Robert Massie v. Basilea Mena

In the early morning of June 22, 2016, Respondent Basilea Mena and her boyfriend, Jacob Tellez, both admittedly intoxicated, got into a domestic argument on their way home from an evening of beer drinking. They ended up by a palm tree on a traffic median in the middle of Speedway Boulevard, a six-lane arterial street in central Tucson, where they continued arguing. Officer Robert Massie, Petitioner here, contacted Mena and Tellez. Massie wanted Tellez and Mena off the traffic median, and separated, as soon as possible, for their own, officer, and public safety, and to allow investigation through individual interviews. After Mena was uncooperative for about three minutes, repeatedly refusing to provide identification or to move away from Tellez, Massie decided to detain her in handcuffs and move her off the median. When Massie attempted to handcuff Mena using only his own physical strength, Mena resisted by jerking her arm, and Massie’s body weight pushed or pressed her forward into the palm tree. Mena suffered superficial scrapes and abrasions. Both the district court and the Ninth Circuit denied Massie qualified immunity regarding Mena’s excessive force claim brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Massie therefore presents the following questions for review: (1) Under the particular facts and circumstances of this case, did the Ninth Circuit err in finding