False imprisonment/arrest.

U.S. District Court

FALSE IMPRISONMENT PROBABLE CAUSE 

McCray v. City of Dothan, 169 F.Supp.2d 1260 (M.D.Ala. 2001). A deaf African-American plaintiff brought a civil rights action against police officers and a city. The district court declined to enter summary judgment in favor of the defendants on assault and false imprisonment claims. The court held that a genuine issue of material fact existed as to whether the city was guilty of failure to take disciplinary action against police officers for constitutional violations, such that its inaction amounted to the type of informal policy or custom that was actionable under ?? 1988. According to the court, the frequency of constitutional violations may, in itself, provide sufficient circumstantial evidence that a municipality has chosen to allow its officers to act without adequate training. The court held that officers did not act with deliberate indifference to the plaintiff's medical needs even though they delayed treatment. The court held that summary judgment for the defendants was precluded by a genuine issue of material fact as to whether the officers acted in bad faith, with malice or willfulness, in unlawfully stopping and arresting the plaintiff and by misstating that he resisted arrest and assaulted them. (City of Dothan, Alabama)