Opinion ID: 770823
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Denial of SIS officers' motions for summary judgment

Text: 23 As previously mentioned, the district court denied the non shooting officers' motion for summary judgment. Rather than analyze the individual actions of each officer, the district court focused on plaintiffs' allegations of a department-wide scheme and the actions of the officers who actually shot Cunningham and Soly. The court first found a disputed fact issue concerning whether officers had probable cause to shoot Cunningham and Soly, explaining that: 24 The officers' explanations of why they did not think that they had probable cause to arrest before the rob beries occurred, why the robberies could not be pre vented, and why it was necessary to shoot everyone who was shot will be examined and compared as among all the alleged common course incidents. Plaintiffs will attempt to demonstrate that the things claimed to have been unintended have happened too often to be attributable to accident or mistake, and that perceived threats that could not have been real occur too often, for the officers' explanations of what happened and why to be credible. 25 Cunningham, 989 at 1260. The district court never conducted an individualized analysis to determine whether each moving defendant was entitled to qualified immunity based on his or her individual actions. Rather, the district court, after focusing on injuries caused by the shooting officers, concluded that: 26 It is settled law . . . that if a group of officers agree that if and when some of them knowingly commit unlawful acts others will falsify records and testify falsely to cover up the truth of the relevant events, all of those involved are liable for the unlawful acts. . . . Proof of plaintiffs' allegations that the SIS officers engage in a continuing course of unconstitutional conduct whereby some commit excessive force with complete impunity and others assist by covering up those unconstitutional acts would constitute proof of violation of clearly established law. 27 Id. at 1261-62. Apparently unaware of any evidence that the moving defendants participated in the alleged course of conduct, 18 the district court found it necessary to go beyond the declarations submitted by the parties and consider how the officers may be impeached with testimony given on prior occasions and whether an inference might then be drawn that the alleged course of conduct might include the element of planned fabrication of documents and testimony. Id. Based on possible impeachment evidence and strategies of which only the court was aware, the district court found that a reasonable juror could find the existence of a common course of conduct based on the totality of the evidence, and, thus, denied the moving officers' motion for summary judgment. See id. 28