Williams v. Cline

• Decision Date: 31 August 2018
• Docket Number: No. 17-2603,17-2603
• Citation: 902 F.3d 643
• Parties: Estate of Derek WILLIAMS Jr., deceased, by Sharday Rose, Special Administrator, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. Jeffrey CLINE, et al., Defendants-Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

902 F.3d 643

Estate of Derek WILLIAMS Jr., deceased, by Sharday Rose, Special Administrator, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellees,

v.Jeffrey CLINE, et al., Defendants-Appellants.

No. 17-2603

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

ARGUED MAY 22, 2018

DECIDED AUGUST 31, 2018

Gettleman, District Judge.

The facts of this case are disturbing, and many are hotly contested. It is undisputed, however, that Derek Williams died on July 6, 2011, while in the custody of the City of Milwaukee Police Department ("MPD"). Williams left three surviving children who, along with his estate, sued the City of Milwaukee and several MPD officers (collectively, defendants) under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Defendants filed a motion for summary judgment invoking qualified immunity. The district court denied that motion, finding that contested facts existed with respect to the liability of all eleven defendant officers. See Williams v. City of Milwaukee , 274 F.Supp.3d 860 (E.D. Wis. 2017) (hereafter, " Williams "). Defendants appealed. We remand the case to the district court to perform an individual analysis of each defendant officer's claim of qualified immunity.

I.

In deciding defendants' motion for summary judgment after the completion of discovery by the parties, the district court thoroughly discussed the facts for nearly nine pages, noting where they were disputed, and construing them in favor of Williams, the non-movant. See Bridge v. New Holland Logansport, Inc. , 815 F.3d 356, 360 (7th Cir. 2016). We need provide only a brief summation.

Shortly after midnight on July 6, 2011, Williams, a 22-year-old African American man in good physical shape, was walking north on Holton Street. Williams was wearing a neoprene mask, and was holding a cell phone under his clothing, which made him appear armed. Four of the defendant officers were driving in two separate police cars nearby and observed Williams approaching two people from behind. Believing they were witnessing an attempted armed robbery, two of the officers stopped their car. When they did, Williams ran across Holton Street and through an alley. One officer ran after Williams while his partner drove in the direction Williams ran. The other two officers followed in their car. Several other officers responded to the scene to set up a perimeter and search for Williams.

Approximately eight minutes after Williams fled, two of the defendant officers found Williams hiding in a nearby backyard. When the other officers heard that Williams had been located, they began moving toward the area. To get to the backyard Williams had run 200 to 300 yards and jumped over a fence. Williams and the officer who chased him were both breathing heavily. There was a brief struggle, and the two arresting officers pulled Williams down so that he was lying on his back, then flipped him over to apply handcuffs. One of the officers remained on top of Williams after he was handcuffed, and Williams stated that he could not breathe. The officer then shifted so that the majority of his weight was no longer on Williams' back, and radioed to dispatch that Williams was in custody. That transmission was recorded, and Williams can be heard complaining that he could not breathe. Williams repeated that he could not breathe, then went limp when the officers lifted him up. The officers then placed Williams on the ground to evaluate him, and to avoid hurting their backs. Several of the officers dispersed to search for the suspected gun.

Once Williams was back on the ground he was breathing heavily and sweating, his eyes were closed, and he was unresponsive. The officers believed that Williams was faking distress to make it more difficult to move him out of the backyard. One of the officers performed a "sternum rub," a painful procedure used to determine whether someone is truly unconscious. Williams then opened his eyes and told the officers that he was "just playing around" with the alleged robbery victims, and that they were his friends. Williams continued to complain that he could not breathe, loudly enough that nearby neighbors heard him. They also heard one of the officers telling Williams to shut up. One of these neighbors made a phone call and related that the police were killing someone who was saying that he could not breathe.

About five minutes later, the officers moved Williams to the front yard. Williams again went limp and had to be dragged. The officers, still convinced that Williams was intentionally obstructing their efforts to move him, told Williams to stop "playing games." Williams continued to state that he could not breathe. While moving Williams to the front yard the group was blocked by a yard sign, and one of the officers let go of Williams. Williams fell face first onto the ground. Two of the officers picked Williams back up and dragged him to the front yard. One neighbor who witnessed this said that Williams "looked like he was already dead" and continued to say he could not breathe while the officers cursed at him. Another neighbor claims that Williams was taken to the police car without difficulty. Yet another neighbor called 911 to report that Williams was yelling that he could not breathe, and was informed that paramedics could not be sent unless the officers called for medical assistance.

The officers then took Williams to a police car and either threw or directed him into the back seat. They did not discuss Williams' condition with the officer who was assigned to the car. Sitting in the driver's seat, that officer activated the recording system in the car, but did not activate a video feed so that he could observe Williams on his computer screen, nor did he turn to look at Williams. Instead, the officer repeatedly asked Williams his name, and when Williams answered with "I can’t breathe," "I’m dying," and a request for an ambulance, which the officer denies hearing, the officer told Williams that he was "breathing just fine" and "playing games." He also rolled the window down and turned on the air conditioner. Williams' girlfriend was nearby, and saw Williams rocking around and heard him saying that he could not breathe. The video of Williams in the back seat shows him in obvious distress, eventually collapsing onto the door of the car.

Another officer came to relieve the officer who was sitting with Williams, but the two did not discuss Williams' complaints. That officer also failed to observe Williams through the video feed, and turned to look at Williams only when he was already slumped over and had stopped moving. At that point the officer got out of the car to check Williams for a pulse and breath. Finding neither, the officer still did not conclude that Williams' medical condition was serious, and did not call for medical assistance. Instead he went to another police car in search of help and found none. He returned to the car alone and, at that point, radioed for help from other officers. A responding officer requested medical help for the first time, approximately twelve minutes after Williams was put in the car, and three minutes after he was found motionless. Another officer searched for a plastic bag or mouth guard, and then began administering CPR. Paramedics took over to no avail. Williams was pronounced dead at 1:41 a.m.

The cause of death is also disputed. The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner found that the cause of death was sickle cell crisis brought about by Williams' flight from and altercation with the police. A deputy medical examiner with the U.S. Armed Forces Medical Examiner System reviewed the autopsy reports and concluded that the cause and manner of death were undetermined.

The district court concluded that material facts concerning the defendant officers' conduct were contested, thus defeating summary judgment based on qualified immunity. On appeal, defendants continue to contest many of the facts, but also argue that even taken in the light most favorable to plaintiffs, the facts entitle them to summary judgment. Plaintiffs argue that this court lacks jurisdiction to review the district court's denial of summary judgment because it is interlocutory.

II.

Generally speaking, "the denial of summary judgment is not appealable because it is not a ‘final decision’ for purposes of 28 U.S.C. § 1291." Gutierrez v. Kermon , 722 F.3d 1003, 1009 (7th Cir. 2013) (citing Ortiz v. Jordan , 562 U.S. 180, 188, 131 S.Ct. 884, 178 L.Ed.2d 703 (2011) ). The analysis changes, however, when a district court denies summary judgment based on qualified immunity. Such an order "often is immediately appealable on the basis that it is a final decision on the defendant's right not to stand trial and, as such, a collateral order." Id . (citing Mitchell v. Forsyth , 472 U.S. 511, 524-30, 105 S.Ct. 2806, 86 L.Ed.2d 411 (1985) ). Appellate review is limited, however:

When the district court denies qualified immunity at summary judgment because the plaintiff's evidence, if believed by a trier of fact, would suffice to show a constitutional violation, and the court concludes that the governing rule is well established, any appeal must be limited to the legal underpinnings of the court's ruling.

Jones v. Clark , 630 F.3d 677, 680 (7th Cir. 2011).

Under Johnson v. Jones , "a defendant, entitled to invoke a qualified immunity defense, may not appeal a district court's summary judgment order insofar as that order determines whether or not the pretrial record sets forth a ‘genuine’ issue of fact for trial." 515 U.S. 304, 319-20, 115 S.Ct. 2151, 132 L.Ed.2d 238 (1995). However, " Johnson does not prohibit [appellate review of] the abstract legal question of whether a given set of undisputed facts demonstrates a violation of clearly established law." Gutierrez , 722 F.3d at 1009 (citing Behrens v. Pelletier , 516 U.S. 299, 313, 116 S.Ct. 834, 133 L.Ed.2d 773 (1996) ; Leaf v. Shelnutt , 400 F.3d 1070, 1078 (7th Cir. 2005) ). In other words, we have appellate jurisdiction only if "the issue appealed concern[s], not which...