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she resisted arrest or attempted to flee from offic ers. Turmon
v. Jordan, 405 F.3d 202, 207 (4th Cir. 2005) (quoti ng Graham,
490 U.S. at 396).
Here, viewing the alleged facts in a light most fa vorable
to Plaintiff, as required of the Court, the Court c annot find
that Officer Briggs had probable cause to arrest Pl aintiff. The
facts, as presented by Plaintiff, support the infer ence that
Plaintiff gently touched her husband‘s wrist in an effort to
calm him down. Accepting such facts as true, the C ourt cannot
conclude that a reasonable officer would believe th at a battery,
that is, an unwanted and unjustified touching, had been
committed in his presence.
Furthermore, even if the Court were to assume that Briggs
had probable cause to arrest Plaintiff, Plaintiff n evertheless
advances sufficient facts to state a plausible righ t to relief
against Briggs based on the use of excessive force. The
Complaint alleges that Officer Briggs over- tightened Plaintiff‘s
handcuffs to the point of cutting off her circulati on,
repeatedly refused to respond to Plaintiff‘s pleas to loosen the
cuffs, and that Plaintiff suffered a serious and pe rmanent
injury as a result.
17 There does not appear to be a strong
17 Briggs argues in support of dismissal that it was reasonable
not to loosen P laintiff‘s handcuffs because there was ―no
outward indication‖ that Plaintiff had suffered a s erious
injury. (Briggs‘ Opp. Brief 14 , Dkt. No. 9). The facts, Jump to an indexed page (39 of 39)