Excessive force claim, occasioned by eating French fries, will go to trial

The plaintiff claims that three police officers in Derby, Connecticut used excessive force while effectuating her arrest. The officers tried to dismiss the case on qualified immunity grounds, but that motion failed, so they appealed to the Second Circuit. The Court of Appeals says qualified immunity cannot attach at this early stage of the case.

The case is Mehaylo v. Loris, a summary order issued on February 14. If you handle Section 1983 excessive forces cases, then a case like this is familiar to you. I take these facts from the district court ruling. Bear in mind this all started because plaintiff got into a car accident because she reached for a French fry while driving and got distracted. 

On February 15, 2017, after 7:30 p.m., Ms. Mehaylo was driving approximately 20 miles per hour when she collided with Naseen Senan at a stop light. Ms. Mehaylo stated that she had taken her eyes off the road for a moment while she reached for a French fry and failed to stop in time. . . . When Ms. Mehaylo returned home, she did not turn on any lights because she noticed flashing lights on her street that she believed were coming from two ambulances parked outside of her neighbor's house, as well as several police cars. At approximately 7:55 p.m., Officers Loris, Dominguez, and Chapman, of the Shelton Police Department, arrived at Ms. Mehaylo's residence in Shelton to locate Ms. Mehaylo and her car for charges related to leaving the scene of an accident. . . . Ms. Mehaylo stated that once she knew it was the police that she knew she had to open the door. She asked the officers outside her front door why they were at her house and answered questions about her involvement in the earlier car accident through the closed wood front door, which required her to raise her voice. Ms. Mehaylo agreed to open the wood front door as long as she could speak to the officers with the screen storm door between them. 

Once Ms. Mehaylo opened the front wood door, Officer DeAngelo opened the screen storm door, reached into Ms. Mehaylo's home, and grabbed Ms. Mehaylo's right arm to pull her out of her home and onto the front porch. As she was initially grabbed, Ms. Mehaylo pulled back. Once on the porch, Officer DeAngelo pushed Ms. Mehaylo against the wall to secure her with her arms behind her back. Officer Loris then grabbed Ms. Mehaylo's left arm, and Officer Dominguez came to assist by holding Ms. Mehaylo's left arm while Officer Loris handcuffed her. The three officers picked Ms. Mehaylo up and brought her from the front porch to a police car parked on the street. 

While Officer Loris attempted to grab Ms. Mehaylo's legs so they could pick her up, she kicked backwards, and her foot made contact with Officer Loris’ groin.  At some point during the arrest, Ms. Mehaylo urinated on Officer Dominguez. Once the officers reached the police car, still carrying Ms. Mehaylo, they threw her into the back of the car on her stomach with her hands handcuffed behind her back and her head hit the center console.

It must have been a hell of a French fry. Moral of the story: do not eat while driving. At least plaintiff was honest about why she was distracted. Most people would probably say something else, like they took their eyes off the road for some reason. Anyway, excessive force claims are difficult to dismiss on motions for summary judgment because the trial court cannot always be sure the jury will find the force was not excessive. These factual disputes are difficult to resolve on the papers. But officers can also seek dismissal based on qualified immunity if the trial court finds the jury would have to find the officers acted reasonably under the circumstances. But even that such motion is difficult to win because we have to assume for purposes of the immunity motion that the plaintiff's version of events is true.

The trial court denied qualified immunity and the officers appeal, invoking one of the few exceptions to the rule that you cannot appeal federal orders until the case is completely over. But the officers lose the appeal because the Court of Appeals (Parker, Lohier an Park) finds the jury could still find that, even after she agreed to cooperate, the officers grabbed plaintiff from the house with too much force in violation of the Fourth Amendment. Unless it settles, the case will proceed to trial.