Ryan Zimmerman v. Gary Cutler

CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedSeptember 20, 2016
Docket15-50424
StatusUnpublished

This text of Ryan Zimmerman v. Gary Cutler (Ryan Zimmerman v. Gary Cutler) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ryan Zimmerman v. Gary Cutler, (5th Cir. 2016).

Opinion

IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit No. 15-50424 FILED September 20, 2016

RYAN DAVID ZIMMERMAN, Lyle W. Cayce Clerk Plaintiff - Appellant

v.

GARY CUTLER; CURTIS JACKSON; CORPORAL MOLANDES; TINA HENRY; CONSTANCE NEWBERRY; PRESTON DODSON; RUSTY DOHERTY; LEWIS GARCIA; JAMES HENRY; MICHAEL KLOSS; DUSTIN OLIVER; JACOB WARDLOW; LEE HARRIS; HOWARD E. WILLIAMS,

Defendants - Appellees

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas USDC No. 1:14-CV-203

Before DENNIS, ELROD, and GRAVES, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM:* Ryan Zimmerman appeals from the grant of summary judgment dismissing his 42 U.S.C. § 1983 suit. Zimmerman’s claims arise from an on- the-street police encounter in which he was subjected to an electric shock from a Taser and subsequently transported to jail. Specifically, in February 2012,

* Pursuant to 5TH CIR. R. 47.5, the court has determined that this opinion should not be published and is not precedent except under the limited circumstances set forth in 5TH CIR. R. 47.5.4. Zimmerman attempted to flee on foot from Defendant-Appellee Officer Lee Harris, and Harris, suspecting Zimmerman of having committed a misdemeanor, deployed his Taser. The resulting shock caused Zimmerman to fall to the ground and fracture his arm. Harris transported Zimmerman to the county jail, where a medic treated the abrasions on Zimmerman’s arm, but the fracture was not detected at the time. Zimmerman brought this suit against multiple defendants, alleging claims of unlawful arrest, excessive force, deliberate indifference, and failure to train. For the reasons described below, we affirm the district court’s summary judgment in favor of the defendants. BACKGROUND Plaintiff-Appellant Ryan Zimmerman spent the evening of February 14, 2012, meeting with friends at bars near his apartment in San Marcos, Texas. At around two o’clock in the morning, Zimmerman and his roommate noticed that a show was ending at a nearby music venue and decided to walk over. Zimmerman’s roommate went inside the venue to find a friend while Zimmerman waited outside. Among the people exiting the theater, Zimmerman noticed a man with whom he had previously had a verbal dispute. Upon seeing each other, Zimmerman and this man resumed their earlier disagreement and began trading insults. Zimmerman walked alongside the man down the sidewalk as he and the man insulted and cursed one another. As they entered a crosswalk and began to walk across an intersection, the man stopped and turned to face Zimmerman. At that point, according to Zimmerman, the argument got “more heated,” becoming an intense “standoff.” Neither man, however, raised a hand against the other. A few seconds after the two men stopped in the middle of the street to face each other, a car pulled up, which Zimmerman quickly realized was a police car. Upon seeing the police car, Zimmerman turned and ran back toward

2 the theater. Officer Lee Harris, of the San Marcos Police Department, exited his squad car and gave chase. As Zimmerman neared an alleyway next to the theater, he was struck in the back by a single shot from Harris’s Taser and fell to the ground. When a second officer asked Zimmerman why he fled, Zimmerman responded that it was because he did not wish to talk to the officer. Zimmerman was handcuffed and placed in Harris’s squad car. Harris next drove Zimmerman to the Hays County Jail. During the car ride, Zimmerman was extremely angry and complained that the handcuffs hurt his wrists. By the time Harris accompanied Zimmerman into the jail, the tension between the two had dissipated and they had established a jocular rapport. Upon intake, Zimmerman was asked about his medical conditions and indicated that he had high blood pressure, had previously had four knee surgeries, and had lacerations on his right elbow and right hand. The cuts on Zimmerman’s arm were from falling on the ground after he was shot with the Taser, and were not particularly deep. A medic at the jail cleaned and applied a bandage to the cuts on Zimmerman’s arm. While his arm was being cleaned, Zimmerman mentioned that it was “in pretty bad shape.” He testified that he may also have said, “I hope my arm is not broken.” Once Zimmerman’s arm was bandaged, Harris left and Zimmerman was placed in a cell. Zimmerman did not request additional medical attention. Zimmerman was later taken to arraignment, during which time he clutched his arm to his side because it was causing him pain. Zimmerman was finally released at around eleven o’clock in the morning. A couple of hours after being released, Zimmerman went to the emergency room and X-rays revealed that he had fractured his radius— one of the two major bones in the forearm. Zimmerman was referred to an

3 orthopedic specialist who gave Zimmerman a splint for his arm and told him to wear it for three or four weeks. Zimmerman eventually pleaded “no contest” to charges of disorderly conduct and public intoxication in exchange for dismissal of the evading arrest charge and received three months of deferred disposition probation. In 2014, Zimmerman filed the underlying complaint in Texas state court. Zimmerman brought claims against: (1) Harris for unlawful arrest, excessive force, and deliberate indifference to serious medical needs; (2) Howard Williams, the Chief of Police of the San Marcos Police Department, for failure to train his officers not to arrest persons suspected of Class C misdemeanors and not to use excessive force; (3) Gary Cutler, the Sheriff of Hays County, for failure to train his deputies and jailers that prisoners have a right to medical care and that deliberate indifference to a prisoner’s injury violates the prisoner’s rights; and (4) sixteen individual Hays County Sheriff’s Office employees for deliberate indifference to a serious medical need. The defendants removed the case to federal court. The district court subsequently granted Zimmerman’s motion to dismiss four of the individual Sheriff’s Office employees. The remaining defendants next moved for summary judgment on all claims. The district court granted their motions, and Zimmerman timely appealed. On appeal, Zimmerman challenges the grant of summary judgment as to all claims, with the exception of the failure-to-train claim against Cutler, the Sheriff of Hays County. STANDARD OF REVIEW We review a district court’s summary judgment decision de novo. Poole v. City of Shreveport, 691 F.3d 624, 627 (5th Cir. 2012). Summary judgment is appropriate if “there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” FED. R. CIV. P. 56(a). When

4 reviewing a summary judgment, “[t]he evidence of the nonmovant is to be believed, and all justifiable inferences are to be drawn in his favor.” Tolan v. Cotton, 134 S. Ct. 1861, 1863 (2014) (alteration in original) (quoting Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 255 (1986)). In addressing the defense of qualified immunity at summary judgment, courts conduct a two-pronged inquiry. See id. at 1865; Saucier v. Katz, 533 U.S. 194, 201 (2001). “The first asks whether the facts, taken in the light most favorable to the party asserting the injury, show the officer’s conduct violated a federal right.” Tolan, 134 S. Ct. at 1865 (alterations omitted) (quoting Saucier, 533 U.S. at 201). “The second prong of the qualified-immunity analysis asks whether the right in question was ‘clearly established’ at the time of the violation.” Id. at 1866 (quoting Hope v. Pelzer, 536 U.S. 730, 739 (2002)).

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Ryan Zimmerman v. Gary Cutler, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ryan-zimmerman-v-gary-cutler-ca5-2016.