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[DO NOT PUBLISH]
IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT ________________________
No. 19-14925 Non-Argument Calendar ________________________
D.C. Docket No. 2:17-cv-00805-ALB-SMD
BRANDON LEE WILLIAMS,
Plaintiff-Appellant,
versus
THE CITY OF MONTGOMERY, DAVID E. SHIRAH, in his individual capacity as police officer employed with The City of Montgomery & its police department, MATTHEW D. GEIER, in his individual capacity as police officer employed with The City of Montgomery & its police department,
Defendants-Appellees.
________________________
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama ________________________
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Before WILLIAM PRYOR, Chief Judge, JORDAN and GRANT, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM:
Brandon Williams appeals the summary judgment in favor of Officer David
Shirah and Sergeant Matthew Geier of the Montgomery Police Department. 42
U.S.C. § 1983. Shirah and Geier arrested Williams after mistaking him for his
younger brother who had five outstanding warrants for his arrest. Shirah charged
Williams with harassment, but the City of Montgomery later dismissed the charge.
Williams complained of a false arrest and the use of excessive force in violation of
the Fourth Amendment, U.S. Const. amend. IV, and of false imprisonment, assault
and battery, and malicious prosecution under Alabama law. The district court
dismissed Williams’s claims under federal law based on qualified immunity and
his claims under state law based on discretionary-function immunity. Williams also
alleged municipal liability but has abandoned any challenge to the summary
judgment in favor of the City. See Access Now, Inc. v. Sw. Airlines Co., 385 F.3d
1324, 1330 (11th Cir. 2004). We affirm the summary judgment against Williams’s
claims under federal law and his claims of false imprisonment and of assault and
battery under state law. But we vacate the summary judgment against Williams’s
claim of malicious prosecution under state law because material disputes of fact
exist about whether the officers lacked probable cause and acted in bad faith when
they charged Williams with harassment, and we remand for further proceedings.
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I. BACKGROUND
On review of a summary judgment, we view the evidence in the light most
favorable to the nonmovant, Case v. Eslinger, 555 F.3d 1317, 1325 (11th Cir.
2009), “to the extent supportable by the record,” Scott v. Harris, 550 U.S. 372, 381
n.8 (2007). The record includes a three-minute video of Williams’s arrest recorded
by Shirah’s body camera. We must view “the facts in the light depicted by the”
recording and may not adopt a version of the facts that is “utterly discredited” by
the recording. Id. at 380–81. “But where the recording does not clearly depict an
event or action, and there is evidence going both ways on it,” we credit Williams’s
account of the incident. Shaw v. City of Selma, 884 F.3d 1093, 1097 n.1 (11th Cir.
2018).
At the request of the Montgomery School Enforcement Bureau, Officer
Shirah, Sergeant Geier, and Officer Blake Hicks drove to 6812 Briar Gate Court to
arrest a student, Braxton Williams, on five felony warrants outstanding in another
jurisdiction. Hicks and Geier walked to the house and spoke to a woman who
identified herself as Braxton’s cousin. Shirah activated his body camera and stood
at the front corner of the house where he could see the side yard and his fellow
officers standing in front of a glass storm door with iron bars that was ajar.
A young man came to the door to talk to Hicks and Geier. The man
resembled Braxton Williams, whose photograph the officers had viewed earlier.
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The officers asked Williams to identify himself, and he responded that his name
was Brandon. While talking to Williams, one of the officers further opened the
door.
When Williams told the officers a second time that his name was Brandon,
they grabbed his arm, which was visible through the storm door, and pulled him
outside the house. Shirah observed the officers’ movement and ran to assist them.
A 30-second struggle ensued during which the officers pushed Williams against
the outside of the house and then to the ground. Williams yelled “help” and “no”
while being instructed to “put your hands behind your back” and to “give [us] your
hands.” Williams insisted that he was innocent, as he was Brandon Williams,
Braxton’s brother, and was 18 years old. When Williams returned to his feet, a
small amount of blood was visible on his left eyebrow. Williams yelled “help” as
the officers escorted him to a patrol car, and an officer warned him that, if he
fought them, they would “chain his ass to that g*d*mn pole right there.”
Williams offered both his own affidavit and that of his cousin, Kimberly
Williams, who first answered the door and witnessed the events. Kimberly stated
in her affidavit that “Brandon’s demeanor in his encounter with the police was
calm and without any acts of aggression towards them…He was polite and mild
mannered…I did not observe Brandon to have engaged in any criminal conduct
towards the police officers.” In his affidavit, Williams stated, “My demeanor in
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this encounter with the police was calm and without any acts of aggression towards
them. I answered their questions truthfully about my identity and was polite and
mild mannered in accordance with my personality.”
The officers transported Williams to the police station. Within a few hours
of Williams’s arrival, officers in the Criminal Investigation Division identified him
as Braxton’s brother. In his affidavit, Mr. Williams stated that he overheard the
officers state that they “had made a mistake and now they had to find something to
charge [Brandon] with.” Shirah filed a complaint against Williams for harassment,
and Williams was released on bond. Later, the City nol prossed the complaint.
II. STANDARD OF REVIEW
We review a summary judgment de novo. Eslinger, 555 F.3d at 1324–25.
Summary judgment is appropriate when no genuine dispute exists as to any
material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Fed. R. Civ.
P. 56(a). For a material dispute of fact to exist, there must be “sufficient evidence
favoring the nonmoving party for a reasonable jury to return a verdict in its favor.”
Haves v. City of Miami, 52 F.3d 918, 921 (11th Cir. 1995).
III. DISCUSSION
Williams challenges the summary judgment against his claims against the
officers. Williams argues that officers Geier and Shirah are not entitled to qualified
immunity from his federal claims because they “conducted no investigation to
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ensure they were arresting the correct person” and because their use of force was
excessive. Williams also argues that the officers are not immune from liability
against his claims of false arrest, assault and battery, and malicious prosecution
under state law.
A. Geier and Shirah Are Entitled to Qualified Immunity from Williams’s Federal Claims of False Imprisonment and Excessive Force.
Officers enjoy qualified immunity from civil damages for their discretionary
acts so long as their “conduct violates no clearly established statutory or
constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known.” Rodriguez
v. Farrell, 280 F.3d 1341, 1345 (11th Cir. 2002) (internal quotation marks
omitted). To receive qualified immunity, officers must “prove that [they were]
acting within the scope of [their] discretionary authority when the allegedly
wrongful acts occurred.” Lee v. Ferraro, 284 F.3d 1188, 1194 (11th Cir. 2002)
(quoting Courson v. McMillian, 939 F.2d 1479, 1487 (11th Cir. 1991)). Because
Williams does not dispute that Geier and Shirah were acting within their
discretionary authority when executing valid arrest warrants, he must “show that
qualified immunity is not appropriate.” Id.
“Qualified immunity gives government officials breathing room to make
reasonable but mistaken judgments, and protects all but the plainly incompetent or
those who knowingly violate the law.” Messerschmidt v. Millender, 565 U.S. 535,
546 (2012) (internal quotation marks omitted). So if officers make a “reasonable 6 USCA11 Case: 19-14925 Date Filed: 12/21/2020 Page: 7 of 16
mistake in the legitimate performance of [their] duties [they] ought to be protected
by qualified immunity.” Washington v. Rivera, 939 F.3d 1239, 1249 (11th Cir.
2019) (internal quotation marks omitted). They enjoy immunity from suit whether
the “error is a mistake of law, a mistake of fact, or a mistake based on mixed
questions of law and fact.” Pearson v. Callahan, 555 U.S. 223, 231 (2009)
(internal quotation marks omitted).
We judge the reasonableness of officers’ actions objectively. Graham v.
Connor, 490 U.S. 386, 388 (1989); Anderson v. Creighton, 483 U.S. 635, 640
(1987). We assess Geier and Shirah’s actions from the perspective of how a
reasonable officer on the scene would conduct himself in the same circumstance.
Id.; Graham, 490 U.S. at 396. We cannot “second-guess” the officers’ actions
using the benefit of “20/20 hindsight vision.” Penley v. Eslinger, 605 F.3d 843,
854 (11th Cir. 2010).
1. The Officers Enjoy Qualified Immunity from Williams’s Complaint of False Arrest.
The Fourth Amendment protects citizens from unreasonable seizures. U.S.
Const. amend. IV. “[A]n officer ordinarily does not violate the Fourth Amendment
when he executes a facially valid arrest warrant . . . .” Williams v. Aguirre, 965
F.3d 1147, 1162 (11th Cir. 2020). So “when the police have probable cause to
arrest one party [based on a valid warrant], and when they reasonably mistake a
second party for the first party, then the arrest of the second party is a valid arrest.” 7 USCA11 Case: 19-14925 Date Filed: 12/21/2020 Page: 8 of 16
Hill v. California, 401 U.S. 797, 802 (1971). An arrest based on a reasonable
mistake in identity does not violate the Fourth Amendment. Rodriguez, 280 F.3d at
1346–48.
The “reasonable mistake” standard originated in Hill v. California, 401 U.S.
797 (1971), where the Supreme Court concluded that arresting a man named Miller
in the mistaken belief that he was Hill—who the police had probable cause to
arrest—did not violate the Constitution. Id. at 802–05. The Supreme Court stated
that the “mistake was understandable and the arrest [was] reasonable” because
Miller fit Hill’s description, the officers discovered Miller inside Hill’s home, and
Miller’s “explanation for his mode of entry [into Hill’s apartment] was not
convincing.” Id. at 802–03. The Court determined that the officers had a
“reasonable, good faith belief that Miller was in fact Hill” even though Miller
maintained his innocence and produced forms of identification. Id. at 799, 802–04.
Based on Hill, we concluded in Rodriguez that officers “committed no
constitutional violation” when they arrested Victor Heredia during a nighttime
traffic stop for a warrant issued for Joe Rodriguez. 280 F.3d at 1345–49. Heredia
used Rodriguez’s name as an alias. Id. at 1344. We explained that the failure to
notice “small differences” in the men’s appearances did not make the mistaken
identity unreasonable because the officers had to make a prompt determination
while “in the field and not in a police station.” Id. at 1348.
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Like the officers in Rodriguez and Hill, Geier and Shirah reasonably but
mistakenly identified Williams as his brother, Braxton. On arrival at Braxton’s
home, the officers met a woman who identified herself as Braxton’s cousin. She
sent Williams to the door, and he resembled Braxton. Although Williams identified
himself as Brandon, “aliases and false identifications are not uncommon,” Hill,
401 U.S. at 803, and because the officers were unaware that Braxton had a brother,
they reasonably treated Williams’s assertions that he had a different name as an
effort to evade arrest. Officers “executing an arrest warrant . . . [are not] required
. . . to investigate independently every claim of innocence, [even when] the claim
is based on mistaken identity,” Baker v. McCollan, 443 U.S. 137, 145–46 (1979),
and the information available to Geier and Shirah supported a “reasonable, good
faith belief” that Williams was Braxton, Hill, 401 U.S. at 802. Because the officers
reasonably mistook Williams for his brother, they were immune from Williams’s
complaint of a false arrest.
Williams argues, for the first time, that Geier and Shirah violated his right to
an unreasonable seizure by detaining him on a charge of harassment without
probable cause after they discovered his true identity. But, as a court of review, we
do not consider arguments raised for the first time on appeal. See Access Now, Inc.
v. Sw. Airlines Co., 385 F.3d 1324, 1331 (11th Cir. 2004) (explaining that if we
address issues “that districts court never had a chance to examine, we . . . deviate
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from the essential nature . . . of an appellate court”). It is unsurprising that, in
Williams’s words, “[t]he district court never addressed [his detention] issue”
because it was not alleged in his complaint. Williams complained that the officers
“violated [his] rights under the Fourth Amendment of the United States
Constitution, to be secure and protected from unreasonable warrantless searches
and seizures,” when they “arrested him without probable cause and beyond their
legal authority because they believe[d] that he was Braxton Williams,
notwithstanding his having told them that he was Brandon Williams.” Because
Williams raises “an entirely new theory on appeal, we are unable to reach the
merits of that new theory.” Reider v. Philip Morris USA, Inc., 793 F.3d 1254, 1258
(11th Cir. 2015).
2. The Officers Enjoy Qualified Immunity from Williams’s Complaint of Excessive Force.
The use of excessive force to make an arrest also violates the Fourth
Amendment. Graham, 490 U.S. at 393–95. “But the right to make an arrest or
investigatory stop necessarily carries with it the right to use some degree of
physical coercion or threat thereof to effect it.” Rodriguez, 280 F.3d at 1351
(internal quotation marks omitted). So an officer’s use of de minimis force to make
an arrest does not violate the Fourth Amendment. Nolin v. Isbell, 207 F.3d 1253,
1257 (11th Cir. 2000).
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To determine whether a particular use of force was excessive, we ask
whether a reasonable officer would believe that the force applied was necessary in
the situation. Lee, 284 F.3d at 1197. “[T]he excessive force inquiry [is] completely
objective . . . [and] exclud[es] consideration of the officer’s intentions.” Id. at 1198
n.7. In our inquiry, we consider the severity of the arrestee’s crime and his efforts
to resist arrest. Id. at 1197–98. We also consider the need for use of force, the
relationship between that need and the amount of force applied, the extent of the
injury inflicted, and whether the force was applied in good faith or gratuitously.
Slicker v. Jackson, 215 F.3d 1225, 1232–33 (11th Cir. 2000).
Geier and Shirah used minimal force to arrest Williams. The officers
confronted a man wanted on five felony charges who they thought attempted to
deceive them about his identity. The officers responded reasonably by seizing
Williams before he could retreat into his home and possibly arm himself. When
Williams resisted arrest and refused to comply with the officers’ orders, the
officers followed standard procedures by forcing Williams to the ground and using
their body weight to restrict his movements until they could apply handcuffs. We
have approved of officers using similar force in situations that were less perilous.
See Nolin, 207 F.3d at 1255; Post v. City of Fort Lauderdale, 7 F.3d 1552, 1559–
60 (11th Cir. 1993).
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Williams averred that the officers “chok[ed] him even as [he] told them that
[he] could not breathe” and that “one of the officers kneed me in the head . . . as I
was being placed in the police vehicle for transport,” but qualified immunity
applies to these uses of force as well. “[Q]ualified immunity applies unless
application of the standard would inevitably lead every reasonable officer in [Geier
and Shirah’s] position to conclude the force was unlawful.” Id. at 1559. Even when
“no further force [is] needed,” its use is “not plainly unlawful” when the minor
nature of an injury reflects that the officers used a minimal amount of force. See
Nolin, 207 F.3d at 1256–58 (evaluating use of unnecessary force based on “the
amount of force used and the injury inflicted”). In Nolin, we reversed the denial of
qualified immunity to an officer who “grabbed [the plaintiff] from behind by the
shoulder and wrist, threw him against a van three or four feet away, kneed him in
the back and pushed his head into the side of the van, searched his groin area in an
uncomfortable manner, and handcuffed him,” when the force used was
unnecessary but caused only bruising that “disappeared quickly.” Id. at 1255, 1257.
We concluded the force in Nolin was de minimis based on Post, in which an officer
“arrested the plaintiff for a building code violation, pushed [him] against a wall
and applied a choke-hold before . . . [applying] handcuffs—all despite the fact that
the plaintiff did not resist.” Id. at 1256. As in Nolin and Post, the minor force used
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against and injury sustained by Williams was de minimis and does not defeat Geier
and Shirah’s immunity from suit.
B. The District Court Did Not Err By Granting Geier and Shirah Summary Judgment Against Williams’s State-Law Claims of False Imprisonment and of Assault and Battery, But It Erred By Granting Summary Judgment Against Williams’s Claim of Malicious Prosecution.
Police officers in Alabama are entitled to “immunity from tort liability
arising out of [their] conduct in performance of any discretionary function within
the line and scope of his or her law enforcement duties.” Ala. Code § 6-5-338(a).
State-function immunity applies to “[d]iscretionary acts[, which] are those acts as
to which there is no hard and fast rule as to the course of conduct that one must or
must not take and those acts requiring exercise in judgment and choice and
involving what is just and proper under the circumstances.” Sheth v. Webster, 145
F.3d 1231, 1239 (11th Cir. 1998) (internal quotation marks omitted). Because
Williams does not dispute that Geier and Shirah performed discretionary acts by
detaining him and charging him with harassment, he must present substantial
evidence that they “acted in bad faith, with malice or willfulness in order to deny
them immunity.” Id.
1. Geier and Shirah Enjoy Discretionary-Function Immunity from Williams’s Complaints of False Imprisonment and of Assault and Battery.
Geier and Shirah are immune from liability for Williams’s complaints of
false imprisonment and of assault and battery. Under Alabama law, “[f]alse
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imprisonment consists in the unlawful detention of the person of another for any
length of time whereby he is deprived of his personal liberty.” Ala. Code § 6–5–
170. Because Geier and Shirah arrested and detained Williams in the reasonable
but mistaken belief that he was the subject of valid arrest warrants, the officers are
“protected under the doctrine of discretionary function immunity from any liability
for [their] mistake in identification.” Wright v. Wynn, 682 So. 2d 1, 2 (Ala. 1996).
And Williams presented no substantial evidence that the officers committed an
assault and battery by using force that was excessive to arrest him. See Walker v.
City of Huntsville, 62 So. 3d 464 (Ala. 2010). In Alabama, peace officers enjoy
immunity for their actions when “exercising judgment in the enforcement of the
criminal laws of the State, including . . . arresting or attempting to arrest persons.”
City of Birmingham v. Sutherland, 834 So. 2d 755, 759 (Ala. 2002) (quoting Ex
parte Cranman, 792 So. 2d 392, 405 (Ala. 2000)). The officers reasonably
determined that it was necessary to apply force to overcome Williams’s resistance
to being handcuffed and to place him in a patrol vehicle.
2. Discretionary-Function Immunity Does Not Shield the Officers from Liability for Malicious Prosecution Due to Issues of Material Fact About Whether They Lacked Probable Cause and Acted with Malice.
To prove that he was a victim of malicious prosecution, Williams had to
prove that the officers commenced a prosecution against Williams without
probable cause and in bad faith, that the prosecution terminated in his favor, and
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that he suffered damages. See Delchamps, Inc. v. Bryant, 738 So.2d 824, 831–33
(Ala. 1999). No dispute exists that the officers charged Williams with harassment,
that the proceeding terminated in Williams’s favor, and that he incurred expenses
to make bond and to defend himself against the charge. The only remaining issues
are whether the officers lacked probable cause and acted in bad faith.
To determine whether the officers had probable cause, “[t]he question is not
whether [Williams] was guilty of the thing charged, but whether [the officers]
acted in good faith on the appearance of things.” Eidson v. Olin Corp., 527 So. 2d
1283, 1285 (Ala. 1988) (internal quotation marks omitted). Immunity “is withheld
if an officer acts with willful or malicious intent or in bad faith.” Borders v. City of
Huntsville, 875 So. 2d 1168, 1178 (Ala. 2003). Malice can “be inferred from want
of probable cause” and “from circumstances surrounding and attending
prosecution.” Ravenel v. Burnett, 5 So. 3d 592, 600 (Ala. Civ. App. 2008) (quoting
Thompson v. Harris, 603 So.2d 1086, 1088–89 (Ala. Civ. App. 1992)).
The record reveals genuine issues of material fact about whether the officers
had probable cause to charge Williams with harassment. In Alabama, “a person
commits the crime of harassment, if with intent to harass, annoy, or alarm another
person, he . . . [s]trikes, shoves, kicks, or otherwise touches a person or subjects
him or her to physical contact.” Ala. Code § 13A-11-8(a)(1)(a). Williams and his
cousin averred that his “demeanor in his encounter with the police was calm and
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without any acts of aggression towards them” and that he “was polite and mild
mannered.” Shirah, in contrast, accused Williams of “push[ing] [Shirah] back” and
darting back inside his house to “grab an unknown object that was by the washing
machine.” And the video footage from Shirah’s body camera does not resolve the
issue. A genuine dispute exists about whether Williams unlawfully touched any of
the officers.
A genuine issue of material fact also exists about whether the officers acted
in bad faith when they charged Williams with harassment. The want of probable
cause is evidence of malice. And Williams averred that he heard the officers state
that they “had made a mistake and now they had to find something to charge him
with.” A jury could reasonably infer from that statement that the officers fabricated
the charge of harassment.
IV. CONCLUSION
We AFFIRM the summary judgment against Williams’s federal claims of
false arrest and excessive force and his state claims of false imprisonment and
assault and battery. But we VACATE the summary judgment against Williams’s
state claim of malicious prosecution and REMAND for further proceedings.
AFFIRMED IN PART, VACATED IN PART, AND REMANDED.