Clem v. Corbeau

284 F.3d 543, 2002 WL 451817
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
DecidedMarch 25, 2002
DocketNo. 01-1799
StatusPublished
Cited by79 cases

This text of 284 F.3d 543 (Clem v. Corbeau) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Clem v. Corbeau, 284 F.3d 543, 2002 WL 451817 (4th Cir. 2002).

Opinion

Affirmed in part and dismissed in part by published opinion. Judge MOTZ wrote the opinion, in which Judge KING and Judge GREGORY joined.

OPINION

DIANA GRIBBON MOTZ, Circuit Judge.

This appeal arises from a telephone call that Aster Clem made from her Fairfax County, Virginia home to the local police department, asking for help with her 58 year old husband, who suffers from dementia, depression, and various physical problems. Mrs. Clem told the police dis[546]*546patcher that Mr. Clem had stopped taking the medication prescribed for his mental illnesses and that his condition was poor: he had been urinating on himself and the floor, dropping lit cigarettes on the carpet, not eating for three days, and refusing to see his doctor, move, or “do anything.” Officers Shannon Corbeau and Eric Nelson responded to the dispatch call, arriving simultaneously at the Clems’ home. Within a short time after their arrival each officer had subjected Mr. Clem to pepper spray, and Officer Corbeau had shot Mr. Clem three times, severely injuring him; neither officer suffered any injury.

Subsequently, Mr. Clem filed this action, alleging that the individual officers had used excessive force in violation of his constitutional rights and state tort law, and that Fairfax County and its police chief had failed to provide the officers with adequate training and supervision. The district court granted summary judgment to the County, the police chief, and Officer Nelson on all claims, but denied summary judgment to Officer Corbeau on one excessive force claim and the state law claims. We affirm in part and dismiss in part.

I.

Aside from the skeletal account set forth above, the parties sharply disagree about virtually all relevant facts. The following summary generally sets forth the facts in the light most favorable to the non-moving party, here Mr. Clem. See Winfield v. Bass, 106 F.3d 525, 534 (4th Cir.1997) (noting that an appellate court must consider “the actual evidence presented viewed in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party” when, as here, the appealing official asserts that the district court ignored undisputed material facts dictating entitlement to qualified immunity). However, we have also included some facts that Clem disputes in order to provide a better understanding of the controversy.

After the dispatcher received Mrs. Clem’s call on November 9, 1998, he issued a message asking patrol officers near the Clem home to render assistance, characterizing the call as a “mental.” Officers Corbeau and Nelson arrived at the Clems’ small split-level home simultaneously. They were met at the front door by Paulos Yacob, a nephew who was there to assist in persuading Mr. Clem to see his doctor. Yacob gave the officers further information about Mr. Clem’s condition and led them upstairs to the small breakfast nook where the Clems were sitting.

It was apparent to both officers that Mr. Clem was mentally ill, and, in Officer Cor-beau’s words, “out of it.” (Mr. Clem has no memory of what took place during the police response; the account that follows depends on the testimony of other witnesses and on available physical evidence.) The officers recall that Mr. Clem’s appearance was “unkempt,” and that he sat at the breakfast table smoking, with his head down, staring blankly at the floor. At one point a cigarette dropped from Clem’s fingers onto the carpet, where he let it he until it was stamped out by Officer Nelson. Both officers testified that they observed no bulges in Clem’s pockets or waistline nor anything in his open shirt indicating the presence of a weapon. In short, Clem was neither responsive nor threatening but, in Officer Corbeau’s words, “real calm.”

The officers began talking with Mrs. Clem and Yacob, and after a few minutes were able to attract Mr. Clem’s attention. At first Mr. Clem seemed open to persuasion and agreed to go see his doctor. Judging that the situation was under control, Officer Nelson radioed the dispatcher “to say no other units are needed.” As Mr. Clem kept talking, however, he appar[547]*547ently began to change his mind. He may also have become confused — the officers remember him making incoherent or non-responsive statements. He complained that his chest was hurting, and that the doctors would not be able to help him. Shortly, Mr. Clem became agitated.

Officer Corbeau maintains that Clem patted his pocket and threatened Corbeau, saying “I got something right here that can kill you.” But no one else present in the small breakfast nook — Mrs. Clem, Yacob, and Officer Nelson — recalls hearing this statement. Mrs. Clem has testified that her husband neither made any threat nor said he had anything in his pocket. Officer Nelson asserts that Clem did “reach[ ] for his pocket, feeling it,” but that “[t]here was nothing there.” Indeed, Officer Nelson further testified that “[t]hroughout the period of time that [he] w[as] in the Clem home” he was “satisfied that Robert Clem did not have a weapon.” As the conversation continued, Mr. Clem went “red in the face” and stood up, raising his empty hands. According to Cor-beau, Clem again verbally threatened him; but the other witnesses testify that they heard no threat. Mrs. Clem remembers, instead, that Officer Corbeau had provoked her husband by “standing right in front of him and ... yelling at him,” insisting that he go to his doctor.

At this point, Officer Corbeau discharged a cloud of pepper spray that struck Mr. Clem and, both officers agree, quickly disabled him. According to Cor-beau, Clem “backed up rather quickly” and “grabbed his eyeballs.” Nelson testified that Clem was “disabled” and “dismay[ed],” “feeling the effects” of the pepper spray; Clem made a “moaning sound or groaning,” and “motion[ed] about his eyes, grabbing his face.” Mr. Clem, Officer Nelson testified, was “not being aggressive to anyone.”

Officer Nelson then went to assist Mrs. Clem and Yacob, who had also been struck by some of the pepper spray. He led the two of them out of the breakfast area, and through the living room and down a hallway to the bathroom, where they could wash off the pepper spray. Nelson then descended a flight of stairs, leaving his partner alone on the second floor with Mr. Clem, and poked his head outside to spit the taste of pepper spray into the street. He called for medical assistance and a supervisor, but did not warn of any danger or ask for any backup.

’When Officer Nelson finished the call, about two minutes after the spraying, he walked back up the stairs and found Mr. Clem in the living room. Before long, Clem began to recover from the pepper spray and began cursing at and walking toward Nelson; the officers agree that Clem’s hands were open and out in front of his body. The officers have described Mr. Clem’s movements variously as “grabbing,” “flailing,” and “waving his arms around.” Nelson backed a few feet away from Clem, and, when Clem continued walking, Nelson hit him in the face with a sustained stream of pepper spray lasting several seconds.

According to Corbeau, who was watching from a few feet away, Clem turned away from Nelson immediately. And, both officers agree, Clem made either “no contact” at all or just “brushed” Nelson’s arm. Nelson contends that the pepper spray had no effect on Clem, but offers no other explanation as to why Clem stopped moving toward him; indeed, Nelson testified that although he did not punch, push, or otherwise physically force Clem, nevertheless Clem did turn away.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
284 F.3d 543, 2002 WL 451817, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/clem-v-corbeau-ca4-2002.