Qualified immunity granted for officer who entered gated curtilage to arrest subject who walked away and refused to provide identification – see update at bottom of case
Facts (If you are new to 1983 actions, click here for help) Ricardo Sauceda was fifty years old and disabled at the time of the events in question. Sauceda and his neighbors, the Cortez family, had a fraught history. Sauceda had lodged numerous complaints against the Cortez family to the San Benito Police Department. On […]
After subject requested to remain silent officer improperly asked for passcode to phone
Facts On February 28, 2021, Border Patrol Agent Ryland Brown pulled over a black Chevy Equinox on suspicion of possible alien smuggling due to indicators such as mud and handprints, a low suspension, obstructions in the vehicle, and its high rate of speed. Upon stopping the vehicle he saw Lisandro Guia-Lopez as the driver, codefendant […]
Police had reasonable suspicion of drug trafficking for stop and thus delay to investigate traffic violation was not relevant
Facts Jesus Leonardo Esquivel-Carrizales (Esquivel) was arrested as a passenger in a car in which officers discovered methamphetamine and cocaine. Prior to the stop of that car, Brownsville Homeland Security (HSI Brownsville) agents had an ongoing drug trafficking investigation which had identified several people who were truck drivers or employed in the commercial cargo business, driving […]
Qualified immunity granted for former JPD officers as clearly established prong not addressed
Facts (If you are new to 1983 actions, click here for help) On October 27, 2017, officers Kenneth Short and Cobey Smith, former police officers for the city of Jackson, Mississippi, responded to a report of a shooting incident at a known drug house. The victim described the shooter as a 150-pound black male wearing […]
Qualified immunity for Lowndes County S.O. when subject drives directly toward a colleague
Facts (If you are new to 1983 actions, click here for help) On April 1, 2020, a detective from the Lowndes County Sherriff’s Office saw a vehicle that failed to observe a stop sign. The vehicle had been reported stolen earlier that day, and the detective recognized the vehicle’s driver as Austin Hines. The detective […]
Qualified immunity for removal from vehicle and subsequent arrest
Facts (If you are new to 1983 actions, click here for help) Ward Sturgis Williams appeals the dismissal of his 42 U.S.C. § 1983 suit on the grounds that Officer Austin Reed and Sergeant Thomas Gross were entitled to qualified immunity and that he failed to state a claim against Johnson County. He argues that […]