Opinion ID: 793539
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Danger Affirmatively Created Due to State Action

Text: 34 In examining whether an officer affirmatively places an individual in danger, we do not look solely to the agency of the individual, nor do we rest our opinion on what options may or may not have been available to the individual. Instead, we examine whether the officer[ ] left the person in a situation that was more dangerous than the one in which they found him. Munger, 227 F.3d at 1086. Thus, we ask first whether, as alleged, any affirmative actions by Shields placed Kennedy in danger that she otherwise would not have faced. Interpreting the facts in a manner most favorable to Kennedy, we conclude they did. 35 Shields drove to the Burns residence and notified the Burns family of the allegations against Michael. In doing so, he affirmatively created a danger to Kennedy she otherwise would not have faced, i.e., that Michael Burns would be notified of the allegations before the Kennedys had the opportunity to protect themselves from his violent response to the news. Like plaintiff's supervisor in Grubbs, Shields created an opportunity for [Burns] to assault[the Kennedys] that otherwise would not have existed, Grubbs, 974 F.2d at 121. 36 The dissent's assertion, infra at 1076, that [n]otifying Michael Burns was an inevitable consequence of Kennedy's allegations of child molestation is an impermissible inference from the facts. 3 More importantly, it is beside the point. The only relevant question here is whether Shields, by informing Burns of Kennedy's allegations without first warning her as he had promised to do, realized the inevitable consequence about which the dissent speculates. We find that, in doing so, Shields affirmatively created an actual, particularized danger Kennedy would not otherwise have faced. The existence of this danger does not depend, as the dissent repeatedly suggests, infra at 1075 n. 5, 1075, on a difference of fifteen-minutes to which we give unwarranted constitutional magnitude. That Shields notified Kennedy of the danger he had created fifteen minutes before did not obviate or cure that danger; nor did it give Kennedy a reasonable opportunity to protect her family from it. 37 In addition, we must accept Kennedy's evidence that Shields assured her early in the evening of September 24 that, given the threat Michael posed, the police would patrol the neighborhood that night. As in Grubbs, we do not rest our judgment that Shields affirmatively created a danger on that assurance alone, though in light of it, it is quite reasonable that the Kennedys decided late that night, when Mr. Kennedy returned from his class, to remain at home. Instead, as it did in Grubbs, Shields's misrepresentation as to the risk the Kennedys faced was an additional and aggravating factor, making them more vulnerable to the danger he had already created. See Grubbs, 974 F.2d at 121 (The Defendants also enhanced L.W.'s vulnerability to attack by misrepresenting to her the risks attending her work.). 4 38