Case: 14-11341 Date Filed: 08/29/2014 Page: 1 of 3
[DO NOT PUBLISH]
IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT
_________________________
No. 14-11341
Non-Argument Calendar
_________________________
D.C. Docket No. 1:12-cv-00872-WBH
KENNETH DAVID BUTLER,
Plaintiff-Appellant,
versus
DAVID SCHIRALLI, et al.,
Defendants-Appellees.
________________________
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Northern District of Georgia
________________________
(August 29, 2014)
Before TJOFLAT, WILSON and ROSENBAUM, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM:
Plaintiff appeals the District Court’s March 5, 2013, order, Doc. 154,
granting defendants’ summary judgment on his claims for damages under 42
U.S.C. § 1983 for defendants’ alleged infringement of his rights under the Fourth
Case: 14-11341 Date Filed: 08/29/2014 Page: 2 of 3
and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. 1 His claims arose out of an
undercover sting operation the Gwinnett County Police Department (GCPD)
conducted at a Kmart store after receiving reports of illicit sexual activity
occurring in the store’s men’s bathroom. Doc. 154, at 1–2. After investigator
Doherty
saw what he thought was masturbation . . . other police officers
entered the bathroom and took Plaintiff to Kmart’s loss control office
and interviewed him. The police gave Plaintiff a misdemeanor
citation for loitering for sexual purposes and Plaintiff left the Kmart.
The charges against Plaintiff were later changed to public
indecency. . . . After [Plaintiff] was cited by police, the
GCPD . . . . issued a press release on behalf of the
department . . . [stating] that [Plaintiff] had been arrested and
charged with loitering for the purpose of engaging in solicitation of
sex acts in a public place and that Plaintiff had admitted that he
was in the Kmart men’s room for that purpose.
Id. at 4–5. In granting summary judgment on Plaintiff’s § 1983 claims, the court
assumed that Plaintiff’s detention was sufficient to support a § 1983 claim for false
arrest and held that inspector Doherty was entitled to qualified immunity—because
he had arguable probable cause to believe that Plaintiff was engaging in the illicit
activity with which he was charged. Id. at 8–9. The court therefore dismissed
Plaintiff’s Fourth Amendment claims against Doherty and the other defendants.
1
Plaintiff also appeals the District Court’s dismissal without prejudice of his state law
claims brought under the court’s supplemental jurisdiction. See 28 U.S. § 1367(c)(3). In
affirming the court’s judgment on Plaintiff’s federal constitutional claims, we affirm its dismissal
without prejudice of his state law claims.
2
Case: 14-11341 Date Filed: 08/29/2014 Page: 3 of 3
It also found no merit in the officers’ failure to inform him of his Miranda rights
because the officers never took Plaintiff into custody. Id. at 9.
Plaintiff challenges the court’s summary judgment on a variety of grounds.
We find that none has merit. Nor does his argument that the court should have
sanctioned defendants for spoliation—specifically, that
Kmart deleted the videos from security cameras on the day
that he was cited for loitering, the GCPD failed to secure copies
of the videos, and the GCPD failed to collect evidence from the
men’s room, such as a piece of tissue paper that . . . Doherty
had seen on the floor and thought was a signal for solicitation as
well as taking photographs of the graffiti on the men's room walls.
Id. at 11.
AFFIRMED.
3