Eravi v. City Commission of Lawrence, Kansas

── Eravi v. City Commission of Lawrence, Kansas ── Court: Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit Date: May 19, 2026 Category: General Appellate Case: 25-3068 Document: 30 Date Filed: 05/19/2026 Page: 1 FILED United States Court of Appeals UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS Tenth Circuit FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT May 19, 2026 _________________________________ Christopher M. Wolpert Clerk of Court PHILLIP MICHAEL ERAVI, Plaintiff - Appellant, v. No. 25-3068 (D.C. No. 5:24-CV-04042-DDC-RES) CITY COMMISSION OF LAWRENCE, (D. Kan.) KANSAS; MEAGAN SHIPLEY; AUSTIN TWITE; GRANT FOSTER; DAVID MCSHANE, Defendants - Appellees. _________________________________ ORDER AND JUDGMENT * _________________________________ Before MATHESON, EID, and CARSON, Circuit Judges. _________________________________ Lawrence City Police Department (“Lawrence PD”) officers arrested Phillip Michael Eravi while he was filming at the scene of a police standoff with an armed shooter. He sued the arresting officers and their on-scene supervisor under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging First and Fourth Amendment violations. The district * This order and judgment is not binding precedent, except under the doctrines of law of the case, res judicata, and collateral estoppel. It may be cited, however, for its persuasive value consistent with Fed. R. App. P. 32.1 and 10th Cir. R. 32.1.  Appellate Case: 25-3068 Document: 30 Date Filed: 05/19/2026 Page: 2 court granted the officers’ motion to dismiss on qualified immunity grounds. Exercising jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, we affirm. I. BACKGROUND A. Factual Allegations 1 Plaintiff Eravi is a “well-known citizen journalist,” who regularly observes and records law enforcement at crime scenes. App. at 8. He has a YouTube channel, Lawrence Accountability, “which audits and documents incidents related to the constitutionality of government employee conduct, such as a City of Lawrence staff, County prosecutors, and local law enforcement.” Id. at 15. His reporting is generally critical, focusing on government officials’ alleged corruption and misconduct. Defendants Austin Twite, Grant Foster, Meagan Shipley, and David McShane were all Lawrence PD officers (collectively “the Officers”) when the alleged events occurred. Several officers on scene were familiar with Mr. Eravi before this incident and fostered “animus and bias” against him. Id. at 22. 1 Because this case is on appeal from the grant of a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim, Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6), we accept all well-pled factual allegations in the complaint as true and view them in the light most favorable to Mr. Eravi. Truman v. Orem City, 1 F.4th 1227, 1235 (10th Cir. 2021). Mr. Eravi’s complaint referenced information from Lawrence PD incident reports, screenshots from Mr. Eravi’s own footage, screenshots from Lawrence PD body camera footage, and dialogue excerpts. Although the complaint does not attach these materials, we accept as true Mr. Eravi’s allegations as to their content. 2  Appellate Case: 25-3068 Document: 30 Date Filed: 05/19/2026 Page: 3 Heatherwood Drive Shooting On May 19, 2023, Lawrence PD “responded to a reported shoot-out between neighbors” on Heatherwood Driv