Thornton had committed no crime and had not threatened anyone; once he had asked the officers to leave, their continued presence--and their attempt to retrieve Mullis' mattress by force--was not pursuant to their official duties and was outside of their authority. After that point, they were no longer maintaining the peace; they were instead merely attempting forcibly to resolve a civil dispute. No reasonable police officer would have believed that the officers had probable cause to arrest Thornton for "obstruction" of such unauthorized actions. ⁶

The officers assert that Animashaun v. State, 207 Ga.App. 156, 427 S.E.2d 532 (1993), supports their argument that they had probable cause to arrest Thornton for obstruction. That case involved a domestic dispute between a husband and a wife. The wife had left the husband a few days earlier and, fearing a violent confrontation, she called for a police escort before returning to the marital home to gather a few belongings. Id., 427 S.E.2d at 533. As soon as the wife and police officer arrived at the couple's home, the husband rushed into the driveway and began threatening the wife and officer with physical violence. The husband then ran into the house and continued to threaten the officer and wife from a window. Id. at 533-34. The Georgia appellate court held that the officer had probable cause to arrest the husband. Id. at 535.

Animashaun does not support the police officers' argument that they had probable...