Michael Alvin Partlow v. Officer Joseph Stadler

774 F.3d 497, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 24131, 2014 WL 7238053
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedDecember 22, 2014
Docket14-1281
StatusPublished
Cited by53 cases

This text of 774 F.3d 497 (Michael Alvin Partlow v. Officer Joseph Stadler) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Michael Alvin Partlow v. Officer Joseph Stadler, 774 F.3d 497, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 24131, 2014 WL 7238053 (8th Cir. 2014).

Opinions

WOLLMAN, Circuit Judge.

Police officers Joseph Stadler, Michael Craig, and Sidney Mann fired shots at Michael Partlow after he exited his apartment building holding a shotgun. Partlow filed suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging that the officers employed excessive force in violation .of his Fourth Amendment rights. The district court held that the officers were not entitled to qualified immunity and denied their motion for summary judgment. We reverse.

I.

On September 18, 2010, Partlow spent the evening at a bar in Jamestown, North Dakota, where he consumed eight to ten alcoholic beverages. He left the bar around 2:00 a.m. with his aunt, Lisa Part-low (Lisa), and her boyfriend, Mark Michel. Michel drove them from the bar to Partlow’s apartment.

During the car ride, Partlow talked about ending his life. When they reached his apartment, Partlow jumped out of the car before it stopped, ran to the building, entered his apartment, and locked the door. Lisa called 911 and then hurried to the window of Partlow’s basement apartment. She saw that her nephew had a shotgun, and she tried to talk to him through the window. Partlow asked her to leave so that she would not see what was going to happen. After Partlow closed the window, Lisa went into the apartment building through the back door. She saw Officer Mann standing in the hallway.

[500]*500According to Mann, Lisa was in tears when she approached him. She embraced Mann and told him that Partlow had a shotgun and was suicidal. Mann followed Lisa to the door of Partlow’s apartment, where she tried to speak to Partlow. Partlow told her to step away from the door, saying something like, “Don’t come in here, you don’t want to see this.” Mann, who was standing nearby, requested that additional officers be dispatched to the scene. He relayed over his radio that there was a weapon involved and that the subject had said, “You don’t want to see this.” Mann then heard Partlow tell Lisa, “If you are calling the cops, this f-ing gun is going off right now.” Mann quietly walked away from the apartment door and exited the building.

State trooper Craig Beedy and Jamestown police officers Stadler and Craig responded to Mann’s call, arriving on the scene within minutes. Mann told them what he had heard and described Lisa’s demeanor. As the officers discussed what to do next, Michel approached them and said that he had seen a shotgun and ammunition lying on Partlow’s bed. Trooper Beedy wrote down Partlow’s phone number as given to him by Michel, but before a call could be placed, the officers heard the door of the apartment building crash open. The officers turned toward the door and saw Partlow carrying a shotgun in one hand, with Lisa holding onto his other arm. Beedy testified that Partlow held the gun so that the barrel was 'pointed forward or slightly down as he exited the building.

Officer Mann yelled, “Gun! He’s got a gun.” The other officers yelled, “Drop the gun,” or, “Put the gun down.” Partlow looked to his right toward the officers and seemed surprised by their presence. Acr cording to the officers, Lisa fell or was pushed to the ground, freeing Partlow’s arm. Mann testified that Partlow then grabbed the bottom of the shotgun, “activated the mechanism loading a round into the chamber, and bladed his body toward us and squared off the weapon at us.” According to Mann, the shotgun was pointed at the officers. Craig testified that Partlow grabbed the stock of his gun, chambered a round, raised the gun, and pointed it at him. Stadler testified that after Partlow chambered a round into the shotgun, he “took a shooters position and brought the gun up to his shoulder and aimed it at us.” Trooper Beedy did not hear or see Partlow chamber a round. He explained that Partlow “turned to his right, towards the officers, towards us, and he raised the gun at the same time.” He testified that Partlow’s motion was quick: “I don’t think he got [the shotgun] all the way up to his shoulder.”

Stadler, Craig, and Mann opened fire, hitting Partlow in the right eye, right forearm, both hands, left groin and hip, and right shin. Partlow fell to the ground and dropped the shotgun. Trooper Beedy testified that he did not shoot because by the time he had taken his gun out of the holster and raised it, Partlow was falling to the ground. After an ambulance was called, Beedy secured Partlow’s shotgun and discovered a live round in the shotgun’s chamber.

Partlow was charged with terrorizing, in violation of North Dakota Century Code section 12.1-17-4)4. The police officers, Beedy, Lisa, Partlow, and others testified at the trial. According to Stadler, Craig, and Mann, they felt threatened and had no choice but to shoot. Lisa testified that she followed Partlow as he exited the apartment building and that Partlow “was turning and putting [the shotgun] down” on a step when the officers opened fire. Part-low testified that he heard the command to drop the gun and then remembered falling. [501]*501Partlow was convicted, and the jury returned a special finding that in the course of committing the offense, Partlow did not inflict or attempt to inflict bodily injury upon another person, nor did he threaten imminent bodily injury with a firearm.

Partlow then filed this lawsuit, alleging the § 1983 claim, as well as state-law tort claims of assault and battery. The district court denied, in part, the defendants’ motion for summary judgment.1 It concluded that the officers were not entitled to qualified immunity because the parties disputed whether Partlow threatened the officers with the shotgun: “It is undisputed that Partlow made some motion with the gun. There is a dispute as to whether the motion was furtive or innocent.” D. Ct. Order of Jan. 22, 2014, at 4. According to the district court, “[i]f Partlow did not threaten the officers with his gun, ... a reasonable jury could find that the officers did not have probable cause to believe that Partlow posed a threat of ‘serious physical harm’ either to the officers or others.” Id. at 9 (quoting Tennessee v. Garner, 471 U.S. 1, 11, 105 S.Ct. 1694, 85 L.Ed.2d 1 (1985)).

II.

Qualified immunity shields a government official from liability in a § 1983 action unless the official’s conduct violates a clearly established constitutional or statutory right of which a reasonable person would have known. Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 818, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982). The determination whether qualified immunity should be granted involves a two-step inquiry: (1) whether the facts shown by the plaintiff make out a violation of a constitutional or statutory right, and (2) whether that right was clearly established at the time of the defendant’s alleged misconduct. Saucier v. Katz, 533 U.S. 194, 201, 121 S.Ct. 2151, 150 L.Ed.2d 272 (2001); see also Pearson v. Callahan, 555 U.S. 223, 236, 129 S.Ct. 808, 172 L.Ed.2d 565 (2009). We review de novo the district court’s summary judgment decision regarding qualified immunity. Doe v. Flaherty, 623 F.3d 577, 583 (8th Cir.2010).

A.

We first address whether we have jurisdiction to decide this interlocutory appeal.

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774 F.3d 497, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 24131, 2014 WL 7238053, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/michael-alvin-partlow-v-officer-joseph-stadler-ca8-2014.