# Dennis Ryan, Jr. v. Officer Mary Armstrong

> Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit · March 7, 2017 · 850 F.3d 419

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9872912

## Case

- **Full name:** Dennis RYAN, Jr., as Trustee for the Heirs and Next of Kin of Jerome Deon Ladette Harrell, Plaintiff-Appellant v. Officer Mary ARMSTRONG; Officer Patrick Culloton; Officer Craig Stowell; Officer Gilbert Michalski; Officer Mark Hill; Officer Joseph Klebs; Sergeant Mark Maslonkowski; Officer Adam Seifferman, Individually and in Their Official Capacity; Captain Pam Jensen, Individually and in Her Official Capacity; Stearns County, Defendants-Appellees
- **Court:** Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
- **Decided:** March 7, 2017
- **Citations:** 850 F.3d 419; 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 3990; 2017 WL 894459
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurring in part by Loken
- **Judges:** Loken, Murphy, Kelly
- **Cited by:** 151 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9872912

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- holding that officers who entered a cell to bring a detainee who was behaving erratically to be medically assessed were entitled to qualified immunity when the officers placed their body weight on the detainee and tased him while he resisted and bit one of the officers
- finding that county jail officers violated this law “when they allowed [a pretrial detainee] to scream, howl, and bang against his cell door for eight hours without attempting to talk to him or seek medical intervention,” and the detainee died shortly thereafter
- concluding that the efforts made by officers to remove a severely mentally agitated detainee from his cell were objectively reasonable
- holding that officers placing body weight on the plaintiff and tasing the plaintiff twice in drive stun mode was objectively reasonable where the plaintiff was not complying with officers’ commands and continued to resist restraint
- holding no excessive force where officers twice tased a prisoner (in drive-stun mode) who was being removed from his cell for a medical assessment due to erratic behavior because he was "actively resisting the extraction procedure by ignoring directives to lie down on his bunk…

## Opinion text

LOKEN, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I concur in Part II.B. of the court’s opinion. I respectfully dissent from Parts H.A., II.C., and III. In my view, the grant of summary judgment in favor of defendants Mary Armstrong and Patrick Cullo- *429 ton should be affirmed for the reasons stated by the district court in its Memorandum Opinion and Order dated January 5, 2016. I would therefore affirm the judgment of the district court.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9872912. Public record. Not legal advice.