8th Circuit

Officer who shot service dogs in plaintiff’s backyard who presented no imminent danger and were not acting aggressively unreasonably seized the animals and violated clearly established law.

Medical personnel of large, private, systematically organized, for-profit medical providers were not entitled to assert defense of qualified immunity; jail supervisors were not put on notice of a pattern of constitutional violations by two previous lawsuits.

Officers filed an affidavit containing false and misleading material facts for the arrest of plaintiff for capital murder; fact that prosecuting attorney approved affidavit would not entitle them to qualified immunity; Messerschmidt v. Millender, 565 U.S. 535 (2012) distinguished on ground that Messerschmidt did not involve a claim of a misleading affidavit.

Applying 8th Amendment standards, with no discussion of Kingsley, court finds that officers’ awareness of “anger” issues and possible mental health issues did not provide actual knowledge that detainee posed a substantial risk of suicide or serious self-injury.

Police officers stopped plaintiff for suspected involvement in drug deal, plaintiff was polite and cooperative but could not find driver’s license although he had three other cards bearing his name, officers handcuffed him and kept cuffs on after a clean frisk and consensual pocket search, officers did not perceive plaintiff as dangerous and had no reason to; handcuffing for five minutes absent any concern for safety was not reasonably related to circumstances which justified the stop and violated clearly established Fourth Amendment rights.

Officer stopped two boys—ages 12 and 14—who matched a vague decision of suspects in car chase from gang stakeout, held them for seven minutes at gunpoint, handcuffed and frisked them, even though boys’ mother and stepfather identified them during encounter and boys identified themselves and complied with police commands; time involved was not unreasonable; handcuffing for two minutes did not transform Terry stop into arrest because officer had heard that one of the suspects wanted usually carried a gun and one of the boys moved his left hand behind his back and touched his waist be

Standard of cause required to justify seizure of person for emergency mental-health evaluation is probable cause, not reasonable belief; probable cause standard had not been established in May 2017 so officer, who had reasonable belief, was entitled to qualified immunity.

Sedating intoxicated, suicidal, semi-conscious subject of emergency-services welfare check with ketamine without consent during transport to hospital was not objectively unreasonable.

Discussing and finding adequate investigation into alleged sexual abuse before making arrest; distinguishing Kuehl v. Burtis, 173 F.3d 646 (8th Cir. 1999) and canvassing other cases of alleged failure to investigate.

Affirming denial of punitive damages where plaintiff received nominal damages for arrest for yelling “fuck you” to officer who was performing traffic stop on vehicle with children in car, where trooper believed plaintiff had committed disorderly conduct and was concerned about children’s reaction to it.