Opinion ID: 4448517
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Facts Related To The Consent To Enter Issue

Text: In the early afternoon of October 14, 2013, McKinney called K.C.R.’s mother and asked her to bring her daughter down to the sheriff’s department for questioning. He did not tell her that he planned to arrest her daughter, though that was his plan. K.C.R.’s mother refused the request. Later that afternoon McKinney and three other sheriff’s deputies — Sergeant Deborah Hamilton, Detective Christopher Lynn, and Lieutenant Jamie Rudd — headed to K.C.R.’s house to make the arrest. McKinney testified at trial that he had time after his phone call with K.C.R.’s mother to obtain a warrant but that he and the other members of his team chose not to apply for one. Instead, he said their plan was to go to the house and ask permission to enter, and if that didn’t work they would post a deputy at the front door while they went and obtained a warrant. 4 At trial that area was at different times called a “screened-in room,” a “screened-in enclosure,” and a “screened porch.” For consistency we will call the area a “porch” or a “screened-in porch” unless we are quoting the record. 21 Case: 17-14525 Date Filed: 10/21/2019 Page: 22 of 48 The deputies arrived at the house in unmarked vehicles. They wore plain clothes, and bulletproof vests with “SHERIFF” emblazoned across the front, and their weapons were holstered. McKinney, followed by Lynn and Hamilton (Rudd would join later), approached the house, opened the door to a screened-in porch in front of the house, and walked through that area and up the three steps to the front door. Then McKinney knocked and announced in a loud voice: “Polk County Sheriff’s Department.” K.C.R.’s father answered the door. McKinney told him they were there to arrest K.C.R. According to McKinney’s and Hamilton’s trial testimony, K.C.R.’s father told the deputies that he needed to put up his dog. He then shut the door. Rudd joined the other deputies while they were waiting for K.C.R.’s father to return. A few minutes later he opened the door and the deputies entered the house. To determine whether McKinney had K.C.R.’s father’s consent to cross that threshold, the jury heard from McKinney, Lynn, Rudd, Hamilton, and K.C.R.’s father. Because the jury’s factual determination of this issue is the central issue on appeal, we will quote some of that testimony at length. First, from McKinney and Hamilton: McKinney: Q. Okay. And you knocked and announced? A. Yes, sir, that’s correct. Q. Then what happened? 22 Case: 17-14525 Date Filed: 10/21/2019 Page: 23 of 48 A. Then [K.C.R.’s father] opened the door. I told [him] I was there to arrest [K.C.R.]. [K.C.R.’s father] asked if I could hang on for a minute while he put the dog up, he closed the door, he went back into the house for a few moments and then he came back to the door and opened the door. Q. Okay. So he opened the door twice? A. That’s correct. Q. Okay. The first time he opened the door, you said you’re here to arrest [K.C.R.]? A. That’s correct. . . . Q. And what happened next? A. [K.C.R.’s father] opened the door wide and stepped back and I walked into the residence. Q. Okay. Did he make any gesture? A. Not that I remember. . . . Q. So how did he move back? A. He opened the door and he stepped back. Q. Okay. Did he say anything to you at that point? A. No, sir. Q. When he came b[ac]k to the door the second time, did he say anything when he opened it? A. I don’t remember if he did or not. Q. Did you ever touch the door? A. I did not. Q. How wide did he open it? A. All the way open. Q. And where was he then standing? A. Beside the door. Q. Did you ever touch him? A. I did not. Q. Make any move toward him whatsoever? A. No, sir. . . . Q. Did anyone ever touch a weapon while there? A. Absolutely not. Q. Anybody make any threatening statements? A. No. 23 Case: 17-14525 Date Filed: 10/21/2019 Page: 24 of 48 Hamilton: A. Detective McKinney told [K.C.R.’s father] that we were there to arrest [K.C.R.]. Q. Okay. And did [K.C.R.’s father] reply? A. Yes. Q. What did he say? . . . [A.] He said, just a moment, I need to put a dog away inside the house. . . . Q. Okay. And then what did [he] do? A. He closed the door and went to put the dog away. Q. And what did y’all do, you and Detective McKinney and Detective Lynn do at that point? A. We waited outside for him to come back. Q. And what happened next? A. He came back, he opened up the door to the house and we went in. Q. How did he open up the door? A. He just opened it up and stood back. Q. Okay. Was there plenty of room for you all to go in? A. Yes. Q. How did you proceed in at that point, in what manner? A. We just walked in, walked inside, into the living room. Lynn and Rudd both testified that they could not hear any of the conversation between K.C.R.’s father and McKinney and that they followed the other deputies into the house on the assumption that K.C.R.’s father had welcomed them in. K.C.R.’s father’s testimony differed. He said that he only heard the knock on the door, not the identifying announcement, and that he did not know who was there until he opened the door. Once he did that, he told the jury, “[the deputies] said, ‘we’re here to arrest [K.C.R.]’ and walked right in.” When asked whether the 24 Case: 17-14525 Date Filed: 10/21/2019 Page: 25 of 48 deputies asked for consent to come in, or whether he “g[a]ve any indication that [he] agreed with them to come in,” he answered: “No.” But he did tell the jury that none of the deputies bumped him or pushed him on their way in, even though he had kept his hand on the door as they entered the house. As he stated on crossexamination: Q. Okay. So you opened the door. How did you open it? How wide did you open it? A. I -- I opened it like this, I stood there and then they just kind of went in and I backed up. Q. Okay. No one ever struck you -- A No. Q. -- or bumped you or pushed you or anything? A. No. Q. Is it a single door? A. Yes, sir. Q. You, not unlike me, are a pretty big man, would you agree? A. Yeah. I was a little bit lighter then though. Q. Okay. Deputy McKinney is a fairly big man too? A. Yes. Q. Okay. He was able to come through the doorway without bumping you or pushing you or doing anything? A. Yeah. It was very close though. Q. Is that because you stood back? A. It was because, yeah, basically I stood back. I mean, they had guns on them and stuff. I wasn’t going to get in front of them. Q. And you were holding onto the door at the time? A. Yes, sir, I still had it in my hand. Q. And opened it wide? A. I opened it semi-wide. Q. So there was room for you to stand there and them to all come in? A. Yeah, after the first one came in, I just -- what am I going to do? 25 Case: 17-14525 Date Filed: 10/21/2019 Page: 26 of 48 Once the deputies entered the home, they found K.C.R. in her pajamas. Her mother pleaded with the officers: “Please don’t take my baby, please don’t take my baby!” The deputies let K.C.R. change into normal clothes, and then McKinney arrested her, walked her outside, and handcuffed her before putting her in the car and taking her to the Juvenile Assessment Center. She was held there for about six hours and released. All charges against her were eventually dismissed. After the jurors heard all of this evidence, they retired to deliberate on a single question: “Did the Defendant Jonathan McKinney enter Plaintiff’s house without consent in violation of Plaintiff’s civil rights?” During their deliberations, the jurors sent the judge a question based on something one of the sheriff’s deputies had said in his testimony. K.C.R.’s attorney had asked Deputy Rudd whether McKinney was already in the house when Rudd arrived, and Rudd answered that the other officers “were not in the house” but in “a screened-in room that was in the front of the home.” The attorney didn’t ask any follow-up questions about that, but the district court judge did. In response to questions from the judge, Rudd explained that the screened-in porch was in front of the house and that the deputies had to enter that porch to get to the front door. The judge wondered: “If you’re a law enforcement officer, what door do you knock on to gain entry into this residence?” Rudd responded that he wasn’t sure what door the deputies had actually knocked on, but he “would have in 26 Case: 17-14525 Date Filed: 10/21/2019 Page: 27 of 48 that scenario probably knocked on the screen door.” The judge then attempted to clarify what the sheriff’s department policy was for that kind of situation. In a rather confusing exchange, Rudd answered that “we would probably knock on the front door as well as the screened-in door at some point,” and that “there would be an opportunity that you would have to knock on that front door [of the screened-in porch] to gain the attention of the homeowners themselves.” Then he reiterated: “Whether [the other deputies] knocked on that screen door or not, I don’t know.” None of the lawyers asked any questions about the screened-in porch, and, except for one very short exchange with another deputy during her testimony, the issue didn’t come up again until the second day of jury deliberations. It was at that point the jury sent the judge a note asking: “By law, is the screened-in front porch considered a part of the house?” The parties debated how the judge should answer that question. The district court, over K.C.R.’s objection, answered it this way: “For purposes of this case, no.” K.C.R. moved for a mistrial, which the district court denied. The jury then rendered a verdict for McKinney, finding that he had consent to enter K.C.R.’s home. The court denied K.C.R.’s motion for judgment as a matter of law and her motion for a new trial. 27 Case: 17-14525 Date Filed: 10/21/2019 Page: 28 of 48