Emmons v. City of Escondido

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On remand from the Supreme Court, the Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court's grant of summary judgment to a police officer in a 42 U.S.C. 1983 action alleging an excessive force claim. In this case, the officer grabbed plaintiff and took him to the ground during an investigation of a reported domestic violence incident.The panel held that it unable to find a case so precisely on point with this one as to satisfy the Supreme Court's demand for specificity. The closest case the panel found was in Hansen v. Black, 885 F.2d 642 (9th Cir. 1989), where officers, while investigating a gas station robbery and going to the plaintiff's house to see if her son was involved in the robbery, used excessive force in handcuffing plaintiff after she refused to comply with an officer's order. However, the panel distinguished this case from Hansen, because officers were investigating an incident that occurred inside defendant's home, and he had not been ruled out as a possible suspect. Therefore, the panel held that the officer was entitled to qualified immunity. View "Emmons v. City of Escondido" on Justia Law