Henry v. Albuquerque Police Department , 49 F. App'x 272 ( 2002 )

F I L E D
United States Court of Appeals
Tenth Circuit
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
OCT 23 2002
FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT
PATRICK FISHER
Clerk
ANN HENRY,
Plaintiff - Appellant,
v. No. 01-2297
D.C. No. CIV-00-719 JC/KBM
ALBUQUERQUE POLICE (D. New Mexico)
DEPARTMENT; OFFICER D. L.
HANSEN; NEW MEXICO MOTOR
VEHICLE DIVISION,
Defendants - Appellees.
ORDER AND JUDGMENT *
Before HENRY and HOLLOWAY , Circuit Judges, and BRORBY , Senior
Circuit Judge.
After examining the briefs and appellate record, this panel has determined
unanimously that oral argument would not materially assist the determination of
this appeal. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2); 10th Cir. R. 34.1(G). The case is
therefore ordered submitted without oral argument.
*
This order and judgment is not binding precedent, except under the
doctrines of law of the case, res judicata, and collateral estoppel. The court
generally disfavors the citation of orders and judgments; nevertheless, an order
and judgment may be cited under the terms and conditions of 10th Cir. R. 36.3.
I. BACKGROUND
Patrolling in his police car near midnight on May 29, 1999, Officer D. L.
Hansen of the Albuquerque Police Department noticed that Ann Henry’s pickup
truck had no license plate. Officer Hansen signaled his lights and stopped Ms.
Henry. When Officer Hansen searched her driving record on his patrol car
computer, he discovered that her license had been suspended. Officer Hansen
ordered Ms. Henry out of her truck and called a tow truck to impound the vehicle.
After seeing the tow truck arrive, Ms. Henry attempted to re-enter her truck.
Officer Hansen grabbed her by the arms and legs and removed her. She claims, in
addition, that he punched her in the face, a blow that fractured her nose.
Ms. Henry alleges that the New Mexico Department of Motor Vehicles
supplied Officer Hansen with what she calls false and derogatory information
about her driving record. She contends that the information violated her
constitutional rights. She also alleges that Officer Hansen used excessive force in
removing her from her truck. Proceeding pro se, she brought six claims, most of
them asserted against the defendants collectively. Some of these claims arise
under criminal statutes; several others, rooted in the post-Civil War statutes,
allege a large-scale conspiracy to violate her constitutional rights; and finally,
against Officer Hansen alone, she brought a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 claim and another
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titled “Negligence resulting in violation of Civil Rights.” See “Complaint for
Damages,” R. Doc., Vol. I at 3-4.
II. CLAIMS DISMISSED ON RULE 12(b)6 MOTION
The district court dismissed most of Ms. Henry’s claims on separate
motions to dismiss filed by the defendants under Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6).
The court did so correctly. First, with respect to the claims arising under
18 U.S.C. §§ 241 and 242, the court ruled that these criminal statutes, like other
such statutes, do not provide for a private civil cause of action. This holding rests
on settled law from this and other circuits. See Newcomb v. Ingle , 827 F.2d 675,
677 n.1 (10th Cir. 1987) (noting § 241 does not authorize private right of action);
Cok v. Cosentino , 876 F.2d 1, 2 (1st Cir. 1989) (same to both §§ 241 and 242).
Moreover, 18 U.S.C. § 1505, which Ms. Henry also asserts as a basis for a claim,
is not only a criminal statute, it appears to bear no relevance to the underlying
events. The statute prohibits efforts to impede the investigation of any federal
agency or congressional committee.
Next, after engaging in the familiar arm-of-the-state analysis, the district
court ruled that the Department of Motor Vehicles was a state agency and
therefore entitled to Eleventh Amendment immunity. The court acknowledged
and applied the two factors that inform the question whether a defendant agency
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is an arm of the state for purposes of the Eleventh Amendment: the degree of
autonomy given to the agency under state law and the amount of funding it
receives from the state treasury. See V-1 Oil Co. v. Utah State Dep’t of Pub.
Safety , 131 F.3d 1415, 1420 n.1 (10th Cir. 1997). The court then turned to the
claims against the municipal defendants and ruled that Ms. Henry offered no
allegations of an unconstitutional policy or custom. Consequently, the district
court noted, there could be no § 1983 liability against the city. See Monell v.
N.Y. City Dep’t of Soc. Servs. , 436 U.S. 658, 690 (1978). 1
With respect to both
its Eleventh Amendment analysis and its municipal liability analysis, we find no
error in the court’s reasoning.
Additionally, the district court rejected the various claims alleging a
conspiracy to deprive Ms. Henry of her civil rights, largely because her complaint
lacked sufficient factual allegations to support a conspiracy. This ruling, we
conclude, was also correct.
1
We note that Ms. Henry did not sue any municipal entity per se. She did,
however, sue Officer Hansen in his official capacity, which is equivalent to suing
the City of Albuquerque, his true employer. She also sued the Albuquerque
Police Department. The district court properly relied on an unpublished decision
from this court holding that the Albuquerque Police Department lacks a legal
identity apart from the City of Albuquerque. See Ketchum v. Albuquerque Police
Dep’t , No. 91-2200, 1992 WL 51481, at ***2 (10th Cir. Mar. 12, 1992).
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III. CLAIMS ON WHICH OFFICER HANSEN WAS GRANTED
SUMMARY JUDGMENT
The rulings on the defendants’ motions to dismiss left only the two claims
asserted against Officer Hansen individually. The district court later granted him
summary judgment. First, it rejected Ms. Hansen’s “negligence” civil rights
claim, ruling that a negligent act does not violate the constitution. This was a
proper application of Supreme Court precedent. See Daniels v. Williams , 474
U.S. 327, 330 (1986).
Next, the court held that Officer Hansen was entitled to qualified immunity
on Ms. Henry’s § 1983 claim. The court began its analysis by acknowledging the
strict two-step test a plaintiff must pass whenever a defendant raises the qualified
immunity defense:
First, the plaintiff must demonstrate that the defendant’s actions
violated a constitutional or statutory right. Second, the plaintiff must
show that the constitutional or statutory rights the defendant
allegedly violated were clearly established at the time of the conduct
at issue.
Nelson v. McMullen , 207 F.3d 1202, 1206 (10th Cir.2000) (quotation omitted).
The court accepted that Ms. Henry, who contended that Officer Hansen’s actions
violated the general prohibition on the use of excessive force, had met her first
burden, but ruled that she did not meet her second.
Specifically, the court stated that “there is no evidence in the record that
the force with which Defendant Hansen removed Plaintiff from her truck was
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excessive,” R. Vol. I, Doc. 59 at 8, and that it could “find[ ] no evidence to
support Plaintiff’s allegations that Defendant Hansen used his fist to assault her.”
Id. at 9. “Accordingly, the Court determines that there is no evidence in the
record that the force used by Defendant Hansen was constitutionally excessive.”
Id. This seems to reflect the court’s belief that Ms. Henry failed to present
evidence showing that the level of force applied by Officer Hansen violated
clearly established law.
We review a grant of qualified immunity on summary judgment de novo,
and we regard the evidence in the light most favorable to Ms. Henry. Davis v.
Gracey , 111 F.3d 1472, 1478 (10th Cir. 1997). Contrary to the district court’s
view, we conclude that evidence presented by Ms. Henry, when viewed in a light
most favorable to her, raises a disputed issue of fact concerning whether Officer
Hansen applied excessive force.
In his affidavit submitted to the district court in support of his motion for
summary judgment, Officer Hansen did not deny that he grabbed Ms. Hansen by
her legs and arms in an effort to remove her from the pickup truck. He explained
that this use of force was necessary to prevent her from fleeing in a vehicle that
he had determined must be impounded. He further explained that she had become
verbally abusive after he ordered her out of the truck and told her that the truck
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was to be towed to an impound lot. However, he denied striking Ms. Henry in the
face with his fists. See R. Vol. 1, Doc. 44, Ex. A.
Ms. Hansen answered Officer Hansen’s contentions by attaching her own
affidavit to her response to the officer’s summary judgment motion. That
affidavit contradicted Officer Hansen’s claims. It alleged that as she sat in the
truck, with her legs outside the cab, Officer Hansen “grab[bed] my leg to pull me
out of the truck. I got my leg free ( . . . I did not [kick him]) and then he
grabbed my arm, pulled me out of the truck and punche[d] me in the face.” Id. ,
Doc. 47 (“Affidavit of Ann L. Henry,” para. 6) (emphasis in original). She also
attached to her response a report from a radiologist dated six days after the event,
which found a “[s]mall non-displaced fracture at the tip of [Ms. Henry’s] nasal
bone.” Id. , Doc. 47, Exhibit A. Noting that Ms. Henry complained that she had
been “[h]it in the face,” the report indicated the presence of a lump at the bridge
of her nose. Id.As we view this evidence, it is simply not the case that Ms. Henry failed to
present evidence showing the use of excessive force. This is especially true given
what Officer Hansen did not argue before the district court. He did not rest his
immunity defense on any claim, either in the first instance or as an alternative
argument, that even if he did in fact strike Ms. Henry in the face, his actions were
objectively reasonable given the rapidly unfolding and volatile circumstances he
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confronted. Instead, he flatly denied her primary assertion: that with little
provocation and no apparent justification he punched her in the face, fracturing
her nasal bone. Thus he did not seek the generous shelter the Supreme Court has
given officers who use force during an arrest of a suspect. That is, to defeat a
qualified immunity defense in an excessive force case, a plaintiff must show not
just that the officer used an unreasonable level of force, but also that the force he
did use was more than the result of a mistaken understanding of the level of force
necessary under the circumstances. See Saucier v. Katz , 533 U.S. 194, 205
(2001). Officer Hansen simply denied that he used the type and level of force
that Ms. Henry accused him of using. While this may well prove to be a valid and
effective defense at trial, it is not a qualified immunity defense. It is not a claim
that what he did was reasonable given the circumstances, nor is it a claim that he
was mistaken, but not unreasonably so, as to the amount of force that was
appropriate. See id. Rather, it amounts to no more than a general denial that
Officer Hansen used what would be, if proven, excessive force. As such, Officer
Hansen is not entitled to qualified immunity.
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The judgment of the United States District Court for the District of
New Mexico is AFFIRMED in part and REVERSED in part, and the cause is
REMANDED for further proceedings consistent with this order and judgment.
Entered for the Court
William J. Holloway, Jr.
Circuit Judge
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