It was 2 a.m. on a cold winter's night in 2014 when police officers arrived at Connie Westfall's upscale Southlake home to investigate an allegation that her 15-year-old son was trespassing at a neighbor's house.

It should have been a simple inquiry over a minor incident. But the police encounter with Westfall, a partner and environmental lawyer with Clark Hill, escalated quickly.

According to her civil suit, as one police officer entered the Westfall's home, another officer body-slammed her to the ground on her brick patio, causing a serious back injury. Police placed Westfall under arrest and waited 30 minutes before calling for an ambulance, and she spent the rest of the night in the Southlake jail, after being released from the hospital, for interfering with police duties, she claims.

The police eventually dropped the charges against Westfall. But she wasn't about to let the matter go.

Westfall hired a plaintiff lawyer and sued the Southlake Police Department and five of its officers in a Fort Worth federal court in 2015. She brought 42 U.S.C. § 1983 false arrest claims against all of the officers and excessive force claims against two officers, among other allegations.

Westfall became actively involved in the case, reading every opinion of the U.S. Supreme Court and U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit addressing police warrantless searches of homes to help with strategy. She was also adamant that the police internal affairs report—which she believes showed there was no reason for her arrest—should not have been sealed by the defendants so it could be viewed by the public.

But no matter a plaintiff's profession or knowledge of the law, governmental immunity often make civil rights suits against police very difficult.

And sure enough, in 2016, U.S. District Court Judge Reed O'Connor of the Northern District of Texas dismissed all of Westfall's claims, also declining to lift a sealing order of the police department internal affairs report in the case.

Geoff Henley, a Dallas plaintiff lawyer who represented Westfall in the trial court, said his client faced near-impossible odds of reviving the excessive force case before a conservative Fifth Circuit. Henley knows from experience: In July he lost the appeal in Escobar v. Montee, a Fifth Circuit ruling that dismissed an excessive force case against a police officer who let his dog bite a suspect after he'd already surrendered.

“She had two separate cases, and it was becoming quite taxing, frankly,” Henley said of Westfall's appeal. “When it came time to appeal her case, I was not terribly interested in doing that, quite frankly.”

So Westfall pursued the appeal on her own.

She started briefing the sealing issue in the case, and later hired Melissa Davis, a board-certified appellate lawyer and partner in Thompson & Knight, to brief the Fourth Amendment issues in the case. They both filed separate appeals at the Fifth Circuit, which were later consolidated.

“We talked about it when I first took the case. I wanted her to know that if it wasn't a lost cause, it was pretty close,” Davis said. “I wanted her to have realistic expectations going in. But Connie was certain she was going to win. There was an injustice done to her, and there was no doubt about it.''

The Fifth Circuit agreed to hold oral arguments in the case—something that only happens to about 5 percent of civil rights appeals filed before the court, according to Davis.

“That they granted oral argument definitely meant they were interested in the case,'' Davis said.

And in February, Westfall and Davis flew to New Orleans—during the middle of the city's Mardi Gras festival—where they both argued the case.

Davis opened her argument by documenting nine different ways the police allegedly violated Westfall's Fourth Amendment rights during the late night contact—a so-called “knock and talk”—at her home.

The Fifth Circuit panel seemed interested in Davis' presentation, granting her well more than her allotted 20 minutes of time to explain all of those alleged violations. She then turned the microphone over to Westfall to argue the sealing issues in the case.

Westfall opened her argument by telling the court the reason why the case was so important to her.

“In bringing this lawsuit, I'm trying to make sure that what happened to me does not happen to anyone else,” Westfall told the court. “If it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone.”

Bill Krueger, a Richardson attorney who represents the police officers in the case, argued that his clients had done nothing wrong, and that Westfall should not have stepped behind one of the officers “in a threatening manner.''

But the court seemed perplexed as to why police felt the need to body slam Westfall to the ground during the incident.

“I cannot understand how she got thrown to the ground on that brick patio,” said Senior Judge Carolyn King during the argument. “I don't understand.”

In their Sept. 13 decision in Westfall v. Luna, the Fifth Circuit reversed the district court that dismissed the false arrest claims Westfall filed against three of the officers.

“Without any authority to conduct a search of Westfall's home, the officers lacked probable cause to arrest Westfall for interference with their official duties … this was clearly established at the time of Westfall's arrest,” the Fifth Circuit wrote in a per curiam opinion.

The court also reversed the dismissal of the excessive force claim against Southlake Police Officer Jose Luna, who is alleged to have body-slammed Westfall to the ground.

“Luna's use of force was objectively unreasonable,” the Fifth Circuit wrote. “First, Westfall was arrested for interference with public duties—a minor offense.”

“Second, taking the facts in the light most favorable to Westfall, no reasonable officer could conclude that Westfall posed a threat to Luna or the other officers by attempting to follow Anderson (another Southlake police officer) into her home.”

The Fifth Circuit did affirm the trial court's decision to dismiss Westfall's remaining claims, including excessive force claims against other police officers, denial of medical treatment claims, and a failure to train claim against the city of Southlake. They also declined to rule on Westfall's attempt to unseal the police internal affairs report in her case, noting they do not have jurisdiction to rule on the issue.

After Westfall appealed the issue, the defendants provided Westfall with the report, the decision notes.

Westfall is pleased with the decision and plans to frame a copy of it to hang on her office wall. But, she said, considering what she had to go through to get it, it's a trophy she'd rather not have.

“It is ridiculous,” Westfall said of her arrest. “I was 52 then, living in one of the most upscale neighborhoods in the United States and I ended up being body-slammed by the police on my front porch. And the court agreed with me that they didn't have the right to be there. They didn't have a warrant and they didn't have my consent to be there.”

“No one wants to answer the door at 2 in the morning. I mean, that's frightening,” Westfall continued. “That's the whole reason we have the Fourth Amendment, because the British were regularly taking the colonists out of their homes, beating them up and taking them to jail. And the law says you can't do that without a warrant. And as the Fifth Circuit said, 'The law here is clearly established.'''

Davis said she enjoyed having Westfall as both a client and a co-counsel on the case.

“She certainly had useful insight about case law, she gave great feedback, and it was great getting that from a lawyer,” Davis said.

And Davis believes Westfall did a service to other victims of police abuse by pursuing an extremely difficult case at the Fifth Circuit.

“One of things that may have mattered to the court, even though this isn't a case where someone is shot or dies, is it's one of those cases that don't get argued because people can't afford a lawyer,” Davis said. “And what impressed me is, she was standing up for people who can't afford to fight a case like this. She was paying me out of her own pocket to do this.''

Westfall is eager to continue litigating in the trial court and plans on hiring a new lawyer to pursue her remaining claims.

That new lawyer can expect to have a very involved client.