Vondrak v. City of Las Cruces

• Citation: 535 F.3d 1198
• Decision Date: 05 August 2008
• Docket Number: No. 07-2159.,No. 07-2148.,07-2148.,07-2159.
• Parties: John VONDRAK, Plaintiff-Appellee/Cross-Appellant, v. CITY OF LAS CRUCES; Cindy McCants and Nathan Krause, individuals and employees of the Las Cruces Police Department, Defendants-Appellants/Cross-Appellees.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (10th Circuit)

535 F.3d 1198

John VONDRAK, Plaintiff-Appellee/Cross-Appellant, v. CITY OF LAS CRUCES; Cindy McCants and Nathan Krause, individuals and employees of the Las Cruces Police Department, Defendants-Appellants/Cross-Appellees.

No. 07-2148.

No. 07-2159.

United States Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit.

August 5, 2008.

David P. Lutz (William L. Lutz with him on the briefs), Martin, Lutz, Roggow, Hosford & Eubanks, P.C., Las Cruces, NM, for Appellants/Cross-Appellees.

Barry J. Byrnes, Las Cruces, NM, for Appellee/Cross-Appellant.

Before TACHA, BRISCOE, and HARTZ, Circuit Judges.

BRISCOE, Circuit Judge.

This is an action brought by plaintiff John Vondrak under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against Officer Cindy McCants, Officer Nathan Krause, and the City of Las Cruces, New Mexico (collectively, "Defendants"). Vondrak has alleged claims against McCants and Krause for illegal arrest, excessive force, and inadequate medical attention, and Vondrak has included similar claims against the City for its failure to train its police officers adequately. The district court granted summary judgment to all Defendants on the inadequate medical attention claim, and to Krause on the illegal arrest claim. The district court denied summary judgment to Defendants on Vondrak's other claims, holding that McCants was not entitled to qualified immunity on either the illegal arrest or the excessive force claim, and Krause was not entitled to qualified immunity on the excessive force claim. All Defendants appeal, and Vondrak has filed a cross-appeal. We have jurisdiction over McCants' appeal and Krause's appeal pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291, and we reverse the denial of qualified immunity on the illegal arrest claim and affirm the denial of qualified immunity on the excessive force claim. We dismiss the City's appeal and Vondrak's cross-appeal for lack of appellate jurisdiction.

I.

On August 18, 2003, the Las Cruces Police Department established a sobriety checkpoint at the corner of Valley Drive and Hayner Avenue in Las Cruces, New Mexico. At approximately 10:10 p.m., John Vondrak approached the checkpoint in his 1994 Mercury Cougar, and an unidentified police officer asked Vondrak if he had consumed any alcohol that evening. Vondrak responded that he bought a beer about three or four hours earlier, and consumed approximately one-third of it. The officer directed Vondrak to pull his car over to the side of the road.

Officer McCants approached Vondrak's car and asked, "You've admitted to drinking today?" Transcript, Def. ROA, at 56.¹

Vondrak responded, "I had one beer three hours ago." Id.

McCants explained to Vondrak that she was going to conduct field sobriety tests:

Officer McCants:

Officer McCants: Since you have admitted to drinking, we're going to give you a field sobriety test, okay?

(Indiscernible radio traffic.)

Dr. Vondrak: I can handle that.

Officer McCants: Do you want to take the test?

Dr. Vondrak: Absolutely.

Officer McCants: Okay. Let's go over here where it's flat. Go ahead and stand right here facing me. Do you have any physical ailments that cause you any problems in walking, standing?

Dr. Vondrak: I have no problems.

Officer McCants: You're in fairly good health?

Dr. Vondrak: I'm in excellent health.

Id. at 56-57.²

McCants first described the "one-legged stand test" to Vondrak, which required him to lift one of his legs six inches above the ground, point his toe, and count to thirty. Vondrak responded that he "probably couldn't even do that if [he'd] never had a drink." Transcript, Def. ROA, at 57. McCants believed that Vondrak's statement was a preemptive attempt to justify failing the test. During the test, Vondrak swayed and put his foot down several times. McCants concluded that Vondrak had failed the test.

McCants next described the "walk and turn test" to Vondrak, which required him to walk nine steps, heel to toe, down an imaginary line, and then turn around and walk nine steps back. Vondrak had trouble with the test, and McCants concluded that he had failed it. Vondrak claims that he did not understand McCants' instructions.

Finally, McCants administered the "horizontal gaze nystagmus test," which required Vondrak to follow a pen with his eyes without moving his head. McCants concluded that Vondrak had failed this test as well.

Because Vondrak had admitted consuming alcohol and had failed the field sobriety tests, McCants believed that Vondrak had committed the crime of Driving While Under the Influence. McCants placed him under arrest and handcuffed him. Pursuant to police department policy, McCants double-locked the handcuffs.

Officer Nathan Krause observed McCants administer the field sobriety tests. After McCants placed Vondrak in handcuffs, Krause performed a pat-down search of Vondrak and inventoried Vondrak's car. Vondrak requested that the officers take him to a hospital immediately, so that he could "take . . . an alcohol test." Transcript, Def. ROA, at 62.

According to McCants, Vondrak did not complain about the handcuffs when she first placed them on him. McCants also claims that "[n]othing that occurred over the course of the evening would have led me to believe that Dr. Vondrak would suffer injury from the handcuffs." McCants Aff., Def. ROA, at 51, ¶ 11. Likewise, Krause claims that Vondrak never complained about the handcuffs during the pat-down search or while Krause was on the scene. Vondrak claims, in contrast, that he told the officers "[a] half dozen times" that the handcuffs were too tight and that his wrists were hurting and going numb. Vondrak Dep., Pl. ROA, at 57. He claims that, although he did not "cry out," he told McCants "that [his] wrists hurt immediately when she put [the handcuffs] on . . ., when she clamped down hard on both of them." Id. at 58-59.³ He also claims that he told McCants in the patrol car on the way to the police station that "the handcuffs were too tight, and that they . . . felt like . . . they were bleeding, that they were too tight, cutting into my wrists." Id. at 58.

McCants drove Vondrak to the police station. After they arrived, McCants administered two IR-5000 tests on Vondrak, both of which produced a blood-alcohol content reading of 0.00. She then asked another officer to perform an RBT test, which produced a blood-alcohol content reading of 0.00. After the officers tested Vondrak, they held him for another one-and-a-half hours. During this time, Vondrak made several requests for someone to loosen his handcuffs because his wrists were hurting; all requests were ignored. At some point, a police department employee photographed Vondrak's wrists. In the photographs, Vondrak's wrists appear red, but they do not appear cut or scraped. Eventually, the officers charged Vondrak with Driving While Under the Influence to the Slightest Degree, and they released him on his own recognizance. The charge against Vondrak was later dropped.

Following his release, Vondrak went to the emergency room at Mountain View Regional Medical Center. According to a toxicology screening report, Vondrak tested negative for drugs or alcohol. Dr. Scot Martin, who treated Vondrak, observed "multiple superficial abrasions and ecchymosis" on both wrists. Martin Diagnosis Def. ROA, at 143. He diagnosed Vondrak with neurapraxia in both wrists, and a soft tissue sprain of the right wrist.

The pain and discomfort in Vondrak's wrists did not subside, and it interfered with his ability to practice as an orthodontist and play golf. Dr. Pawan Jain, a neurologist, diagnosed Vondrak with a permanent radial nerve injury in his wrists, and Dr. Jain concluded that the "handcuffing was the competent producing cause of his right radial and bilateral median nerve injuries." Jain Diagnosis, Def. ROA, at 146. Dr. Wayne Lindsey, an orthopedist, concluded that Vondrak had "[s]uperficial radial nerve palsy" in his right wrist, and "[b]ilateral mild carpal tunnel syndrome." Lindsey Diagnosis, Def. ROA, at 160. Dr. Lindsey stated that Vondrak had "reached maximum medical improvement" and had "sustained permanent impairment" with regard to these injuries. Id. He concluded that the injuries "seem to be the direct result of constriction of the superficial radial nerve and median nerve of the wrists secondary to prolonged constriction by handcuffs placed during [the arrest]." Id.

In his complaint filed in this action, Vondrak alleged that McCants and Krause were liable under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for illegal arrest, excessive force, and inadequate medical attention. He alleged that the City was liable under § 1983 because of its failure to train its police officers adequately. Vondrak also alleged claims under New Mexico law for intentional tort and negligence, which are not at issue on appeal.

Defendants filed a motion for summary judgment. They argued, inter alia, that (1) qualified immunity protected McCants and Krause on all of Vondrak's federal claims; (2) alternatively, Krause was not liable because he neither arrested Vondrak nor applied the handcuffs; and (3) because McCants and Krause were entitled to qualified immunity, the City could not be liable.

The district court granted in part and denied in part Defendants' motion for summary judgment. The district court first explained that, "because the initial stop at the checkpoint was legal and because the failure of three field-sobriety tests would give an arresting officer probable cause to arrest an individual for DUI, whether Vondrak's arrest was illegal hinges on whether McCants possessed reasonable suspicion to administer field-sobriety tests to Vondrak." Dist. Ct. Op. at 23. The district court then held that Vondrak's statement—"I had one beer three hours ago"—was not, by itself, "enough to provide McCants, as a matter of law, with an objectively reasonable and articulable suspicion that Vondrak had driven or was driving under the influence of alcohol." Id. at 25. The district court also held that the question of whether McCants had ...