Opinion ID: 196116
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Deputy Sheriffs Knightly and Cote

Text: 7 Appellees urge, and the district court found, that deputy sheriffs Knightly and Cote are entitled to quasi- judicial immunity because they were executing a facially valid warrant. See Forte v. Sullivan, 935 F.2d 1, 3 (1st Cir. 1991). Appellant responds that the defense of absolute immunity must fail because the deputies exceeded legal bounds in executing the warrant. See Martin v. Board of County Comm'rs, 909 F.2d 402, 405 (10th Cir. 1990) ([A] judicial warrant contains an implicit directive that the arrest ... be carried out in a lawful manner.). We need not resolve the issue whether absolute immunity protects Knightly and Cote, however, because we find that, in any event, they are entitled to qualified immunity since they did not violate a clearly established right. See Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 818 (1982) (holding that qualified immunity shields public officials performing discretionary functions from liability for civil damages insofar as their conduct does not violate clearly established rights of which a reasonable person should have known). 8 In Payton v. New York, 445 U.S. 573 (1980), the Supreme Court held that the Fourth Amendment prohibits the police from effecting a warrantless and nonconsensual entry into a suspect's home in order to make a routine felony arrest. However, the Court also held that a criminal arrest warrant alone was sufficient to authorize the entry into a person's home to effect his arrest. Payton, 445 U.S. at 602-03; see also Steagald v. United States, 451 U.S. 204, 214 n.7 (1981) (discussing Payton ). Contrary to appellant's suggestion, the deputy sheriffs who entered his home had an arrest warrant. The issue, as we see it, is whether a bench warrant for civil contempt authorizes entry into the arrestee's home to effect the arrest. 9 This latter issue has received surprisingly little discussion in the case law, and we have found no Massachusetts or federal cases directly on point. Because the issue was inadequately briefed, we do not resolve it here. Given the dearth of relevant case law, we cannot say that Knightly or Cote (or more precisely, an objectively reasonably police office in their position) knew or should have known that their actions violated appellant's Fourth Amendment rights, if, in fact, they did. See Wiley v. Doory, 14 F.3d 993, 995 (4th Cir. 1994) (Powell, J.) (observing that in determining whether the plaintiff has asserted a violation of a clearly established right,  'the proper focus is not upon the right at its most general or abstract level, but at the level of its application to the specific conduct being challenged.' ) (quoting Pritchett v. Alford, 973 F.2d 307, 312 (4th Cir. 1992)).