McInerney v. King, No. 13-1490 (10th Cir. 2015)
Annotate this CaseJoan McInerney filed suit pursuant to 42 U.S.C. 1983 against Dennis King, a part-time officer with the Colorado School of Mines Police Department, and Deputy Sheriff Brian McLaughlin, alleging that their warrantless entry into her home violated the Fourth Amendment. McInerney appealed the district court’s grant of Officer King’s motion for summary judgment based on qualified immunity. In July 2009, King was assigned to investigate a complaint that McInerney had gotten into a physical altercation on the School of Mines campus. King did not knock on the door or announce his presence, and he did not attempt to contact McInerney by phone. As he stated in an affidavit, the condition of McInerney’s home "caused me concern, including over officer safety." He contacted the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office once he determined this situation no longer involved delivery of a summons. Deputy McLaughlin arrived on the scene, and the two officers went to the front porch and knocked and announced their presence several times. McInerney later testified that she was sound asleep in her bedroom with a noisy air conditioner three feet from the head of her bed, and that her car was parked out front. McLaughlin radioed his dispatcher to say he was entering the home to perform a welfare check. Both officers entered with their guns drawn. The day after the incident, McInerney told an internal affairs investigator that she was furious, felt "totally violated" after the incident. McInerney's suit alleged her rights had been violated when the officers entered her residence without a warrant, without her consent, and without any "legally recognizable exigent circumstances" justifying their warrantless entry. In dismissing McInerney's claims, the court ruled that King was not personally responsible for McLaughlin’s warrantless entry into the home because he had no authority to direct McLaughlin’s actions. The court concluded that it was objectively reasonable for King to enter the house behind McLaughlin to provide backup for the deputy’s safety. The Tenth Circuit reversed the trial court's grant of summary judgment, finding that King had fair notice that his conduct in entering McInerney’s house without a warrant was unlawful. "[B]ased on the existing case law at the time of Officer King’s warrantless entry – both those cases finding exigent circumstances and those holding such circumstances were not present – it was clearly established that the circumstances he confronted did not constitute exigent circumstances. [. . .] it was clearly established that officers may not create exigent circumstances to justify their actions. Thus, the district court erred in granting Officer King summary judgment based on qualified immunity."
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