{"id":4555,"date":"2011-01-11T13:53:51","date_gmt":"2010-08-18T12:59:52","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2010-08-18T12:59:52","slug":"en-US","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=4555","title":{"rendered":"CA6: Handcuffing man having a seizure violated Fourth Amendment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Officers who handcuffed a man having a seizure violated clearly established rights and had no qualified immunity. McKenna v. Edgell<\/a>, 617 F.3d 432, 2010 FED App. 0249P (6th Cir. 2010), prior appeal, McKenna v. City of Royal Oak<\/a>, 469 F.3d 559 (6th Cir. 2006):<\/p>\n

We conclude that whether the officers were entitled to qualified immunity depends on whether they acted in a law-enforcement capacity or in an emergency-medical-response capacity when engaging in the conduct that McKenna claimed violated the Fourth Amendment. If the officers acted as medical-emergency responders, then McKenna\u2019s claim would amount to a complaint that he received dangerously negligent and invasive medical care. Under a function-dependent view of Peete, if any right to be free from such unintentional conduct by medical-emergency responders exists under the Fourth Amendment, it is not clearly established. Peete, 486 F.3d at 219. If the defendants acted in a law-enforcement (e.g., investigative or prosecutorial) capacity, however, McKenna\u2019s claim does not \u201clook[] like a medical malpractice claim,\u201d id. at 222; rather, his claim is that he was subject to an unreasonable seizure and search. It is certainly clearly established that police violate the Fourth Amendment when they handcuff people whom they neither suspect of criminal wrongdoing nor believe to be a danger to themselves or others. See United States v. Davis, 514 F.3d 596, 607, 610 (6th Cir. 2008) (noting that an arrest is valid only if based on probable cause that defendant committed a crime); Monday v. Oullette, 118 F.3d 1099, 1102 (6th Cir. 1997) (\u201cThe Fourth Amendment requires an official seizing and detaining a person for a psychiatric evaluation to have probable cause to believe that the person is dangerous to himself or others.\u201d); cf. Marvin v. City of Taylor, 509 F.3d 234, 248 (6th Cir. 2007) (\u201c[I]t is clearly established that handcuffing an arrestee in an objectively unreasonable manner is a Fourth Amendment violation.\u201d). Likewise, a person has a clearly established right to be free from unreasonable searches, including a warrantless search in the absence of exigent circumstances or some other warrant exception. See United States v. Purcell, 526 F.3d 953, 960 (6th Cir. 2008).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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