Trial order for deputy upheld in rights case

A St. Francis County sheriff ’s deputy must go to trial on a motorist’s civil-rights suit against him, a federal appeals court said Thursday, affirming Chief U.S. District Judge Brian Miller’s refusal to grant qualified immunity to the deputy.

The case concerns whether the motorist, Christopher Stoner of Oklahoma, violated an Arkansas law prohibiting the possession of a gun in a vehicle “with a purpose to employ the weapon against a person.”

Stoner, an ammunition salesman, was a passenger in a car with Oklahoma license plates that was being driven by his wife when Deputy Eugene Watlingten stopped the vehicle on May 25, 2010, on Interstate 40 near Forrest City about a traffic infraction, according to the opinion. It said that when the deputy learned of Stoner’s profession, he asked if guns or ammunition were in the car. Stoner admitted he had a 9mm handgun, a .22-caliber pistol

and an AK-47, as well as some ammunition, in the trunk. He also agreed to show the weapons to the deputy.

Stoner contends the guns weren’t loaded. He said he did have clips loaded with ammunition, but they weren’t in the guns. All of the items were packed separately in a guitar case lying underneath the family’s luggage, he said.

Watlingten cited Stoner for violating an Arkansas law prohibiting anyone from carrying a handgun, knife or club “in or about his person” in a vehicle he is occupying, “or otherwise readily available for use with a purpose to employ … as a weapon against a person.”

The deputy contends that the guns were loaded, that the AK-47 had a round in its chamber, and that all were in a guitar case sitting on top of the luggage in the trunk.

He cited Stoner with three counts of violating the law in question, Arkansas Code Annotated 5-73-120(a), and transported him to the county jail, where he was held for about four hours. The deputy prosecuting attorney later chose not to pursue the charges, saying Stoner had a valid reason for having the guns because he was on a journey at the time.

The law permits carrying a weapon when on a journey.

Stoner, who at the time of his arrest had been traveling home to Oklahoma with his family, later sued the deputy and four other deputies who arrived after the stop, alleging they violated his civil rights. Miller, who is presiding over the case that was filed in the Helena-West Helena division of U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas, later dismissed all claims except Stoner’s false-arrest claim against Watlingten.

Watlingten, like the other deputies, had sought immunity from liability on the grounds that he was just doing his job. But Miller said a factual dispute existed as to whether Watlingten had probable cause to believe that Stoner possessed the guns “with a purpose to employ them against another person.”

Factual disputes, Miller said, must be decided by a jury.

The deputy appealed the pretrial ruling, leading to Thursday’s opinion by a three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in St. Louis. The opinion noted that the doctrine of qualified immunity protects government officials from liability for civil damages only if their conduct “does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known.”

The appellate panel agreed that factual dispute exists as to whether Watlingten had reason to believe that Stoner possessed the guns “with a purpose to employ” them “against another person.”

If Stoner’s version is true, the panel said, “a prudent officer would not be justified” in believing that Stoner had such a purpose. The panel also noted that a citizen’s Fourth Amendment right not to be arrested without probable cause “is indeed clearly established,” preventing the deputy from being protected by qualified immunity.

As of Friday, no jury trial date has been set in the case, which was on hold during the appeal of Miller’s pretrial ruling.

The appellate panel consisted of Chief U.S. Circuit Judge William Jay Riley of Omaha, Neb., as well as U.S. Circuit Judges Myron Bright and Kermit Bye, both of Fargo, N.D.

Stoner is being represented by Benton attorney Bryan Huffman, while Watlingten is represented by the Rainwater, Holt & Sexton firm in Little Rock.