CA11: Nolo plea establishes PC for arrest; excessive force can be shown by the injuries

Plaintiff’s nolo plea established probable cause for his arrest. Plaintiff’s excessive force claim, however, is established by clearly established law and the district court erred in finding it was de minimus. It appears that plaintiff was handcuffed and compliant but was slapped and punched in the chest, requiring documented medical attention. Stephens v. Degiovanni, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 5548 (11th Cir. March 30, 2017):

The extent of Stephens’s injuries is the most telling factor in revealing the unprovoked force exerted on him by Deputy DeGiovanni. The medical evidence establishes Stephens’s substantial bodily injuries from Deputy DeGiovanni’s forceful chest blows and throwing him against the car-door jamb were unnecessary for a compliant, nonaggressive arrestee. Orthopedic physician Dr. Schapiro diagnosed Stephens with a cervical sprain with multilevel-disc herniations, resultant foraminal stenosis, a left-shoulder, rotator-cuff tear involving the infraspinatus tendon, and sprain of the right wrist, all caused by the assault on Stephens on February 16, 2009. He further recommended an electrodiagnostic assessment to evaluate Stephens’s radiating pain and little-finger numbness. Stephens has alleged the injuries from the unnecessarily excessive force used by Deputy DeGiovanni in his arrest are severe and permanent. He has attested his pain and ailments from the excessive force exerted upon him by Deputy DeGiovanni are onging and resulted in the loss of his livelihood as an automobile mechanic, leaving him indigent.

Under Stephens’s version of the events at the time of his encounter with Deputy DeGiovanni, he had complied with all Deputy DeGiovanni’s investigation questions and was not resisting or attempting to flee. Deputy DeGiovanni had no reason to use the force he did on Stephens that resulted in severe and permanent physical injuries as well as psychological trauma. Under the objective-reasonableness standard of Graham, “[a]n officer will be entitled to qualified immunity if his actions were objectively reasonable—that is, if a reasonable officer in the same situation would have believed that the force used was not excessive.” Thornton v. City of Macon, 132 F.3d 1395, 1400 (11th Cir. 1998) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). “No reasonable police officer could believe that” the force Deputy DeGiovanni exerted on compliant, non-resisting Stephens, evidenced by his severe, permanent injuries, “was permissible given these straightforward circumstances.” Priester, 208 F.3d at 927.

The district judge, however, concluded “that any force used by Defendant DeGiovanni was de minimis.” Order Granting Def.’s Mot. for Summ. J. at 13. She based her conclusion on the “highly similar” facts in Woodruff v. City of Trussville, 434 F. App’x 852 (11th Cir. 2011), and Jones v. City of Dothan, 121 F.3d 1456 (11th Cir. 1997). Order Granting Def.’s Mot. for Summ. J. at 13. But “the actual force used and the injury inflicted were both minor in nature” in each of these cases. Jones, 121 F.3d at 1460.

In stark contrast are the medically documented severe, permanent injuries sustained by Stephens from Deputy DeGiovanni’s unprovoked and completely unnecessary frontal-body blows to Stephens’s chest and throwing him against the car-door jamb in the course of arresting him. Deputy DeGiovanni has argued on appeal Stephens’s arrest injuries were de minimis. But the amount of force used by Deputy DeGiovanni in arresting Stephens, which caused his severe and permanent injuries, documented by treating physicians, forecloses any de minimis argument by Deputy DeGiovanni. …