From [HERE] The mother of a 26-year-old Black man who was fatally shot by police officers nearly eight years ago asked a federal appeals court Friday to reverse the dismissal of her civil rights suit. The three-judge circuit panel did not signal when they intend to issue a ruling.

Monteria Robinson's excessive force claims were dismissed by a lower court because the officers were acting as part of a federal task force law with the U.S. Marshal Service. 

On appeal, she argued that should be able to sue because the officers on the task force were acting under state law and abiding by state agencies' policies and procedures. 

Her attorney, Mario Williams, argued before the 11th Circuit panel on Friday that all members of U.S. Marshal Service enforcement operations are required to comply with state agency guidelines, including those concerning the use of firearms and deadly force. 

If the officers were not employed by local law enforcement agencies, which empower them with Georgia general arrest powers, they wouldn't have had the authority to execute the arrest warrant against Jamarion Robinson to begin with, Williams argued. 

But U.S. Circuit Judge Elizabeth Branch noted differences between this case and the Supreme Court Bivens case, which found that an implied cause of action existed for an people whose Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure had been violated by the Federal Bureau of Narcotics.

Unlike in Bivens where federal narcotic officers executed a warrantless arrest, the task force officers in this case were acting in execution of valid arrest warrants. They also engaged in a gunfight with Jamarion Robinson who was armed, where as the suspect in Bivens was unarmed. 

"This is a very hard hill for you to climb up," said Branch. "How is having an arrest warrant for him not meaningful?"

Williams said the fact that the arrestee was armed does not mean the officers did not engage in excessive use of force. 

U.S. Circuit Judge Jill Pryor asked whether a Bivens remedy applies against officers working as fugitive task force agents of the Marshal Service. The Supreme Court's recent decision in Egbert held that any claim that isn't highly similar to the facts in Bivens provides a "new context" in which a damages claim can't proceed if there is any reason to think Congress might be better equipped to create a damages remedy.

Assistant U.S. attorney Gabriel Mendel, representing task force officers Eric Heinze and Daniel Doyle, argued the circumstances of this case present a new context requiring consideration of special factors.

Mendel defended the lower court's finding that alternative remedial structures exist, including an administrative scheme under the Federal Tort Claims Act that permits plaintiffs to sue those acting on behalf of the United States. Monteria Robinson had already done so, and the 11th Circuit previously affirmed the judge's dismissal of those claims on summary judgment. 

U.S. Circuit Judge Frank Hull, expressed concern that Monteria Robinson may be barred from raising her claims because she did not raise the question, during her first appeal, of whether the court correctly held the defendants were acting as federal officers.

That was in 2022, when she appealed a judge's previous dismissal of the case finding that the officers' "use of force was objectively reasonable” and granting them qualified immunity.

An 11th Circuit panel found that evidence from a bystander's video created a "genuine dispute of material fact" and remanded the case for further proceedings on claims that officers Heinze and Doyle used excessive force after a flashbang exploded. [MORE]

According to the complaint in the civil case the facts are as follows:

On August 5, 2016, at approximately 12:30, seven or more members of the Task Force, including the Defendant-Officers, met at a church near Washington Road and Interstate 285 in Atlanta for the purpose of receiving information about serving an arrest warrant on decedent Jamarion Robinson at 3129 Candlewood Drive in Atlanta. Among other things, Steve O'Hare “relayed…ROBINSON’S mental health history” to the defendant officers in attendance. Approximately an hour after the meeting in the church the Defendant-Officers moved from the church near Washington Road and Interstate 285 to positions around and in front of 3129 Candlewood Drive. One or more of the Defendant-Officers pounded loudly on the front door of 3129 Candlewood Drive multiple times. Then one or more Defendant-Officers broke down the front door and, without cause or provocation by Jamarion Robinson, began “spraying” bullets around the interior of 3129 Candlewood Drive with one or more H&K 9 mm submachine guns, one or more H&K .40 mm submachine guns, and one or more Glock .40 pistols.

When one or more of the Defendant-Officers began “spraying” bullets around the interior of 3129 Candlewood Drive, they did not know how many people were in the building. Fifty-nine bullets or more from the sub-machine guns and Glocks of the Defendant Officers entered the body of Jamarion Robinson, killing him. After killing Jamarion Robinson, one or more of the defendants ascended a single flight of stairs to a second-floor landing, where the bullet-riddled corpse of Jamarion Robinson was lying.

With the intention of covering-up their actions by manipulating the evidence on the scene and with the intention making it more difficult if not impossible to accurately reconstruct the shooting-event, the defendant officers:

• Set off a flash bang grenade after lethally shooting Jamarion Robinson;

• Stood over Jamarion Robinson corpse and mutilated it by firing into it two 9 millimeter bullets;

• Handcuffed the corpse knowing that it was lifeless and without the power of animation to react to them;

• Put an oxygen rebreathing mask over the corpse knowing that it was lifeless and without the power of respiration;

• Dragged the corpse from the second floor landing down a flight of stairs to the first floor, with the purpose of attempting to destroy the evidentiary connection:

• between the bullet entry-and-exit wounds on the corpse and the surrounding walls, floor and ceiling;

• between the corpse and the blood- and flesh-spatter patterns on the surrounding walls, floor and ceiling; and

• between the corpse and its actual position when found by the defendant officers; and f. Otherwise tampered with the evidence on the scene with the intention of destroying the evidentiary value

Heinze and Hutchens are accused of using unnecessary force by continuing to shoot at Robinson even after he fell to the ground and was unresponsive. 

Daniel Doyle, another task force member who opened fire that day, died of cancer in March 2020 and was never charged.

According to a medical examiner’s report, Robinson was shot 59 times, with 75 bullet wounds that either entered or exited his body.  The family said that a pathologist found that Robinson had been shot several times through the palms of both hands.[3] Attorney for the state Natalie Adams said Thursday that the report showed that Robinson’s “hands and arms were shot to bits.”

None of the officers were injured in the incident.[4] None of the police officers involved in the shooting wore body cameras.[13] [MORE]