Dwayne Shepard v. Hallandale Beach Police Dept.

300 F. App'x 832
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedNovember 25, 2008
Docket07-11307
StatusUnpublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 300 F. App'x 832 (Dwayne Shepard v. Hallandale Beach Police Dept.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dwayne Shepard v. Hallandale Beach Police Dept., 300 F. App'x 832 (11th Cir. 2008).

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

In this 42 U.S.C. § 1983 suit for unlawful arrest, Dwayne Shepard appeals the district court’s order dismissing his amended complaint against Officer Jason Budnick on the basis of qualified immunity. Ater oral argument and for the reasons set forth more fully below, we REVERSE.

I. BACKGROUND

In both his complaint and his aménded complaint, Shepard alleges that around 9:30 p.m. on August 5, 2002, he and his wife were eating dinner in their home when Officer George Davis and Officer Jason Budnick, of the City of Hallandale Beach Police Department, knocked on their front door. Shepard arose from the dining room table, went to the door, and asked, “Who’s there?” After Officer Davis responded, “Hallandale Beach Police Department,” Shepard opened the door, where he faced Officer Davis, who was standing alone, just outside of Shepard’s residence at Shepard’s front door. Shepard asked, “May I help you?” and Officer Davis replied, “We are here to arrest you[;] [y]ou are Dwayne Shepard correct?” Shepard alleges that when he responded, “Yes I am Dwayne Shepard,” Officer Bud-nick appeared and joined Officer Davis in the doorway. Shepard then asked the officers, “Do you have a warrant?” Neither officer answered. Instead, they entered through the front door, grabbed Shepard by the arm, and pushed him into his living room and onto his sofa, which is about six feet from the front door. The officers arrested him on the sofa.

Subsequently, Shepard was charged with lewd and lascivious conduct with a child and contributing to the delinquency *834 of a minor. After pleading no contest, Shepard was sentenced to four years probation. 1

On March 6, 2006, Shepard filed a pro se § 1983 complaint against Officer Davis and Officer Budnick, alleging that they unlawfully arrested him, in violation his constitutional rights, when they entered his home and arrested him without a warrant or consent. 2 On April 28, 2006, Shepard filed an amended complaint, basically repeating the allegation in his original complaint. On September 7, 2006, Officer Budnick moved to dismiss and provided supporting documents. Officer Budnick argued that dismissal was appropriate because (1) the statute of limitations had expired by the time he was served; (2) he was not timely served with process; and (3) under Byrd v. State, 481 So.2d 468 (Fla.1985), and United States v. Santana, 427 U.S. 38, 96 S.Ct. 2406, 49 L.Ed.2d 300 (1976), Shepard’s allegations clearly indicated that he consented to the officers’ entry. On September 28, 2006, Shepard filed a sixty-one page response opposing Officer • Budnick’s motion, alleging that he “remained standing inside of his home” at all material times before the officers entered and arrested him. Because Shepard was pro se and his complaint and amended complaint were verified and had supporting documentation, the magistrate judge issued an order indicating that the motion to dismiss would be treated as a motion for summary judgment under Rule 56.

In its report and recommendation, the magistrate judge examined Shepard’s “unrefuted evidence” and found no hot pursuit nor any other form of exigent circumstance to justify the officers’ warrantless entry into Shepard’s home, thereby distinguishing this case from Santana. The magistrate judge also found that the facts surrounding Shepard’s arrest distinguished this case from Byrd, where “the arrestee Byrd opened the door, and stepped back, and did nothing in opposition, thereby effectively inviting the officers to enter.” The magistrate judge recommended that summary judgment be denied. Construing the evidence in Shepard’s favor, the magistrate judge pointed out that Shepard’s evidence showed as follows:

The plaintiff Shepard’s evidence, which is not refuted by evidence from the defendant, is that although he knew that the person at his door [Davis] was a police officer, and that he had announced that his presence was for the purpose of conducting an arrest, he [Shepard] after opening the door had challenged the officers by demanding that they tell him if they had an arrest warrant, and they refused to answer. They then simply burst through the door, grabbing him and forcefully push *835 ing him from the doorway into a sitting position on a couch approximately six feet away.

[alterations in original.]

On December 28, 2006, after hearing objections and performing a de novo review, the district court adopted the factual findings the magistrate judge made in its report and recommendation. Noting that neither party addressed the issue of qualified immunity, the court raised the issue sua sponte, but did not fully address it. In its analysis, the district court first declined to decide whether a constitutional violation occurred because the parties’ differing versions of the arrest left “unresolved factual matters that need to be submitted to a jury.”

Despite not having concluded that a constitutional violation occurred, the court proceeded to examine whether the law was clearly established in 2002 that a warrant-less entry and arrest “just inside” the arrestee’s home, without consent or exigent circumstances, violated the Fourth Amendment. Citing our precedent in Bashir v. Rockdale County, 445 F.3d 1323, 1331 (11th Cir.2006), the district court declared that “[c]learly, a reasonable law enforcement officer would have known in 2001 or 2002 that he could not enter a home and arrest a plaintiff without a warrant, exigent circumstances or consent.” 3

Nevertheless, the court concluded that it could not decide whether the law was clearly established because case law from other circuits, as well as from the Eastern District of Michigan and the Eastern District of New York, indicated “that the law on doorway arrests was not sufficiently defined.” The court “question[ed] whether, under even a possible factual scenario in this case, most favorable to Shepard, Officer Budnick could have been aware of clearly established law prohibiting this doorway arrest.” Consequently, the court determined that supplemental briefing on the qualified immunity issues was necessary and gave the parties until January 16, 2007 to file their briefs.

On January 22, 2007, without having received supplemental briefing, the court dismissed Shepard’s amended complaint against Officer Budnick, concluding that he was entitled to qualified immunity for the reasons set forth in the December 28th order. The next day, the court learned that Shepard had filed two motions, on January 10th and January 16th, for an extension of time to respond. The court granted the first motion and set a new deadline of February 13, 2007 for Shepard to file his brief. 4

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

Related

Dorey v. Hartmann
M.D. Florida, 2025
United States v. Lisbon
835 F. Supp. 2d 1329 (N.D. Georgia, 2011)
Woodburn v. Florida Department of Children & Family Services
854 F. Supp. 2d 1184 (S.D. Florida, 2011)
Shepard v. State
65 So. 3d 1085 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2011)
Payton v. Commonwealth
327 S.W.3d 468 (Kentucky Supreme Court, 2010)
Shepard v. Hallandale Beach Police Department
398 F. App'x 480 (Eleventh Circuit, 2010)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
300 F. App'x 832, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dwayne-shepard-v-hallandale-beach-police-dept-ca11-2008.