Opinion ID: 74409
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Threat of Force

Text: The right to make an investigatory stop carries with it the right to use some degree of physical coercion or threat thereof to effect it. See Graham, 490 U.S. at 396, 109 S.Ct. 1865. Determining whether the degree of force used was reasonable requires consideration of the exigencies of the immediate situation and the officers' being forced to make split-second decisions. Additionally, this Court has held that an officer's drawing a weapon and ordering a person stopped to lie on the ground does not necessarily constitute excessive force during an investigatory stop. See Courson v. McMillian, 939 F.2d 1479 (11th Cir.1991) (holding that a deputy did not use excessive force during an investigatory stop in requiring the female companion plaintiff, who was never arrested, and the two males, who were later arrested, to lie face down 21 on the ground with a shotgun pointed at them).21 Thus, if the stop was legal, then Plaintiffs have failed to show any excessive threat of force during that stop. Additionally, the facts the jury would have to find to support arguable reasonable suspicion and to make the stop legal likewise support the threat of force initially used by Defendants during that stop. For example, Defendants base their reasonable suspicion on their contention that Plaintiffs took evasive action in abruptly turning into a parking lot and abandoning their car and that Corey Dean ran when Sauls identified himself as a police officer. If this occurred before Sauls drew his weapon and ordered Plaintiffs to lie on the ground, then the officers' threat of force was not excessive. At a minimum, we find that Plaintiffs have not shown that a reasonable police officer, making this legal stop, would have known that drawing his gun and ordering Plaintiffs to lie on the ground violated Plaintiffs' clearly established rights. Therefore, the district court erred in denying Defendants' summary 21 In Courson, the three detainees had not exited the vehicle when first instructed to and had difficulty getting out of the car; one male was verbally abusive and challenged the deputy's authority to conduct the stop. Courson, 939 F.2d at 1496. While waiting for backup and while the two males were arrested, handcuffed and taken away, the deputy with a shotgun still required the plaintiff female to lie on the ground for about thirty minutes even though ultimately she was told she was free to go. Reversing the district court's denial of qualified immunity, this Court held that the deputy was acting under the exigencies of the immediate situation, and used no unreasonable force with respect to the plaintiff or her male companions. Id. The threat of force used here and in Courson stands in contrast to the actual force with physical contact in other cases. See Sheth v. Webster, 145 F.3d 1231 (11th Cir.1998) (holding that defendant officer was not entitled to qualified immunity where officer arrested plaintiff without any arguable probable cause and used excessive force in pushing her against a soda machine, handcuffing her, and dragging her to a police car); Smith v. Mattox, 127 F.3d 1416, 1418-19 (11th Cir.1997) (holding that if jury found that detainee had initially resisted arrest but then docilely submitted to arrest and laid down, the defendant officer's then breaking his arm after he lay on the ground fell within the slender category of cases in which the unlawfulness of the conduct is readily apparent even without clarifying caselaw); Ortega v. Schramm, 922 F.2d 684 (11th Cir.1991) (holding jury issue existed regarding excessive force where defendant officer shot padlock off a door without identifying himself as a police officer and then searched the premises, while another officer guarded plaintiff at gun point and then pushed down or kicked plaintiff in the back, and where after the search turned up no evidence, plaintiff was dragged out of the premises and put on the ground). 22 judgment motion on Plaintiffs' claims that the officers' threat of force during this stop, even if legal, was excessive.