Janett Avalos / Houston Public Media
In a rare move, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals this week struck down qualified immunity claims stemming from a 2024 case in which Harris County constable deputies entered the wrong home without knocking and held a couple at gunpoint.
The entry happened in 2022 after a woman called police several times about a person knocking on the back door of her southeast Houston home in the middle of the night. A deputy had already visited the woman’s home earlier, but returned to the incorrect house with two other deputies upon responding.
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The deputies named in a federal lawsuit allegedly entered the wrong home, found Tyler Harrington and his wife asleep in bed, and retreated back to the entrance before entering the home again with guns drawn.
The ruling against the three Harris County Precinct 2 deputies came down in the Louisiana court this week, when judges dismissed excessive force claims brought by the Civil Rights Corps but reinstated claims that the second entry was unlawful.
Upon the first time deputies entered the wrong home, one officer questioned whether dispatchers provided the correct address to the deputies.
“I don’t know,” one officer allegedly responded.
Rather than confirming the home address, according to the fifth circuit ruling, the officers exited, re-entered and seized Harrington and his wife.
“Indeed, they did not confirm the address with dispatchers until after they had re-entered the home, awakened the Harringtons, and questioned them at gunpoint,” according to the ruling. “Apparent consent therefore did not justify the officers’ second warrantless entry, search and seizure.”
The fifth circuit court held that officers should have immediately terminated the search once the officers questioned whether they had the correct address. Qualified immunity doesn’t “provide a safe harbor for police to remain in a residence after they are aware they have entered the wrong residence by mistake,” according to the ruling.
The court also struck down an excessive force claim arising from allegations that the officers woke up Harrington by screaming at him and holding him at gunpoint, and held that Harrington’s fear didn’t rise to the level of a constitutional violation.
The civil rights lawsuit seeks a declaration that deputies violated Harrington’s constitutional rights.
Civil Rights Corps Attorney Ale Clark-Ansani said the court’s decision to strike the excessive force claim underscores how qualified immunity “continues to shield police from accountability.”
“We are eager to continue litigating the case and ensuring that Mr. Harrington receives at least some measure of justice for the trauma that he has suffered,” Clark-Ansani said in a statement Thursday.
An attorney representing the deputies could not immediately be reached for comment.