11th Circuit - Court of Appeals

Gervin v. Florence et. al. addresses the case of DeShawn Gervin, whose probation was improperly revoked for violating a probation condition that the judge did not impose. Mr. Gervin spent 104 days in jail because of this error, and this brief supports the argument that Mr. Gervin should be able to sue the probation officer for malicious prosecution. Our brief argues that the 4th Amendment protects people against having to spend time in jail for wrongful probation revocations.

Fourth Amendment principles dating back centuries support liability for an officer’s mistaken execution of a warrant. These principles emphasize the importance of a person’s right to safety in her home; a well-specified warrant; and notice prior to entry. Along these lines, several circuits have held that executing a warrant at the incorrect home amounts to a warrantless search and presumptively violates the Fourth Amendment.

Kirby Ingram alleges that he was peacefully cooperating with the police in the midst of a mental health crisis when an officer, annoyed with Ingram’s erratic behavior, body-slammed him, leaving him in the hospital requiring the fusion of two of his vertebrae and the replacement of another. The complaint alleges both excessive force and disability discrimination twice over—both a failure to accommodate his disability as well as intentional discrimination on the basis of it.