Lewis v. Caraballo

98 F.4th 521

Cameron LEWIS, individually, Plaintiff - Appellee, v. Kevin CARABALLO, individually, and in his official capacity asa Maryland State Police Officer/Trooper, Defendant - Appellant,andDept. of State Police/State of Maryland, Defendant.

No. 22-2115

United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit

Argued: September 20, 2023

Decided: April 15, 2024

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, at Baltimore. Catherine C. Blake, Senior District Judge. (1:21-cv-01872-CCB)

ARGUED: Phillip M. Pickus, OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF MARYLAND, Pikesville, Maryland, for Appellant. Charles H. Seidell, MCDERMOTT, WILL & EMERY, LLP, Washington, D.C., for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Anthony G. Brown, Attorney General, OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF MARYLAND, Baltimore, Maryland, for Appellant. Stephanie A. Shipley, SHIPLEY LAW FIRM, Easton, Maryland; Paul W. Hughes, Alex C. Boota, MCDERMOTT WILL & EMERY LLP, Washington, D.C., for Appellee.

Before DIAZ, Chief Judge, WYNN, Circuit Judge, and KEENAN, Senior Circuit Judge.

Affirmed by published opinion. Judge Wynn wrote the majority opinion, in which Senior Judge Keenan joined. Chief Judge Diaz wrote an opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part.

WYNN, Circuit Judge:

While executing an arrest in 2018, Maryland State Trooper Kevin Caraballo resorted to striking fifteen-year-old Cameron Lewis in the head with several successive blows. Lewis sued Caraballo in his individual capacity, bringing state and federal constitutional claims for excessive force and a state-law battery claim. Caraballo filed a motion for summary judgment on the grounds of qualified and statutory immunity, which the district court denied. This appeal followed.

Construing the facts in the light most favorable to Lewis, as we are required to do at this stage of the proceedings, we agree with the district court that disputes of material fact preclude summary judgment. A reasonable jury could find that Caraballo struck Lewis when the teenager did not pose a threat, was not actively resistant, and was subdued. Several consecutive closed-fist punches to the head of an arrestee in those conditions constitute excessive force. We further hold that Lewis's constitutional right to be free from excessive force in the form of head strikes was clearly established at the time of his arrest. Moreover, we hold that there is a genuine dispute of material fact as to whether Caraballo's actions amounted to gross negligence or malice, precluding summary judgment in his favor on his statutory immunity defense. We therefore affirm the district court's order denying Caraballo's motion for summary judgment.

I.

Because this case is before us on interlocutory appeal, we recount the facts as the district court found them. See, e.g., Waterman v. Batton, 393 F.3d 471, 473 (4th Cir. 2005) ("In reviewing the denial of summary judgment based on qualified immunity, we accept as true the facts that the district court concluded may be reasonably inferred from the record when viewed in the light most favorable to the plaintiff."); Hicks v. Ferreyra, 965 F.3d 302, 305 (4th Cir. 2020) (same). "To the extent that the district court has not fully set forth the facts on which its decision is based, we assume the facts that may reasonably be inferred from the record when viewed in the light most favorable to the plaintiff." Smith v. Ray, 781 F.3d 95, 98 (4th Cir. 2015) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted).

The plaintiff, Lewis, "is a biracial male with a documented mental health condition" who, at the time of this incident, was fifteen years old. Lewis v. Caraballo, 2022 WL 4558218, at *1 (D. Md. Sept. 29, 2022). Defendant Caraballo is a Trooper First Class with the Maryland State Police.

During the early evening of July 28, 2018, Caraballo was on patrol when he received a radio call to respond to a domestic incident at an apartment complex. The call indicated the incident was "active" and "physical." J.A. 47.¹ Caraballo was the first officer to arrive at the complex, where he found fifteen-year-old Lewis pacing on a sidewalk and his mother, Crystal Lewis, crying nearby on her front steps. Caraballo approached Ms. Lewis, who told him that her son had physically assaulted her.

Carballo then approached Lewis, who clenched his fists, assumed a "fighting stance," and shouted, "[Y]o get the fuck away from me." Caraballo, 2022 WL 4558218, at *1. Caraballo tried talking to Lewis, but the teenager maintained a fighting position and continued yelling at him. There was no indication Lewis was armed.

Sergeant Glenn Ray of the Greensboro Police Department in Greensboro, Maryland, then arrived wearing a body camera that captured the remainder of the encounter with Lewis, which lasted about two minutes.

As Ray arrived, Caraballo was following Lewis, who was backing away and telling Caraballo not to touch him. Ray joined Caraballo and asked Lewis, "[W]hat's going on?" Id. at *2. Lewis continued backing away, repeatedly telling the officers not to touch him. Lewis then moved off the sidewalk, backed into the parking lot between two parked cars, and shouted at the officers to "get the fuck away from me." Id. The officers continued advancing toward him.

Ray then reached out toward Lewis and, for the first time, ordered him to stop. In response, Lewis clenched his fists below his waist, bent his knees, and shouted, "[A]in't nobody fucking playing with you." Id. Ray responded, "I'm not gonna be scared by that," and again asked, "[W]hat's going on?" Id. Lewis took a few steps away from the officers, then "resum[ed] his hostile, clenched-fist stance and repeat[ed] his demand not to be touched." Id.

Several seconds later, Ray pointed his taser at Lewis and warned, "I'll tase you, I don't care how old you are. Stop! Put your hands behind your back." J.A. 65 (Video Exhibit) at 2:12-2:16. Lewis responded, "[N]o," and Ray repeated his command for Lewis to place his hands behind his back. Caraballo, 2022 WL 4558218, at *2. Lewis asked "why," and Ray ordered Lewis to "do it now." Id. Lewis again asked "why" before shouting, "[Y]'all don't touch me." Id.

Without verbal warning, both officers—who are visibly larger than Lewis—lunged toward the teenager, grabbed him by the front of his shirt, and shoved him backward into the grassy area in the parking lot.

Lewis's claims arise from Caraballo's actions over the next twenty-five seconds. The video becomes obscured and is interrupted intermittently because of Ray's proximity to Lewis's body. The district court found that the next clear image is of "Caraballo on the ground, using his weight to drag Lewis down while Sergeant Ray pushes from above. This successfully brings Lewis to his hands and knees, and Sergeant Ray is then able to force Lewis the rest of the way to the ground, face-down." Id. (citations omitted).

Caraballo then deployed three kinds of force against Lewis. Id. First, though the footage becomes unclear again, Caraballo attested that he "executed three (3) elbow strikes to the back of Mr. Lewis' shoulder area" while Lewis was still on his hands and knees with his face down. Id.

Next, Caraballo executed knee strikes on Lewis, who was still down. Lewis claimed that Caraballo "forcibly knee[d] [Lewis] in the head," while Caraballo claimed his knee strikes hit Lewis's rib area. Id. at *3.

After the elbow and knee strikes came Caraballo's head strikes. The district court found that Caraballo moved over Lewis, "adopt[ed] a boxer-like stance," and struck Lewis's head area "approximately five times" as Lewis screamed in pain. Id. The video shows Caraballo punching downward at Lewis with alternating swings and hitting the area around the back of Lewis's head or left shoulder, but it does not show precisely where the blows landed. The court cited Caraballo's attestation that he "executed five (5) closed fist strikes," "striking Mr. Lewis 4 total times in the head area." Id.

As Caraballo struck Lewis's head, Ray tased Lewis. Though not visible, the sound of the taser discharging can be heard in the body-camera video. The district court found that the video "appears to show" that the taser's clicking noise, indicating discharge, began after the "first one to two head strikes." Id. Caraballo later claimed he was unaware Ray was simultaneously tasing Lewis.

After Ray tased Lewis, Lewis became fully compliant, and Caraballo relented. The officers ordered Lewis to place his hands behind his back and handcuffed him. At this point, a third officer is visible in the video, assisting Caraballo and Ray. As Lewis repeatedly pled with the officers to let him get up, Caraballo pulled Lewis up, saying, "[Y]eah, get the fuck up motherfucker." J.A. 65 (Video Exhibit) at 3:33-3:40. Caraballo later stated in a Declaration that he broke his prescription glasses during the altercation, and Ray's incident report stated that those glasses cost about $600. After the officers pulled Lewis up and took him to the police car, Caraballo remarked that his glasses were "fucking shattered." Id. at 5:20-5:27.

The district court found that throughout this interaction, Lewis could be heard "yelling in pain and protest" and could "be seen struggling with the officers." Caraballo, 2022 WL 4558218, at *3. While Caraballo characterized these reactions as Lewis "resisting" arrest, the court found that, viewing these actions in the light most favorable to Lewis, they may "merely have been a natural response to the physical nature of the arrest." Id. at *3, *6.

The court also determined that, at the time Caraballo began striking Lewis's head, the video was "inconclusive" as to the position of Lewis's hands, the degree to which he may have been handcuffed, and whether the third officer had already arrived. Id. at *3. Finally, the court found that when Caraballo began striking Lewis's head, "[Lewis] was at least partially subdued." Id. at *6.

On July 27, 2021, Lewis sued Caraballo in his individual capacity for excessive...