Brendan O'Keefe v. Lehigh University

CourtCourt of Appeals for the Third Circuit
DecidedJanuary 12, 2024
Docket23-1235
StatusUnpublished

This text of Brendan O'Keefe v. Lehigh University (Brendan O'Keefe v. Lehigh University) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Brendan O'Keefe v. Lehigh University, (3d Cir. 2024).

Opinion

NOT PRECEDENTIAL

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT _______________

No. 23-1235 _______________

BRENDAN O’KEEFE, Appellant

v.

LEHIGH UNIVERSITY; LEHIGH UNIVERSITY POLICE OFFICERS JOHN DOE I AND II _______________

On Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (D.C. No. 5-19-cv-00884) District Judge: Honorable John M. Younge _______________

Submitted Under Third Circuit L.A.R. 34.1(a) on November 9, 2023

Before: KRAUSE, FREEMAN, and MONTGOMERY-REEVES, Circuit Judges

(Filed: January 12, 2024)

_______________

OPINION * _______________

* This disposition is not an opinion of the full Court and, under I.O.P. 5.7, is not binding precedent. KRAUSE, Circuit Judge.

After being arrested for public drunkenness, in violation of 18 Pa. Cons. Stat.

§ 5505, and later expelled from Lehigh University, Brendan O’Keefe sued two Lehigh

University Police Department (LUPD) officers and the University for assault and battery

and breach of contract. The District Court granted summary judgment to Defendants on

all claims. For the following reasons, we will affirm.

DISCUSSION 1

O’Keefe asserts that the District Court erred in failing to hold that the LUPD

officers committed assault and battery when they forced him to take a breathalyzer test

against his will. He also contends that Lehigh University violated its stated procedures

and principles of fundamental fairness when it conducted a disciplinary hearing that

resulted in his dismissal from the school. We reject both arguments.

I. Assault and Battery

A police officer is not liable for assault and battery under Pennsylvania law when

he uses “reasonable force to prevent interference with the exercise of his authority or the

performance of his duty.” Renk v. City of Pittsburgh, 641 A.2d 289, 293 (Pa.

1994). Said differently, “[p]olice officers are privileged to commit a battery pursuant to a

lawful arrest, but the privilege is negated by the use of excessive force.” Groman v.

Township of Manalapan, 47 F.3d 628, 634 (3d Cir. 1995). The test for determining

1 The District Court had jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1332(a), and we have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291. We exercise plenary review over a grant of summary judgment. Nitkin v. Main Line Health, 67 F.4th 565, 570 n.2 (3d Cir. 2023). 2 whether that force is excessive is the same as in the Fourth Amendment context, i.e.,

“whether the police officer’s ‘actions [were] objectively reasonable in light of the facts

and circumstances.’” El v. City of Pittsburgh, 975 F.3d 327, 336 (3d Cir. 2020)

(alteration in original) (quoting Rivas v. City of Passaic, 365 F.3d 181, 198 (3d Cir.

2004)).

O’Keefe argues that the officers used unreasonable force when they breathalyzed

him against his will because (1) they had “no legitimate reason to subject him to a

portable breath test,” Opening Br. 14, and (2) the force they used to conduct that test was

excessive. Neither argument is persuasive.

First, it was not unreasonable for the officers to conduct a breath test in this

circumstance. According to two eyewitnesses and the arresting officers, O’Keefe was

observed stumbling around and falling after almost being hit by a car, and his speech was

slurred. Given those reports, the officers had probable cause to arrest O’Keefe for public

drunkenness and to conduct a search incident to arrest. As the Supreme Court 2 and

Pennsylvania courts have discussed in the context of driving under the influence,

conducting a breath test as a search incident to arrest involves only a “negligible”

2 The Dissent theorizes that the “reasonableness” standard for the force used by a police officer in connection with an arrest and search might be different for assault and battery claims under Pennsylvania law than it is for Fourth Amendment claims, Dissent at 3–4, but the case law is to the contrary. See Renk v. City of Pittsburgh, 641 A.2d 289, 293 (Pa. 1994) (holding that the same “reasonable force to prevent interference with the exercise of [an officer’s] authority or the performance of his duty” is what “determines whether the police officer’s conduct constitutes an assault and battery” under Pennsylvania law); Edwards v. City of Philadelphia, 860 F.2d 568, 572 (3d Cir. 1988) (rejecting argument that the burden to demonstrate excessive use of force is different in the context of a battery claim than in the context of a 1983 claim). 3 physical intrusion. Birchfield v. North Dakota, 579 U.S. 438, 461 (2016); see

Commonwealth v. Trahey, 228 A.3d 520, 532 (Pa. 2020) (quoting Birchfield, 579 U.S. at

461, for the proposition that a breath test “does not implicate ‘significant privacy

concerns’”). 3 In addition, the results of such tests may be admissible at trial upon a

showing of “sufficient reliability.” 4 And admissible or not, the test allows police and

prosecutors to determine what level of medical care may be necessary and to confirm for

charging purposes that what appears to be public drunkenness is likely the result of

alcohol and not, for example, drug use or a medical episode. See Birchfield, 579 U.S. at

474; Trahey, 228 A.3d at 533. 5 Though the danger to oneself and others from public

3 The Dissent contends that Birchfield does not apply here because it addressed whether a search was unreasonable, not whether officers used excessive force. Dissent at 6 n.4. However, “[w]here . . . [an] excessive force claim arises in the context of an arrest or investigatory stop of a free citizen, it is most properly characterized as one invoking the protections of the Fourth Amendment, which guarantees citizens the right ‘to be secure in their persons . . . against unreasonable . . . seizures’ of the person.” Jones v. City of Philadelphia, 890 A.2d 1188, 1195 (Pa. Commw. Ct. 2006) (emphasis omitted) (quoting Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386, 394 (1989)). 4 In contrast to the results of stationary breath tests, the results of portable breath tests (PBTs) like the one conducted here have historically been excluded from trials under the Crimes Code as insufficiently reliable. In Commonwealth v. Brigidi, however, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court observed that the results of PBTs may be admissible in such trials if and when the Commonwealth can show that “the technology for these devices has advanced (or advances) to a stage where they manifest sufficient reliability to satisfy prevailing judicial standards governing the admissibility of scientific evidence.” 6 A.3d 995, 1001 (Pa. 2010); see also Commonwealth v. Gross, 241 A.3d 413, 420 (Pa. Super. Ct. 2020) (recognizing PBTs are not categorically inadmissible in criminal cases but affirming exclusion where the movant “ha[d] not presented evidence and argument sufficient to establish their admissibility”). 5 See also United States v.

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