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MICHAEL ANDREW WOOD,
Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
CHAD EUBANKS, in his individual and official capacity
as Sergeant of the Clark County Sheriff’s Department;
MARIO TROUTMAN, JR., CHERISH STEIGER, MATTHEW
YATES, JACOB SHAW, and JOSEPH JOHNSON, in their
individual and official capacities as Deputies of the
Clark County Sheriff’s Office,
Defendants-Appellees. |
No. 20-3599 |
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio at Dayton.
No. 3:18-cv-00168—Thomas M. Rose, District Judge.
Argued: November 2, 2021
Decided and Filed: February 8, 2022
Before: GUY, GIBBONS, and GRIFFIN, Circuit Judges.
_________________________
OPINION
_________________________
JULIA SMITH GIBBONS, Circuit Judge. Michael Wood wore a shirt bearing the words
“Fuck the Police” to the county fair. According to Wood, the defendant police officers ordered
him to leave and escorted him from the fairgrounds because of his shirt. While leaving, Wood
made his displeasure known through numerous coarse insults levied at the police and the
fairground’s administrator. The defendants then arrested Wood for disorderly conduct. After the
charges were dismissed, Wood filed this § 1983 action against the officers, alleging false arrest
and retaliation. The district court granted summary judgment to the defendants. We reverse
because Wood’s speech was protected by the First Amendment. |
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PEARLIE SUE GAMBREL, Personal Representative of
the Estate of Jessie J. Mills,
Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
KNOX COUNTY, KENTUCKY; MIKEY ASHURST, Officer,
Knox County Sheriff’s Department, in his individual
capacity; BRANDON BOLTON, Knox County Constable,
in his individual capacity,
Defendants-Appellees. |
No. 20-6027 |
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky at London.
No. 6:17-cv-00184—Robert E. Wier, District Judge.
Argued: June 10, 2021
Decided and Filed: February 8, 2022
Before: GIBBONS, KETHLEDGE, and MURPHY, Circuit Judges.
_________________________
OPINION
_________________________
MURPHY, Circuit Judge. In Scott v. Harris, 550 U.S. 372 (2007), the Supreme Court
disregarded a plaintiff’s claim that he had been driving safely during a high-speed chase because
the claim was “blatantly contradicted” by objective video evidence showing his
dangerous maneuvers. Id. at 380. This case requires us to decide how far Scott goes in allowing
courts at the summary-judgment stage to ignore a plaintiff’s evidence about what happened
during a police encounter on the ground that the evidence conflicts with the bulk of the
summary-judgment record.
Responding to a 911 call, two officers came upon Jessie Mills bizarrely and dangerously
carrying his kidnapped daughter down the middle of an unlit road on a dark night. After a
struggle, one of the officers shot and killed Mills. The ensuing police investigation initially
revealed a largely consistent story from the officers and bystanders: Mills had threatened to harm
the officers, fought them with “super-human” strength, and charged at one of them just before
the shooting. In this litigation, however, one of the bystanders, Ricky Hobbs, claimed that he
had lied to the police during that investigation. He now says that the officers brutally beat Mills
even though Mills did not resist, that they could have easily handcuffed him, and that the
shooting should not have happened. The officers ask us to disregard Hobbs’s testimony because
it conflicts with the testimony from several others. But we do not think Scott reaches so far.
This testimonial dispute instead raises a classic jury question. We thus respectfully disagree with
the district court’s decision to grant summary judgment to the officers outright. Even accepting
Hobbs’s testimony, however, the officers are still entitled to qualified immunity with respect to
their initial use of force to recover the child, and the relevant local government is entitled to
summary judgment on the federal claim against it. We thus affirm in part, reverse in part, and
remand for further proceedings. |
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