Having a Bad Day?

Evidently Officer Timothy Brown, one of Atlanta's finest, was having a bad day on July 10, 2003. It was a summer evening after a thunderstorm in an intown Atlanta neighborhood, and Laura Skop arrived home to find a tree down further up the street, and police car parked across the road diagonally to block further access -- with the rear corner of the car sticking out about a foot into her driveway -- while Officer Brown did paperwork.

Ms. Skop just wanted to park in her garage. She put her turn signal on. No response. She honked the horn. No response. She tried rolling down her window and asking the officer to move. He rolled down the window, but did not respond. She got out and went to his window and tapped on it. He rolled down the window, told her this was a dangerous area, and rolled it back up. This happened twice. From the other side of the closed window, she mouthed a request for his name and badge number. This got his attention: he hopped out and started coming towards her. She asked him to move up a foot so she could get in her driveway. And Officer Brown did what any reasonable officer would do in this situation -- he...

arrested her for obstruction and failing to obey an officer directing traffic? With several neighbors watching? And impounded her car? Yes, and took her to the police station, and booked her. She was detained until 3am, and the charges remained in her record and interfered with her ability to keep her job (for security reasons).

This incident was investigated by the APD, and Officer Brown received a two-day suspension and reprimand based on the finding that he abused his position as an officer. He also apparently received a reprimand for telling one of Skop's neighbors who expressed concern that "I may arrest you next!" And yet, in this sec. 1983 action, the district court granted summary judgment for the officer, finding he had "arguable probable cause" for arresting Skop for obstructing an officer and/or failing to comply with an officer directing traffic.

The Eleventh Circuit (Judge Marcus writing), in a strongly-worded opinion, disagreed, finding the contention that there was "arguable probable cause" for an obstruction arrest to be "utterly without merit" and suggesting that the charge regarding traffic was a deliberate attempt at a post-hoc explanation that did not fit the facts, concocted in order to avoid liability. The court also found that summary judgment based on qualified immunity was not appropriate. However, the court did affirm summary judgment in favor of Brown's supervisor and the City. See Skop v. City of Atanta. One observation: it helps to have concerned neighbors.