Page:Mike Stanton v. Drendolyn Sims.pdf/7

Rh 1430, 265 Cal. Rptr. 422, 425 (1989), and In re Lavoyne M., 221 Cal. App. 3d 154, 159, 270 Cal. Rptr. 394, 396 (1990), the California Court of Appeal refused to limit the hot pursuit exception to felony suspects. The court stated in Lloyd: "Where the pursuit into the home was based on an arrest set in motion in a public place, the fact that the offenses justifying the initial detention or arrest were misdemeanors is of no significance in determining the validity of the entry without a warrant." 216 Cal. App. 3d, at 1430, 265 Cal. Rptr., at 425. It is especially troubling that the Ninth Circuit would conclude that Stanton was plainly incompetent—and subject to personal liability for damages—based on actions that were lawful according to courts in the jurisdiction where he acted. Cf. al-Kidd, supra, at ___ (KENNEDY, J., concurring) (slip op., at 2–4).

Finally, our determination that Welsh and Johnson are insufficient to overcome Stanton's qualified immunity is bolstered by the fact that, even after Johnson, two different District Courts in the Ninth Circuit have granted qualified immunity precisely because the law regarding warrantless entry in hot pursuit of a fleeing misdemeanant is not clearly established. See Kolesnikov v. Sacramento County, No. S–06–2155, 2008 WL 1806193, *7 (ED Cal., Apr. 22, 2008) ("since Welsh, it has not been clearly established that there can never be warrantless home arrests in the context of a 'hot pursuit' of a suspect fleeing from the commission of misdemeanor offenses"); Garcia v. Imperial, No. 08–2357, 2010 WL 3834020, *6, n. 4 (SD Cal., Sept. 28, 2010). In Garcia, a case with facts similar to those here, the District Court distinguished Johnson as a case where "the officers were not in hot pursuit of the suspect, had not seen the suspect enter the neighbor's property, and had no real reason to think the suspect was there." 2010 WL 3834020, *6, n. 4. Precisely the same facts distinguish this case from Johnson: Stanton was in hot pursuit of Patrick, he did see Patrick enter Sims'