Logan v. City of Mobile

1

BYONCA LOGAN, Plaintiff, v. CITY OF MOBILE and MICHAEL ISRAEL, Defendants.

Civ. No. Action 1:22-00237-KD-MU

United States District Court, S.D. Alabama, Southern Division

April 1, 2024

ORDER

KRISTI K. DUBOSE UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

This matter is before the Court on Defendants The City of Mobile Alabama (the “City”) and Micah Israel's^[1] (“Officer Israel”) (collectively “Defendants”) Motion for Summary Judgment, (Doc. 34), and evidentiary material in support thereof, Plaintiff Byonca Logan's (“Logan” or “Plaintiff”) Response in Opposition, (Doc. 41) and evidentiary material in support thereof, and Defendants' Reply, (Doc. 42). Upon consideration and for the reasons set forth herein, it is ORDERED that Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment, (Doc. 34) is GRANTED.

I. BACKGROUND

A. Officer Israel and Ms. Logan's Prior “History”

Ms. Logan stated in her deposition that she first met Officer Israel in 2020, while they both worked at Compass Urgent Care during the COVID-19 Pandemic. (Doc. 41-1 at 5; Doc. 41 at 3). She claimed Officer Israel was directing traffic from the testing lines. (Doc. 41-1 at 5). They became acquainted, and he purportedly asked for her number, which she did not give to him. (Id. at 6). Ms. Logan said that, when she oversaw traffic one day, she reached out “under [her] manager's orders to see where he was,” allowing Officer Israel to get her number. (Id.). He allegedly sent her some text messages to which she did not respond. (Id.). Officer Israel acknowledged that it was possible that he asked for her number and admitted that he was attracted to her. (Doc. 41-2 at 13-14). Per Ms. Logan, Officer Israel became offended at her rejection. (Doc. 41-1 at 10). This supposedly culminated in a scene at work in which Officer Israel felt disrespected when Ms. Logan called him by his first name. (Id. at 7). Meanwhile, Officer Israel denied ever being offended or hurt that Ms. Logan rejected his advances. (Doc. 356 at 17).

B. The Melee on Dauphin Street

Fast forward to November 27, 2021, when Ms. Logan went to downtown Mobile to meet up with friends and watch the Iron Bowl. (Doc. 34 at 2; Doc. 41 at 7). After the game, she eventually met a friend at the Lit Cigar Lounge on Dauphin Street before heading home to change. (Id.). Ms. Logan returned to the Lit Cigar Lounge around 9:00 p.m. to meet up with different friends and was drinking alcohol. (Id.). The bar was crowded, and Ms. Logan got pushed into a woman who was not pleased about being pushed. (Doc. 34 at 3; Doc. 41 at 7). According to Ms. Logan, the woman was “hung up” on being pushed, which “kind of threw the energy off in there.” (Doc. 35-1 at 9). Subsequently, Logan and her friends decided to leave Lit Cigar Lounge for Lure, a bar farther east on Dauphin Street. (Doc. 34 at 3; Doc. 41 at 7). Walking out, the woman into whom Ms. Logan was pushed threw a drink at Logan and her friends, which prompted hollering and cursing between the woman and Logan's friends. (Id.). Unbeknownst to Logan and her friends, a separate group of unknown women were waiting outside of the Lit Cigar Lounge, one of whom sprayed mace or pepper spray into Logan's face. (Id.). “And from there, I mean, a fight occurred.” (Doc. 35-1 at 10). Ms. Logan does not dispute that she was involved in this fight, and that “she was throwing and taking punches with at least two different women.” (Doc. 41 at 7). Bystander video footage indicates that Logan, a woman with long, brown hair wearing a brown and white outfit, was fighting several different women. (Docs. 35-3; 35-4; 35-5). Logan can be seen trading punches with a woman in a red shirt as they both hit the ground and got back up. (Doc. 35-3). After a woman in a white sweater tried to grab Logan's wrist, Logan hit her several times, and a woman with long, orange hair wearing a blue hat joined the other in fighting off Logan. (Doc. 35-4). Logan was then pitted against the wall of one of the buildings on Dauphin Street before again hitting the ground, all the while trading kicks, shoves, and slaps with numerous others. (Doc. 35-5). Meanwhile, a crowd gathered around can be seen watching, jeering, and filming as the scuffle takes place. (Docs. 35-3; 35-4; 35-5).

C. Ms. Logan's Arrest and the Complained-Of Injury

According to Officer Israel, given the “hectic” nature of the club scene following the Iron Bowl, he was stationed in the area of Dauphin Street and North Jackson Street that same night. (Doc. 35-6 at 18). Officer Israel supposedly saw a crowd of people running over to a fight involving women. (Id.). Per Officer Israel, he and his supervisor, Officer Byrd, walked up to the altercation in which Ms. Logan and other women, including Allenson Ingram, were “scuffling around,” with “blows on both sides still being thrown.” (Doc. 35-6 at 20-21). Body-worn camera (BWC) footage from Sergeant Gibbs, (Doc. 35-7, 00:00-01:30), and Officer Byrd, (Doc. 35-10, 0:00-01:00), confirms that the police officers, including Officer Israel, a black male with short hair, approached what looks like the mostly finished Dauphin Street confrontation. Logan can be seen facing the woman with long, orange hair as that woman was pinned up against the wall of a building. (Doc. 35-7, 01:05-01:08). Logan can also be seen in Officer Israel's BWC footage.

(Doc. 40, Ex. D, 00:32). Suddenly, Ingram and the woman with long, orange hair started slapping each other and Ingram can be seen pulling her hair before the officers broke up the fight and handcuffed Ingram. (Doc. 35-7, 01:38-02:00; Doc. 35-10, 1:18-1:40).

Officer Israel asserted in his deposition that Ms. Logan was still trying to fight with Ingram while Ingram and the lady with orange hair were tussling. (Doc. 35-6 at 22). Logan disputes that she attempted to engage in this fight, the “insinuation” that she subsequently struck Officer Israel with her right arm, and that her arm came down on Officer Israel. (Doc. 41 at 8). Meanwhile, Sergeant Gibbs' BWC footage shows Logan's leg touching Ingram, who was on the ground being handcuffed, and Logan's arm reaching for Ingram and then touching Officer Israel, who was assisting with Ingram's arrest. (Doc. 35-7, 01:56-02:00). Bystander video confirms that Logan reached for Ingram while Sergeant Gibbs and Officer Israel were in the process of restraining Ingram, and that Sergeant Gibbs shoved Logan backward before she tried to walk away. (Doc. 35-11, 00:00-00:05). Plaintiff does not dispute that she was shoved. (Doc. 41 at 8). Officer Israel can then be seen beelining towards Logan. (Doc. 35-7, 02:00-02:03). According to Officer Israel, he knew that Logan was attempting to reach Ingram and in so doing, Ms. Logan hit him with a fist. (Doc. 35-6 at 24-25). After confirming with Sergeant Gibbs that Gibbs was able to complete handcuffing Ingram, Officer Israel went to detain Ms. Logan. (Id. at 25). He directed her to a building on the south side of Dauphin Street to keep her separated. (Id.).

At that point, Officer Israel grabbed Ms. Logan's right arm with his right arm before pushing her against the wall of a building. (Doc. 35-13, 0:00-0:10). Officer Israel can be heard telling the crowd to “back up” and “move.” (Id., 0:04-0:07). After the video briefly pans away, Ms. Logan can then be seen facing Officer Israel. (Id., 0:12-0:17). Officer Israel held Logan's right wrist with his left hand and had his right arm on her right shoulder. (Id.). Officer Israel then attempted to spin Logan around to again face the wall by pushing her right arm behind her with his left hand while moving her body in the same direction with his right arm. (Id., 0:19-0:25). They both spun around before Officer Israel finally had Logan against the wall again. (Id., 0:20-0:30). Logan then placed both hands behind her back. (Id.). Officer Byrd then entered the scene and handcuffed Logan while Officer Israel backed away. (Id., 0:30-0:40). On Officer Byrd's BWC footage, Logan can be heard telling Officer Israel, “I'm not fighting you!” (Doc. 35-10, 02:1002:14). She repeated to Officer Byrd that she was not fighting Officer Israel while Officer Byrd was handcuffing her. (Id., 02:22-02:24).

Ms. Logan “does not dispute the objective physical actions that are depicted” in the bystander video. (Doc. 41 at 9). She stated in her deposition that she approached the officers handcuffing Ingram to try to “clear” one of her friends of wrongdoing to the officers but then Officer Israel saw her, who “grabbed [her] from the back.” (Doc. 35-1 at 13). She remembered being “pulled, twisted, thrown.” (Id.). Ms. Logan also testified that she did not resist Officer's Israel's attempt to arrest her, that Officer Israel “knew who [she] was” during the arrest, and that when she asked him why he was arresting her, he told her, “Shut the fuck up, you just hit me.” (Doc. 41-1 at 18). Officer Israel, on the other hand, testified that he gave her verbal commands to turn around and stop moving but that she failed to comply. (Doc. 35-6 at 31-32). He explained that he was attempting to put handcuffs on her but did not because she “kept turning around” and “kept not complying.” (Id. at 32). Officer Israel disputed that he recognized Ms. Logan at the time he attempted to handcuff her. (Id. at 15-16) (“If I would have seen her probably more than that, yeah, but at that time I still had a job to do.”).

Once in handcuffs, Ms. Logan told Officer Byrd, “I really think my shoulder's broke.” (Doc. 35-10, 06:18-06:20). “I really think my arm's broke.” (Id., 06:28-06:30). Officer Byrd can be heard calling EMS for her. (Id., 07:05-07:14). Officer Byrd placed Logan briefly in the back of his police vehicle, and after discussing the fight with the other officers, removed the handcuffs from Logan. (Id., 08:52-14:02). EMS personnel spoke with...