Dahl v. Holley

• Decision Date: 19 November 2002
• Docket Number: No. 01-15089.,01-15089.
• Parties: Shirley DAHL, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Jim HOLLEY, individually and as an employee of the City of Dothan, Steven Parrish, individually and as an employee of the City of Dothan, et al., Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

312 F.3d 1228

Shirley DAHL, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Jim HOLLEY, individually and as an employee of the City of Dothan, Steven Parrish, individually and as an employee of the City of Dothan, et al., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 01-15089.

United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit.

November 19, 2002.

Luis Garcia-Rivera, Palm Harbor, FL, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Ann Ashton Holmes, Freddie Lenton White, II, City of Dothan, City Atty., D. Kevan Kelly, Asst. City Atty., City of Dothan, Dothan, AL, Alan Carpenter Livingston, William W. Nichols, Lee & McInish, Dothan, AL, for Defendants-Appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama.

Before BIRCH and COX, Circuit Judges, and GEORGE^*, District Judge.

COX, Circuit Judge:

In this civil rights action, Shirley Dahl appeals the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of the City of Dothan, Alabama and several officers of the Dothan Police Department. Dahl claims that the officers and the City violated her rights under the First and Fourth Amendments to the United States Constitution in arresting her and searching her property. Because the record does not show that Dahl's constitutional rights were violated, we affirm.

I. Background

A. Facts¹

This action arises from the circumstances underlying the investigation and arrest of Dahl by several police officers employed by the City of Dothan. The events leading up to Dahl's arrest began on December 12, 1997, when Sgt. Jim Holley received a tip from confidential informant Rustin McCardle that Dahl's son was in possession of illicit drugs. Based on McCardle's tip, Holley stopped and searched Dahl's son, finding him to be in possession of both cocaine and marijuana. Dahl's son gave a taped statement admitting that the drugs were his, and he was released. Later that night, Dahl's son told his mother that McCardle had provided the information resulting in his encounter with Holley.

The next day, McCardle visited Dahl to inquire about her son. During this visit, McCardle told Dahl that he constantly was searched by the police and felt trapped. McCardle also told Dahl that he wanted to "get out," but he did not know how to do so. In the following months, Holley contacted Dahl's son on numerous occasions, attempting to recruit him as a confidential informant. Remembering McCardle's statements, and based on information gained from other sources, Dahl became concerned for her son's safety. She also disapproved of the tactics used by the police in recruiting confidential informants, which she thought to be corrupt and illegal.

Dahl brought these concerns to the attention of CLARA,² a citizens' group founded by Dahl to provide information about, and encourage reform of, the legal system. Another member of CLARA, Jeff Hargett, spoke to the mayor about the police department's recruitment and use of confidential informants, and the mayor agreed to investigate the matter if Hargett could provide evidence to corroborate CLARA's allegations. Dahl then contacted McCardle and asked him to meet with her.

Dahl and McCardle met on February 23, 1998, approximately one week after the police obtained an arrest warrant for her son.³ Dahl told McCardle about CLARA and about her suspicion that the police department was corrupt. McCardle told Dahl that the information she had gathered about the police was correct, and he agreed to tell the same thing to Hargett the next day. At the meeting with Hargett, however, McCardle expressed concern that, if he helped CLARA, the police would resurrect old drug charges against him. Should that happen, McCardle indicated, he would not be able to afford an attorney for his defense. Dahl and Hargett pledged that CLARA would help McCardle and would pay up to $10,000 in attorney's fees on his behalf. Hargett then set up a meeting with the mayor, at which McCardle was to corroborate CLARA's allegations against the police department.

On February 25, 1998, concerned that his anonymity as a confidential informant had been compromised, McCardle telephoned the police department and asked to speak to Sgt. Antonio Gonzalez. McCardle inquired if Gonzalez had exposed him as the informant against Dahl's son. Gonzalez answered that he had not done so, but he informed McCardle that Dahl was spreading rumors that McCardle had planted drugs on her son. Gonzalez urged McCardle to come in and talk to the police about the situation. McCardle then talked to Holley, who said that McCardle was headed for trouble and also urged him to tell the police what was going on. McCardle told Holley that Dahl offered him $10,000 to lie about the facts and circumstances underlying the arrest of her son. After reporting McCardle's statements to Lt. Steve Parrish, Holley asked McCardle to provide a written statement of his interactions with Dahl.

In his written statement, McCardle repeated his accusation that Dahl offered him money to lie about the circumstances of her son's arrest. According to the statement, Dahl indicated that she "would do everything she could do to help her son," (R.2-48, Ex. 19 at 2), and she told McCardle that she wanted him to tell both Hargett and the mayor that "Holley set [her son] up." (Id. at 3.) After Dahl said this, according to the statement, McCardle sat back in his chair and remained silent for a few minutes. Eventually, Dahl allegedly said to him, "You want to know what is in it for you don't you [?]" (Id.) McCardle's statement indicated that Dahl then held up ten fingers and said "Ten Thousand." (Id.) Finally, the statement indicated that Dahl told McCardle to keep quiet about their arrangement when he talked to Hargett, because Hargett was "legit and would not have any part of an illegal act." (Id. at 4.)

After questioning McCardle about his statement, the police commenced an investigation of Dahl, conducted primarily by Sgt. Jon Beeson and Sgt. David Jay. As part of their investigation, the police monitored and recorded several telephone conversations between Dahl and McCardle. In a conversation on February 26, 1998, after McCardle indicated that he was having second thoughts, Dahl said "[l]et's just forget it then." (R.2-38, Ex. 6 at 2.) However, when McCardle remarked that he "would feel more comfortable ... if [he] saw what [he] needed to see first," Dahl responded: "So you're not wrestling with your conscience then, you're wrestling with your pocketbook." (Id. at 3.) Later in the same conversation, in response to McCardle's requests to see "that," Dahl said: "Then I have to take care of it all during the weekend and worry about getting ripped off." (Id. at 6.) In a subsequent conversation, on February 27, 1998, McCardle asked if Dahl was going to "show [him] anything" because he was "hurting" and needed "some money bad." (R.2-38, Ex. 8 at 1.) McCardle went on to express his concern that Dahl would not "hold up [her] end of the bargain." (Id. at 2.) Dahl responded: "You don't have to worry about that, I will, but ... there is just no way I'm, that I ... it's Friday night, and it's what ... 8:10. There isn't a bank open in town. There is absolutely no way." (Id.)

The police also recorded several conversations between McCardle and Dahl on March 1, 1998, the night before the scheduled meeting with the mayor. In one conversation, McCardle told Dahl that he needed to know "are you gonna show me my money ... before I go in that office," to which Dahl responded: "You know I wanted to help you with your situation...." (R.2-38, Ex. 11 at 1-2.) In the same conversation, McCardle referred to lying both to Hargett and to the mayor, (id. at 2.), and at one point asked if Dahl was going to tell her husband "that you're gonna ... pay me money ... to lie for you." (Id. at 5.) To this last statement, Dahl responded: "I'm gonna tell him the truth." (Id.) Later that same day, McCardle told Dahl that "you want me to go in there and lie to the mayor." (R.2-38, Ex. 12 at 2.) To this statement, Dahl responded: "No, I don't want you to go in there and lie to the mayor," (id.), and later in the conversation, she specifically told McCardle to tell the truth when he met with the mayor. (Id. at 5.) She also told McCardle that she would not give him the ten thousand dollars "under these circumstances." (Id. at 4.) In their last conversation that day, after making repeated references to his "ten grand," (R.2-38, Ex. 13 at 3), McCardle asked if Dahl would be able to help him out with his "attorney's fees." (Id. at 4.) Dahl responded: "If you need any ... I feel like we can help you out." (Id.) Before ending the conversation, McCardle said: "And if you trust me, then I guess I'll receive attorneys fees, is that right?" (Id. at 5.) Dahl responded: "Alright." (Id.)

On March 2, 1998, around the time originally scheduled for the meeting with the mayor,⁴ Dahl was arrested without a warrant and charged with bribing a witness. While Dahl was held at the police station, Beeson applied for and obtained search warrants for Dahl's home and business. In his affidavit seeking issuance of the warrants, Beeson recounted the events surrounding the search of Dahl's son, the statements made by McCardle, and some of the statements made by Dahl in her recorded conversations with McCardle. (R.2-38, Ex. 19.) Beeson did not, however, include in the affidavit Dahl's statements that McCardle should not lie and that he should tell the truth to the mayor. The search warrants were executed by Beeson, Jay, and Officer Stacy Robinson, but none of the searches uncovered any incriminating evidence.

A preliminary hearing was held before the District Court of Houston County, Alabama, and the court found sufficient evidence against Dahl to bind the case over to a grand jury. The grand jury indicted Dahl on one count of bribing a witness in violation of § 13A-10-121 of the Code of Alabama, and the case proceeded to trial in the Circuit Court of Houston County. After the prosecution rested its case, the...