By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//July 9, 2013//
United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit
Civil
Civil Rights — qualified immunity — excessive force
Where a suspect only informed one of the arresting officers of his medical condition, only that officer is not entitled to qualified immunity on an excessive force claim.
“We find that the officers are entitled to qualified immunity on the unlawful arrest claim, because even if the officers had known what that type of license was, it still would have been reasonable under clearly established law for them to detain Rabin while they verified the legitimacy of a license to carry a deadly weapon. Though the length of Rabin’s detention was unfortunate, it was largely caused by the government’s failure to have an efficient system of license verification. As for Rabin’s excessive force claims, which allege that the unnecessary tightness of the handcuffs exacerbated his preexisting medical conditions, the evidence shows that Rabin only told Deputy Sheriff Todd Knepper about his medical issues. So while Knepper is not entitled to qualified immunity on that claim, the other two officers are. Therefore we affirm the district court’s denial of qualified immunity for Knepper on the excessive force claim, but reverse the district court’s denial of qualified immunity for the rest of the claims.”
Affirmed in part, and Reversed in part.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Bucklo, J., Williams, J.