Megan Green v. Cliff Sommer, No. 22-1288 (8th Cir. 2022)
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Plaintiff attended protests in downtown St. Louis. While she was leaving, an armored St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department (“SLMPD”) vehicle fired tear gas in her direction. Plaintiff sued the City of St. Louis, 12 police officers who were members of the SWAT team on duty that night, and several SLMPD officials for constitutional and state law violations. The district court denied a motion to dismiss based on qualified immunity for four Defendant officers specifically alleged to have been in the armored vehicle at the time of the incident. As to eight Defendant officers not specifically alleged to have been in the vehicle, the district court denied the motion to dismiss on the grounds that additional discovery was needed.
The Eighth Circuit reversed the denial of qualified immunity as to the eight Defendant officers for whom specific allegations were not made. The court affirmed as to the four defendant officers for whom specific allegations were made. The court explained that Plaintiff’s allegation, and the district court’s finding, that Plaintiff was not committing a crime when she was tear-gassed is enough to plausibly allege the tear-gassing was in retaliation for the First Amendment activity. Further, the complaint did not plausibly allege that the eight officers were personally involved in the violation of clearly established constitutional rights. Accordingly, the court reversed the district court’s denial of the Officers’ motion to dismiss.
Court Description: [Melloy, Author, with Gruender and Erickson, Circuit Judges] Civil case - Civil rights. In action alleging St. Louis police officers violated plaintiff's civil rights when they fired tear gas in her direction during the protests surrounding the acquittal of St. Louis police officer Jason Stockley, the district court did not err in denying the motion for summary judgment based on qualified immunity filed by four officers who allegedly tear-gassed plaintiff from an armored vehicle, as plaintiff's allegation that she was not committing any crime when she was tear-gassed was enough to plausibly allege the tear-gassing was in retaliation for her First Amendment activities; the district court erred in denying eight other officers' motion for summary judgment based on qualified immunity as the complaint did not plausibly allege they were personally involved in the alleged violation of clearly established constitutional rights; with respect to plaintiff's conspiracy claims, it was not clearly established at the time of the incident that officers could conspire with one another to violate a First Amendment right, and the district court erred by not dismissing this claim; the district court did not err in denying defendants official immunity on plaintiff's state law claims.
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