SWAT team commander granted qualified immunity after leading team to wrong house
Facts (If you are new to 1983 actions, click here for help) In March 2019, at approximately 7:15 p.m., Waxahachie Police Department (“WPD”) SWAT Team Commander Mike Lewis received a call from a Drug Enforcement Agency (“DEA”) officer. The DEA officer needed assistance executing a search warrant that night on a suspected methamphetamine “stash” house […]
Automobile exception justified search of truck
Facts After the Upton County Sheriff’s Office dispatched a deputy to investigate an erratic driver, the responding officer quickly identified the vehicle: A speeding white truck, driven by James Mitchell Phillips, weaving in and out of lanes and crossing over the road’s shoulder. The deputy triggered his lights to get Phillips’s attention, but Phillips continued […]
Qualified immunity based on moment of threat test (SCOTUS rules on 5/15/25 – see below)
Facts (If you are new to 1983 actions, click here for help) Officer Roberto Felix, Jr. fatally shot Ashtian Barnes on April 28, 2016, following a lawful traffic stop. The facts leading up to the shooting are undisputed. At about 2:40 p.m., Officer Roberto Felix heard a radio broadcast from the Harris County Toll Road […]
Qualified immunity denied on allegation officers shot subject in parked car without any verbal warnings
Facts (If you are new to 1983 actions, click here for help) The events at issue in this case arise from the Houston Police Department’s investigation of an armed robbery that took place in or around November 2021. The robbery victim identified Charion Lockett and an unknown male as the perpetrators. Subsequently, the investigating officers […]
officer working private security at restaurant and bar granted qualified immunity
Facts (If you are new to 1983 actions, click here for help) On the evening of February 16, 2020, Marcus Traylor and three of his friends attended Clutch Bar and Restaurant (“Clutch”) in Dallas, Texas. That night, Dallas Police Department (“DPD”) Officer Gideon Yorka and another DPD officer were working private security at Clutch. The […]
Police not responsible for moral and psychological pressures to confess
Facts David Devaney, Sr., challenges: the denial of his motion to suppress statements made to law-enforcement officers for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of methamphetamine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846. He was found guilty and sentenced to 480 months. Regarding the denial of the suppression motion, Devaney […]