161908P.pdf   05/30/2017  Ricky Tatum  v.  Willie Robinson
   U.S. Court of Appeals Case No:  16-1908
   U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas - Little Rock   
   [PUBLISHED] Benton, Author, with Loken and Beam, Circuit Judges] 
   Civil Case - civil rights - qualified immunity. District court's denial of 
   qualified immunity to officer who used pepper spray is reversed. Although 
   the officer used force on a non-resisting, non-fleeing individual 
   suspected of a completed, non-violent misdemeanor and, while some force 
   may have been reasonable, a jury could find that the officer used an 
   unreasonable amount of force when he pepper sprayed Tatum, the use of 
   pepper spray on an angrily arguing individual was not clearly established 
   at the time of this incident. The denial of qualified immunity on a claim 
   that the officer used excessive force when he choked him for an extended 
   period while restrained and not resisting is affirmed, as the law is 
   clearly established that such a use of force is unreasonable. Judge Loken 
   dissents in part.