Summary judgment in excessive force case.

We obtained summary judgment on behalf of four police officers accused of excessive force. ​An 87-year-old woman called 911 when she saw the plaintiff, whom she did not know, sitting in his car in her driveway. The four officers arrived to investigate the clearly intoxicated man, who refused to cooperate by providing his name. Instead, he identified himself only as "Child of God." During the course of his subsequent arrest, he bit one of the officers and resisted arrest, leading to his conviction on several counts, including possession of the methamphetamine found in his pocket. The court agreed that the plaintiff's claims of being hit in the head with four police flashlights, although he received only a small cut that did not require stitches, was not a plausible tale, especially absent any expert report establishing causation. The court granted our clients' qualified immunity.