DISCLAIMER: Any unofficial case summaries below are prepared by the clerk's office
as a courtesy to the reader. They are not part of the opinion of the court.
212419P.pdf 05/10/2022 Crysteal Davis v. Trevor Spear
U.S. Court of Appeals Case No: 21-2419
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa - Central
[PUBLISHED] [Benton, Author, with Shepherd and Stras, Circuit Judges]
Civil case - Civil rights. In the aftermath of a stabbing where police
were able to arrest the person responsible, they took three of the
victim's family members to the police station for questioning and refused
to allow them to go to the hospital where the victim was dying; plaintiffs
brought this action for unreasonable seizure and false arrest. Held: the
district court properly denied the defendants' motion for summary judgment
based on qualified immunity; the seizures were unsupported by probable
cause and were not reasonable; the constitutional right to be free from
seizure absent probable cause was clearly established, including in cases
involving this police department; defendants were not entitled to
"all-due-care immunity" under Iowa law on the state law claims; the
district court order granting plaintiffs partial summary judgment on their
common-law false arrest or false imprisonment claim is affirmed, as that
claim is necessarily decided by the resolution of the qualified immunity
claim. Judge Stras, concurring.