Source: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-alsd-1_13-cv-00522/USCOURTS-alsd-1_13-cv-00522-3/pdf.json

Nature of Suit Code: 360
Nature of Suit: Other Personal Injury
Cause of Action: 42:1983 Civil Rights Act

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IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF ALABAMA

SOUTHERN DIVISION

AMY RACHEL, etc., )

 )

Plaintiff, )

 )

v. ) CIVIL ACTION 13-0522-WS-M

 )

CITY OF MOBILE, ALABAMA, et al., )

 )

Defendants. )

 ORDER

This matter is before the Court on the four remaining defendants’ motions

for summary judgment. (Docs. 117, 123, 128, 133). The parties have filed briefs 

and evidentiary materials in support of their respective positions, (Docs. 118-21, 

124-27, 129-32, 134-37, 141, 146-48, 150, 152, 155-57, 162-64), and the motions 

are ripe for resolution. After careful consideration, the Court concludes that two 

motions for summary judgment are due to be granted in their entirety and that the 

other two motions are due to be granted in part and denied in part.

BACKGROUND

In the hours before dawn on May 1, 2012, defendant police officers 

Christopher McCann and John Jackson responded to a domestic violence call 

involving Gregory Rachel (“Greg”). They were later joined by a third defendant, 

Sergeant Jerald Ripple, and a former defendant, Lieutenant Edward Elia.1 All four 

are employed by the defendant City of Mobile (“the City”). The encounter ended 

with Greg’s death. His widow (“Amy”) brings this action as administratrix of his 

estate.

 1 All claims against Lt. Elia were dismissed with prejudice on the joint stipulation 

of the parties. (Doc. 116).

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The second amended complaint, (Doc. 115), consists of two counts.2 Count 

III alleges that the three individual defendants violated Greg’s constitutional rights 

by using excessive force to effect his arrest and by being deliberately indifferent to 

his serious medical need. Count IV is a state claim brought against all four 

defendants for wrongful death.

With respect to Count III, the individual defendants argue they are entitled 

to qualified immunity in their individual capacities.

3 With respect to Count IV, 

they argue they are entitled to peace officer and/or state-agent immunity. The City 

argues that it partakes of the individual defendants’ peace officer immunity and 

that in any event the plaintiff cannot establish its liability under Alabama Code § 

11-47-190.

DISCUSSION

Summary judgment should be granted only if “there is no genuine dispute 

as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” 

Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a). The party seeking summary judgment bears “the initial 

burden to show the district court, by reference to materials on file, that there are no 

genuine issues of material fact that should be decided at trial.” Clark v. Coats & 

Clark, Inc., 929 F.2d 604, 608 (11th Cir. 1991). The moving party may meet its 

burden in either of two ways: (1) by “negating an element of the non-moving 

party’s claim”; or (2) by “point[ing] to materials on file that demonstrate that the 

 2 For reasons unknown, the second amended complaint lists all four counts from 

the first amended complaint but simultaneously says the plaintiff dismisses those claims. 

(Doc. 115 at 1, 7). The Court construes the plaintiff’s unorthodox pleading as setting

forth only two counts, Counts III and IV. All parties agree that only Counts III and IV 

are at issue in this lawsuit. 

3 The second amended complaint purports to assert the constitutional claims 

against the individual defendants in both their individual and their official capacities. 

(Doc. 115 at 1, 7). The plaintiff acknowledges that any constitutional claims against the

officers in their official capacities “were dismissed with the dismissal of the City of 

Mobile on those claims,” (Doc. 146 at 92), and she does not attempt to resurrect those 

claims. The official capacity claims therefore are due to be dismissed with prejudice. 

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party bearing the burden of proof at trial will not be able to meet that burden.” Id. 

“Even after Celotex it is never enough simply to state that the non-moving party 

cannot meet its burden at trial.” Id.; accord Mullins v. Crowell, 228 F.3d 1305, 

1313 (11th Cir. 2000); Sammons v. Taylor, 967 F.2d 1533, 1538 (11th Cir. 1992). 

“When the moving party has the burden of proof at trial, that party must 

show affirmatively the absence of a genuine issue of material fact: it must support 

its motion with credible evidence ... that would entitle it to a directed verdict if not 

controverted at trial. [citation omitted] In other words, the moving party must 

show that, on all the essential elements of its case on which it bears the burden of 

proof, no reasonable jury could find for the nonmoving party.” United States v. 

Four Parcels of Real Property, 941 F.2d 1428, 1438 (11th Cir. 1991) (en banc) 

(emphasis in original); accord Fitzpatrick v. City of Atlanta, 2 F.3d 1112, 1115 

(11th Cir. 1993).

“If the party moving for summary judgment fails to discharge the initial 

burden, then the motion must be denied and the court need not consider what, if 

any, showing the non-movant has made.” Fitzpatrick, 2 F.3d at 1116; accord 

Mullins, 228 F.3d at 1313; Clark, 929 F.2d at 608. 

“If, however, the movant carries the initial summary judgment burden ..., 

the responsibility then devolves upon the non-movant to show the existence of a 

genuine issue of material fact.” Fitzpatrick, 2 F.3d at 1116. “If the nonmoving 

party fails to make ‘a sufficient showing on an essential element of her case with 

respect to which she has the burden of proof,’ the moving party is entitled to 

summary judgment.” Clark, 929 F.2d at 608 (quoting Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 

477 U.S. 317 (1986)) (footnote omitted); see also Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(e)(2) (“If a 

party fails to properly support an assertion of fact or fails to properly address 

another party’s assertion of fact as required by Rule 56(c), the court may ... 

consider the fact undisputed for purposes of the motion ....”).

In deciding a motion for summary judgment, “[t]he evidence, and all 

reasonable inferences, must be viewed in the light most favorable to the 

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nonmovant ....” McCormick v. City of Fort Lauderdale, 333 F.3d 1234, 1243 

(11th Cir. 2003). This standard applies fully in the qualified immunity context. 

E.g., Gilmore v. Hodges, 738 F.3d 266, 272 (11th Cir. 2013). 

There is no burden on the Court to identify unreferenced evidence 

supporting a party’s position.4 Accordingly, the Court limits its review to the 

exhibits, and to the specific portions of the exhibits, to which the parties have 

expressly cited.5 Likewise, “[t]here is no burden upon the district court to distill 

every potential argument that could be made based upon the materials before it on 

summary judgment,” Resolution Trust Corp. v. Dunmar Corp., 43 F.3d 587, 599 

(11th Cir. 1995), and the Court accordingly limits its review to those arguments the 

parties have expressly advanced.

I. Evidence.

In deciding a motion for summary judgment, “[t]he evidence, and all 

reasonable inferences, must be viewed in the light most favorable to the 

nonmovant ....” McCormick v. City of Fort Lauderdale, 333 F.3d 1234, 1243 

(11th Cir. 2003). Therefore, the plaintiff’s version of the facts (to the extent 

supported by the record) controls, though that version can be supplemented by 

additional material cited by the defendants and not in tension with the plaintiff’s 

version.6

 4 Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c)(3) (“The court need consider only the cited materials, but it 

may consider other materials in the record.”); accord Adler v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 144 

F.3d 664, 672 (10th Cir. 1998) (“The district court has discretion to go beyond the 

referenced portions of these [summary judgment] materials, but is not required to do 

so.”). 

5 The parties cite to certain deposition pages that they have failed to include in 

their evidentiary submissions. The Court cannot credit their statements in brief as to the 

content of the missing testimony.

6 In particular, the plaintiff’s witnesses viewed only portions of the encounter 

between Greg and the police. While their version controls for present purposes as to 

those portions of the encounter which they witnessed, it does not preclude the defendants 

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A. Evidentiary Challenges.

The City has filed an objection to four of the plaintiff’s exhibits and a 

motion to strike one of the four. (Docs. 158, 159).7 The Court, construing the 

objection as a motion to exclude, provided the plaintiff an opportunity to respond 

to both motions, which she did. (Docs. 176, 177). Because the City challenges 

the declaration of George Kirkham in both motions, the Court considers it only 

under the City’s motion to strike, which contains a more detailed argument. 

1. Motion to exclude.

The Court agrees that the plaintiff cannot rely on the recorded statement of 

Kristie Adams, (Doc. 148-2), because it is unsworn. “Unsworn statements do not 

meet the requirements of Fed. Rule Civ. Proc. 56(e) and cannot be considered by a 

district court in ruling on a summary judgment motion.” Carr v. Tartangelo, 338 

F.3d 1259, 1273 n.26 (11th Cir. 2003) (internal quotes omitted); accord Southern 

Grouts & Mortars, Inc. v. 3M Co., 575 F.3d 1235, 1248 n.8 (11th Cir. 2009). As 

this Court has noted, “[w]hile these cases were decided under a previous version 

of Rule 56, the Eleventh Circuit has continued to apply the rule under the current 

version.” Jackson v. Lee, 2014 WL 4829552 at *2 n.5 (S.D. Ala. 2014) (citing 

cases). The plaintiff, who challenges the City’s hearsay objection to Adams’ 

statement but not its objection to the statement’s unsworn nature, (Doc. 176 at 1-

3), has offered the Court no reason to stray from its decision in Jackson. 

The City objects to certain portions of Tiffany Brown’s declaration as 

hearsay. Brown heard Greg say, “Don’t do it again,” and “Stop,” and she heard 

one of the officers say, “Man, what is wrong with you?” Brown also said to her 

 

from relying on their own accounts as to those portions of the encounter which the 

plaintiff’s witnesses did not observe.

7 The individual defendants have filed copycat motions to strike that merely adopt 

the City’s motion. (Docs. 161, 165, 166). 

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husband, “They are beating him!” (Doc. 148-8). Hearsay is a statement that “the 

declarant does not make while testifying at the current trial or hearing” and that “a 

party offers in evidence to prove the truth of the matter asserted in the statement.” 

Fed. R. Evid. 801(c). A statement by a party opponent offered against that party is 

not hearsay. Id. Rule 801(d)(2)(A). The officers are party opponents and Brown 

is the declarant, so their statements cannot be hearsay. Greg’s statements may be 

hearsay,8 but they fall easily within the “excited utterance” exception to hearsay, 

since they were made “relating to a startling event or condition, made while the 

declarant was under the stress of excitement that it caused.” Fed. R. Evid. 803(2).9 

Even if they did not, they would be admissible under Rule 807. 

The City also objects to Brown’s statement that, “[i]n [her] opinion, the 

officers were hitting the man completely unnecessarily,” as an opinion she is 

unqualified to provide. The plaintiff concedes that Brown is not an expert on the 

use of force but argues she may give a lay opinion. (Doc. 176 at 4-5). A lay 

opinion must be “helpful to clearly understanding the witness’s testimony or to 

determining a fact in issue.” Fed. R. Evid. 701(b). Brown’s factual testimony is 

quite clear as to what she observed, including statements that she did not observe 

Greg fight, threaten, struggle with or oppose the officers, so her opinion is not 

helpful to clearly understanding her testimony. Even if the “necessity” of force is 

a fact in issue, Brown’s factual testimony provides every basis for resolving the 

issue, and her personal opinion as to its proper resolution does not advance its 

determination.

The City objects to a “report of interview” of Nicole Phillips, (Doc. 148-13

at 4), arguing it is hearsay because it is in the form of an investigator’s report of 

 8 The plaintiff does not deny offering the statement to show that the officers had 

struck and/or tased him.

9 See, e.g., United States v. Jackson, 88 F.3d 845, 847 (10th Cir. 1996) (statement, 

“Kenny, don’t do it,” made “while the declarant witnessed the carjacker place a gun to 

the victim’s head,” was an excited utterance). 

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what Phillips told him. Phillips, however, declared under penalty of perjury that 

the interview account is true and correct, (id.), making it her own statement. At 

any rate, the document contains nothing that is not also contained in Phillips’ 

declaration, (id. at 2-3), to which the City does not object.

In summary, the motion to exclude is granted with respect to the unsworn 

statement of Kristie Adams and the opinion of Tiffany Brown, denied as moot

with respect to the declaration of George Kirkham, and denied in all other 

respects.

2. Motions to strike.

The plaintiff has offered evidence from Kirkham, its police operations 

expert, in three formats: (1) letter report; (2) deposition testimony; and (3) 

declaration. (Doc. 148-20 to -22). The City moves to strike the declaration on the 

grounds that it represents an untimely expansion of Kirkham’s opinions and 

support therefor. The plaintiff describes the declaration as presenting the opinions 

expressed in the report and deposition testimony, only “in a more concise and 

readable format.” (Doc. 177 at 8). The plaintiff further asserts that Kirkham’s 

report and deposition, independent of his declaration, “provid[e] support for 

Plaintiff’s opposition brief.” (Id.). Because the plaintiff represents that Kirkham’s 

declaration does not affect the proper resolution of the motions for summary 

judgment, the Court will not consider it, and the motions to strike the declaration 

are thus denied as moot. 

B. Statement of the Evidence.

McCann and Jackson were dispatched to the Rachel home at approximately 

3:11 a.m. in response to Amy’s request for 911 assistance. Amy had fled to a 

neighbor’s house across the street after Greg assaulted her, and the officers spoke 

with her there. She advised them that Greg had “flipped out,” was “talking crazy” 

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and had tried to kill her by breaking her neck. The officers also observed marks 

on Amy’s face and an injury to her hand. 

The officers recognized that Greg was an emotionally disturbed person. 

They intended to enter the Rachel home and arrest Greg for the crime of second 

degree domestic violence. However, Sergeant Ripple told them by telephone not 

to approach the residence but to secure the scene until he and Lieutenant Elia 

arrived.

Several minutes later, but before backup arrived, Greg exited the front door 

of the residence and stood in the front yard, a cell phone in one hand and a drink in 

the other. He raised his hands to the sky and screamed “weird stuff,” including 

repeatedly crying out to “protect [him] from Obama.” He then threw away his 

phone, set down his drink, and lay on his back in the yard, still yelling. 

The officers at this point crossed the street and approached Greg, tasers 

drawn, loudly ordering him to stay on the ground. But Greg returned to his feet, 

the officers five to ten feet away, and assumed a fighting pose or aggressive 

stance. The officers yelled at Greg repeatedly to get back on the ground, but he 

began walking towards them purposefully and with his fists closed, still yelling 

crazy things, including about protecting him from Obama. The officers, tasers still 

drawn, repeatedly yelled at Greg to stop where he was and to get on the ground. 

Greg did not comply, and Jackson tased him. Greg went to the ground but got 

right back up, seemingly unfazed, and McCann quickly tased him. Greg again 

went to the ground and again immediately got back up. He began pulling out the 

probes as he stumbled towards the street, the officers closely following while 

repeatedly ordering Greg to get on the ground. Near a ditch paralleling the street, 

Greg fell to the ground and was on his back. At or about this time, McCann called 

in a “Code Zebra,” which is required by department policy when a taser is 

deployed and which prompts the dispatcher to send paramedics.

From his supine position near the ditch, Greg rose to his knees, back erect, 

and moaned, “Don’t do it again.” One of the officers responded, “Man, what is 

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wrong with you?” The officers then discharged their tasers two to five times, but 

without apparent effect.

10 Two of these tases were in “touch-tase” mode.11 

Jackson then tried to wrestle Greg to the ground while Greg tried to punch at him, 

and McCann struck Greg several times in the thighs with his baton. Greg 

remained on his knees and raised his hands in a submissive manner, moaning 

“Stop.”

At that point, one of the officers struck Greg near the shoulder blades with 

a baton, and Greg went down on all fours. The officer struck Greg again in the 

same place, and Greg went completely prone, yelling, “Stop!” Greg from that 

point was totally submissive and did not kick, struggle or do anything to get up or 

oppose the officers. Nevertheless, both officers began kicking him. They kicked 

him at least two or three times each, including at least once each in the head. They 

also hit him many times with their fists and batons, including at least three to five 

times in the legs with a baton. The officers appeared agitated by Greg’s 

resistance. 

After this, the officers attempted to handcuff Greg, but his arms were under 

his body and he resisted their efforts. Using a baton for leverage, Jackson was 

able to force Greg’s left arm out from under his body. Jackson then handcuffed 

Greg’s left hand and pulled his left arm behind his back. McCann, however, could 

not extract Greg’s right arm. Because they were getting tired and Greg was still 

struggling, the officers sat, knelt or lay on the prone Greg to await the arrival of 

 10 The parties cite no evidence whether the tasers made effective contact with 

Greg.

11 See generally Hoyt v. Cooks, 672 F.3d 972, 975 n.4, 980 (11th Cir. 2012) and 

Fils v. City of Aventura, 647 F.3d 1272, 1276 n.2 (11th Cir. 2011) (explaining that probe 

(or prong) mode fires probes, attached to the weapon by wires, into the suspect’s skin and 

administers an electric shock that overrides the central nervous system, while the “much 

less serious” drive (or dry) stun mode is a pain control device that requires the weapon be 

pressed against the person’s body). Other cases describing the operation and effect of a 

taser include Oliver v. Fiorino, 586 F.3d 898, 903 (11th Cir. 2009), Chaney v. City of 

Orlando, 483 F.3d 1221, 1223 n.1 (11th Cir. 2007), and Draper v. Reynolds, 369 F.3d 

1270, 1273 n.3 (11th Cir. 2004).

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backup. Greg cursed the officers, yelled at them to get off him, and squirmed so 

forcefully as to rotate his body 180 degrees. 

When Sergeant Ripple arrived, Greg was still lying prone on the ground. 

McCann was on Greg’s legs to secure them, and Jackson was on Greg’s left side.

Ripple moved to the right side and tried to dislodge Greg’s right arm from under 

his body, but Greg locked it in and refused commands to surrender it. Ripple then 

punched Greg in the lower back three to five times in an effort to knock the wind 

out of him and distract him enough to allow Ripple to pull out his right arm. 

These blows had no effect on Greg. Lieutenant Elia then arrived and tried three 

times to apply a brachial stun to Greg’s neck, but this was ineffective because he 

kept hitting Ripple on his downswing. Using his knee as leverage on Greg’s right 

shoulder, Ripple was then able to extract Greg’s right arm and complete 

handcuffing within a minute or so of his arrival. 

Once handcuffed, Greg continued to kick and try to get the officers off him, 

prompting Riddle to have him hog-tied. While McCann put his knee in Greg’s 

upper back to keep him from rolling over, Ripple retrieved leg shackles and 

applied them to Greg’s ankles. He then connected the handcuffs to the leg 

shackles with a second set of handcuffs. The result of this four-point restraint was 

to bend Greg backwards into a “U” or “V” position. 

The defendants left Greg on his stomach in the hog-tied position, and one 

officer sat on him for several minutes in that position. At some point Greg yelled, 

“Gestapo!,” “seized,” and went suddenly quiet and unconscious. All three officers 

observed this. Greg, who never moved again, remained passed out for five 

minutes, during which time none of the officers checked on him or his breathing. 

They then lifted him by his limbs and carried him, face down, towards a patrol car. 

When they set him down to rest, one of them questioned if Greg was still 

breathing. Ripple checked and discovered he was not, and that his pupils were 

dilated. 

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A neighbor watching from across the street saw the officers carrying Greg 

and noticed he was completely limp. She told her husband she thought Greg was 

“playing dead.” Her husband, an EMT,12 left the house with no equipment,

walked across the road, identified himself as an EMT, and asked the officers if 

they needed any help. Greg was still lying face down. The EMT rolled Greg on 

his back and checked for pulse but found none. He asked the officers to remove 

the handcuffs and leg shackles, which they did. He then began chest 

compressions, unsuccessfully. After the EMT began the compressions, Ripple 

called for paramedics. At no previous point did any of the officers call for medical 

assistance. 

II. Qualified Immunity.

“[G]overnment officials performing discretionary functions generally are 

shielded 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.” Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 818 (1982). “[T]he 

burden is first on the defendant to establish that the allegedly unconstitutional 

conduct occurred while he was acting within the scope of his discretionary 

authority.” Harbert International v. James, 157 F.3d 1271, 1281 (11th Cir. 1998). 

The burden then shifts to the plaintiff to show that the defendant’s conduct 

“violated a clearly established statutory or constitutional right.” Grayden v. 

Rhodes, 345 F.3d 1225, 1231 (11th Cir. 2003). 

 12 The defendants describe the neighbor as a paramedic, but he describes himself 

as an EMT. An EMT is not a paramedic and does not have a paramedic’s training. 

Wouters v. Martin County, 9 F.3d 924, 926-27 (11th Cir. 1993); see also Hurlbert v. St. 

Mary’s Health Care System, Inc., 439 F.3d 1286, 1289 (11th Cir. 2006) (paramedic 

supervised EMT shift); Smith v. City of New Smyrna Beach, 588 Fed. Appx. 965, 970 

(11th Cir. 2014) (EMT subordinate to paramedic); Usry v. Liberty Regional Medical 

Center, Inc., 560 Fed. Appx. 883, 890 (11th Cir. 2014) (EMTs paid less than paramedics). 

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A. Discretionary Authority.

“[T]he burden is first on the defendant to establish that the allegedly 

unconstitutional conduct occurred while he was acting within the scope of his 

discretionary authority. ... If, and only if, the defendant does that will the burden 

shift to the plaintiff to establish that the defendant violated clearly established 

law.” Harbert, 157 F.3d at 1281 (emphasis added). The reason is that an official 

acting outside the scope of his discretionary authority “ceases to act as a 

government official and instead acts on his own behalf,” so that “the policies 

underlying the doctrine of qualified immunity no longer support its application.” 

Id.

For purposes of federal qualified immunity analysis, a defendant acts 

within his discretionary authority when “his actions were undertaken pursuant to 

the performance of his duties and within the scope of his authority.” Rich v. 

Dollar, 841 F.2d 1558, 1564 (11th Cir. 1988) (internal quotes omitted). For this 

inquiry, “[w]e ask whether the government employee was (a) performing a 

legitimate job-related function (that is, pursuing a job-related goal), (b) through 

means that were within his power to utilize.” Holloman ex rel. Holloman v. 

Harland, 370 F.3d 1252, 1265 (11th Cir. 2004). 

The first prong of this test requires that the defendant “have been 

performing a function that, but for the alleged unconstitutional infirmity, would 

have fallen within his legitimate job description.” Holloman, 370 F.3d at 1266 

(emphasis omitted). “The inquiry is not whether it was within the defendant’s 

authority to commit the allegedly illegal act,” but “whether the act complained of, 

if done for a proper purpose, would be within, or reasonably related to, the outer 

perimeter of an official’s discretionary duties.” Harbert, 157 F.3d at 1282 

(internal quotes omitted).13 

 13 For example, the issue is not whether a marshal has the authority to deliver a 

prisoner into unconstitutional conditions but whether he has the authority to transport and 

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As for the second prong, “[e]ach government employee is given only a 

certain ‘arsenal’ of powers with which to accomplish her goals.” Holloman, 370 

F.3d at 1267. “Pursuing a job-related goal through means that fall outside the 

range of discretion that comes with an employee’s job is not protected by qualified 

immunity.” Id. 

The quantum and quality of evidence necessary to meet the defendant’s 

burden “vary in proportion to the degree of discretion inherent in the defendant’s 

office,” Harbert, 157 F.3d at 1282 (internal quotes omitted), but ordinarily “there 

must be a showing by competent summary judgment materials of objective 

circumstances that would compel th[e] conclusion” that the defendant acted within 

his discretionary authority. Id. (internal quotes omitted). Certainly “[a] bald 

assertion that the acts were taken pursuant to the performance of duties and within 

the scope of duties will not suffice” to meet the defendant’s burden of proof. Id. 

(internal quotes omitted). However, when it is “undisputed ... that the 

[defendants] were acting within their discretionary authority,” the Court can deem 

that element of qualified immunity established. E.g., Lewis v. City of West Palm 

Beach, 561 F.3d 1288, 1291 (11th Cir. 2009).

“Because making an arrest is within the official responsibilities of a 

sheriff’s deputy, [the defendant] was performing a discretionary function when he 

arrested [the plaintiff],” allegedly using excessive force in the process. Crosby v. 

Monroe County, 394 F.3d 1328, 1332 (11th Cir. 2004); accord Vinyard v. Wilson, 

311 F.3d 1340, 1346 (11th Cir. 2002) (“[[I]t is clear that [a sheriff’s deputy] was 

acting within the course and scope of his discretionary authority when he arrested 

[the plaintiff] and transported her to jail,” during which he allegedly used 

excessive force). Because the conduct of which the plaintiff complains occurred 

 

deliver prisoners. Harbert, 157 F.3d at 1282 (describing Jordan v. Doe, 38 F.3d 1559, 

1566 (11th Cir. 1994)).

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in the course of an arrest, the individual defendants acted within the scope of their 

discretionary authority.

The plaintiff expressly “does not dispute that McCann was acting within his 

scope of discretionary authority [sic] during the incident ....” (Doc. 146 at 56). It 

is unclear why the plaintiff did not mention Jackson and Ripple in this concession

but, in any event, the plaintiff nowhere disputes that Jackson and Ripple also acted 

within their discretionary authority. Accordingly, the defendants have met their 

initial burden. See McClish v. Nugent, 483 F.3d 1231, 1237 (11th Cir. 2007) 

(where the plaintiff did not dispute that the deputy was acting within his 

discretionary authority at the time of arrest, the burden shifted to the plaintiff to 

overcome the qualified immunity defense). 

B. Violation of a Clearly Established Constitutional Right.

The lower courts have discretion whether to address first the existence of a 

constitutional violation or the clearly established nature of the right allegedly 

violated. Pearson v. Callahan, 555 U.S. 223, 236 (2009); accord Reichle v. 

Howards, 132 S. Ct. 2088, 2093 (2012). To avoid “the often more difficult 

question whether the purported right exists at all,” id., the Court addresses first the 

latter issue where appropriate.14

“The relevant, dispositive inquiry in determining whether a right is clearly 

established is whether it would be clear to a reasonable officer that his conduct 

was unlawful in the situation he confronted.” Saucier v. Katz, 533 U.S. 194, 202 

(2001). “In other words, existing precedent must have placed the statutory or 

 14 “Because qualified immunity is only a defense to personal liability for 

monetary awards resulting from government officials performing discretionary functions, 

qualified immunity may not be effectively asserted as a defense to a claim for declaratory 

or injunctive relief.” Ratliff v. DeKalb County, 62 F.3d 338, 340 n.4 (11th Cir. 1995); 

accord Swint v. City of Wadley, 51 F.3d 988, 1001 (11th Cir. 1995); D’Aguanno v. 

Gallagher, 50 F.3d 877, 879 (11th Cir. 1995). Thus, had the plaintiff sought declaratory 

or injunctive relief, the Court could not bypass the question whether a constitutional 

violation occurred. But the plaintiff seeks no such relief. (Doc. 115 at 10).

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constitutional question beyond debate.” Reichle, 132 S. Ct. at 2093 (internal 

quotes omitted). “The salient question ... is whether the state of the law at the 

time of an incident provided fair warning to the defendants that their alleged 

conduct was unconstitutional.” Tolan v. Cotton, 134 S. Ct. 1861, 1866 (2014). To 

attain that level, “the right allegedly violated must be established, not as a broad 

general proposition, ... but in a particularized sense so that the contours of the 

right are clear to a reasonable official.” Reichle, 132 S. Ct. at 2094. The law is 

clearly established if any of three situations exists. 

“First, the words of the pertinent federal statute or constitutional provision 

in some cases will be specific enough to establish clearly the law applicable to 

particular conduct and circumstances to overcome qualified immunity, even in the 

total absence of case law.” Vinyard v. Wilson, 311 F.3d 1340, 1350 (11th Cir. 

2002) (emphasis omitted). The requisite fair and clear notice can be given without 

case law only “[i]n some rare cases.” Williams v. Consolidated City of 

Jacksonville, 341 F.3d 1261, 1270 (11th Cir. 2003). 

“Second, ... some broad statements of principle in case law are not tied to 

particularized facts and can clearly establish law applicable in the future to 

different sets of detailed facts.” Vinyard, 311 F.3d at 1351. “For example, if some 

authoritative judicial decision decides a case by determining that ‘X Conduct’ is 

unconstitutional without tying that determination to a particularized set of facts, 

the decision on ‘X Conduct’ can be read as having clearly established a 

constitutional principle: put differently, the precise facts surrounding ‘X Conduct’ 

are immaterial to the violation.” Id. “[I]f a broad principle in case law is to 

establish clearly the law applicable to a specific set of facts facing a government 

official, it must do so with obvious clarity to the point that every objectively 

reasonable government official facing the circumstances would know that the 

official’s conduct did violate federal law when the official acted.” Id. (internal 

quotes omitted). “[S]uch decisions are rare,” and “broad principles of law are 

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16

generally insufficient to clearly establish constitutional rights.” Corey Airport 

Services, Inc. v. Decosta, 587 F.3d 1280, 1287 (11th Cir. 2009). 

“Third, [when] the Supreme Court or we, or the pertinent state supreme 

court has said that ‘Y Conduct’ is unconstitutional in ‘Z Circumstances,’” then if 

“the circumstances facing a government official are not fairly distinguishable, that 

is, are materially similar [to those involved in the opinion], the precedent can 

clearly establish the applicable law.” Vinyard, 311 F.3d at 1351-52. 

When case law is utilized to show that the law was clearly established, the 

plaintiff must “point to law as interpreted by the Supreme Court [or] the Eleventh 

Circuit,” and such case law must pre-date the challenged conduct. Mercado v. 

City of Orlando, 407 F.3d 1152, 1159 (11th Cir. 2005). Moreover, “[t[he law 

cannot be established by dicta[, which] is particularly unhelpful in qualified 

immunity cases where we seek to identify clearly established law.” Santamorena 

v. Georgia Military College, 147 F.3d 1337, 1342 n.13 (11th Cir. 1998) (internal 

quotes omitted). 

III. Excessive Force.

The plaintiff argues that the officers violated the Fourth Amendment’s ban 

on the use of excessive force to effect an arrest both by “provoking” a 

confrontation with Greg and by the force they employed once the confrontation 

began. (Doc. 146 at 58-67, 72-73). 

A. Provocation.

The plaintiff asserts that McCann and Jackson “provoked a violent 

situation” by needlessly approaching a person known to be emotionally disturbed, 

“essentially precipitating the violence instead of heading it off.” (Doc. 146 at 67). 

The Court need not consider whether such conduct would reflect a constitutional 

violation, because the plaintiff has failed to show it was clearly established before 

May 2012 that such conduct would violate Greg’s constitutional rights.

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The plaintiff does not suggest that the very language of the Fourth 

Amendment clearly establishes that provoking a confrontation with an emotionally 

disturbed felon is unconstitutional. Instead, she asks the Court to look to Ninth 

Circuit precedent indicating that such conduct can be unconstitutional. (Doc. 146

at 58, 65-66).15 “Our Court looks only to binding precedent – cases from the 

United States Supreme Court, the Eleventh Circuit, and the highest court of the 

state under which the claim arose – to determine whether the right in question was 

clearly established at the time of the violation.” Coffin v. Brandau, 642 F.3d 999, 

1013 (11th Cir. 2011) (en banc). The plaintiff’s Ninth Circuit cases thus cannot 

carry her burden.16

The plaintiff next points to Mercado as a case concerning “the use of force 

against an individual who had been reported to be despondent and threatening 

suicide.” (Doc. 146 at 69-70). But Mercado says nothing about the propriety, 

much less the constitutionality, of approaching such a person; it addresses only the 

constitutionality of firing a projectile into his skull from a distance of six feet. 407 

F.3d at 1155. The plaintiff also discusses several Eleventh Circuit cases 

discussing the use of excessive force in effecting an arrest, (Doc. 146 at 70-72), 

but none of them speak to the constitutionality of the antecedent act of 

approaching the suspect or “provoking” a confrontation. 

Finally, the plaintiff repairs to Hope v. Pelzer, 536 U.S. 730 (2002), which 

she believes stands for the proposition that “fair warning could come from ... non-

 15 “We ... hold that where an officer intentionally or recklessly provokes a violent 

confrontation, if the provocation is an independent Fourth Amendment violation, he may 

be held liable for his otherwise defensive use of deadly force.” Billington v. Smith, 292 

F.3d 1177, 1189 (9th Cir. 2002). 

16 Nor has the plaintiff explained how she could show that the defendants violated 

the Fourth Amendment by approaching Greg, as required by the Ninth Circuit. This is 

not a case, as was discussed in Billington, in which the defendants “committed an 

independent Fourth Amendment violation by entering the man’s house to arrest him 

without an arrest warrant, for a relatively trivial and non-violent offense.” 292 F.3d at 

1189. On the contrary, the plaintiff admits that the defendants’ “arrest of [Greg] was 

justified and lawful.” (Doc. 146 at 56). 

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decisional authority,” such that, “[w]here an officer, by training and by internal 

policy, is advised as [to] the potential danger of a particular type of excessive 

force, they are on notice that their conduct violates clearly established law.” (Doc. 

146 at 68-69). It is true that the Hope Court stated that, “in light of binding 

Eleventh Circuit precedent, an Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) 

regulation, and a DOJ report informing the ADOC of the constitutional infirmity 

in its use of the hitching post, we readily conclude that the respondents’ conduct 

violated” the petitioner’s clearly established constitutional rights. Id. at 741-42. 

But the Supreme Court did not say or suggest that a plaintiff can meet her burden 

of demonstrating the existence of a clearly established constitutional right by 

relying on “non-decisional authority.” 

Hope involved the use of a hitching post within the Alabama prison system. 

The Hope Court first discussed a former Fifth Circuit case, “[i]n light of [which], 

the unlawfulness of the alleged conduct should have been apparent to the 

respondents.” 536 U.S. at 742. The Court then discussed an Eleventh Circuit case 

and concluded that it “gave fair warning to respondents that their conduct crossed 

the line of what is constitutionally permissible.” Id. at 743. “The fair and clear 

warning ... that these cases provided was sufficient to preclude the defense of 

qualified immunity at the summary judgment stage.” Id. at 745 (citation and 

internal quotes omitted). It is thus plain that qualified immunity was denied based 

on decisional law, not based on “non-decisional authority.” The DOJ report 

merely “buttressed” the Court’s conclusion, id. at 744, and the ADOC regulation 

similarly was only “[r]elevant to the question whether [the Eleventh Circuit 

decision] provided fair warning to respondents that their conduct violated the 

Constitution.” Id. at 743-44.17

 17 The plaintiff cites two other cases in which the Supreme Court looked to police 

department training and policies, (Doc. 146 at 57), but it did so only in considering, 

respectively, whether reasonable suspicion existed and whether a national trend in law 

enforcement supported declaration of a new constitutional rule. In neither case did the 

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In short, the Hope Court’s discussion of non-decisional authority does not 

support the proposition that such authority can carry a plaintiff’s burden of 

showing the violation of a clearly established constitutional right in the absence of 

any decisional authority doing so. Certainly nothing in Hope can be construed as 

overriding the Eleventh Circuit rule that constitutional rights can be clearly 

established only by binding precedent, Coffin, 642 F.3d at 1013, or by the very 

words of a statute or constitutional provision. Vinyard, 311 F.3d at 1350-52.

18

Within the past few days, the Supreme Court has plainly torpedoed the 

plaintiff’s argument. The plaintiff in City and County of San Francisco v. 

Sheehan, 135 S. Ct. 1765 (2015), supported her Fourth Amendment claim with 

expert testimony that the defendant law enforcement officers “fell short of their 

training by not using practices designed to minimize the risk of violence when 

dealing with the mentally ill.” Id. at 1771. The Court canvassed the case law and 

concluded that “the officers’ failure to accommodate [the plaintiff’s] illness [did 

not] violat[e] clearly established law.” Id. at 1775. The Court then rejected the 

plaintiff’s reliance on her expert’s opinion: “Even if an officer acts contrary to her 

training, however, ... that does not itself negate qualified immunity where it would 

otherwise be warranted.” Id. at 1777. There thus can be no doubt that training 

and policy cannot substitute for appropriate judicial precedent in the “clearly 

established” analysis. 

 

Court remotely suggest such materials can supply the basis for declaring that a 

constitutional rule is clearly established for purposes of qualified immunity analysis.

18 It should be remembered that the three founts of clearly established law 

identified in Vinyard represent the Eleventh Circuit’s understanding of the meaning of 

Hope. 311 F.3d at 1350-53. The Court therefore disagrees with those appellate courts 

that appear to read Hope more expansively. See Morgan v. Swanson, 659 F.3d 359, 413 

(5th Cir. 2011) (the Hope Court “not[ed] that [ADOC] regulations and a DOJ report were 

capable of providing fair warning”) (en banc); Champion v. Outlook Nashville, Inc., 380 

F.3d 893, 902 (6th Cir. 2004) (under Hope, “[o]ther sources [beyond case law] can also 

demonstrate the existence of a clearly established constitutional right ....”). The Court 

notes that both the Fifth and Sixth Circuits, unlike the Eleventh, look to non-binding case 

law in determining the content of clearly established law. Morgan, 659 F.3d at 412-13; 

Champion, 380 F.3d at 902. 

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In summary, McCann and Jackson are entitled to qualified immunity with 

respect to any claim of excessive force based on provocation.

B. Use of Force. 

The plaintiff admits that the defendants’ arrest of Greg was lawful. (Doc. 

146 at 56). “Fourth Amendment jurisprudence has long recognized that the right 

to make an arrest ... necessarily carries with it the right to use some degree of 

physical coercion or threat thereof to effect it.” Jean-Baptiste v. Gutierrez, 627 

F.3d 816, 821 (11th Cir. 2010) (internal quotes omitted). However, “[a]ny use of 

force must be reasonable,” id., and “[i]t is clearly established that the use of 

excessive force in carrying out an arrest constitutes a violation of the Fourth 

Amendment.” Davis v. Williams, 451 F.3d 759, 767 (11th Cir. 2006). The 

question is whether, on May 1, 2012, it was clearly established that, under the 

plaintiff’s version of the evidence, the amount of force used by the individual 

defendants was unconstitutionally excessive.

Jackson first tased Greg when Greg, ignoring repeated police commands, 

got to his feet and, ignoring repeated commands to return to the ground, assumed 

an aggressive stance, yelled crazy things, and walked towards the officers with 

fists closed. McCann first tased Greg when he got back up immediately after 

being downed by Jackson’s tase. The plaintiff does not argue that this use of force 

was excessive, instead limiting her claim to the defendants’ use of force in the face 

of Greg’s “submissive lack of resistance,” which she pegs as beginning when 

Greg, after falling to the ground near a ditch, rose to his knees, his back erect. 

(Doc. 146 at 72). The defendants’ use of force after this point can be divided into 

three periods. 

1. Greg on his knees.

In the first period, according to the plaintiff’s evidence, McCann and 

Jackson discharged their tasers several times, but Greg remained on his knees. 

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Jackson, with Greg trying to punch him, tried unsuccessfully to wrestle him to the 

ground while McCann struck him on the thighs with a baton. One of the officers 

then struck him with a baton between the shoulder blades, and Greg went to all 

fours. The officer repeated the maneuver, and Greg went prone. 

When, as here, the plaintiff does not question the existence of probable 

cause to arrest, the arresting officer’s subjective intent is irrelevant, and the 

constitutional issue is measured by whether the force employed was “‘objectively 

reasonable’ in light of the facts and circumstances [the defendant] faced at the 

time, ‘including the severity of the crime at issue, whether the suspect pose[d] an 

immediate threat to the safety of the officers or others, and whether he [was] 

actively resisting arrest or attempting to evade arrest by flight.’” Reese v. Herbert, 

527 F.3d 1253, 1272 (11th Cir. 2008) (quoting Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386, 

396 (1989)). Moreover, “[t]he reasonableness of a particular use of force must be 

judged from the perspective of a reasonable officer on the scene, rather than with 

the 20/20 vision of hindsight.” Graham, 490 U.S. at 396. And “[t]he calculus of 

reasonableness must embody allowance for the fact that police officers are often 

forced to make split-second judgments – in circumstances that are tense, uncertain, 

and rapidly evolving – about the amount of force that is necessary in a particular 

situation.” Id. at 396-97.

Domestic violence in the second degree is a Class B felony, punishable by 

two to 20 years incarceration. Ala. Code §§13A-5-6(a)(2), -6-132(a). Although 

Greg was not fleeing while on his knees, he had been walking away from the 

officers mere seconds earlier, stopped only by his falling down, and the officers 

could reasonably conclude he was rising in order to continue his slow-motion 

flight. Moreover, the officers knew that Greg had attempted to kill his wife

shortly before, and they had witnessed him talking crazily and behaving 

erratically, as well as approaching them with closed fists, so they could reasonably 

be concerned for their safety while he was not on the ground. The officers had 

sought to detain Greg by repeated commands to stay down or to get back down, all 

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of which he ignored, and two tasings had also failed to stop him. Nevertheless, the 

officers did not escalate the amount of force but again tried to gain control via 

taser (including in the milder, dry-stun mode). Only when these efforts failed did 

the officers resort to a baton. Even then, they employed the baton on Greg’s 

thighs and between his shoulders (not on his head, his kidneys, or any other 

vulnerable area), and they did so only enough to return Greg to the ground. The 

plaintiff does not acknowledge or address these circumstances, much less explain 

how they render the officers’ use of force unconstitutional.

Instead, she says that McCann and Jackson “failed to take into account 

[Greg’s] diminished capacity.” (Doc. 146 at 65). But she relies only on cases 

from other Circuits for the proposition that an otherwise lawful use of force can 

become unconstitutional when exerted against a mentally or emotionally 

challenged individual, and she does not come to grips with Hoyt v. Cooks, 672 

F.3d 972 (11th Cir. 2012), “a case in which we determined that police officers were 

entitled to qualified immunity on excessive-force claims in a situation where they 

repeatedly used their Tasers in an attempt to subdue a mentally unstable arrestee.” 

Bussey-Morice v. Gomez, 587 Fed. Appx. 621, 630 (11th Cir. 2014). Nor does she 

address Mann v. Taser International, Inc., 588 F.3d 1291 (11th Cir. 2009), in 

which the Court upheld as constitutional the multiple tasings of a violent decedent 

who was “disconnect[ed] from reality” and was suspected of only a minor crime. 

Id. at 1299-1300, 1307.

With a minimum of discussion, the plaintiff cites several Eleventh Circuit 

cases in which a defendant was deemed to have employed unconstitutionally 

excessive force in effecting an arrest. (Doc. 146 at 69-72). None, however, 

involved circumstances remotely similar to those in play during this portion of the 

officers’ use of force: a non-compliant, recently violent, recently fleeing, 

currently erratic felon. The plaintiff has thus failed to show that the officers’ use 

of force, even if it was unconstitutionally excessive (a question the Court does not 

decide), violated Greg’s clearly established constitutional rights.

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2. Greg facedown on the ground.

The plaintiff’s evidence reflects that, while Greg remained prone and 

completely submissive, without any struggle or opposition of any kind, McCann 

and Jackson each kicked him several times, including in the head, and also struck 

him many times with their fists and batons.

“Our cases hold that a gratuitous use of force when a criminal suspect is not 

resisting arrest constitutes excessive force.” Hadley v. Gutierrez, 526 F.3d 1324, 

1330 (11th Cir. 2008). “[P]unching a non-resisting criminal suspect for no 

apparent reason other than malice ... is not protected by our constitution.” Id. at 

1334. The defendants in Hadley and several other cases19 were handcuffed when 

the gratuitous force was applied, but the Eleventh Circuit, in several cases cited by 

the plaintiff, has found the gratuitous use of force against non-resisting, 

unhandcuffed suspects to be unconstitutional as well.20 

In Reese v. Herbert, 527 F.3d 1253 (11th Cir. 2008), the plaintiff was 

thrown facedown on the ground, where he remained, offering no resistance. Four 

defendants piled on him and kicked and beat him, with one twisting his arm 

behind his back and another pepper-spraying him in the face. This use of force

plainly violated the Constitution, because it is clearly established that the Fourth 

Amendment “prohibits ... a severe beating of a restrained, non-resisting suspect.” 

Id. at 1274 (internal quotes omitted).

In Priester v. City of Riviera Beach, 208 F.3d 919 (11th Cir. 2000), the 

plaintiff burglary suspect, when discovered hiding in a canal, complied with the 

 19 Saunders v. Duke, 766 F.3d 1262, 1267 (11th Cir. 2014); Galvez v. Bruce, 552 

F.3d 1238, 1243-45 (11th Cir. 2008); Vinyard, 311 F.3d at 1348-49; Lee v. Ferraro, 284

F.3d 1188, 1198 (11th Cir. 2002); Slicker v. Jackson, 215 F.3d 1225, 1233 (11th Cir. 

2000).

20 Any different rule would incentivize law enforcement officers not to handcuff 

unresisting arrestees, so as to permit them to be beaten.

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defendant’s instruction to lie down, without attempting to flee or resist arrest and 

without posing any danger, yet the defendant nevertheless released his canine and 

allowed it to attack and bite the plaintiff for at least two minutes. Even without a 

prior factually similar case, it was clearly established that the defendant used 

unconstitutionally excessive force. Id. at 923-24, 927.

In Smith v. Mattox, 127 F.3d 1416 (11th Cir. 1997), the plaintiff raised a 

baseball bat when confronted by the defendant and refused to drop it when the 

defendant drew his gun and ordered him to do so. The plaintiff then dropped the 

bat and ran away. When the defendant caught up with him, the plaintiff “docilely”

complied with the defendant’s order to get on the ground. Once there, the 

defendant broke the plaintiff’s arm in the process of handcuffing him. Id. at 1418. 

The Court held that the defendant’s use of such force against “a previously 

threatening and fleeing arrestee ... after the arrestee suddenly became docile” was 

plainly unconstitutional. Id. at 1419-20.21 

Moreover, as support for the proposition that “a handcuffed, non-resisting 

defendant’s right to be free from excessive force was clearly established in 

February 2002,” the Hadley Court noted that, “‘[b]y 1988, our precedent clearly 

established that government officials may not use gratuitous force against a 

prisoner who has already been subdued ....’” 526 F.3d at 1333 (quoting Skrtich v. 

Thornton, 280 F.3d 1295, 1303 (11th Cir. 2002)). In Skrtich, the gratuitous force 

was applied after the prisoner was electronically shocked and rendered unable to 

resist but before the prisoner was handcuffed (his resistance to which had 

precipitated the incident). 280 F.3d at 1301-03. 

As shown by Smith, past resistance is no excuse to exert substantial force 

against a suspect that has stopped resisting. Likewise, in Hadley, there was 

 21 The Smith Court described the case as “very close,” but what was close was not 

whether the defendant’s conduct violated the Constitution but whether the defendant’s 

use of force “was so far beyond the hazy border between excessive and acceptable force 

that [the defendant] had to know he was violating the Constitution even without caselaw 

on point.” 127 F.3d at 1419. The Court found that it was. 

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evidence the plaintiff initially resisted arrest but was punched in the stomach only 

after he stopped resisting, which force the Court stated would be a constitutional 

violation. 526 F.3d at 1328, 1331; cf. Skrtich, 280 F.3d at 1302 (“It is not 

constitutionally permissible for officers to administer a beating as punishment for 

a prisoner’s past misconduct.”). 

The plaintiff’s evidence is that, once Greg was on the ground, he did not 

threaten or resist the officers in any way and that the officers appeared agitated as 

they kicked, punched and struck him. Even though he was not handcuffed, and 

even though he had previously resisted, the cases discussed above reflect that it 

was clearly established in May 2012 that kicking Greg repeatedly, including in the 

head, and striking him many times with fists and batons, was under these 

circumstances gratuitous and unconstitutionally excessive.

McCann and Jackson do not admit to kicking and beating Greg on the 

ground in the manner described by the plaintiff’s witnesses, but they do say he

resisted being handcuffed by squirming and keeping his arms under his body. 

While some use of force (though perhaps not all of the force alleged) presumably 

would be permissible in order to effect the handcuffing of a prone suspect resisting 

handcuffing, on motion for summary judgment the Court must credit the plaintiff’s 

evidence that Greg offered no such resistance, at least not during the period her 

witnesses saw him being kicked and beaten.

McCann insists the plaintiff’s evidence does not really support an inference 

that he and Jackson kicked and beat Greg as he lay prone on the ground offering 

no resistance to them. (Doc. 163 at 13-14). He is mistaken. The evidence 

concerning this period comes from the Browns, and it is clear and unequivocal. 

McCann notes the Browns “did not view the incident from beginning to end,” and 

he concludes from this that they “cannot create a genuine issue of material fact as 

to whether Rachel resisted arrest.” (Id.). But of course their firsthand 

observations do create such an issue with respect to the period they observed, i.e., 

from when Greg went prone to when they turned away. There is no requirement 

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in the law that a witness cannot testify to what he or she saw unless the witness 

saw everything. 

Nor, contrary to McCann’s assertion, does it matter for present purposes 

that other witnesses indicated that Greg resisted the officers earlier in the 

encounter or that Lieutenant Elia and Sergeant Ripple testified that Greg resisted

when they arrived some time later. First, their testimony does not cover the same 

time period addressed by the Browns. Second, even if it did, their testimony could 

not negate the Browns’ contrary testimony.

McCann and Jackson argue that certain other factors counteract the clearly 

established law discussed above. They ask the Court to consider: the need for 

applying force; the relationship between the need and the amount of force used; 

the extent of injury inflicted; and whether the force was applied in good faith or 

maliciously and sadistically. This is the listing of factors employed in the 

Eleventh Circuit prior to Graham. E.g., Leslie v. Ingram, 786 F.2d 1533, 1536 

(11th Cir. 1986). The final, subjective factor “has been eliminated from the 

analysis by Graham and other cases.” Lee v. Ferraro, 284 F.3d 1188, 1198 n.7

(11th Cir. 2002).22 McCann’s denial that he acted maliciously or sadistically, 

(Doc. 129 at 13), is therefore irrelevant. While the other three factors do survive 

Graham,

23 in May 2012 it was clearly established by extant binding precedent that 

they do not prevent the defendants’ use of force from being unconstitutionally 

excessive. 

The first two Leslie factors are but generalized statements of the Graham

factors. As reflected in the cases discussed above, there was no need to use force 

against Greg once he ceased all resistance, and the force the defendants did use 

 22 The Eleventh Circuit recently noted the error of certain panel opinions in 

continuing to list the subjective “maliciously and sadistically” factor despite Graham’s 

express limitation of the inquiry to one of objective reasonableness and despite prior 

panel precedent correctly jettisoning the subjective factor. Mobley v. Palm Beach County 

Sheriff Department, ___ F.3d ___, 2015 WL 1651850 (11th Cir. 2015). 

23 Lee, 284 F.3d at 1198 n.7.

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was grossly disproportionate to the (non-existent) need to use force. McCann says 

Greg was “delusional” and thus presented a “heightened possibility of threat” to 

himself and Jackson, (Doc. 129 at 11), but the plaintiff’s evidence is that, at least 

after Jackson first tased him, Greg did not actually threaten them but simply 

ambled away and, after falling, stayed on his knees, eventually raising his arms in 

a supplicating manner while he pleaded with the officers to stop, until two blows 

from a baton felled him. Any threat from Greg collapsed when he did and thus 

could not justify kicking and beating him as he lay non-resisting on the ground, 

any more than the decedent’s initial struggle with an officer in Oliver v. Fiorino, 

586 F.3d 898 (11th Cir. 2009), which the defendant ended by tasing the decedent

one time, could justify the defendant in continuing to tase him as he lay on the 

pavement, non-violent and non-threatening. Id. at 903, 906.

As for the extent of injury inflicted, McCann and Jackson say there is no 

medical or physical evidence showing they used a high degree of force. (Doc. 162 

at 6; Doc. 163 at 14-15). But “objectively unreasonable force does not become 

reasonable simply because the fortuity of the circumstances protected the plaintiff 

from suffering more severe physical harm.” Lee, 284 F.3d at 1200. “[T]he 

gratuitous use of force when a criminal suspect is not resisting arrest constitutes 

excessive force,” and an officer is “not entitled to use any force” when the suspect 

“neither resisted arrest nor posed a danger.” Hadley, 526 F.3d at 1330. Thus, an 

officer’s “single punch” to the suspect’s stomach “constituted excessive force,” 

id., without any consideration of whether or to what extent the suspect was injured 

by the blow. If that is so, repeatedly kicking a non-resisting suspect in the head 

and elsewhere, and hitting him with fists and batons many times, is also sufficient 

force to violate the Constitution without considering the injury inflicted thereby.

In summary, accepting for present purposes the plaintiff’s version of the 

evidence, the kicking and beating of Greg by McCann and Jackson as he lay 

unresisting on the ground violated his clearly established constitutional rights, and 

to that extent the defendants are not entitled to qualified immunity.

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3. Greg being handcuffed.

The plaintiff’s witnesses stopped watching at some point, leaving 

uncontroverted the defendants’ evidence that Greg, at least after that point, again 

resisted arrest by squirming and refusing to give up his hands for cuffing. The 

plaintiff makes no argument that the defendant’s use of force in effecting Greg’s 

handcuffing violated Greg’s Fourth Amendment rights. Because the officers were 

acting within their discretionary authority, see Part II.A, supra, the burden lies 

with the plaintiff to show that their use of force against a resisting arrestee in order 

to effect the arrest violated Greg’s clearly established Fourth Amendment rights.

The plaintiff, however, makes no mention of this episode or of Ripple’s 

involvement, and that silence is incapable of meeting her burden.

C. Summary.

Defendant Ripple is entitled to summary judgment because the plaintiff has 

not shown that his limited use of force was unconstitutional or that it violated 

Greg’s clearly established rights. McCann and Jackson are entitled to summary 

judgment to the extent the plaintiff’s claim is based on their provoking a 

confrontation, their use of force before Greg went prone, and their use of force 

once Greg began resisting while prone, because the plaintiff cannot establish all 

the elements of such a claim and/or because she has failed to show that their 

conduct violated Greg’s clearly established constitutional rights. McCann and 

Jackson are not entitled to summary judgment to the extent the plaintiff’s claim is 

based on their use of force while Greg lay prone and unresisting, because it was 

clearly established before May 2012 that their conduct violated Greg’s 

constitutional rights. 

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IV. Deliberate Indifference.

The plaintiff bases her deliberate indifference claim on the defendants’ acts 

and omissions after they handcuffed Greg. (Doc. 146 at 30). The parties agree 

this claim is to be analyzed under the standards set forth in Mann. (Doc. 124 at 

10; Doc. 129 at 13-14; Doc. 134 at 7; Doc. 146 at 74-75). “To prevail on a 

deliberate indifference to serious medical need claim, Plaintiffs must show: (1) a 

serious medical need; (2) the defendants’ deliberate indifference to that need; and 

(3) causation between that indifference and the plaintiff’s injury.” 588 F.3d at 

1306. 

A. Serious Medical Need.

The state medical examiner found that the cause of Greg’s death was 

excited delirium. (Doc. 148-17 at 2). The Eleventh Circuit has recognized excited 

delirium as a serious medical need because a delay in treatment both worsens the 

condition and poses a substantial risk of serious harm. Mann, 588 F.3d at 1307. 

There is thus evidence that Greg had a serious medical need.24

 24 Ripple argues that Greg had no serious medical need until the moment he went 

limp and stopped breathing. (Doc. 124 at 11). In the face of Mann, which he ignores, 

Ripple’s argument cannot be sustained; because Greg’s excited delirium episode began 

earlier, so did his serious medical need. 

Jackson and McCann complain that the plaintiff’s medical expert denied that 

Greg experienced excited delirium. (Doc. 129 at 14; Doc. 134 at 7). But Dr. Adams 

merely “quibbl[ed] with the use of the term excited in the delirium” because the delirium 

was not caused by Greg “taking a man-made substance.” (Doc. 127-8 at 9). Since Dr. 

Adams opined that Greg was experiencing a psychotic delirium and stated that an excited 

delirium “is a form of psychotic delirium with some sort of illegal drug superimposed on 

top of it,” (id. at 18), it is unclear that he described a condition meaningfully different 

from that found by the state medical examiner. Even if he did so, his disagreement with 

her would not erase the plaintiff’s evidence that Greg experienced excited delirium.

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B. Deliberate Indifference.

“Our circuit has held that, in order to prove that a deputy acted with 

deliberate indifference, Plaintiffs must show: (1) subjective knowledge of a risk 

of serious harm; (2) disregard of that risk; and (3) conduct that is more than mere 

negligence.” Mann, 588 F.3d at 1307 (internal quotes omitted). 

1. Subjective knowledge.

In order to have “subjective knowledge of a risk of serious harm,” a 

defendant “must both be aware of facts from which the inference could be drawn 

that a substantial risk of serious harm exists, and he must also draw the inference.” 

Rodriguez v. Secretary for Department of Corrections, 508 F.3d 611, 617 (11th

Cir. 2007) (internal quotes omitted).25 The defendant’s knowledge is “subject to 

demonstration in the usual ways, including inference from circumstantial 

evidence, and a factfinder may conclude that a prison official knew of a substantial 

risk from the very fact that the risk was obvious.” Goebert v. Lee County, 510 

F.3d 1312, 1327 (11th Cir. 2007) (internal quotes omitted). However, “imputed or 

collective knowledge cannot serve as the basis for a claim of deliberate 

indifference. Each individual Defendant must be judged separately and on the 

basis of what that person knows.” Harper v. Lawrence County, 592 F.2d 1227,

1234 (11th Cir. 2010) (internal quotes omitted).

McCann and Jackson deny they were aware that Greg was experiencing 

excited delirium or that the condition posed a substantial risk of serious harm. 

(Doc. 129 at 15; Doc. 162 at 9). The plaintiff, however, has offered the following 

evidence: (1) that the police department issued a memorandum order (“MO”) on 

 25 Rodriguez was a state prisoner. 508 F.3d at 612. “Claims involving the 

mistreatment of arrestees or pretrial detainees in custody are governed by the Fourteenth 

Amendment’s Due Process Clause instead of the Eighth Amendment’s Cruel and 

Unusual Punishment Clause, which applies to such claims by convicted prisoners.” 

Cottrell v. Caldwell, 85 F.3d 1480, 1490 (11th Cir. 1996). “However, the applicable 

standard is the same, so decisional law involving prison inmates applies equally to cases 

involving arrestees or pretrial detainees.” Id. 

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recognizing and handling persons with mental illness; (2) that McCann and 

Jackson received the MO (issued in 2011) and/or its 2005 predecessor prior to 

May 1, 2012; (3) that they were directed by their superiors to read and follow the

MO; (4) that the MO describes excited delirium as a “potentially lethal medical 

emergency” that “may increase a subject’s susceptibility to sudden death by

effecting an increase of the heart rate to a critical level”; (5) that persons 

experiencing excited delirium “present an unusual [sic] high risk of sudden incustody death”; (6) that the MO lists 22 “attendant symptoms” of excited delirium; 

(7) that, by McCann’s admission, Greg exhibited at least nine of them (bizarre 

and/or aggressive behavior, shouting, paranoia, hallucinations, panic, violence 

towards others, unexpected physical strength, yelling incoherently, and aggression 

towards objects); (8) that Greg also exhibited at least three other listed symptoms 

of excited delirium (thrashing after restraint, sudden tranquility, and seizure); (9) 

that Chief Barber confirms his officers are trained to recognize signs and 

symptoms of individuals who may be mentally ill or emotionally disturbed; and 

(10) that Sergeant Ripple expected his officers to know the information in the MO 

and be able to recognize excited delirium when encountered. From this evidence, 

a properly functioning jury could find that McCann and Jackson obeyed orders to 

read and follow the MO; that they thus knew what excited delirium is and that it 

creates a substantial risk of sudden death; and that, based on their observation of 

many of its classic symptoms, they realized that Greg was experiencing excited 

delirium during their encounter. 

Ripple, however, did not arrive until after Greg was on the ground and his 

left arm had been handcuffed. While Greg resisted being handcuffed and 

struggled even after being handcuffed, the plaintiff points to no evidence that 

Ripple observed Greg hallucinate, yell incoherently, or act either bizarrely, 

paranoid, panicked or aggressively towards objects. Nor does he identify evidence 

that the yelling and resistance Ripple observed exceeded that commonly observed 

among arrestees, much less that it exceeded those bounds to such an extent as to 

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suggest on its own an excited delirium episode. Finally, the plaintiff identifies no 

evidence that McCann or Jackson related to Ripple the more obvious symptoms of 

excited delirium that they (but not Ripple) had observed, and Ripple denies being 

aware of them. (Doc. 132-4 at 6). Because the awareness of McCann and Jackson 

cannot be imputed to Ripple, the plaintiff’s failure to create a fact issue as to 

Ripple’s personal awareness that Greg was experiencing excited delirium is fatal 

to her case against him.

2. Disregard of the risk.

The MO provides that, when the symptoms of excited delirium are 

recognized, “a medical unit shall be started to the location immediately” and that, 

“[w]hen possible, no contact should be made with the subject until the medical 

unit is on the scene.” The MO cautions that arrestees with excited delirium are 

susceptible to positional asphyxia, causing brain damage or death, from 

compression of the abdomen, including by their own weight and by the weight of 

an officer sitting on them. The MO further provides that arrestees experiencing 

excited delirium “shall not be transported in the hog-tied prone position face 

down” and that an officer “shall monitor the suspect closely and continuously” for 

“breathing difficulties or loss of consciousness,” upon discovering which the 

suspect is to be “immediately transport[ed] ... to a hospital emergency room.” 

(Doc. 148-18 at 7-8). 

Once Greg was handcuffed, the defendants did not summon a medical unit 

for immediate assistance; they did not avoid further contact with him (instead, 

they knelt on him, hog-tied him, and sat on him); they did not position him so as to 

avoid positional asphyxia (instead, they kept him on his stomach, hog-tied so that 

his stomach bowed towards the ground, and sat on him); they did not monitor his 

breathing and consciousness at all, much less closely and continuously;

26 and they 

 26 Ripple says he did check Greg’s breathing (not his consciousness) periodically, 

but his testimony is contradicted by McCann. 

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carried him in the hog-tied prone position face down. Worst of all, the defendants, 

while knowing that sudden cardiac arrest is a likely result of excited delirium, 

witnessed Greg “seize” and fall unconscious (a clear sign of cardiac arrest), yet 

they made no effort to transport him to an emergency room, summon medical 

assistance, or even check his breathing or pulse. Only when, more than five 

minutes later, they realized Greg was not breathing did they address his condition

at all. By then, it was too late.

One “disregards that risk [of serious harm] by failing to take reasonable 

measures to abate it.” Chandler v. Crosby, 379 F.3d 1278, 1296 (11th Cir. 2004) 

(internal quotes omitted); accord Harper, 592 F.3d at 1235. While the MO may 

not set the minimum threshold of “reasonable steps” to abate the risk that Greg 

would die from his excited delirium, taking no steps – which is what the 

defendants did, according to the plaintiff’s evidence – certainly falls below the 

reasonableness standard. See Kruse v. Corizon, Inc., 2013 WL 3366043 at *5 

(S.D. Ala. 2013) (“It would be difficult to disregard a risk more completely than 

[by doing] nothing at all.”); see also Bozeman v. Orum, 422 F.3d 1265, 1274 (11th

Cir. 2005) (defendants’ conduct was unconstitutional when they knew the detainee 

was not breathing and “did nothing”). Indeed, the defendants affirmatively 

enhanced the risk of Greg’s death after he had been handcuffed by kneeling on 

him, hog-tying him, sitting on him, keeping him on his stomach and carrying him 

facedown while hog-tied.27

McCann says he took reasonable measures to abate the risk of Greg’s death 

because his Code Zebra signaled the dispatcher to send paramedics to the scene. 

(Doc. 129 at 15-16). But there is evidence that paramedics, pursuant to 

department policy, remain on “standby somewhere” until the officers on the scene 

 27 Because all three officers shared responsibility for Greg’s safety, (Doc. 148-11 

at 10), McCann and Jackson cannot (and do not) blame Ripple for the inadequate 

response to Greg’s risk of death. This is especially so since there is no evidence they 

imparted to Ripple their awareness that Greg had exhibited the classic signs of excited 

delirium before Ripple’s arrival.

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confirm the scene is secure, (Doc. 131 at 13 n.6; Doc. 132-11 at 62), and there is 

no evidence the defendants sent such confirmation. Certainly they did not alert 

anyone the suspect was experiencing excited delirium or a medical emergency so 

as to speed the arrival of such assistance.

3. Culpability.

Citing Mann, 588 F.3d at 1307, the parties agree that the culpability 

standard is “more than mere negligence.” (Doc. 124 at 11; Doc. 129 at 14; Doc. 

146 at 75; Doc. 162 at 8). They do so even though the Eleventh Circuit has stated 

that references to “mere negligence” have been “dicta,” while Cottrell “made clear 

that ... a claim of deliberate indifference requires proof of more than gross 

negligence.” Townsend v. Jefferson County, 601 F.3d 1152, 1158 (11th Cir. 2010). 

Under either test, the plaintiff can satisfy this element. 

Given the plaintiff’s evidence that McCann and Jackson knew from the MO 

the steps they should and should not take to abate the risk of Greg’s death from 

excited delirium, a properly functioning jury could find their failure to match any 

of those steps or take any others was conscious and intentional and thus amounted 

to more than gross negligence. Gilmore, 738 F.3d at 274 (“Under section 1983 

knowledge of the need for medical care and intentional refusal to provide that care 

has consistently been held to surpass negligence and constitute deliberate 

indifference.”) (internal quotes omitted); Bozeman, 422 F.3d at 1273 (“We also 

conclude that the Officers, who knew Haggard was unconscious and not breathing 

and who then failed for fourteen minutes to check Haggard’s condition, call for 

medical assistance, administer CPR or do anything else to help, disregarded the 

risk facing Haggard in a way that exceeded gross negligence.”).

C. Causation. 

The only causation argument articulated by McCann and Jackson is that the 

plaintiff cannot show that excited delirium was the cause of Greg’s death. (Doc. 

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129 at 14; Doc. 162 at 8). As noted in Part IV.A, however, the state medical 

examiner found the cause of Greg’s death to be excited delirium. To the uncertain 

extent the plaintiff’s medical expert meaningfully disagrees with her conclusion, 

see note 24, supra, his dissent does not eliminate her finding from the record or 

preclude a properly functioning jury from agreeing with it. 

Ripple’s only argument regarding causation is that the plaintiff’s medical 

expert testified that “no other act or omission of the police officers was causally 

related to Mr. Rachel’s death” but the use of tasers against him. (Doc. 124 at 14). 

What Dr. Adams actually said was that no “action” (not omission) of the officers 

other than the taser applications caused Greg’s “cardiac arrhythmia and asystole 

and death.” (Doc. 127-8 at 17-18). As is clear from his testimony, he did not 

opine that the defendants’ post-handcuffing failure to respond to Greg’s excited 

delirium (about which he was not asked) played no role in Greg’s death. 

It does not appear obvious that Greg would or even might have lived had 

the defendants more quickly summoned medical assistance, or had they not 

exposed him to positional asphyxia, or had they monitored him more adequately. 

The defendants, however, have advanced no argument that the plaintiff cannot 

produce evidence to establish the causation element, so the plaintiff is under no 

obligation to present such evidence in order to avoid summary judgment.

D. Clearly Established Right. 

“The case law also had clearly established before this case arose that an 

official acts with deliberate indifference when he intentionally delays providing an 

inmate with access to medical treatment, knowing that the inmate has a lifethreatening condition or an urgent medical condition that would be exacerbated by 

delay.” Lancaster v. Monroe County, 116 F.3d 1419, 1425 (11th Cir. 1997). 

However, “[t]his general statement of law ordinarily does not preclude qualified 

immunity in cases involving a delay in medical treatment for a serious injury,” 

because “[t]he cases are highly fact-specific and involve an array of circumstances 

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pertinent to just what kind of notice is imputed to a government official and to the 

constitutional adequacy of what was done to help and when.” Bozeman, 422 F.3d 

at 1274.

28

The plaintiff does not rely on the general statement in Lancaster; instead, 

she relies on Bozeman itself. (Doc. 146 at 78-79). According to the Bozeman

plaintiff’s evidence, the defendant guards knew the decedent was not breathing, 

and yet for fourteen minutes they “failed to call for medical help, to administer 

CPR, or otherwise to help” the decedent. 422 F.3d at 1272. The Court noted that 

“[t]he tolerable length of delay in providing medical attention depends on the 

nature of the medical need and the reason for the delay.” Id. at 1273 (internal 

quotes omitted). As for length of delay, “[a] delay in care for known 

unconsciousness brought on by asphyxiation is especially time-sensitive and must 

ordinarily be measured not in hours, but in a few minutes.” Id. As for the reason 

for the delay, the defendants offered none but only denied they knew the decedent 

was not breathing.29 “We conclude, therefore, that, because of the urgent nature of 

the medical need and because of the (lack of any) reason for the corresponding 

delay in care, a delay of fourteen minutes is actionable under the Constitution, 

given the circumstances here.” Id. 

 28 Accord Youmans v. Gagnon, 626 F.3d 557, 564 (11th Cir. 2010) (“[S]pecific 

cases of deliberate indifference are complicated: the threshold of deliberate indifference 

is connected to combinations of diverse interdependent factual elements.”); 

Pourmoghani-Esfahani v. Gee, 625 F.3d 1313, 1318 (11th Cir. 2010) (“Questions of 

deliberate indifference to medical needs based on claims of delay are complicated 

questions because the answer is tied to the combination of many facts; a change in even 

one fact from a precedent may be significant enough to make it debatable among 

objectively reasonable officers whether the precedent might not control in the 

circumstances later facing an officer.”).

29 “They do offer another plausible version of the facts tending to show that the 

Officers actually did not know of Haggard’s need, but this story is not the same thing as 

offering a reason – if one accepts the Officers did know – for the delay in giving help.” 

422 F.3d at 1273.

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The similarity of Bozeman to the plaintiff’s version of the facts in this case

(and the reasonable inferences therefrom) is striking. Just as the defendants in 

Bozeman knew the decedent was not breathing, the defendants here knew Greg 

had “seized” and fallen unconscious. Just as the defendants in Bozeman knew the 

decedent was unlikely to survive long if he did not breathe, McCann and Jackson 

knew Greg was unlikely to survive long if, as was probable, his unconsciousness

accompanied by seizing reflected the cardiac arrest to which his excited delirium 

placed him at risk. Like the Bozeman defendants, McCann and Jackson knew that 

swift medical assistance was essential to save Greg’s life. Nevertheless, just as in 

Bozeman, despite the urgency of the situation they did nothing for an appallingly 

long period. And just as in Bozeman, they offer no explanation for their failure to 

act but only deny knowing Greg had a serious medical need.

In Bozeman, the delay between awareness and action was fourteen minutes. 

Here, a properly functioning jury could easily find a delay of approximately ten 

minutes, a figure that includes the five minutes admitted by McCann, plus the time 

involved in: (1) arranging to move Greg; (2) moving him; (3) setting him down; 

(4) examining him; (5) the neighbor EMT walking from his house to the scene;

30

and (6) speaking with the neighbor, rolling Greg over, and unshackling him. The 

defendants do not suggest this small difference in time renders Bozeman

insufficient to give them fair warning their conduct was unconstitutional, and they 

could not plausibly do so. Nothing in Bozeman remotely suggests that a delay 

shorter than fourteen minutes in responding to an immediately life-threatening 

condition would be constitutional. On the contrary, Bozeman acknowledged that 

unacceptable delay in responding to such a condition is measured “in a few 

 30 The evidence reflects that the EMT did not begin his journey until about the 

time the defendants were examining Greg. The evidence also reflects that the EMT’s 

house was a considerable distance away, such that it would have taken significant time 

for him to exit his bedroom (where he was dressing), exit his house, and walk to the 

scene. 

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minutes,” 422 F.3d at 1273, an indefinite period but one that clearly extends to ten 

minutes.

31

In short, Bozeman clearly established that the conduct of McCann and 

Jackson once Greg seized was unconstitutional. Accordingly, they are not entitled 

to qualified immunity.

The plaintiff does not attempt to demonstrate that it was clearly established 

before May 2012 that the conduct of McCann and Jackson after Greg was 

handcuffed but before he seized was unconstitutional. To the extent the plaintiff’s 

claim is based on this time period, McCann and Jackson are entitled to qualified 

immunity. 

E. Stopped Breathing.

It is not clear from her briefing whether the plaintiff claims the defendants 

were deliberately indifferent to Greg’s stopped breathing, but in an exercise of 

caution the Court addresses any such potential claim.

The defendants do not dispute that Greg’s stopped breathing was a serious 

medical need and that they were aware of it once Ripple checked Greg after they 

set him down mid-transport. The plaintiff does not argue that the defendants were 

aware at any earlier point that Greg had stopped breathing; instead, she faults them 

for not noticing earlier. (Doc. 146 at 76-77, 80, 81-82). Because the defendants 

could not have the subjective knowledge necessary to sustain a claim until they 

knew Greg was not breathing, Bozeman, 422 F.3d at 1272, the plaintiff cannot 

base a claim on the defendant’s failure to address Greg’s stopped breathing before 

they realized he was not breathing.

 31 It is also significant that Bozeman was not a close, borderline case, such that 

some minor difference in the facts of another case (such as this one) might tilt the 

analysis the other way. On the contrary, Bozeman involved such “extreme 

circumstances” that Lancaster’s general statement was itself enough to give the 

defendants fair warning that their conduct was unconstitutional. 422 F.3d at 1274. 

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The Court need not consider whether the defendants disregarded Greg’s 

serious medical need after they became aware of it, because the plaintiff’s own 

evidence is that Greg had expired by the time the neighbor examined him, (Doc. 

146 at 82; Doc. 148-14 at 3), which eliminates the plaintiff’s ability to establish 

that any deliberate indifference was causally connected to Greg’s death.

F. Summary.

Defendant Ripple is entitled to summary judgment because the plaintiff 

cannot establish all the elements of her claim against him. McCann and Jackson 

are not entitled to summary judgment to the extent the plaintiff’s claim is based on 

their acts and omissions once Greg seized and fell unconscious, because it was 

clearly established before May 2012 that their conduct violated Greg’s 

constitutional rights. McCann and Jackson are entitled to summary judgment to 

the extent the plaintiff’s claim is based on their acts and omissions before Greg 

seized or on their conduct in connection with Greg’s stopped breathing, because 

the plaintiff cannot establish all the elements of such a claim and/or because she 

has failed to show that their conduct violated her clearly established constitutional 

rights.

V. Wrongful Death.

The plaintiff advances two theories in support of Count IV: (1) that 

McCann and Jackson acted negligently by failing to comply with an MO regarding 

dealing with citizens with mental illness; and (2) that McCann and Jackson acted 

willfully and in bad faith in tasing, striking and kicking Greg when he was 

submissive and non-resistant. (Doc. 146 at 82, 88). The plaintiff asserts that the 

City is also liable under the first theory but not the second. (Id. at 89 & n.20). 

The plaintiff concedes that Count IV is due to be dismissed as to Ripple. (Id. at 

89).

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A. Individual Defendants.

Every peace officer ... who is employed or appointed pursuant 

to the Constitution or statutes of this state, whether appointed or 

employed as such peace officer by the state or a county or municipality

thereof, ... and whose duties include the enforcement of ... the 

criminal laws of this state, and who is empowered by the laws of 

this state ... to arrest and to take into custody persons who violate, 

or who are lawfully charged by warrant, indictment, or other lawful 

process, with violations of, the criminal laws of this state, shall at all 

times be deemed to be officers of this state, and as such shall have

immunity from tort liability arising out of his or her conduct in 

performance of any discretionary function within the line and scope 

of his or her law enforcement duties.

Ala. Code § 6-5-338(a). “[W]hether a qualified police officer is due § 6-5-338(a) 

immunity is now judged by the restatement of State-agent immunity articulated by 

Ex parte Cranman, 792 So. 2d 392 (Ala. 2000).” Blackwood v. City of Hanceville, 

936 So. 2d 495, 504 (Ala. 2006) (internal quotes omitted).

“A State agent asserting State-agent immunity bears the burden of 

demonstrating that the plaintiff’s claims arise from a function that would entitle 

the State agent to immunity.” Ex parte Kennedy, 992 So. 2d 1276, 1282 (Ala. 

2008) (internal quotes omitted). “Should the State agent make such a showing, the 

burden then shifts to the plaintiff to show that one of the two categories of 

exceptions to State-agent immunity recognized in Cranman is applicable.” Id.

Cranman’s restatement of the law bestows immunity when the plaintiff’s 

claim is based on the peace officer’s “[e]xercising judgment in the enforcement of 

the criminal laws of the State, including, but not limited to, law enforcement 

officers’ arresting or attempting to arrest persons ....” Blackwood, 936 So. 2d at 

506-05 (internal quotes omitted). One category of exceptions to immunity applies 

when “the State agent acted willfully, maliciously, fraudulently, in bad faith, or 

beyond his or her authority.” Kennedy, 992 So. 2d at 1282 (internal quotes 

omitted). “One of the ways in which a plaintiff can show that a State agent acted 

beyond his or her authority is by proffering evidence that the State agent failed to 

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discharge duties pursuant to detailed rules or regulations, such as those stated on a 

checklist.” Id. at 1282-83 (internal quotes omitted). Mere “guidelines” are not 

enough to preclude immunity, but only “rules” that “must be followed by an 

officer.” Ex parte Brown, ___ So. 3d ___, 2015 WL 3367665 at *9 (Ala. 2015) 

(emphasis in original).

It is uncontroverted that McCann and Jackson are “peace officers” for 

purposes of Section 6-5-338. It is also uncontroverted that the plaintiff’s claim is 

based on the defendants’ attempt to arrest Greg. The plaintiff, in reliance on the 

same MO that discusses excited delirium, argues the MO establishes “nondiscretionary, ... mandatory steps” that an officer “must follow” when 

“encountering a suspect exhibiting a mental illness.” (Doc. 146 at 86). The 

plaintiff concludes the MO precluded the officers from “exercising judgment” in 

effecting Greg’s arrest (specifically, in approaching and engaging Greg initially), 

such that they were not engaged in a function that would support immunity. She 

argues further that the MO imposes duties pursuant to “detailed rules or 

regulations,” such that the defendants’ failure to discharge those duties means they 

acted beyond their authority and thus beyond the reach of peace officer/state agent 

immunity. (Id. at 83-86). 

The MO, however, is not as advertised. The MO says that officers 

“should” do certain things (such as remaining calm, speaking simply, maintaining 

a safe distance and being friendly), and that they “should not” do certain things 

(such as moving suddenly, shouting and maintaining eye contact), but it does not 

purport to make any of these steps “mandatory” or “non-discretionary.” “The 

term ‘should’ indicates a recommended course of action, but does not itself imply 

the obligation associated with ‘shall.’” Qwest Corp. v. Federal Communications 

Commission, 258 F.3d 1191, 1200 (10th Cir. 2001).32 When the MO imparts a 

mandatory duty, it uses an imperative, “must” or “shall.”33

 32 Accord Wilkins v. Montgomery, 751 F.3d 214, 222 (4th Cir. 2014) (“Southern 

States explains that district courts have ‘broad discretion’ to decide harmlessness and 

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The plaintiff ignores both the standard meaning of “should” and the MO’s 

juxtaposition of that term with the mandatory “shall” and “must.” Instead, she 

insists the defendants have admitted the MO sets forth mandatory duties and 

eliminates their discretion in dealing with mentally disturbed persons. (Doc. 146 

at 84, 86). But all the defendants said was that they were expected to “follow” the 

MO rather than “disregard” it, and Sergeant Ripple made clear that this means 

followed “with discretion.” Lieutenant Elia said only that the MO represented 

“the way it should be done,” not the way it must be done. At most, the testimony 

on which the plaintiff relies supports the proposition that the defendants were 

required to consider the recommendations in the MO; it does not convert those 

recommendations into discretionless orders.

The plaintiff also proffers the opinion of her police operations expert that 

the MO is “not discretionary.” (Doc. 148-20 at 36). Kirkham’s opinion is 

expressed as a raw conclusion and is unsupported by any textual or other analysis,

and it is thus inadequate to draw into question the plain meaning of the MO.

The failure of the plaintiff’s argument means both that the defendants have 

carried their burden of showing they were engaged in a function (exercising 

judgment in effecting an arrest) that would entitle them to immunity and that the 

plaintiff has not carried her burden of showing the “beyond ... authority” 

exception to immunity applies.

As noted, the plaintiff also bases her wrongful death claim on the actions of 

McCann and Jackson in “Tasing, striking, and kicking a submissive and nonresistant Rachel,” which they deem an assault and battery. (Doc. 146 at 88). As 

 

‘should’ – not ‘shall’ – ‘be guided by’ the five factors.”); United States v. Maria, 186 

F.3d 65, 70 (2nd Cir. 1999) (“[T]he common meaning of ‘should’ suggests or 

recommends a course of action, while the ordinary understanding of ‘shall’ describes a 

course of action that is mandatory.”) (citing dictionary definitions). 

33 (Doc. 148-18 at 3 (“Officers must follow the law and departmental rules for 

verifying that any pills or capsules the person is carrying are prescribed ....”); id. at 8 

(“The Training Center shall conduct ... refresher training ... at least once very three 

years.”)).

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discussed previously, the earliest point at which Greg could be considered 

“submissive and non-resistant” is when, while on his knees, he raised his hands in 

a submissive manner and pleaded, “Stop.” What came before – including all 

tasings – thus lies outside the scope of the plaintiff’s wrongful death claim. 

“In making the arrest, a police officer may use reasonable force and may be 

held liable [for assault and battery] only if more force is used than is necessary to 

effectuate the arrest.” Walker v. City of Huntsville, 62 So. 3d 474, 494 (Ala. 2010) 

(internal quotes omitted). As discussed in Part III.B.2, under the plaintiff’s 

evidence the officers used excessive force on Greg while he lay prone and 

unresisting. It may also be assumed for present purposes that the officers used 

more than reasonable force in striking Greg twice on the back with a baton rather 

than simply handcuffing his outstretched hands.

As this Court has previously noted, “[f]or purposes of the immunity issue, 

‘willful,’ ‘malicious’ and ‘bad faith’ all require evidence that the defendant acted 

with the intent to injure or with ill will towards the plaintiff.” Lawrence v. City of 

Fairhope, 2010 WL 1658786 at *13 (S.D. Ala. 2010); accord Gaillard v. City of 

Satsuma, 2013 WL 1219549 at *15 (S.D. Ala. 2013), rev’d in part on other 

grounds, 526 Fed. Appx. 870 (11th Cir. 2014). There is adequate evidence to 

permit a properly functioning jury to find that McCann and Jackson acted with ill 

will towards Greg and/or with the intent to injure him. Force applied 

“intentionally, gratuitously, and in violation of [a plaintiff’s] clearly established 

constitutional rights,” as the discussion in Part III.B.2 reflects, “support[s] an 

inference that [the defendant] acted willfully and in bad faith.” Brown v. City of 

Huntsville, 608 F.3d 724, 742 (11th Cir. 2010). Moreover, a witness’s description 

of McCann and Jackson as “agitated” by Greg’s resistance suggests they were 

operating from ill will and with an intent to retaliate against Greg for his previous 

resistance. 

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In summary, McCann and Jackson are protected by peace officer immunity 

except with respect to the plaintiff’s claim that they assaulted and battered Greg 

after he became submissive and unresisting.

B. The City. 

“It is well established that, if a municipal peace officer is immune pursuant 

to § 6-5-338(a), then, pursuant to § 6-5-338(b), the city by which he is employed is 

also immune.” Ex parte Dixon, 55 So. 3d 1171, 1179 (Ala. 2010) (internal quotes 

omitted). The City is thus immune under Section 6-5-338(b) to all but the 

plaintiff’s claim that Greg was assaulted and battered after he became submissive 

and unresisting. Because the plaintiff does not contend the City is liable for any 

assault and battery, (Doc. 146 at 89), the City is entitled to summary judgment in 

toto. 

CONCLUSION

For the reasons set forth above: (1) Sergeant Ripple’s motion for summary 

judgment is granted; (2) the City’s motion for summary judgment is granted; (3) 

the motions for summary judgment filed by Officers McCann and Jackson are 

granted with respect to: (a) the plaintiff’s excessive force claim, except to the 

extent based on force applied while Greg lay facedown and unresisting; (b) the 

plaintiff’s deliberate indifference claim, except to the extent based on their acts 

and omissions once Greg seized and fell unconscious; and (c) the plaintiff’s 

wrongful death claim, except to the extent based on their kicking and striking Greg 

after he became submissive and unresisting. In all other respects, their motions for 

summary judgment are denied.

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All claims against Sergeant Ripple and the City, and all official capacity 

claims against the individual defendants, are dismissed with prejudice. Judgment 

shall be entered accordingly by separate order. 

DONE and ORDERED this 5th day of June, 2015.

s/ WILLIAM H. STEELE

CHIEF UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE 

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