Youbyoung Park v. Gaitan

680 F. App'x 724
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
DecidedMarch 1, 2017
Docket15-2020
StatusUnpublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 680 F. App'x 724 (Youbyoung Park v. Gaitan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Youbyoung Park v. Gaitan, 680 F. App'x 724 (10th Cir. 2017).

Opinion

ORDER AND JUDGMENT *

Jerome A. Holmes, Circuit Judge

Plaintiff-Appellant Youbyoung Park (“Mr. Park”) filed this 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action against Officers Adam Gaitan (“Officer Gaitan”), John Dykes (“Officer Dykes”), and John Barricklow (“Officer Barricklow”)—collectively, “Defendants”— alleging that Defendants’ execution of a search warrant at Mr. Park’s self-service laundry facility and subsequent seizure of surveillance equipment violated his federal constitutional and state-law rights. Defendants moved for summary judgment, asserting their entitlement to qualified immunity on Mr. Park’s § 1983 claims, and to a favorable judgment on the merits of Mr. 'Park’s state-law claims. The district court entered summary judgment in Defendants’ favor, and Mr. Park appeals. Exercising our jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, we affirm in part and reverse and remand in part.

I

A 1

On November 3, 2010, Officer Gaitan, a detective at the Bernalillo County Sheriffs *727 Office (“BCSO”) in New Mexico, visited Mr. Park’s self-service laundry facility while investigating a recent stabbing incident at a nearby establishment. Although Mr. Park and his business had no involvement in the stabbing, Officer Gaitan believed that surveillance video recordings from the laundry facility might confirm or refute a suspect’s claimed alibi. Accordingly, Officer Gaitan entered Mr, Park’s business in plain clothes, displayed his badge and gun, and asked Mr. Park to show him the surveillance video. Mr. Park—who was born in Korea and has limited English skills—did not recognize Officer Gaitan as a law enforcement officer and believed he had come to inquire about some unknown “accident”; consequently, he refused to reveal the video recordings to Officer Gaitan, whom he believed was non-police personnel. Aplt.’s App. at 153-54 (Park Dep., dated Oct. 9, 2013). Following his refusal, Officer Gaitan warned Mr. Park that he would go to jail if he failed to produce the video, but Mr. Park said nothing. Officer Gaitan then handed Mr. Park the following note: “If you are unwilling to assist me with my investigation I will get a search warrant for your property,” Apli’s App. at 166 (capitalization altered), and left the laundry facility.

On the same afternoon (i,e., November 3), dressed in plain clothes, Officer Gaitan returned to Mr. Park’s business with a search warrant for the surveillance video footage and recording equipment; he was accompanied by three plain-clothed BCSO detectives and two uniformed officers— Officers Dykes and Barricklow. When the officers entered the business, they found Mr. Park seated behind his counter. Officer Gaitan approached the counter, and briefly displayed his badge and gun, and a piece of paper. From there, the parties present vastly divergent accounts of the ensuing moments immediately before Mr. Park’s arrest. 2

Under Mr. Park’s version of events, Defendants approached him without explaining the purpose for the encounter, and without providing a copy of the search warrant or an opportunity to review its contents. Indeed, Defendants confronted him without uttering “any orders” or “say[ing] anything.” Aplt.’s App. at 151, 175 (Park Dec., dated Dec. 23, 2012). While this encounter was taking place, Mr. Park displayed no observable signs of resistance, nor did he obstruct the officers’ access to the video equipment. Nevertheless, after a few seconds of Mr. Park’s silence, Officer Gaitan directed Officer Dykes to “pull [him] out” from behind the counter. Id. at 151. Officer Gaitan and Officer Dykes then lifted Mr. Park out of his chair, held him by the arms, and forci *728 bly escorted him toward the building’s exit. Initially, Mr. Park offered no resistance to the officers’ use of force.

As they approached the exit, however, Mr. Park began to tense his arms, brace his legs, and attempt to pull away from the officers. In light of these actions, Officer Gaitan forcibly took Mr. Park to the ground by giving “him a knee strike to the side of his body.” Aplt.’s App. at 171. Once in a “face down stabilization position,” they “handcuffed him,” escorted him from the premises, and placed him in a patrol car. Id.

With Mr. Park in custody, one of the BCSO officers, Detective Kyle Hartsock (“Detective Hartsock”), began reviewing the contents of Mr. Park’s saved video recordings. Detective Hartsock quickly determined, however, that the relevant recording had already been deleted or overwritten to make room for more recent recordings. As a result, Detective Hart-sock decided to take the video equipment and Mr. Park’s connected laptop back to the computer-forensics laboratory to determine if he could recover the relevant footage. After concluding the search, Officer Dykes and Officer Barricklow transported Mr. ■ Park to the South Valley BCSO Substation, and charged him with the misdemeanor offense of resisting an officer.

During the pendency of the criminal charges, Mr. Park’s defense counsel sought discovery concerning the evidence against him, including any recordings from the seized video equipment. The State of New Mexico (“State”), however, never provided responsive materials, and Officer Gaitan ultimately requested dismissal of the misdemeanor charge and the state court acceded to his request. In the meantime, Detective Hartsock informed Officer Gaitan that he could not extract any additional recordings from the video equipment. At that point, Officer Gaitan “believed that the equipment and its contents had no evidentiary value” and he deposited the DVR and laptop in the Albuquerque Police Department Evidence Room. Aplt.’s App. at 250 (Gaitan Aff., dated July 26, 2013). Officer Gaitan then closed the stabbing investigation “pending further information”—and “could have [immediately] released” the seized video-related items to Mr. Park—but he “honestly forgot,” despite his responsibility to return the seized property as the affiant on the search warrant. Aplt.’s App. at 19-20. As a result, Mr. Park did not receive the items until December of 2012, when the district court in the present case ordered their return.

B

On November 4,2011, Mr. Park filed the underlying civil action against Defendants, asserting constitutional claims for unlawful seizure and excessive force in violation of the Fourth Amendment, and tort claims under New Mexico law for assault, battery, false arrest, and false imprisonment. On December 7, 2012, Defendants moved for summary judgment on all of Mr. Park’s claims. Citing newly discovery evidence, however, Mr. Park moved to amend his complaint on December 24, 2012, in order to assert a First Amendment claim against Officer Gaitan. The district court permitted the amendment on February 11, 2013, and Mr. Park filed his amended complaint on the same day. Officer Gaitan then filed an additional summary-judgment motion on Mr. Park’s newly asserted First Amendment claim.

The district court resolved the sum-maryrjudgment, motions in two separate decisions.

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680 F. App'x 724, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/youbyoung-park-v-gaitan-ca10-2017.