Federal appeals court rules for Minneapolis police in 2019 incident criticized in DOJ report

When two white Minneapolis police officers forced their way into a Black couple's apartment in 2019 without a search warrant — cursing and threatening a man who they wrongfully accused of assaulting his wife — it drew no headlines.

But it caught the attention of the U.S. Department of Justice, which last month cited the incident in a scathing 89-page report on the Minneapolis police as another example of officers' misconduct and the city's failure to adequately address those allegations.

Even so, a three-judge panel of the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last week rejected a lower court finding that the officers had violated the couple's constitutional rights, ruling that no warrant had been necessary and the officers' actions were legally justified.

The appellate court overruled U.S. District Judge John Tunheim's summary judgment decision for the couple in August 2022. The Eighth Circuit's ruling focused on an exception in case law for warrantless searches, saying that the officers "had reasonable grounds to believe that a domestic violence suspect was still inside the home with a putative victim."

Tunheim, who cited police reports and video in his decision, ruled the officers had "terrorized" the couple, pointing a gun at the man and shouting profanities while a child looked on in tears. He wrote that the Fourth Amendment protects people against unreasonable searches and an exception didn't apply in the case.

Joseph Daly, an emeritus professor at Mitchell Hamline School of Law who conducts police arbitrations, said he read the Eighth Circuit's opinion first and found it persuasive before reading Tunheim's opinion. Then he decided that Tunheim was right.

"This would really make a good class on criminal law," said Daly. "What can cause a trial judge and appellate judges to view this situation so differently?"

The appellate court deferred to the police while Tunheim gave deference to the couple subjected to the officers' vulgarities, said University of St. Thomas Prof. Charles Reid, a constitutional law expert.

"They almost seem to be describing separate realities," he said.

Tunheim, who recently assumed senior judge status, was nominated to the federal bench by President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, while the three judges on the Eighth Circuit panel were nominated by Republican President George W. Bush: Steven Colloton, who wrote the opinion, Raymond Gruender and Michael Melloy.

The Eighth Circuit opinion dismayed the couple, Benedda Cotten and Terry Davis, who have since moved from south Minneapolis to a house in Eden Prairie. Cotten, 49, is employed by a health insurance company and works as an advocate for patients. Davis, 46, is an assistant branch manager for a grocery store and coaches sports at North Commons Park in Minneapolis.

"I'm terribly disappointed," Cotten said. "My mind is kind of blown away by the decision. I don't feel justice was served. All the evidence of the wrongdoing was shown."

"How is this the American process?" asked Davis, who was arrested by the two officers for having a bullet in his pocket and spent four days in jail. He was charged with unlawful possession of ammunition, but charges were dropped before trial.

"They snatched me from my house," Davis said. "That was way beyond justice for me. ... We know about slavery days. The way they did it back then is the way they just did it to me. There's no difference."

The Justice Department wrote about the incident in its June 16 report on the Minneapolis Police Department, saying the department "did not address the allegations of an unlawful search. Instead, MPD focused only on whether the officers violated MPD policy by failing to completely investigate potential domestic abuse, and MPD found no violation of the MPD domestic abuse policy and referred one officer to coaching for use of profanity."

The Minneapolis City Attorney's Office declined to comment on the case.

'A highly charged situation'

The incident, which was recorded on police body camera video, unfolded on the night of May 3, 2019, and went into the early morning hours of May 4. Officers Ryan Miller and Brian Graupner were dispatched to the Phillips neighborhood in response to a 911 call from a neighbor reporting loud noises and yelling in the apartment above hers.

When the officers arrived, they saw nothing through the window that indicated an altercation. The complaining neighbor told them she had heard loud noises earlier but that it had since been quiet, according to Tunheim's ruling.

Miller knocked on the door to the apartment and ordered the residents to open up, identifying himself as "police." When Cotten asked behind the closed door what he wanted, Miller said he would force his way into the apartment if necessary to investigate "a domestic."

Cotten asked why Miller was there, but the officer responded angrily and yelled: "Open the [expletive] door." Cotten said no one was hurt, according to the ruling, and Davis told the officers to calm down.

Davis opened the door to Miller, who told him to show his hands, called him a "joker," pointed his taser at him and ordered him to back up and face the wall as a child cried, according to Tunheim.

Miller handcuffed Davis, patted him down and found a .45 caliber bullet, which Davis said he had removed from Cotten's gun. The officers escorted Davis to their squad car as Cotten recorded video of them on her cellphone. Graupner shouted at Cotten to "back up" or she'd face obstruction charges and her kids would be taken away, according to the ruling.

The couple sued Miller and Graupner, both of whom would receive the department's Lifesaving Award later that year for acts of heroism on the job.

"This was a highly charged situation, due mainly to the officers' aggressive manner," Tunheim wrote in his opinion. "If anything, the plaintiffs were the ones who remained as calm as possible throughout the interaction with the officers escalating the situation."

The Eighth Circuit panel saw it differently. It concluded there was probable cause of a domestic assault, which provided the basis for a warrantless entry. When the officers arrived at the duplex, according to the appellate court, the neighbor told them she had heard "'really, really aggressive screaming, screeching, and thuds" and that it sounded like the screaming of a woman or child.

"Although officers heard the sounds of a child acting playfully when they arrived, this innocent noise did not require them to disregard the report of a witness that she heard alarming sounds ten minutes earlier," according to the appellate court.

Minneapolis attorney Sam Kramer, who is representing Davis and Cotten, said they are considering their options in the wake of the court ruling, including asking the Eighth Circuit to rehear the case or appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.