Opinion ID: 2830737
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Heading: analysis

Text: We have jurisdiction over an interlocutory appeal of the denial of qualified immunity only “to the extent that the appeal raises a question of law.” O’Malley v. City of Flint, 652 F.3d 662, 666 (6th Cir. 2011) (citation and alteration omitted). We generally may not review a district court’s determination that the record on summary judgment contains a genuine dispute of material fact unless that determination is “blatantly and demonstrably false.” Moldowan v. City of Warren, 578 F.3d 351, 370 (6th Cir. 2009). In other words, “a determination that a given set -6- Case No. 14-3910, Al-Lamadani v. Lang of facts violates clearly established law is reviewable, while a determination that an issue of fact is ‘genuine’ is unreviewable.” See v. City of Elyria, 502 F.3d 484, 490 (6th Cir. 2007). If an appeal “make[s] some factual arguments” but “also presents . . . discrete legal question[s],” we exercise jurisdiction over the legal questions but not the factual disputes. Marvin v. City of Taylor, 509 F.3d 234, 237 (6th Cir. 2007). “As a purely legal determination, the district court’s denial of qualified immunity is subject to de novo review.” Solomon v. Auburn Hills Police Dep’t, 389 F.3d 167, 172 (6th Cir. 2004) (citation omitted). To the extent that there is disagreement about the facts, we review all evidence in the light most favorable to the plaintiff. Id. We review the denial of summary judgment on the basis of qualified immunity de novo. Martin v. City of Broadview Heights, 712 F.3d 951, 957 (6th Cir. 2013). Summary judgment is appropriate “if the movant shows that 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). We view all facts and the inferences reasonably drawn from them in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party. Martin, 712 F.3d at 957.
The qualified-immunity doctrine “protects government officials ‘from liability for civil damages insofar as their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known.’” Pearson v. Callahan, 555 U.S. 223, 231 (2009) (quoting Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 818 (1982)). In considering a claim for qualified immunity, we conduct a two-step inquiry. Id. at 232. First, we must decide whether the facts viewed in the light most favorable to the plaintiff show that the officer has violated the plaintiff’s constitutional right. Id. Second, we determine whether the right in question was -7- Case No. 14-3910, Al-Lamadani v. Lang clearly established at the time of the violation. Id. “A right is clearly established if the contours of the right are sufficiently clear that a reasonable official would understand that what he is doing violates that right.” Morrison v. Bd. of Trustees of Green Twp., 583 F.3d 394, 400 (6th Cir. 2009) (internal quotation marks, citation, and alterations omitted). We may consider the two steps of the inquiry in either order. Pearson, 555 U.S. at 242. The plaintiff bears the burden to show that a defendant is not entitled to qualified immunity. O’Malley, 652 F.3d at 667. In deciding whether the right was clearly established, the Supreme Court has cautioned lower courts “not to define clearly established law at a high level of generality.” Ashcroft v. alKidd, 131 S. Ct. 2074, 2084 (2011). “This is not to say that an official action is protected by qualified immunity unless the very action in question has previously been held unlawful, but it is to say that in the light of pre-existing law the unlawfulness must be apparent.” O’Malley, 652 F.3d at 667 (quoting Anderson v. Creighton, 483 U.S. 635, 640 (1987)).
The Fourth Amendment protects against unreasonable seizures, “including seizures that involve only a brief detention short of traditional arrest.” United States v. Mendenhall, 446 U.S. 544, 551 (1980) (quoting Davis v. Mississippi, 394 U.S. 721 (1969)). Generally, seizures are reasonable only if based on probable cause to believe that the individual has committed a crime. Bailey v. United States, 133 S. Ct. 1031, 1037 (2013). In determining whether an officer had probable cause to detain a suspect, we consider whether “the facts and circumstances within the officers’ knowledge [are] sufficient to warrant a man of reasonable caution to believe that an offense had been, was being, or was about to be committed.” Fox v. DeSoto, 489 F.3d 227, 236 (6th Cir. 2007). “The facts and circumstances examined are confined to those within an officer’s knowledge at the time of an arrest.” Stricker v. Twp. of Cambridge, 710 F.3d 350, 362 (6th Cir. -8- Case No. 14-3910, Al-Lamadani v. Lang 2013) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). “Where the police have sufficient inculpatory evidence to give rise to a determination of probable cause and they do not know of any exculpatory evidence,” the failure to investigate further does not negate probable cause. Klein v. Long, 275 F.3d 544, 552 (6th Cir. 2001). However, an officer must take into account all known exculpatory evidence when making a probable-cause determination. Gardenhire v. Schubert, 205 F.3d 303, 318 (6th Cir. 2000). Under Ohio law, a person who “[k]nowingly enter[s] or remain[s] on the land or premises of another,” without privilege to do so, is guilty of criminal trespass. Ohio Rev. Code Ann. § 2911.21. The Supreme Court of Ohio has held that “a spouse may be criminally liable for trespass and/or burglary in the dwelling of the other spouse who is exercising custody or control over that dwelling.” State v. Lilly, 717 N.E.2d 322, 325 (Ohio 1999). To determine whether Officer Lang had probable cause to detain Mr. al-Lamadani, we consider the facts and circumstances known to the officer on the night of the incident. First, to the extent that the defendants dispute whether Officer Lang knew that Mr. alLamadani had not yet been served with the protection order, this is a factual dispute that we lack jurisdiction to resolve. See Marvin, 509 F.3d at 237. The district court’s finding that Officer Lang knew that the order had not been served when he handcuffed Mr. al-Lamadani is not “blatantly contradicted by the record,” Scott v. Harris, 550 U.S. 372, 380 (2007), and therefore “the officers must accept the plaintiff’s version of the facts in order for this Court to have jurisdiction over their appeal,” Younes v. Pellerito, 739 F.3d 885, 889 (6th Cir. 2014). Officer Lang testified that he had seen the protection order before he began his shift earlier that day. He also testified that Mrs. al-Lamadani told him that her husband had just been in London. During Officer Lang’s pat-down of Mr. al-Lamadani, Mr. al-Lamadani also stated that he had just -9- Case No. 14-3910, Al-Lamadani v. Lang returned from London and knew nothing about a restraining order. The officer’s knowledge that the protection order had just been filed that day, coupled with the information that Mr. alLamadani had just returned from London, would allow a reasonable factfinder to infer that Officer Lang knew that the protection order had not been served and thus Mr. al-Lamadani was detained without probable cause. Because this version of events is not “so utterly discredited by the record as to be rendered a visible fiction,” Younes, 739 F.3d at 889 (internal quotation marks omitted), we lack jurisdiction to review this factual dispute. If Officer Lang knew that Mr. al-Lamadani had not been served with the protection order when he handcuffed him, there is no doubt that he lacked probable cause to detain him. Officer Lang was obligated to consider all exculpatory and inculpatory evidence within his knowledge at the time of the incident. Gardenhire, 205 F.3d at 318. If Mr. al-Lamadani had not been served with the protection order, he could not have “knowingly” trespassed in the home. See Ohio Rev. Code Ann. § 2911.21. Nor is there any doubt that at the time of the incident it was clearly established that an individual cannot be in violation of a civil protection order when he has not yet been served with the order. See Murphy Bros., Inc. v. Michetti Pipe Stringing, Inc., 526 U.S. 344, 350 (1999) (noting that it is clearly established that the service of process is “fundamental to any procedural imposition on a named defendant”); see also Mayo v. Macomb Cnty., 183 F.3d 554, 557 (6th Cir. 1999) (explaining that there was a “valid” protection order against the plaintiff, which the plaintiff and the officer both confirmed had previously been served on the plaintiff); Wiley v. Oberlin Police Dep’t, 330 F. App’x 524, 528–29 (6th Cir. 2009) (finding probable cause to arrest the plaintiff for violation of a protection order where there was no dispute that she had been served). Therefore, in reviewing the purely legal issue of “whether the plaintiff’s facts, taken at their best, show that the defendant violated clearly established law,” we - 10 - Case No. 14-3910, Al-Lamadani v. Lang conclude that there is evidence in the record upon which a reasonable jury could find that Officer Lang lacked probable cause to seize Mr. al-Lamadani. Quigley v. Tuong Vinh Thai, 707 F.3d 675, 680 (6th Cir. 2013). The defendants also present an additional legal argument that we may address. They argue that we need not consider whether Officer Lang had probable cause to detain Mr. alLamadani, pointing to Michigan v. Summers, where the Supreme Court explained that the traditional probable-cause framework does not necessarily apply to “some seizures significantly less intrusive than an arrest” where “the opposing interests in crime prevention and detection and in the police officer’s safety could support the seizure as reasonable.” 452 U.S. 692, 697–98 (1981) (internal quotation marks omitted). There, the Court held that officers executing a search warrant for contraband may detain occupants of the premises while conducting the search even in the absence of probable cause. Id. at 704–05. Such a detention is permissible because “execution of a warrant to search for narcotics is the kind of transaction that may give rise to sudden violence or frantic efforts to conceal or destroy evidence.” Id. at 702. The Court further reasoned that the character of intrusion caused by detention was “substantially less intrusive” than an arrest, and that the justifications for detention were substantial, notably, preventing flight, protecting officer safety, and facilitating the orderly completion of the search. Id. at 702– 03. Based on Summers and its progeny, the defendants argue that we should apply a reasonablesuspicion standard to Mr. al-Lamadani’s detention rather than the more stringent probable-cause requirement. But Summers does not justify departing from the normal probable-cause standard in this case. The defendants are correct that the Supreme Court has said that particularized suspicion that an occupant is involved in criminal activity or poses a specific danger to officers is not - 11 - Case No. 14-3910, Al-Lamadani v. Lang required in order to detain an occupant during the execution of a search warrant at a residence. Bailey, 133 S. Ct. at 1037–38; see also Muehler v. Mena, 544 U.S. 93, 98 (2005). But the Supreme Court has continued to apply the framework it laid out in Summers, which allows for detention absent probable cause when the character of the intrusion caused by the detention is slight and the justifications for detention are substantial. See Muehler, 544 U.S. at 100 (holding that governmental interests in detaining and handcuffing a suspect were “at their maximum when . . . a warrant authorizes a search for weapons and a wanted gang member resides on the premises”). The circumstances at the al-Lamadani residence and the interests at stake in investigating the violation of a protection order are not aligned with those at issue in Summers and the line of cases that followed it. Of the three factors identified by the Supreme Court in Summers—the prevention of flight, officer safety, and facilitating the orderly completion of a search—only the second factor is even implicated in a context where no search for contraband takes place. Indeed, the defendants do not argue that Officer Lang was justified in handcuffing Mr. alLamadani to prevent him from fleeing or to facilitate the completion of a search. And the defendants’ attempts to justify the application of Summers due to the interest in officer safety is unavailing. Mr. al-Lamadani stated that he had no weapons, which Officer Lang’s pat-down confirmed. Mrs. al-Lamadani had told both the dispatcher and Officer Lang that Mr. alLamadani had not been violent with her that night. When Officer Lang arrived at the house, he could see Mr. al-Lamadani sitting quietly in a chair, and after he entered the house, Mr. alLamadani was fully compliant with Officer Lang’s instructions. Our conclusion that Summers does not apply here is also consistent with our jurisprudence regarding the reasonableness of handcuffing during street and traffic stops. We - 12 - Case No. 14-3910, Al-Lamadani v. Lang have held that “[i]f there is no specific reason for the officers to believe that the detainee poses a risk of flight or violence, ‘a bare inference’ or speculation that the detainee may somehow be violent is not sufficient to justify the use of handcuffs.” Brown v. Lewis, No. 14-1392, 2015 WL 794705, at  (6th Cir. 2015). We have also held that handcuffing was completely lacking in justification when officers stopped a group of youths, conducted illegal pat-down searches of them, and uncovered no weapons. Bennett v. City of Eastpointe, 410 F.3d 810, 837 (6th Cir. 2005) (“That makes it truly remarkable (not in a good way) that the officers then handcuffed the youths.”). Here, even though Mrs. al-Lamadani told Officer Lang that she did not know if her husband was armed, Officer Lang discovered after questioning him and patting him down that he did not have a weapon. And the defendants have pointed to no threatening conduct on the part of Mr. al-Lamadani beyond Officer Lang’s unconvincing assertion that it was not normal for someone to be sitting in a chair and staring straight ahead. Therefore, this case is easily distinguishable from others where we have found handcuffing to be justified in the interest of officer safety. See, e.g., O’Malley, 652 F.3d at 670–71 (reversing the denial of qualified immunity where, despite his compliance with the officer’s instructions and truthful answers to his questions, the plaintiff told the cop he had a gun in his vehicle and acted angry and agitated, and the officer could not see into the vehicle to determine how close the gun was or whether there were passengers inside); Fox, 489 F.3d at 236 (“The facts known to [the officer] included the report from [a supervisor] that plaintiff was armed, that plaintiff purported to be an IRS agent but had not shown [the officer] his credentials, and that plaintiff had been removed from the flight for causing a disturbance.”). - 13 - Case No. 14-3910, Al-Lamadani v. Lang We are not persuaded that Summers justifies the application of a standard of reasonable suspicion rather than probable cause to the seizure in question here. We therefore affirm the district court’s denial of qualified immunity to Officer Lang on the illegal-seizure claim.
We have held that “unduly tight or excessively forceful handcuffing” violates the Fourth Amendment. Morrison, 583 F.3d at 401; see also Burchett v. Kiefer, 310 F.3d 937, 944 (6th Cir. 2002) (“The right to be free from ‘excessively forceful handcuffing’ is a clearly established right for qualified immunity purposes.”). Such a claim survives summary judgment when there is adequate evidence to create a factual dispute that: (1) the plaintiff complained that the cuffs were too tight; (2) the officer ignored the complaint; and (3) the plaintiff suffered some physical injury as a consequence of the cuffing. See Morrison, 583 F.3d at 401. There is evidence in the record that establishes all three prongs. Officer Lang and Mr. alLamadani both testified that Mr. al-Lamadani had complained that the cuffs were too tight. Officer Lang also admitted in deposition that he “[did not] know if [he] checked [the handcuffs], had him stand up to check them again or [] just told him they were fine.” Lang Dep., R. 25, PageID 129. This is sufficient to establish a factual dispute about whether Lang ignored Mr. alLamadani’s complaints. In Morrison, the officer testified that he had, in fact, responded to the plaintiff’s complaints by sticking his finger between the cuffs and her wrist to make sure they were not too tight. 583 F.3d at 402. However, we found there that a witness’s testimony that the officer had refused to loosen the handcuffs, as well as the plaintiff’s testimony that the officer had said he was permitted to place the handcuffs on “as tight as he wanted to and that’s how they were staying,” were sufficient to establish a factual dispute as to the second prong. Id.; cf. Burchett, 310 F.3d at 945 (granting qualified immunity on an excessively forceful handcuffing - 14 - Case No. 14-3910, Al-Lamadani v. Lang claim where the plaintiff complained of pain only once and the officer immediately offered to remove the cuffs if the plaintiff agreed to cooperate). Finally, as to the injury requirement, Mr. al-Lamadani testified that the cuffs left a red mark on his left wrist that turned blue and was gone the next day. As the district court pointed out, this injury is nearly identical to the plaintiff’s in Morrison, where we upheld a denial of summary judgment to defendant-officers on a claim of excessively forceful handcuffing, finding that “bruising and wrist marks create a genuine issue of material fact with regard to the injury prong.” 583 F.3d at 403; see also Burchett, 310 F.3d at 944 (noting that “applying handcuffs so tightly that the detainee’s hands become numb and turn blue certainly raises concerns of excessive force”). We find that viewed in the light most favorable to Mr. al-Lamadani, he has made a showing that Officer Lang violated his constitutional right to be free from excessive force while handcuffed. Next we consider whether the contours of the right were sufficiently clear such that a reasonable officer would understand that he was violating the right by ignoring Mr. alLamadani’s complaints that the handcuffs were too tight. Morrison, 583 F.3d at 400. The facts of this case are quite similar to those of Morrison, which would tend to weigh in favor of finding clearly established law here. However, the defendants argue that Morrison is distinguishable because the plaintiff there was subjected to a forty- or fifty-minute period of excessively tight handcuffing. See Morrison, 583 F.3d at 403. Citing al-Kidd, 131 S. Ct. at 2083, they claim that Morrison stands only for a generalized right to be free from unduly tight handcuffing, and that “such a high level of generality” in defining clearly established constitutional rights is improper. They point to two unpublished cases where our court has found that five-minute and ten-minute periods of excessively tight handcuffing did not violate a clearly - 15 - Case No. 14-3910, Al-Lamadani v. Lang established constitutional right. See Lee v. City of Norwalk, Ohio, 529 F. App’x 778, 782 (6th Cir. 2013); Fettes v. Hendershot, 375 F. App’x 528, 533 (6th Cir. 2010). But Morrison relied on a longer line of cases in which we have held that an officer is not entitled to qualified immunity if the plaintiff has shown a factual dispute as to whether the plaintiff complained that the cuffs were too tight, the officer ignored the complaints, and the plaintiff was injured from the cuffs. See, e.g., Kostrzewa v. City of Troy, 247 F.3d 633, 640–41 (6th Cir. 2001) (holding denial of qualified immunity was proper where the plaintiff repeatedly complained that the cuffs were too tight, the officers ignored him, and a doctor later instructed him to elevate and apply ice to his wrists as treatment, after which the officer reapplied the cuffs); Martin v. Heideman, 106 F.3d 1308, 1310 (6th Cir. 1997) (reversing grant of qualified immunity where plaintiff complained in the back of the police car and later in a holding cell that his hands were becoming numb and the officer ignored his complaints). These cases, combined with Morrison, clearly establish that a plaintiff can make a showing of a constitutional violation based on evidence of the plaintiff’s complaint, the officer’s refusal to respond, and the plaintiff’s injury. Here, a man was handcuffed in his own house after complying with an officer’s demands and answering his questions. A reasonable jury could find that it was unreasonable for Officer Lang not to check Mr. al-Lamadani’s handcuffs after he complained of pain while sitting on a chair in his own living room. This is particularly true where it is undisputed that Mr. alLamadani was fully compliant with all instructions and Officer Lang was not engaged in a dangerous confrontation. See Kopec v. Tate, 361 F.3d 772, 777 (3d Cir. 2004) (“[W]e point out that [the officer] faced rather benign circumstances that hardly justified his failure to respond more promptly to [the plaintiff’s] entreaties, at least to the extent to ascertain if the handcuffs - 16 - Case No. 14-3910, Al-Lamadani v. Lang were too tight. [The officer] was not, after all, in the midst of a dangerous situation involving a serious crime or armed criminals.”) As in other types of excessive-force claims, when considering whether a reasonable officer would have known that his actions violated the plaintiff’s clearly established constitutional rights, we may take into account the context of the handcuffing and the plaintiff’s conduct leading up to the incident. See Malory v. Whiting, 489 F. App’x 78, 83 (6th Cir. 2012) (noting that “the confrontation that gave rise to Plaintiff’s [excessive-force] claim occurred against the backdrop of conduct by Plaintiff that no reasonable person could have interpreted as threatening” because the plaintiff was compliant with officers when arrested and transported to the station). We find that Mr. al-Lamadani had a clearly established right to be free of excessively forceful handcuffing. A reasonable officer in this situation would have known that he was required to investigate whether the handcuffs were, in fact, unreasonably tight. Therefore, we affirm the district court’s denial of qualified immunity on the excessive-force claim.
A municipality may be held liable for an officer’s constitutional violation of a plaintiff’s rights under a failure-to-train theory if the plaintiff can show that: (1) the training was inadequate for the tasks performed; (2) the inadequacy was the result of the municipality’s deliberate indifference; and (3) the inadequacy was closely related to or actually caused the injury. Ellis ex rel. Pendergrass v. Cleveland Mun. School Dist., 455 F.3d 690, 700 (6th Cir. 2006). The defendants argue that the district court improperly denied the village’s motion for summary judgment because there is no evidence that the village was deliberately indifferent to the need to train its officers. However, Indian Hill is “not entitled to invoke the defense of qualified immunity and therefore has no grounds to seek an interlocutory appeal of the district court’s - 17 - Case No. 14-3910, Al-Lamadani v. Lang denial of its motion for summary judgment.” Campbell v. City of Springboro, Ohio, 700 F.3d 779, 790. However, an appellate court may exercise pendent appellate jurisdiction over a § 1983 municipal-liability claim where the municipality’s motion for summary judgment is “inextricably intertwined with the qualified immunity analysis properly before the Court.” Lane v. City of LaFollette, Tenn., 490 F.3d 410, 423 (6th Cir. 2007) (internal quotation marks omitted). We have found that a pendent appellate claim is “inextricably intertwined with a properly reviewable claim on collateral appeal” only if “appellate resolution of the collateral appeal necessarily resolves the pendent claim as well.” Id. (emphasis original). “[T]he inextricably intertwined requirement is not meant to be loosely applied as a matter of discretion.” Turi v. Main St. Adoption Servs., LLP, 633 F.3d 496, 503 (6th Cir. 2011) (internal quotation marks omitted). Here, Officer Lang’s liability hinges on whether he violated Mr. al-Lamadani’s clearly established constitutional rights, but the municipality’s liability turns on its failure to train its officers. The resolution of Officer Lang’s interlocutory appeal does not necessarily determine Indian Hill’s training obligations because the “resolution of the qualified immunity inquiry does not conclusively determine the municipality’s liability.” Lane, 490 F.3d at 423–24 (citing Crockett v. Cumberland Coll., 316 F.3d 571, 579 (6th Cir. 2003)). Therefore, the municipalliability claim is not “inextricably intertwined” with the qualified-immunity claim and we lack jurisdiction to consider the village’s municipal-liability appeal. See Martin, 712 F.3d at 963; Lane, 490 F.3d at 424.