Federal judge rules two deputies used excessive force

A man pulled from his home and arrested at gunpoint after two Spokane County Sheriff’s deputies went to the wrong address achieved a partial victory this week when a federal judge ruled that the deputies violated his Fourth Amendment seizure rights and used excessive force.

Conner Griffith-Guerrero filed a federal civil lawsuit against Deputy Robert Brooke, Deputy Evan Logan and Spokane County in 2015, two years after the incident at his home on North Five Mile Road. Both sides filed summary judgment requests and this week U.S. District Court Judge Thomas O. Rice ruled that a portion of each request would be granted.

On Dec. 13, 2013, a resident on North Five Mile Road called 911 to report that there was a suspicious car parked at his neighbor’s house and his neighbor was in Arizona for the winter. He provided the address to the house, but deputies couldn’t find the house and instead went to another home. They drew their guns and walked around the house, testing doors and shining their flashlights in windows, according to court documents.

Griffith-Guerrero was in the basement watching television when he saw the flashlights shining in. He said he was afraid he was about to be burglarized so he went upstairs and hit the front door to let whoever was outside know that someone was home, the lawsuit said. He went outside to look and saw someone with a gun. He screamed and ran into the house.

Brooke then identified himself and Griffith-Guerrero opened the door and was ordered outside the home and told to kneel in the front yard while he was handcuffed. He said that one of the deputies was pointing a gun at him the whole time, but the deputy testified in a deposition that he was merely holding his gun in the “low ready” position.

After it was determined that Griffith-Guerrero lived there, Brooke reportedly told him “You’re lucky I didn’t (expletive) shoot you,” the lawsuit said.

According to court documents, Brooke received a “shift counseling,” described as the lowest level of discipline, for going to the wrong address.

Heather Yakely, the attorney representing Spokane County and the deputies, argued that the deputies had reasonable suspicion to approach the house and detain Griffith-Guerrero. The deputies were checking for signs of a burglary and Yakely argued there was no violation of the Fourth Amendment because deputies never crossed the threshold into the house.

Rice said the deputies did have the right to check the home for signs of a break-in, but ruled the deputies committed a warrantless seizure and used excessive force. “Searches and seizures inside a home without a warrant are presumptively unreasonable,” he wrote. “It does not matter that the officers did not actually enter the house to make the arrest.

“Ordering plaintiff out of his home is a categorical violation of his Fourth Amendment rights – whether it is called a temporary detention or an arrest, it was a seizure.”

Rice wrote that he found the defense’s arguments that the deputies did not use excessive force “unconvincing.”

“Pointing guns at plaintiff, ordering him out of his home at night and onto his knees in his own front yard to handcuff him was objectively unreasonable under the circumstances,” Rice wrote.

Rice did agree with Yakely on another issue. He ordered Spokane County dismissed from the lawsuit because Griffith-Guerrero didn’t show that there was a “pattern or practice of officers conducting illegal warrantless searches.”

Rice ruled that Griffith-Guerrero’s claims of assault and battery, false arrest and imprisonment and negligence in the lawsuit can be pursued.