Duffie v. City of Lincoln

After the LPD conducted a high-risk traffic stop of plaintiff, he filed suit against the City and three officers involved in the stop under 42 U.S.C. 1983 for deprivation of his constitutional rights. The district court granted defendants' motion for summary judgment based on qualified immunity. In this case, an officer relied on an incident report that did not contain information sufficient to create reasonable suspicion that plaintiff had already, was, or was about to commit a crime; Nebraska law permits individuals who are at least 18 years old to open carry handguns in public; the City does not restrict an individual's right to open carry except in certain locations; and the mere report of a person with a handgun is insufficient to create reasonable suspicion. The court concluded that an objectively reasonable officer could not reliably conclude that the young man described in the report could not legally possess a firearm. The incident report also did not adequately make out a case that the young man committed assault; the officers' reports reflect that they were responding to the display of a weapon, not a threat against the clerk; and an objectively reasonable police officer would not mistake a 58-year-old bald, double amputee, male for a young adult with hair. Therefore, the court concluded that plaintiff sufficiently alleges a violation of his Fourth Amendment rights. Because the district court erred in granting the officers qualified immunity, the court reversed and remanded for further proceedings. View "Duffie v. City of Lincoln" on Justia Law