Court Opinion

ID: 9951535
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2024-03-18 14:01:03.77258+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:41:26.997985
License: Public Domain

USCA11 Case: 23-12171    Document: 24-1    Date Filed: 03/18/2024   Page: 1 of 7

                                                 [DO NOT PUBLISH]
                                  In the
                United States Court of Appeals
                         For the Eleventh Circuit

                          ____________________

                               No. 23-12171
                          Non-Argument Calendar
                          ____________________

       JAMES F. LEWIS,
                                                    Plaintiﬀ-Appellant,
       versus
       KEITH REYES,
       Sergeant,
       KARL MURKLAND,
       Oﬃcer,
       GREGG DUDLEY,
       LAKE COUNTY FLORIDA SCHOOL DISTRICT,

                                                Defendants-Appellees.

                          ____________________
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       2                          Opinion of the Court                  23-12171

                   Appeal from the United States District Court
                        for the Middle District of Florida
                     D.C. Docket No. 5:22-cv-00650-JA-PRL
                            ____________________

       Before ROSENBAUM, GRANT, and ANDERSON, Circuit Judges.
       PER CURIAM:
              James Lewis was arrested for trespass when he refused to
       leave school property after school authorities repeatedly requested
       that he do so. Lewis brought suit against the state officials involved
       in his arrest and the school district for violating his constitutional
       rights. The district court dismissed his suit for failure to state a
       claim. Because Lewis has not alleged any facts sufficient to show a
       constitutional violation, we affirm.
                                            I.
               James Lewis, a self-proclaimed journalist, decided to stand
       on the sidewalk outside of an elementary school and film the traffic
       during school dismissal. 1 While filming, Lewis complained about
       the traffic to Sergeant Keith Reyes, who was on duty directing
       traffic that day. Reyes calmly told Lewis that officers were doing
       their best to address the traffic.
            Principal Gregg Dudley then came outside and asked Lewis
       why he was at the school. Lewis told Dudley that he was there to

       1 The following facts are from Lewis’s video recording, which he provided as

       part of his complaint.
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       23-12171              Opinion of the Court                        3

       monitor the traffic, and that he wanted to make a public records
       request. Dudley responded that all public records requests must be
       made with the district office, but Lewis insisted on making his
       request at the school. Dudley and Reyes eventually walked away
       from Lewis and onto school property.
              Undeterred, Lewis again approached Dudley and Reyes,
       reasserting his same request for public records. Dudley and Reyes
       informed Lewis that he was on school property, and Dudley
       reiterated that public records requests must be made at the district
       office. He repeatedly asked Lewis to leave, but Lewis refused and
       instead continued to request public records. Dudley informed
       Reyes that he wanted to trespass Lewis from the school. Reyes
       asked Lewis for identification, which Lewis refused to provide.
       The two argued until Lewis walked away.
              Lewis, though, continued to film; when one parent asked
       Lewis to stop filming his children, Lewis began arguing with him.
       At that point, Reyes approached Lewis and arrested him for
       trespass. Lewis soon complained that the handcuffs were too tight.
       Reyes responded that the handcuffs were okay, but Lewis raised
       the same complaint while he was being driven to jail by Reyes and
       Officer Karl Marklund. Marklund responded that the handcuffs
       would be removed at the jail.
              Lewis was charged with trespassing on school grounds in
       violation of Fla. Stat. § 810.097. He admitted guilt to this charge,
       but still brought § 1983 claims against Reyes, Marklund, Dudley,
       and the Lake County Florida School District for violating his
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       4                      Opinion of the Court                  23-12171

       constitutional rights. He alleged that Dudley violated his First and
       Fourteenth Amendment rights by trespassing him while he was
       engaging in protected First Amendment activity. He claimed that
       Reyes and Marklund violated his Fourth and Fourteenth
       Amendment rights by unlawfully arresting him without probable
       cause and using excessive force. He also asserted that the District
       failed to properly train Dudley as the custodian of public records.
       And he argued that all of the defendants retaliated against him for
       exercising his First Amendment rights. The district court dismissed
       his claims for failure to state a claim. Lewis now appeals.
                                         II.
               We review a district court’s ruling on a Rule 12(b)(6) motion
       to dismiss de novo, “accepting the allegations in the complaint as
       true and construing them in the light most favorable to the
       plaintiff.” Hill v. White, 321 F.3d 1334, 1335 (11th Cir. 2003). “But
       where a video is clear and obviously contradicts the plaintiff’s
       alleged facts, we accept the video’s depiction instead of the
       complaint’s account and view the facts in the light depicted by the
       video.” Baker v. City of Madison, 67 F.4th 1268, 1277–78 (11th Cir.
       2023) (citation omitted). To decide whether a complaint properly
       states a claim, a court must first disregard any conclusory
       allegations and then determine whether any remaining factual
       allegations, if assumed as true, “plausibly give rise to an entitlement
       to relief.” McCullough v. Finley, 907 F.3d 1324, 1333 (11th Cir. 2018)
       (quotation omitted).
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       23-12171              Opinion of the Court                        5

                                       III.
              Section 1983 allows state officers and municipalities to be
       held liable for constitutional violations. An arrest without a
       warrant or probable cause “violates the Constitution and provides
       a basis for a section 1983 claim.” Miller v. Harget, 458 F.3d 1251,
       1259 (11th Cir. 2006) (quotation omitted). An officer has probable
       cause for an arrest “when the facts and circumstances within the
       officers’ knowledge, of which he or she has reasonably trustworthy
       information, would cause a prudent person to believe, under the
       circumstances shown, that the suspect has committed, is
       committing, or is about to commit an offense.” Id. (quotation
       omitted).
              Florida law authorizes an officer to “arrest either on or off
       the premises and without warrant any person the officer has
       probable cause for believing has committed the offense of trespass
       upon the grounds of a school facility.” Fla. Stat. § 810.097(4). A
       person commits a trespass if he “enters or remains upon the
       campus or other facility of a school after the principal of such
       school” has “directed such person to leave such campus or facility
       or not to enter upon the campus or facility” Id. § 810.097(2).
              Lewis’s rights under the First Amendment, Fourth
       Amendment, and Fourteenth Amendment were not violated
       because probable cause supported his arrest. First, state law
       authorized Dudley to ask Lewis to leave school property, and it
       provides that Lewis committed trespass by refusing to comply with
       those requests. See id. § 810.097. Lewis does not challenge this law
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       6                          Opinion of the Court                       23-12171

       or argue that it is unconstitutional.2 And because Lewis committed
       trespass by refusing to comply with Dudley’s requests to leave
       school property, Reyes and Murkland had probable cause to arrest
       him. See Miller, 458 F.3d at 1259. Lewis’s arrest was thus
       constitutional, and he provides no factual basis to support his claim
       that the defendants’ conduct was in retaliation for his speech rather
       than his unauthorized presence on school grounds in violation of
       Florida law.
              Lewis’s failure-to-train and excessive force claims also fail
       because he does not plausibly allege a constitutional violation.
       Lewis argues that the District is liable because it failed to
       adequately train Dudley about public records requests. But Florida
       law only requires that a custodian of public records “acknowledge
       requests to inspect or copy records promptly and respond to such
       requests in good faith.” Fla. Stat. § 119.07(1)(c). Based on the facts
       alleged, Dudley complied with that requirement—he
       acknowledged Lewis’s public records request and instructed him
       on the appropriate means for making that request. Lewis thus
       failed to allege sufficient facts supporting any violation. Lastly,
       Lewis’s excessive force claim fails because the fact that his
       handcuffs were tight is not enough to support an allegation of

       2 Even if Lewis did take issue with Florida’s trespass law, the fact that it may

       have incidentally affected his First Amendment activities does not make its
       enforcement a constitutional violation. See Adderley v. Florida, 385 U.S. 39, 47–
       48 (1966).
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       23-12171              Opinion of the Court                      7

       excessive force. See Gold v. City of Miami, 121 F.3d 1442, 1446–47
       (11th Cir. 1997).
                                *      *      *
              Lewis failed to provide sufficient facts supporting any
       constitutional violation by the defendants. The district court did
       not err, then, in dismissing his claims. We AFFIRM.