Blanca Arizmendi v. Brownsville Indep Sch Dist

919 F.3d 891
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedMarch 26, 2019
Docket17-40597
StatusPublished
Cited by46 cases

This text of 919 F.3d 891 (Blanca Arizmendi v. Brownsville Indep Sch Dist) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Blanca Arizmendi v. Brownsville Indep Sch Dist, 919 F.3d 891 (5th Cir. 2019).

Opinion

PATRICK E. HIGGINBOTHAM, Circuit Judge:

Blanca Arizmendi teaches high school French in Brownsville, Texas. Patrick Gabbert, the school district's criminal investigator, swore out an affidavit in support of a warrant for the arrest of Arizmendi for allegedly communicating a false report. Arizmendi now sues Gabbert for false arrest under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 , contending that Gabbert knowingly or recklessly misstated material facts in the affidavit. Gabbert argues that he is entitled to summary judgment because even if he made material false allegations in his affidavit, the allegations also established probable cause to arrest Arizmendi for a different offense than the one for which he sought a warrant. We conclude that the validity of the arrest could not be saved by facts stated in the warrant sufficient to establish probable cause for a different charge from that sought in the warrant, but Gabbert is entitled to qualified immunity because this was not clearly established at the time of his conduct. We will therefore reverse the district court's denial of Gabbert's motion for summary judgment.

I

The arrest stemmed from a multi-year investigation into a high school "grade change form." Arizmendi taught the school principal's niece. She alleges that beginning in January 2013, the principal and the student's mother began pressuring her to raise the student's grade. A later review of the student's grades found that a grade change form-appearing to have been completed and signed by Arizmendi-had been submitted to raise the student's grade considerably in Arizmendi's class, tying her for the second-highest GPA in her year. Arizmendi maintains that she "never authorized, accepted, [ ]adopted .... [or] signed any grade change form."

On June 14, 2013, Arizmendi filed an administrative grievance form alleging that the school principal forged Arizmendi's signature, falsified records, and illegally changed his niece's grade. An unknown source leaked this information to the local media, which covered the issue and the resulting controversy.

On request by the school district's director of human resources in July 2013, Gabbert began investigating whether someone had illegally tampered with government records, as prohibited by Texas Penal Code § 37.10. As part of his investigation, he seized documents and computers *895 from the school. He also interviewed Arizmendi on September 24, 2013. According to his case notes, when he showed Arizmendi the original grade change form, Arizmendi stated that she had never signed the form and her signature had been forged. A few days later, Arizmendi submitted a sworn statement to Gabbert reiterating these statements.

In December 2013, Gabbert sent the grade change form and samples of Arizmendi's handwriting to the Texas Department of Public Safety Crime Lab. The lab requested additional handwriting samples and ultimately issued a report stating that Arizmendi's signature on the form was legitimate. Upon receiving this information, Gabbert "reclassified" his investigation to one involving whether Arizmendi had filed a false report in violation of Texas Penal Code § 42.06. Section 42.06, titled "False Alarm or Report," states that "[a] person commits an offense if he knowingly initiates, communicates or circulates a report of a present, past, or future bombing, fire, offense, or other emergency that he knows is false or baseless and that would ordinarily ... cause action by an official or volunteer agency organized to deal with emergencies; ... place a person in fear of imminent serious bodily injury; or ... prevent or interrupt the occupation of a building, room, place of assembly, place to which the public has access, or aircraft, automobile, or other mode of conveyance." "False alarm or report" is a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail.

Gabbert submitted an affidavit seeking an arrest warrant for Arizmendi "for the offense of False Report, a Class A misdemeanor." He stated that "on or about" February 11, 2013, Arizmendi "intentionally and knowingly [c]omitt[ed] the offense of False Report ... by initiating and communicating a report that [she] knew was 'false and baseless' and causing the reaction of Law Enforcement to initiate an investigation into the allegation of [ ]Tampering with Governmental Records (school records)." He also stated in the affidavit that on September 24, 2013, Arizmendi told him that her signature had been forged on the grade change form, and the Public Safety Crime Lab had later "determin[ed] that Blanca Arizmendi signed [her own] signature" on the form. In sum, Gabbert swore that Arizmendi had "circulated a report that was false and baseless which in turn caused [school district police investigators] to seize several public school computers and documents for forensic reviews."

Upon approval of the warrant for Arizmendi's arrest for the crime of "false report" committed on February 11, 2013, 1 Gabbert arrested Arizmendi. She was processed into jail and released the same day. Six months later, the District Attorney's Office dismissed the charges as barred by the applicable two-year statute of limitations.

Arizmendi then sued Gabbert for false arrest, alleging that he "knowingly and intentionally submitted an affidavit for an arrest warrant that contained false and misleading information in order to manipulate the Magistrate Judge" into issuing the warrant. 2 Gabbert moved for summary *896 judgment, invoking qualified immunity. The district court found a triable issue of material fact as to whether Gabbert submitted a false statement in his warrant affidavit with knowing or reckless disregard for the truth; it therefore denied him qualified immunity on Arizmendi's false arrest claim. Gabbert appeals.

II

"Summary judgment is required if the movant establishes that there are no genuine issues of material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." 3 When a public official pleads a qualified immunity defense, "[t]he plaintiff bears the burden of negating qualified immunity, but all inferences are drawn in [the plaintiff's] favor." 4

"The doctrine of qualified immunity protects government officials from civil damages liability when their actions could reasonably have been believed to be legal." 5 It "protects all but the plainly incompetent or those who knowingly violate the law," and applies "unless existing precedent ... placed the statutory or constitutional question beyond debate ." 6

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Wood v. Bexar County
Fifth Circuit, 2025
Lee v. City of Midland
W.D. Texas, 2025
Dorsey v. Soucie
D. Kansas, 2025
Trevino v. Avalos
S.D. Texas, 2025
Green v. Thomas
129 F.4th 877 (Fifth Circuit, 2025)
Melancon v. Walsh
Fifth Circuit, 2025
Matthews v. Green
Fifth Circuit, 2024
Lovelace, Jr. v. Pollan
N.D. Mississippi, 2024
Bledsoe v. Willis
Fifth Circuit, 2023
Martin v. Petty
S.D. Texas, 2023
Garcia v. Bermea
W.D. Texas, 2023
Tuttle v. Sepolio
Fifth Circuit, 2023
Chuttoo v. Horton
E.D. Texas, 2022
Morales v. Carrillo
W.D. Texas, 2022
Wilson v. Stroman
33 F.4th 202 (Fifth Circuit, 2022)
Stokes v. Matranga
Fifth Circuit, 2022

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
919 F.3d 891, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/blanca-arizmendi-v-brownsville-indep-sch-dist-ca5-2019.