Hernandez v. Joliet PD

Decision Date22 November 1999
Docket NumberNo. 98-3558,98-3558
Citation197 F.3d 256
Parties(7th Cir. 1999) RENALDO HERNANDEZ, Plaintiff-Appellant, and DAVID A. CERDA, Appellant, v. JOLIET POLICE DEPARTMENT, FRANCIS RUETTIGER, TOM STEIN, et al., Defendants-Appellees
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division. No. 97 C 5513--George W. Lindberg, Judge. [Copyrighted Material Omitted]

[Copyrighted Material Omitted] Before CUDAHY, COFFEY and EASTERBROOK, Circuit Judges.

COFFEY, Circuit Judge.

On October 27, 1997, plaintiff-appellant Renaldo Hernandez ("Hernandez") filed this action in federal court against the Joliet, Illinois Police Department and two of its officers, Francis Ruettiger and Thomas Stein, and against the Illinois State's Attorney's Office of Will County and the First Assistant State's Attorney, Douglas DeBoer, alleging a violation of 42 U.S.C. sec. 1983, as well as supplemental claims under Illinois law for libel and slander, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

On May 13, 1998, the district court granted the individual defendants' motions to dismiss as to the plaintiff's sec. 1983 claim but, at the same time, found that Hernandez' amended complaint stated a claim under 42 U.S.C. sec. 1985(3) against the individual defendants Francis Ruettiger ("Ruettiger"), Thomas Stein ("Stein"), and Douglas DeBoer ("DeBoer"). Pursuant to Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the trial court also granted the Will County State's Attorney's Office's motion for sanctions against Hernandez' attorney, David Cerda, for filing a frivolous claim against an arm of the State. On September 9, 1998, the trial judge granted all the defendants' respective motions for summary judgment as to Hernandez' civil rights claims and declined to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over the remaining state law claims, dismissing them without prejudice. Hernandez and Cerda appeal.

I. BACKGROUND

Renaldo Hernandez, a Mexican-American, worked for the Joliet, Illinois, Police Department as a police officer from 1973-1994. During his employment with the Police Department, Hernandez served as a vice-president of the Afro-Latino Policemen's Association, which was formed on April 4, 1976. In 1980, Hernandez participated in the Association's efforts to have the City of Joliet accept and implement an affirmative action plan.

Defendant Stein was employed by the Police Department in 1981. During the time that Hernandez served as vice-president of the Association, he overheard Officer Stein criticize affirmative action, saying that those "nigger" and "spic" organizations were trying to get something for nothing. Furthermore, during his deposition, Stein admitted that he was in fact opposed to affirmative action. Defendant Ruettiger joined the Joliet Police Department as an officer in 1985. Hernandez presented evidence that Ruettiger, on one occasion in 1989, used the word "nigger" but not in connection with either the plaintiff or the Association.

Hernandez left the Joliet Police Department in 1994 after he developed a psychiatric disorder referred to as Obsessive/Compulsive Disorder. After leaving the Department, Hernandez applied for a duty-related disability pension, and on February 29, 1996, the day his disability pension application was to be heard, Hernandez had an argument with Officer Stein, the then President of the Joliet Police Pension Board. As a result of this argument, Stein recused himself from consideration of Hernandez' application.

Approximately six months later, on August 1, 1996, Hernandez encountered Detective Benjamin Billups (an African-American) of the Joliet Police Department at the local courthouse and asked him whether "those bigots" at the Joliet Police Department had given him his "stripes" yet. Hernandez went on further and informed Billups of the argument he and Stein had on the date of his pension hearing. Officer Ruettiger, who was also at the courthouse and in the immediate presence of Billups and Hernandez, claimed to have overheard Hernandez state that Stein had wanted to fight Hernandez on the day of the pension board hearing but then backed down. According to Ruettiger, Hernandez also claimed that he "would have kicked [Stein's] ass" if a physical altercation had occurred and went on to refer to Stein as a "bald headed, bigot pussy."1 Shortly thereafter, Ruettiger informed Stein about the courthouse encounter and the threats that Hernandez had allegedly made against Stein. Stein said that he would think about it and, the next day, Stein asked Ruettiger to write an informational report about the incident, and Ruettiger did.2

Officer Stein took the report to defendant DeBoer, the First Assistant State's Attorney for Will County, and asked him if criminal charges could be filed against Hernandez. After reviewing the report, DeBoer advised Stein that neither Hernandez' words nor his actions rose to the level of criminal conduct and thus a criminal prosecution would not be appropriate but suggested that if Stein was concerned about the alleged threats he received he should contact Hernandez' employer at the Will County Regional Office of Education.3 Stein called David Levek ("Levek"), Hernandez' supervisor, from DeBoer's office and in DeBoer's presence (thus, according to Hernandez, again implicating DeBoer in the alleged conspiracy), and told him about the alleged threats Hernandez had made. As a result of the telephone call from Stein, Levek called Hernandez into his office for an explanation. After his discussion with Hernandez, Levek concluded that Stein's complaint regarding Hernandez was unwarranted and unprofessional, and told Hernandez that he considered the matter closed.

Based on these facts, Hernandez filed his complaint in federal court on August 4, 1997, alleging that the defendants, while acting under color of state law, violated his rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution by conspiring to cause him injury or harm and by engaging in a malicious prosecution, in violation of 42 U.S.C. sec. 1983. Hernandez also alleged libel and slander, as well as intentional infliction of emotional distress, under Illinois law.

Throughout August and September of 1996, the attorneys for the Will County defendants corresponded with Hernandez' counsel, David Cerda ("Cerda"), requesting that he dismiss the State's Attorney's Office from the action. In their letters, the Will County defendants cited numerous reasons in support of their dismissal, but they did not specifically refer to the argument that the State's Attorney's Office is immune from suit under the Eleventh Amendment of the United States Constitution. Despite these letters, Hernandez, for reasons unexplained in the record, never dismissed the State's Attorney's Office. Instead, he filed an amended complaint on October 27, 1997.

On November 26, 1997, the defendants moved to dismiss the amended complaint pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure for failure to state a claim. The Will County defendants' motion specifically pointed to the argument that the State's Attorney's Office is immune from suit under the Eleventh Amendment. On that same date, the Will County defendants served Hernandez with a proposed motion for sanctions (as required by Rule 11) and a memorandum of law supporting their Eleventh Amendment immunity argument and contending that the claims filed against the State's Attorney's Office and DeBoer were not only meritless but also were without support in applicable law. After Attorney Cerda once again failed to dismiss the Will County defendants within the 21-day limit provided under Rule 11, the defendants filed a motion for sanctions. In his response to the motion for sanctions, even though Cerda acknowledged that he could not sue the Will County State's Attorney's Office, he still failed to dismiss the State's Attorney's Office. Thus, the Office continued to remain a party to this action until such time as the trial judge ruled on the defendants' motions to dismiss and found that the State's Attorney's Office was immune from suit.

Upon motion of the State's Attorney's Office, the judge also imposed sanctions against Attorney Cerda for his pursuit of the frivolous claims against the State's Attorney's Office and for his failure to timely dismiss the Office after receiving the motion to dismiss and the proposed motion for sanctions. The court reasoned that a reasonable inquiry by Cerda prior to his filing of both the complaint and amended complaint would have revealed the claims to be meritless or, at the very least, Cerda should have dismissed the State's Attorney's Office after the Office called Cerda's attention to the Eleventh Amendment argument in its motion to dismiss and its accompanying motion for sanctions. Cerda objected to the sanctions award in a Motion for Reconsideration but, upon review, the trial judge upheld the imposition of sanctions and ordered Cerda to pay $4,226.64, the amount the County incurred in defending the original action and the sanctions award.

On July 7, 1998, Ruettiger, Stein, and DeBoer filed motions for summary judgment on Hernandez' surviving claim under 42 U.S.C. sec. 1985(3). The court granted the respective defendants' motions on September 9, 1998, finding that there was no evidence of a conspiracy on the part of the defendants, nor was there evidence that any of the defendants took any action against Hernandez because of his race. The court declined to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over Hernandez' state law claims. Hernandez and Cerda appeal.

II. ISSUES

On appeal, we consider: (1) whether the district court erred in granting the defendants' motion to dismiss Hernandez' sec. 1983 claims; (2) whether the district court erred in granting the defendants' motion for summary judgment on...

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