Lawyer's suit against cellphone-grabbing courthouse deputy is revived
A federal appeals court has revived a Fourth Amendment claim by an Atlanta lawyer who says she was injured by a courthouse deputy who grabbed her cellphone after she refused to remove her jacket during security screening.
The Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said lawyer Lisa West could assert her Fourth Amendment seizure claim that the deputy injured her wrist when he twisted it in an attempt to wrest the cellphone from her hand. The Daily Report covered the panel opinion (PDF).
“The restraint of one’s freedom of movement does not have to endure for any minimum time period before it becomes a seizure for Fourth Amendment purposes,” the majority opinion said.
West’s suit says the incident occurred as she was going through a security line at the Fulton County Courthouse in December 2010. After she triggered an alarm, a deputy asked her to remove her suit jacket. West replied that the jacket was part of her outfit and removing it would expose her undergarments, the suit says. She repeatedly asked for a supervisor.
After several minutes, the deputy agreed to call for a supervisor and West pulled out her cellphone to make some calls. As she was speaking with her client, West alleges, the deputy ordered her to get off the phone, grabbed her hand and twisted her wrist, causing severe pain. After being checked with a wand, West was allowed to proceed through the line.
West says she went to the hospital after her court appearance for treatment of the wrist injury. She had carpal tunnel surgery on the wrist a year later.
The case goes back to the trial court, which could still rule the deputy had immunity.
