{"id":60512,"date":"2025-03-18T15:38:27","date_gmt":"2025-03-18T20:38:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=60512"},"modified":"2025-03-19T07:27:36","modified_gmt":"2025-03-19T12:27:36","slug":"ca9-no-qi-for-nearly-destroying-a-house-in-a-search-for-a-person-to-arrest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=60512","title":{"rendered":"CA9: No QI for nearly destroying a house in a search for a person to arrest"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Summary judgment and qualified immunity were properly denied where officers searching for someone other than the plaintiff in plaintiff\u2019s house [apparently] gratuitously nearly destroyed it, breaking all windows, toilets, leaving water running in the house, appliances, furniture, and a car outside. <a href=\"https:\/\/cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov\/datastore\/memoranda\/2025\/03\/18\/23-15658.pdf\">Denby v. Engstrom<\/a>, No. 23-15658, 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 6271 (9th Cir. Mar. 18, 2025):<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Here, the warrant authorized police to search the premises only to find and arrest Ochoa. Ochoa did not reside at Denby&#8217;s residence, but officers thought he may have entered it. After officers executed the warrant, it is undisputed Denby&#8217;s home sustained the following damage: all exterior windows were broken, and the chain-link fence and front door were destroyed, as were Denby&#8217;s PT Cruiser and another vehicle, all furniture in the home, the appliances, televisions, cushions, pillows, window coverings, shower doors, bathroom mirrors, a toilet, artwork, heirlooms, family pictures, clothes, and antiques. Many of these items were too small to hide Ochoa. See Maryland v. Buie, 494 U.S. 325, 334-35 (1990) (permitting sweep of home incident to arrest &#8220;only to [conduct] a cursory inspection of those spaces where a person may be found&#8221;). The district court correctly concluded that a jury could decide the use of force was unreasonable because Defendants&#8217; tactics caused the destruction of numerous objects too small to hide Ochoa, and were therefore outside the scope of the warrant. See Hells Angels, 402 F.3d at 971.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Summary judgment and qualified immunity were properly denied where officers searching for someone other than the plaintiff in plaintiff\u2019s house [apparently] gratuitously nearly destroyed it, breaking all windows, toilets, leaving water running in the house, appliances, furniture, and a car &hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=60512\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,52,59,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arrest-or-entry-on-arrest","category-excessive-force","category-scope-of-search","category-warrant-execution"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=60512"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60512\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60517,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60512\/revisions\/60517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=60512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=60512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=60512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}