Welch v. Morgan
Filing
45
ORDER ADOPTING REPORT AND RECOMMENDATIONS and granting 23 Motion for Summary Judgment. CASE DISMISSED WITH PREJUDICE. Signed by Honorable Jimm Larry Hendren on August 26, 2013. (tg)
IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
WESTERN DISTRICT OF ARKANSAS
FAYETTEVILLE DIVISION
TYRONE WELCH
PLAINTIFF
v.
Civil No. 12-5137
OFFICER CHAD MORGAN and
MAJOR RANDALL DENZER
DEFENDANTS
O R D E R
Now
on
this
26th
day
of
August,
2013,
come
on
for
consideration the following:
*
defendants’ Motion For Summary Judgment (document #23);
*
the Report And Recommendation Of The Magistrate Judge
(document #43); and
*
Defendants’ Objections To The Report And Recommendation
Of The Honorable Magistrate Judge (document #44),
and the Court, being well and sufficiently advised, finds and
orders as follows:
1.
Plaintiff Tyrone Welch brought this claim pursuant to 42
U.S.C. § 1983, alleging that he was subjected to excessive force
by defendant Officer Chad Morgan while he was a pretrial detainee
at Washington County Detention Center on June 5, 2012.
being held in a pod with multiple other prisoners.
pressing
a
call
button
in
the
pod,
trying
to
attention, and Morgan came to the door in response.
Welch was
He had been
get
medical
At the same
time, Welch and another prisoner got into an verbal altercation,
and Morgan directed both prisoners to step outside the pod, where
the events in suit took place.
These events were recorded on a
video camera.
2.
In response to a motion to amend, the Magistrate Judge
later added Randall Denzer, Jail Administrator, as a defendant in
lieu
of
Washington
County
Detention
Center,
which
is
not a
“person” subject to suit under § 1983.
3.
the
Defendants moved for summary judgment, contending that
video
recording
of
the
incident
in
suit
demonstrates
conclusively that Morgan did not use excessive force, and that
Welch has stated no claim against Denzer.
4.
Magistrate Judge Erin L. Setser conducted an evidentiary
hearing to allow Welch to respond to the motion, and then issued
the Report And Recommendation now under consideration.
She
reported that the video recording could be interpreted as support
for the position of either Welch or Morgan, and that a genuine
issue of material fact existed which precluded summary judgment on
Welch’s claim of excessive force against Morgan. In light of this
fact issue, Magistrate Judge Setser reported that she could not
determine the issue of qualified immunity as to Morgan.
She
recommended that the motion for summary judgment be denied as to
Welch’s claim against Morgan.
Magistrate Judge Setser further reported that there were no
facts
which
would
support
any
-2-
claim
against
Denzer,
and
recommended that the motion be granted as to Welch’s claim against
Denzer.
5.
Morgan objects that the video recording clearly supports
his defense that he reasonably believed that he was in jeopardy,
especially since the pod door was still open at the time of the
occurrence, which would leave him “vulnerable to potential attack
by dozens of inmates.”
He cites Scott v. Harris, 550 U.S. 372,
380 (2007), for the proposition that “[w]hen opposing parties tell
two different stories, one of which is blatantly contradicted by
the record, so that no reasonable jury could believe it, a court
should not adopt that version of the facts for purposes of ruling
on a motion for summary judgment.”
The Court has reviewed the video recording in question, and
agrees with Magistrate Judge Setser that reasonable jurors could
differ in their interpretation of it, seeing it either as evidence
in favor of Morgan, or evidence in favor of Welch.
“blatantly contradict” Welch’s version of events.
It does not
That being the
case, there is a disputed issue of material fact on Welch’s claim
of excessive force, and this objection is without merit.
6.
Morgan next contends that even if there is a disputed
issue of material fact on the excessive force claim he is entitled
to summary judgment on the issue of qualified immunity.
Qualified immunity is a doctrine that has evolved to protect
government officials from liability for civil damages where their
-3-
conduct
does
not
violate
“clearly
established
statutory
or
constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have
known.”
Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 818 (1982).
doctrine
“gives
government
officials
breathing
room
to
The
make
reasonable but mistaken judgments, and protects all but the
plainly incompetent or those who knowingly violate the law.”
Messerschmidt v. Millender, 132 S.Ct. 1235, 1244 (2012).
Whether
qualified immunity exists in a given situation is a question of
law, not fact, McClendon v. Story County Sheriff’s Office, 403
F.3d 510, 515 (8th Cir. 2005), although there may be disputed
issues of fact about what that situation is.
In Saucier v. Katz, 533 U.S. 194 (2001), the Supreme Court
mandated a two-step inquiry for analyzing qualified immunity
claims, an inquiry which is still useful and desirable although it
is no longer mandated in every case, Pearson v. Callahan, 555 U.S.
223 (2009):
A court required to rule upon the qualified
immunity issue must consider, then, this threshold
question:
Taken in the light most favorable to the
party asserting the injury, do the facts alleged show
the officer’s conduct violated a constitutional right?
This must be the initial inquiry. . . .
If no constitutional right would have been violated
were the allegations established, there is no necessity
for further inquiries concerning qualified immunity. On
the other hand, if a violation could be made out on a
favorable view of the parties’ submissions, the next,
sequential step is to ask whether the right was clearly
established. This inquiry, it is vital to note, must be
undertaken in light of the specific context of the case,
not as a broad general proposition . . . .
-4-
Saucier, id., 533 U.S. at 201.
Fleshing out the meaning of “clearly established,” the Court
in Saucier explained that “[t]he relevant, dispositive inquiry in
determining whether a right is clearly established is whether it
would be clear to a reasonable officer that his conduct was
unlawful in the situation he confronted. . . . If the law did not
put the officer on notice that his conduct would be clearly
unlawful,
summary
appropriate.”
7.
judgment
based
on
qualified
immunity
is
Id. at 202.
It is with the second question in the Saucier analysis
that the Court is now concerned, having determined that a genuine
issue of material fact exists as to the first.
question might be formulated thus:
The second
Would it have been clear to a
reasonable law enforcement officer, at the time of the occurrence,
that Morgan’s takedown of a pretrial detainee who was upset and
yelling because he was in pain and angry at another prisoner, and
who raised his arm over his head in the face of the officer, was
a violation of the constitutional prohibition against the use of
excessive force?
In order to answer this question it is necessary to ask
another:
what constitutes the use of excessive force?
Excessive
force claims brought by pretrial detainees are analyzed under an
“objective reasonableness” standard grounded in the Fifth and
Fourteenth Amendments.
Andrews v. Neer, 253 F.3d 1052, 1060 (8th
-5-
Cir. 2001).
Because pretrial detainees have not been convicted,
they cannot be subjected to conditions of confinement which amount
to punishment.
Bell v. Wolfish, 441 U.S. 520, 535 (1979).
This
is not to say, however, that the officials who guard them are
without power to maintain order and prevent mayhem.
Steps taken
to maintain order and security, and restraints reasonably related
to
institutional
security
unconstitutional punishment.
do
not,
without
more,
amount
to
Id. at 540.
In Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386, 396-97 (1989), where an
“objective reasonableness” standard was used to analyze a Fourth
Amendment claim of excessive force during an arrest, the Court
recognized
that
“the
calculus
of
reasonableness
must
embody
allowance for the fact that police officers are often forced to
make split-second judgments -- in circumstances that are tense,
uncertain, and rapidly evolving -- about the amount of force that
is necessary in a particular situation.”
8.
The Court has reviewed the transcript of the evidentiary
hearing in this matter as well as the video recording.
Welch
admitted at the hearing that he was upset because he felt his
medical needs were not getting attention.
was hurting and yelling.
He testified that he
He also testified that he and another
prisoner were having words, and were riled up at each other.
The
video recording shows that after the two prisoners stepped out
into the hallway, and before the door to the pod closed (prisoners
-6-
can be seen peering out the door), Welch raised one arm over his
head in the direction of Morgan.
At this point Morgan grabbed
Welch, threw him against the wall, and then threw him on the
floor.
Under these circumstances, the Court finds that it would not
have
been
clear
to
a
reasonable
law
enforcement
officer in
Morgan’s position that a takedown of Welch was a violation of the
constitutional prohibition against the use of excessive force.
Even giving Welch the benefit of every doubt, the evidence still
supports three key findings:
*
Morgan was dealing with a potentially volatile situation
(volatile because of Welch’s anger at the other prisoner);
*
other prisoners from the Pod could have come out into
the hallway to complicate the situation; and
*
Welch raised his arm over his head in front of Morgan.
Morgan had to make a split-second decision on how to handle
this situation, which was tense and at best uncertain.
While he
may have been mistaken about what Welch intended by raising his
arm,
his
protected
judgment
by
the
was
not
doctrine
unreasonable,
of
qualified
and
is,
therefore,
immunity.
Morgan’s
objection on the basis of qualified immunity will be sustained.
9.
have
Morgan also objects that the Magistrate Judge should not
received
into
evidence
and
considered
certain
reports
involving other use of force incidents by Morgan, those being
-7-
irrelevant. He argues that the documents involve only allegations
of
the
use
of
force,
not
proof
thereof,
and
constitute
inadmissible character evidence.
Because the Court has resolved the issues in this case
favorably to Morgan on a different basis, it need not address this
objection, which will be deemed moot.
IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED that Defendants’ Objections To The
Report
And
Recommendation
Of
The
Honorable
Magistrate
Judge
(document #44) are sustained in part and overruled in part, as set
forth in detail in this Order.
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that the Report And Recommendation Of
The Magistrate Judge (document #43) is adopted in part and not
adopted in part.
The R&R is adopted insofar as it recommends dismissal of
Welch’s claims against defendant Denzer, and not adopted insofar
as it recommends denial of Morgan’s motion for summary judgment.
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that defendants’ Motion For Summary
Judgment (document #23) is granted, and this matter is dismissed
with prejudice.
IT IS SO ORDERED.
/s/ Jimm Larry Hendren
JIMM LARRY HENDREN
UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE
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