Opinion ID: 857195
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Ms. Eklund’s car was contained in a dead-

Text: end street; (2) Ms. Eklund refused to get out of her car and repeatedly said “fuck you” to Markgraf; (3) the officers were positioned such that they were not in the path of Ms. Eklund’s vehicle; (4) other officers at the scene testified that they did not feel threatened nor did they perceive an immediate threat at the entry of summary judgment on a due process claim in favor of defendants. After reviewing conflicting evidence about the defendant officer’s alleged motive to harm the suspect against evidence of a legitimate objective (pursuit after fleeing from a traffic stop), the court concluded that there was not “sufficient evidence of some intent to harm that goes beyond” the legitimate objective of pursuing a suspect who is fleeing from a traffic stop. Id. at 1023–24. Rather than support Markgraf’s argument, Steen undercuts it, by implying that evidence of an intent to harm could override recognized legitimate law enforcement objectives in establishing a due process violation. Similarly, Graves v. Thomas, 450 F.3d 1215 (10th Cir. 2006) does not support Markgraf’s argument. In Graves, the Tenth Circuit reviewed the district court’s grant of summary judgment to the defendant police officer. Id. at 1220. The panel affirmed, because the record supported, “in spades,” a “legitimate object of arrest,” without “legitimately suggest[ing] an intent of [the officer] to cause harm unrelated to the arrest.” Id. at 1223. Thus, Graves does not address a case like the instant one where a jury has found that the defendant acted with a purpose to harm, unrelated to a legitimate law enforcement objective. A.D. V. CALIFORNIA HIGHWAY PATROL 21 the time of the shooting; (5) five other officers had guns drawn but no one other than Officer Markgraf fired; (6) officers testified that Ms. Eklund’s car was either stopped or going forward at the time of the shooting; (7) the location of the Eklund vehicle at the time of the shooting was not consistent with Markgraf’s testimony; and (8) Officer Markgraf shot Ms. Eklund 12 times and emptied his gun. This evidence supports the reasonable inference that Markgraf acted with the purpose to harm unrelated to a legitimate law enforcement objective. That is sufficient to sustain the verdict against Markgraf in the face of an attack on the sufficiency of the evidence. Therefore, we affirm the district court’s denial of Markgraf’s renewed motion for JMOL. The jury reasonably found that Markgraf shot Eklund with a purpose to harm unrelated to the legitimate law enforcement objectives of arrest, self-defense, or defense of others. It was clearly established before their encounter that such conduct violated Plaintiffs’ substantive due process rights. Therefore, Markgraf is not entitled to qualified immunity. None of the qualified immunity cases Markgraf cites control our decision, because none address the precise issue in this case. Here, the nature of the constitutional claim (containing a subjective element), and the case’s procedural posture (raising qualified immunity in a post-verdict motion for JMOL), requires deference to the jury’s findings that is not present in cases with other constitutional liability theories or where qualified immunity is asserted at a different stage of 22 A.D. V. CALIFORNIA HIGHWAY PATROL litigation. See Branch v. Tunnell, 937 F.2d 1382, 1385–86 (9th Cir. 1991) (noting the tension that arises when applying the qualified immunity framework to an underlying constitutional violation with a subjective element), overruled on other grounds by Gailbraith v. Cnty. of Santa Clara, 307 F.3d 1119, 1126 (9th Cir. 2002). For instance, unlike in Fourth Amendment cases, Plaintiffs’ due process claim is based on a subjective, rather than objective, standard of culpability. Cf. Thompson v. Mahre, 110 F.3d 716, 721–23 (9th Cir. 1997). While in a Fourth Amendment case we could choose not to accept the jury’s conclusion that the officer’s conduct was unreasonable, here, we cannot disregard the jury’s reasonable finding of fact that Markgraf acted with a subjective bad intent. Further, unlike a motion to dismiss or motion for summary judgment, we must defer to the facts as they were reasonably found by the jury—we do not draw our own inferences from them. See Sloman, 21 F.3d at 1469 (confirming that the district court was correct to defer to the jury’s finding that the defendant acted with unconstitutional subjective intent when ruling on his qualified immunity defense after a jury verdict); cf. Dunn v. Castro, 621 F.3d 1196, 1198–99 (9th Cir. 2010) (analyzing first prong of qualified immunity analysis in motion to dismiss); Wilkinson, 610 F.3d at 554 (analyzing denial of qualified immunity in motion for summary judgment). Markgraf downplays the significance of the difference between cases in which a jury has rendered a verdict and those that are still at the motion to dismiss or summary judgment stage. He argues that these cases are relevant, because “[q]ualified immunity decisions on motion to dismiss or summary judgment [both require] deference to the A.D. V. CALIFORNIA HIGHWAY PATROL 23 plaintiff’s evidence or allegations.” These cases, he argues, “demonstrate the proper use of underpinning facts when reaching legal conclusions about the immunity issue.” His analysis misses the point that courts must deal with the underpinning facts differently once the jury has rendered a verdict. See, e.g., Winarto v. Toshiba Am. Elecs. Components, Inc., 274 F.3d 1276, 1283 (9th Cir. 2001). In practice, our analysis might have the effect of foreclosing qualified immunity defenses in similar cases where a jury finds that a defendant has violated the constitution by acting with a prohibited intent. However, we do not hold that a court cannot conduct an objective qualified immunity analysis after a jury verdict. McKenna v. Edgell, 617 F.3d 432, 438–46 (6th Cir. 2010) (reviewing qualified immunity defense after jury verdict). Rather, post-verdict, a court must apply the qualified immunity framework to the facts that the jury found (including the defendant’s subjective intent). McKenna, 617 F.3d at 437 (quoting Champion v. Outlook Nashville, Inc., 380 F.3d 893, 900 (6th Cir. 2004)) (“[W]here the legal question of qualified immunity turns upon which version of the facts one accepts, the jury, not the judge, must determine liability.”). Moreover, a defendant who loses at trial has other options. He could directly challenge the jury’s findings under the generally applicable JMOL standards. The defendant could also attack the jury instructions as inadequate statements of clearly established law (e.g., the judge failed to identify a clearly established legitimate law enforcement purpose that had some support in the facts). See Medtronic, Inc. v. White, 526 F.3d 487, 493 (9th Cir. 2008). Thus, while our holding will narrow the number of cases in which a defendant who loses at trial will 24 A.D. V. CALIFORNIA HIGHWAY PATROL receive qualified immunity, it does not leave such a defendant without recourse.9 In sum, we affirm the district court’s denial of Markgraf’s renewed motion for JMOL. The district court correctly concluded that, on the facts as the jury found them, Markgraf violated clearly established law. Like the district court, we also are bound by the jury’s findings.