King v. Huntsville Police Department et al

Filing 30

MEMORANDUM OPINION. Signed by Judge R David Proctor on 2/20/2018. (KAM)

FILED
2018 Feb-20 PM 03:43
U.S. DISTRICT COURT
N.D. OF ALABAMA

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ALABAMA
NORTHEASTERN DIVISION
ROBERT E. KING,
Plaintiff,
v.
OFFICER KEITH WOODEN,
Defendant.

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Case No.: 5:16-cv-00750-RDP-JEO

MEMORANDUM OPINION
On February 5, 2018, the Magistrate Judge’s Report and Recommendation (Doc. # 29)
was entered and the parties were allowed therein fourteen (14) days in which to file objections to
the recommendations made by the Magistrate Judge. No objections were filed.
After careful consideration of the record in this case and the Magistrate Judge’s Report
and Recommendation, the court hereby ADOPTS the Report of the Magistrate Judge.1 The
court further ACCEPTS the recommendations of the Magistrate Judge that the court deny
Plaintiff’s Motion for Summary Judgment (Docs. # 23, 25), grant Defendant’s Motion for
Summary Judgment (Docs. # 13, 14, 18), and dismiss Plaintiff’s claims with prejudice.
A separate order in accordance with the Memorandum Opinion will be entered.

1

The court observes that the Report and Recommendation does not specifically discuss the
constitutionality of Plaintiff’s detention between Defendant’s observation at approximately 16:03 that Plaintiff was
intoxicated in public (see Doc. # 29 at 5 n. 3) and a dispatcher’s report to Defendant at approximately 16:15 that
Plaintiff had active warrants issued against him (see id. at 6 n. 4). This issue is not material for two reasons. First,
Plaintiff’s Complaint challenges the constitutionality of his continued detention after the dispatcher had checked for
warrants (and a subsequent search incident to arrest), but the Complaint fails to challenge the constitutionality of
Plaintiff’s detention while Defendant waited for a warrant check to be completed. (See Doc. # 1 at 3-4). Second,
Defendant has testified that he had a reasonable suspicion that Plaintiff had been intoxicated in public when he
detained Plaintiff while waiting for the warrant check to be completed. (Doc. # 13-1 at 3). Defendant’s reasonable
suspicion that Plaintiff had committed a municipal infraction justified the Terry stop.

DONE and ORDERED this February 20, 2018.

_________________________________
R. DAVID PROCTOR
UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

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