Marleis Trover, as Personal Representative of the Estate of DONALD D. GADDIS v. CRAIG OGLESBY and DUSTIN KELLEY

United States Court of Appeals
For the Seventh Circuit
Chicago, Illinois 60604
Argued December 6, 2024
Decided February 18, 2026
Before
DAVID F. HAMILTON, Circuit Judge
MICHAEL Y. SCUDDER, Circuit Judge
JOHN Z. LEE, Circuit Judge
No. 24-1733
MARLEIS TROVER, as Personal
Representative of the Estate of
DONALD D. GADDIS,
Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
CRAIG OGLESBY and DUSTIN
KELLEY,
Defendants-Appellees.
Appeal from the United States District
Court for the Southern District of
Illinois.
No. 3:18-cv-1464
David W. Dugan,
Judge.
O R D E R
Donald Gaddis appeared unannounced at an off-duty police officer’s house to
discuss an unrelated proceeding in which the officer had testified against him. When
Gaddis refused to leave, Williamson County Sheriff’s Deputies Craig Oglesby and
Dustin Kelley were dispatched to the house. After arresting Gaddis for trespass, one of
the deputies inventoried Gaddis’s car before having it towed. Claiming that the search
NONPRECEDENTIAL DISPOSITION
To be cited only in accordance with Fed. R. App. P. 32.1

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violated his constitutional rights and state law, Gaddis later sued Oglesby and Kelley.1
After discovery, both officers filed motions for summary judgment, which the district
court granted. In the same order, the district court denied Gaddis’s request for an
adverse inference instruction based upon missing video footage from Oglesby’s patrol
car. Gaddis now appeals both rulings, but because no reasonable jury could find for
Gaddis and the district court did not abuse its discretion in refusing the adverse
inference instruction, we affirm.
I
Because we are reviewing the district court’s summary judgment ruling, we
recite the facts in the light most favorably to Gaddis, the nonmovant. See Taylor v.
Schwarzhuber, 132 F.4th 480, 486 (7th Cir. 2025).
On March 25, 2018, Oglesby and Kelley responded separately to a dispatcher’s
report of a disturbance at a residential address. The residence belonged to off-duty City
of Marion police officer Bryan DeMattei. When the deputies arrived, DeMattei and a
friend reported that Gaddis had approached DeMattei at his house to discuss a prior
case, in which DeMattei had testified against him. When DeMattei asked him
repeatedly to leave, Gaddis refused. Oglesby determined that Gaddis had committed
trespass to DeMattei’s property and arrested him.
Shortly after Oglesby took Gaddis into custody, Kelley arranged to have
Gaddis’s car towed from DeMattei’s driveway and conducted an inventory search of its
contents in keeping with Williamson County Sheriff’s Office policy. Kelley conducted
the inventory search, and Oglesby was present while the items were inventoried.
The search of the automobile uncovered numerous items, including mace, three
golf clubs, speed loaders for a revolver, and a notebook. Kelley briefly looked inside the
notebook to make sure it contained nothing of value, such as bank account numbers.
Oglesby, on the other hand, had no recollection of a notebook.
During his deposition, DeMattei recounted that a sheriff’s deputy (he could not
recall who) placed the notebook on DeMattei’s kitchen island and told him that it
1 Gaddis passed away on May 20, 2022, and his mother and executor of his estate, Marleis Trover,
was substituted in his stead.

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contained his name. DeMattei skimmed through it and read some notes theorizing that
DeMattei had wrongfully arrested Gaddis in the prior case and had coached witnesses
to substantiate the arrest. Later that day, concerned for his safety, DeMattei sought and
received a civil protective order against Gaddis. In support, he noted the trespassing
incident, the presence of potential weapons found in Gaddis’s car, and the notebook
entries.
Gaddis then filed this lawsuit against Oglesby and Kelley, alleging that they had
violated his Fourth Amendment rights by reading his notebook and providing it to
DeMattei for his perusal. Gaddis also claimed that this conduct amounted to trespass to
chattels under Illinois law.
During discovery, Gaddis sought dashcam video of the incident from Oglesby’s
patrol car. According to Gaddis, the video could establish precisely who had searched
Gaddis’s car and how DeMattei had gained access to his notebook. But, during Gaddis’s
criminal trespass case, Oglesby testified that both he and Chief Deputy Scott McCabe
had tried to download the dash camera video footage from Oglesby’s patrol car but
were unable to do so. And when Gaddis sought the footage as part of this case, McCabe
stated that the car’s computer system had malfunctioned, had been replaced, and no
longer existed.
After discovery, Defendants moved for summary judgment. As to the Fourth
Amendment claim, the district court granted summary judgment for Kelley, concluding
that he was entitled to qualified immunity because the illegality of his conduct was not
clearly established at the time. The court also granted summary judgment in favor of
Oglesby, determining that no reasonable jury could find that he had participated in the
inventory search. As for the trespass-to-chattels claim, the district court held that it was
time-barred as to Kelley and that it was meritless in any event.
In reaching its decision, the court also declined Gaddis’s request for a discovery
sanction under Fed. R. Civ. P. 37(e)(2)(A) for the missing dashcam video. Gaddis
believed that he was entitled to an adverse inference that the missing dash footage was
unfavorable to Defendants. The court disagreed, concluding that Gaddis had not
satisfied his burden to show either that Defendants had failed to take reasonable steps
to preserve the footage or that they had intended to deprive him of the footage.
Gaddis appeals. First, he contends that the district court’s qualified immunity
determination was erroneous as a matter of law. He also challenges the dismissal of his

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state law claim on several grounds and argues that the district court should have
presumed that the video footage would have been unfavorable to Defendants.
II
We review de novo a district court’s grant of summary judgment. Smithson v.
Austin, 86 F.4th 815, 819 (7th Cir. 2023). Summary judgment is appropriate when there
are no genuine disputes of material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a
matter of law. Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a).
A
Gaddis first argues that the district court erred in granting summary judgment to
Kelley on qualified immunity grounds. For the reasons we will explain, however, the
district court’s ruling as to Kelley was correct. Moreover, although the district court
granted summary judgment to Oglesby because, according to the court, he was not
personally involved in the search, we conclude that qualified immunity would cover
Oglesby’s conduct as well and affirm the judgment on that basis. See Peretz v. Sims, 662
F.3d 478, 480 (7th Cir. 2011) (noting that we may affirm on any ground supported in the
record “so long as that ground was adequately addressed in the district court and the
nonmoving party had an opportunity to contest the issue”).
“Qualified immunity balances two important interests—the need to hold public
officials accountable when they exercise power irresponsibly and the need to shield
officials from harassment, distraction, and liability when they perform their duties
reasonably.” Pearson v. Callahan, 555 U.S. 223, 231 (2009). Law enforcement officers, who
are sued under § 1983, are entitled to qualified immunity unless: “(1) they violated a
federal statutory or constitutional right, and (2) the unlawfulness of their conduct was
clearly established at the time.” District of Columbia v. Wesby, 583 U.S. 48, 62–63 (2018)
(internal quotation marks omitted). “Qualified immunity is an affirmative defense, but
once the defendant raises it, ‘the burden shifts to the plaintiff to defeat it.’” Taylor v. City
of Milford, 10 F.4th 800, 806 (7th Cir. 2021) (quoting Leiser v. Kloth, 933 F.3d 696, 701 (7th
Cir. 2019)). Thus, when a defendant officer properly raises the defense of qualified
immunity, it is the plaintiff who bears the burden of establishing a constitutional
violation and “showing the existence of the allegedly clearly established constitutional
right.” Clash v. Beatty, 77 F.3d 1045, 1047 (7th Cir. 1996); see Sinn v. Lemmon, 911 F.3d 412,
419 (7th Cir. 2018).

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This is not to say that a plaintiff must cite “a federal decision which precisely
mirrors the facts of this case” to satisfy the second element. Sonnleitner v. York, 304 F.3d
704, 716 (7th Cir. 2002). But, “at a minimum he must point to a closely analogous case
decided prior to the challenged conduct.” Id. In other words, the analysis requires
identification of “a case where an officer acting under similar circumstances as [the
defendant] was held to have violated the Fourth Amendment.” White v. Pauly, 580 U.S.
73, 79 (2017) (per curiam).
According to Gaddis, the officers (whether Kelley, Oglesby, or both) violated his
Fourth Amendment rights by reading his notebook and providing it to DeMattei, and
this prohibition was clearly established at the time of the incident. But even if we
assume the former, Gaddis has not satisfied his burden to establish the latter.
As Defendants point out, Gaddis failed to apprise the district court of any
authority that would support his contention that a reasonable officer would understand
at the time that reading Gaddis’s notebook and, given its contents, providing it to
DeMattei was illegal. See Wesby, 583 U.S. at 63 (“‘Clearly established’ means that, at the
time of the officer’s conduct, the law was sufficiently clear that every reasonable official
would understand that what he is doing is unlawful.”) (citation modified).
In opposing Defendants’ qualified immunity defense, Gaddis’s entire argument
to the district court was comprised of just four sentences:
Defendants’ immunity arguments are predicated on their
belief that a jury will not be permitted to conclude that one
of them gave Gaddis’s notebook to DeMattei for his review.
Oglesby himself stated that it was against policy for even
him to read the notebook, much less permit DeMattei to read
the notebook. (Pl. Ex. #4, page 15). Giving the notebook to
Demattei to read violated applicable procedure and the
officers knew it. There is no immunity available.
The district court held that Gaddis’s cursory discussion of qualified immunity
failed to satisfy the clearly-established-law prong of qualified immunity. This was
reason enough to grant summary judgment in Defendants’ favor. See Gibbs v. Lomas, 755
F.3d 529, 537 (7th Cir. 2014) (“If either inquiry is answered in the negative, the defendant
official is entitled to summary judgment.”).

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Our decision in Sinn is illustrative. There, the plaintiff sued several correctional
officers under § 1983 claiming that they had acted with deliberate indifference to his
safety in violation of the Eighth Amendment. 911 F.3d at 417–18. The officers moved for
judgment on the pleadings, arguing both qualified immunity and the merits. Id. at 418.
In response, the plaintiff only addressed the merits of his claim, and the district court
entered judgment for the officers. Id. We affirmed, holding that where a plaintiff does
not address the “clearly established” prong in response to the defendants’ qualified
immunity defense in the district court and the court subsequently dismisses the claim as
a result, the plaintiff may not relitigate the issue on appeal. Id. at 419.
Admittedly, Gaddis did somewhat more than the plaintiff in Sinn. But we have
consistently held that where the party “cited no relevant legal authority to the district
court to support the proposition …. the argument is waived.” Arlin-Golf, LLC v. Village of
Arlington Heights, 631 F.3d 818, 822 (7th Cir. 2011); Domka v. Portage County, 523 F.3d
776, 783 n.11 (7th Cir. 2008) (“[W]here a party raises a specific argument for the first
time on appeal, it is waived even though the ‘general issue’ was before the district
court[.]”); Humphries v. CBOCS W., Inc., 474 F.3d 387, 407–08 (7th Cir. 2007) (“We agree
with the district court’s determination that [the plaintiff] waived (forfeited would be the
better term) his … claim by devoting only a skeletal argument in response to [the
defendant’s] motion for summary judgment.”), aff’d on other grounds, 553 U.S. 442 (2008).
These cases aptly describe Gaddis’s deficient response to the deputies’ qualified
immunity defense in the district court, and Gaddis has offered nothing to overlook the
shortcoming. Cf. Henry v. Hulett, 969 F.3d 769, 786 (7th Cir. 2020) (en banc) (stating that,
in a civil case, “we typically will not entertain an argument raised for the first time on
appeal, even for the limited purpose of ascertaining whether a plain error occurred.”)
(quoting CNH Indus. Am. LLC v. Jones Lang LaSalle Ams., Inc., 882 F.3d 692, 705 (7th Cir.
2018)); see also Schmitz v. Colvin, 124 F.4th 1029, 1033 (7th Cir. 2024) (“In the civil context,
… plain-error review is reserved only for the extraordinary case.”). Thus, summary
judgment in favor of Defendants as to the Fourth Amendment claim based on qualified
immunity was appropriate.
B
Next, Gaddis posits several arguments to contest the district court’s decision to
grant summary judgment with respect to his trespass-to-chattels claim. But by not
raising these arguments below, he has failed to properly preserve them for appeal. See
Scheidler v. Indiana, 914 F.3d 535, 540 (7th Cir. 2019) (“A party generally forfeits issues

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and arguments raised for the first time on appeal.”).
When Defendants moved for summary judgment, they asserted that the trespass-
to-chattels claim against Kelley was barred by the statute of limitations, 745 Ill. Comp.
Stat. 10/8-101. They also maintained that the claim was barred by the Illinois Tort
Immunity Act, 745 Ill. Comp. Stat. 10/2-201 et seq. In the alternative, they challenged the
claim on its merits.
Gaddis’s opposition brief, on the other hand, was silent as to his trespass-to-
chattels claim. In fact, the only time Gaddis mentioned “trespass” at all was when he
referred to the criminal trespass charges against him. Accordingly, he has forfeited any
argument regarding his trespass-to-chattels claim, and we see no reason to further
address it. See Schmitz, 124 F.4th at 1033; Henry, 969 F.3d at 786.
III
Lastly, Gaddis contends that the district court erred when it denied his request
for a presumption that the dash camera footage from Oglesby’s patrol car would have
been unfavorable to Defendants as a discovery sanction under Rule 37(e)(2)(A). We
review the denial of discovery sanctions for abuse of discretion. Harrington v. Duszak,
971 F.3d 739, 741 (7th Cir. 2020).
Rule 37(e)(2)(A) provides:
If electronically stored information that should have been
preserved in the anticipation or conduct of litigation is lost
because a party failed to take reasonable steps to preserve it, and
it cannot be restored or replaced through additional
discovery, the court … only upon finding that the party acted
with the intent to deprive another party of the information’s use in
the litigation may … presume that the lost information was
unfavorable to the party.
Fed. R. Civ. P. 37(e)(2)(A) (emphases added). In other words, the “destruction of or
inability to produce [evidence], standing alone, does not warrant an inference that the
[evidence], if produced, would have contained information adverse to the [defendant’s]
case.” Park v. City of Chicago, 297 F.3d 606, 615 (7th Cir. 2002). “The crucial element is not
that the evidence was destroyed but rather the reason for the destruction.” S.C. Johnson

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& Son, Inc. v. Louisville & Nashville R.R. Co., 695 F.2d 253, 258 (7th Cir. 1982). The movant
bears the burden of establishing that a defendant acted in bad faith, which requires
destruction “for the purpose of hiding adverse information.” Bracey v. Grondin, 712 F.3d
1012, 1019 (7th Cir. 2013) (internal quotation marks omitted).
The district court was well within its discretion to conclude that Gaddis had not
met his burden to show bad faith. Here, Gaddis relies on the unsuccessful attempts by
Oglesby and McCabe to download the video from the dashcam. He also points to
McCabe’s representation that the computer system in Oglesby’s patrol car had
malfunctioned, had been replaced, and no longer existed. He provides nothing more.
This falls well short of satisfying Gaddis’s burden under Rule 37(e)(2)(A).
* * *
For the foregoing reasons, the judgment is AFFIRMED.

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