Opinion ID: 4195259
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Facts Revealed Through Discovery Support

Text: the Battery Claim Against Officer Lee Hall’s testimony corroborated and added detail to the complaint’s allegations; nothing in discovery indisputably defeated any material aspect of the allegations that stated the excessive force claims. For instance, Hall testified that, after police knocked on the single-occupancy bathroom door and yelled, “Open up, it’s the police,” Hall let out a “small giggle,” but before she “even ha[d] time to think about opening the door,” the officers broke it down and slammed Hall against the wall. Hall Dep., 47:15-48:6. Hall testified that when she complained to Officer Lee “that the handcuffs were too tight,” Lee told Hall to “shut up” and then Officer Lee “pushed the sides to tighten” the cuffs. Id. at 51:20-52:6. When Hall complained again and stated that her thumb was going numb, Lee told her to “[s]hut up” and “stop resisting.” Id. at 54:7-11. Officer Lee twice tightened Hall’s handcuffs in response to Hall’s complaints. Id. at 73:10-18. Officer Lee forced Hall down on her knees on the concrete, scraping and bruising her. Id. at 80:19-22. Lee held Hall there with her knee in Hall’s back. Id. at 58:17-19. When Hall attempted to stand up with her hands cuffed behind her, Officer Lee grabbed Hall by her elbows behind her back and “yanked” her up. Id. at 54:22. Eventually, Lee “drag[ged]” Hall to a police cruiser and threw her in the backseat. Id. at 63:12-13. Two of Hall’s friends who witnessed the scene corroborated her testimony. Kay Vollans, who was with Hall in the bathroom of the bar, testified that police kicked in the door and that Lee dragged Hall out of the bar. Vollans Dep., 23:15-23:17; 25:22-26:11, Mar. 19, 2015. Once outside, Vollans testified, Lee forced Hall to her knees on the concrete sidewalk, and lifted Hall’s hands behind her back and pointed them to the sky while Hall was handcuffed. Id. at 29:17-20; 32 34:4-10. Hall’s complaints of pain throughout the interaction were met with commands to shut up. Id. at 37:4-17. Gary Jones also testified that Lee dragged Hall out of the bar and that when Hall was on the ground, Lee put her knee in Hall’s back while pulling Hall’s arms up behind her by the cuffs. Jones Dep., 27:3-28:21; 36:16-18, Mar. 19, 2015. Officer Lee’s testimony characterized the interaction differently. She testified that her partner, a male officer, was the one who “grabbed” Hall in the bathroom and handcuffed her. Lee Dep., 25:1-8. Officer Lee testified that police handcuffed Hall because she fit the description of a black female wearing a yellow sundress who had reportedly committed “theft one of services,” a felony. Id. at 25:14-18. According to Lee, Hall was considered a flight risk because she had left Cities. Id. at 26:4-16. Lee testified that she “placed” Hall down on the sidewalk; she later testified that she did so for fear that Hall might “stumble and fall,” given her high heels. Id. at 65:18-66:2. And Lee testified that Hall was “screaming, and shouting, and fighting, and pulling away,” and was generally “not compliant.” Id. at 28:10, 65:15. Finally, the parties devote multiple pages in their appellate briefs to arguing over the severity of Hall’s wrist injury and its relevance to the analysis. See Appellant Br. 13 (arguing that Hall was diagnosed with and treated for a broken wrist); Appellee Br. 31-33 (arguing the “undisputed medical records show that Ms. Hall did not fracture her wrist”). The record shows that Hall was initially diagnosed with a potential wrist fracture, but that follow-up with a radiologist called that diagnosis into question. In any event, a reasonable jury could conclude on the summary judgment record that Hall experienced pain, numbness, limited mobility in her wrist and hand, and scrapes and bruises. The particular medical diagnosis of Hall’s wrist injury is not determinative of whether 33 Officer Lee used excessive force. With the record evidence in mind, we move to the battery claim, dismissed by the district court at summary judgment. Discovery corroborated Hall’s allegations that Lee used force against her without justification, creating a jury issue on the battery claim. A police officer is liable for battery when she commits an “intentional act that causes harmful or offensive bodily contact” and when the officer’s use of such force was “in excess of [that] which the actor reasonably believes to be necessary.” District of Columbia v. Chinn, 839 A.2d 701, 705-06 (D.C. 2003) (quoting Holder v. District of Columbia, 700 A.2d 738, 741 (D.C. 1997)). “[T]he officer must subjectively believe that he or she used no more force than necessary, but the officer’s judgment is [also] compared to that of a hypothetical reasonable police officer placed in the same situation.” Scales v. District of Columbia, 973 A.2d 722, 730 (D.C. 2009). The district court granted summary judgment to Officer Lee on the battery claim, reasoning that Hall’s own testimony put beyond dispute that she was resisting arrest sufficiently to justify Lee’s use of force. In our view, however, a reasonable jury could reject Officer Lee’s contention that, starting when Hall did not immediately open the bathroom door in response to the police directive to “[o]pen up,” Hall resisted the officers and thereby justified their use of force. See Hall, 2016 WL 1452325, at . The record could support a jury determination that the officers did not give Hall an opportunity to comply with their command to open the bathroom door before “bust[ing]” through the door. See Hall Dep., 48:3. The district court also concluded that the record placed beyond dispute that Hall resisted arrest after she was handcuffed on the ground because, as the district court put it, 34 she “moved and behaved in ways that a police officer could reasonably conclude were meant to defy arrest.” Hall, 2016 WL 1452325, at . The court recounted that Hall’s testimony showed that she “tried to stand after Lee had forced her to kneel, and moved abruptly, even ‘swing[ing] around,’ during the arrest.” Id. Reasonable jurors could disagree, however, whether Hall’s movements were resistant, and whether Officer Lee’s use of force was an appropriate response. Hall testified that she complained about her handcuffs being too tight, and that Lee responded by tightening the handcuffs. Hall Dep., 51:20-52:6. Hall tried to stand up because her knees were cut from being forced to kneel on concrete, in response to which Lee “grabbed [Hall by her] elbows and yank[ed her] up.” Id. at 54:17-22. Hall’s friends both corroborated Hall’s testimony. And, given Officer Lee’s failure to explain to Hall that she was under arrest or to articulate why Hall was being detained— beyond saying “theft of services,” which Hall apparently heard as “[t]hat’s the services,” id. at 50:2-4—a jury could determine that Hall’s attempts to view Lee’s badge number were appropriate, non-resistant conduct. Most importantly, a reasonable jury could find on these facts that Officer Lee should have perceived that she could resolve the situation without physical force. At summary judgment, when we are required to view the record in the light most favorable to Hall, we cannot say that a reasonable jury would be required to find that, given Hall’s conduct, Officer Lee’s force was justified.