Johnson v. Phillips, et al., No. 11-1367 (8th Cir. 2011)
Annotate this CasePlaintiff sued defendant under 42 U.S.C. 1983 for violations of her constitutional rights when defendant, a building commissioner and Auxiliary Reserve Police Officer, stopped plaintiff's vehicle, arrested her, and searched her car. Defendant then directed her to follow him to an empty parking lot and sexually assaulted her. The district court concluded that defendant was not entitled to qualified immunity and denied his motion for summary judgment. Defendant appealed. The court held that defendant was not entitled to qualified immunity on plaintiff's claim that defendant violated her right to be free from unreasonable seizures by detaining her without reasonable suspicion; the district court should have dismissed plaintiff's claim for unlawful arrest where plaintiff could not show that defendant violated her constitutional right to be free from arrest without probable cause where plaintiff had an outstanding warrant; defendant was not entitled to qualified immunity on plaintiff's claim that defendant searched her car without probable cause; and defendant was not entitled to qualified immunity on plaintiff's claim that defendant violated her substantive due process right to bodily integrity.
Court Description: Civil case - Civil rights. District court properly denied defendant's motion for summary judgment based on qualified immunity on plaintiff's claim defendant lacked reasonable suspicion to detain her through a traffic stop; district court should have dismissed plaintiff's claim that defendant unlawfully arrested her as plaintiff admitted to defendant she had an outstanding warrant and that admission created probable cause; defendant was not entitled to qualified immunity on plaintiff's claim that defendant illegally searched her car without probable cause; nor was defendant entitled to qualified immunity on the claim that he violated plaintiff's due process right to bodily integrity during incident as defendant was acting under color of state law at the time of his actions and any reasonable officer would have known his conduct (which led to his criminal conviction for violating plaintiff's civil rights) violated clearly established law.
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