Venus Jones v. J. Walsh

711 F. App'x 504
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedSeptember 29, 2017
Docket17-11318 Non-Argument Calendar
StatusUnpublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 711 F. App'x 504 (Venus Jones v. J. Walsh) 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
Venus Jones v. J. Walsh, 711 F. App'x 504 (11th Cir. 2017).

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

Venus Jones appeals the summary judgment against her complaints of a false arrest and excessive force, in violation of the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments, and false imprisonment and intentional infliction of emotional distress, in violation of state law. See 42 U.S.C. § 1983. We affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

Jones’s complaint stemmed from a police investigation instigated by her emergency call to the Rockdale County Sheriffs Office. Jones reported that her neighbors had threatened her family and brandished a gun, and during the conversation, the dispatcher heard a gunshot. The dispatcher told officers that there were “shots fired” in the proximity of Jones’s residence, but they were not told who had reported the incident.

Deputy Angela Morrison was the first to arrive on the scene and approached Jones’s fifteen-year-old daughter, Briana Jones, who was sitting on her fi'ont porch. Morrison asked Briana about the gunshots, and Briana gestured for the officer to talk to her neighbors. While Morrison was talking to Jones’s neighbors, Deputy Donald Sims arrived and overheard the neighbors state that Jones had threatened them, had “pulled a gun on them,” and had four guns in her house. Morrison radioed the information about the Joneses to incoming officers.

Sims and a third officer proceeded to Jones’s house. The officers drew their service weapons and ordered the occupants to exit the house with their hands in the air. Five persons walked out, including Briana, Jones, Jones’s fourteen-year-old son, Der-rion Pryor, and Jones’s youngest child, Omaree Jones, who was eight or nine years old. The officers instructed everyone to lie on the ground, but Jones refused to comply until the officers averted their guns from Omaree. Omaree was not handcuffed and reentered the house.

The officers’ supervisor, Sergeant Jonathan Walsh, arrived to see the officers handcuff Jones, Briana, and Demon and then help them get to their feet. Walsh had been apprised of the situation by overhearing the radio transmissions from dispatch and from Morrison as he drove to the scene. Walsh instructed the officers to remove the Joneses’ handcuffs.

Jones, Briana, and Demon wore handcuffs no longer than seven minutes. They reentered their house and wrote statements describing their neighbors’ conduct. The Joneses acknowledged that the officers touched them only as needed to apply and remove their handcuffs and to help them to stand.

Jones sued Deputies Morrison and Sims and Sergeant Walsh. Jones alleged that she and her children were bruised by the handcuffs, but they did not seek medical attention for their injuries. Jones later testified that the officers yelled and cursed needlessly as Jones and her children exited their residence and that she refused to lay on the ground until the officers “[g]et the gun from my baby head, because we called [911], and if they didn’t, they was going to have to shoot me.”

The officers moved for summary judgment on the basis of qualified and official immunity, which the district court granted. The district court ruled that the officers acted reasonably by detaining Jones and her two children briefly at gunpoint in their front yard to ensure they did not pose a danger to the officers as they investigated the origin of the gunfire. The district court also ruled that the Joneses’ complaints about false imprisonment and ' the infliction of emotional distress failed in the absence of evidence that the officers acted with malice.

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

We review de novo a summary judgment. Croom v. Balkwill, 645 F,3d 1240, 1245 (11th Cir. 2011). We. view the evidence in the light most favorable to the non-moving party. Id. Summary judgment is appropriate “if the movant shows that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and ... is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a).

III. DISCUSSION

Jones contends that the officers were not entitled to immunity for three reasons. First, Jones argues that she and her children were subjected to an unlawful arrest. Second, Jones argues that the officers’ use of weapons amounted to excessive force. Third, Jones argues that “a jury could infer that [the officers] acted with malice.” We reject these arguments in turn.

The officers are entitled to qualified immunity from Jones’s claim of unlawful arrest. Officers “enjoy a qualified immunity from suit that protects government officials from liability for civil damages insofar as their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would’ have known.” Croom, 645 F.3d at 1245-46 (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). Officers do not offend the Fourth Amendment by detaining a person briefly as part of an investigation “if they havé a reasonable articulable suspicion based on objective facts that the person has engaged in criminal activity.” United States v. Blackman, 66 F.3d 1572, 1576 (11th Cir. 1995). Based on the information provided by dispatch and by neighbors that Jones voiced threats while wielding a gun and possessed several firearms, the officers reasonably suspected the Joneses of criminal activity and could detain them temporarily to verify or dispel those reasonable suspicions. See United States v. Holloway, 290 F.3d 1331, 1334 (11th Cir. 2002) (holding that a 911 call reporting gunshots and arguing constituted exigent circumstances that justified a warrantless entry into the defendant’s residence). “Police may take reasonable action, based upon the circumstances, to protect themselves during [investigatory] encounters, or to maintain the status quo.” United States v. Kapperman, 764 F.2d 786, 790 n.4 (11th Cir. 1985). The imminent danger posed by an unknown number of suspects and weapons made it reasonable for the officers to order Jones, Briana, and Der-rion to exit their home and to handcuff them. See Blackman, 66 F.3d at 1576 (holding that federal agents- acted reasonably by ordering four persons suspected of armed robbery to exit an apartment with their hands up and to handcuff them to complete their investigatory detention). The officers did not violate a clearly established constitutional right that the Joneses be free from an unreasonable seizure.

The officers also are entitled to qualified immunity from Jones’s claim of excessive force. Officers are permitted to draw weapons “when approaching and holding individuals for an investigatory stop .;. when reasonably necessary for protecting an officer or maintaining order.” Courson v. MeMillian, 939 F.2d 1479, 1494-95 (11th Cir. 1991); see also Blackman, 66 F.3d at 1576.

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Bluebook (online)
711 F. App'x 504, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/venus-jones-v-j-walsh-ca11-2017.