Myers v. Potter

• Decision Date: 07 September 2005
• Docket Number: No. 04-6022.,04-6022.
• Citation: 422 F.3d 347
• Parties: Raymond Parker MYERS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Clement D. POTTER, individually and in his official capacity as District Attorney General for the 31st Judicial District of Tennessee; et al., Defendants, Nichole Hutchins, individually; Joe Melton, in his official capacity as Chief of Police of the City of McMinnville, Tennessee Police Department, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

Page 347

422 F.3d 347

Raymond Parker MYERS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Clement D. POTTER, individually and in his official capacity as District Attorney General for the 31st Judicial District of Tennessee; et al., Defendants Nichole Hutchins, individually; Joe Melton, in his official capacity as Chief of Police of the City of McMinnville, Tennessee Police Department, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 04-6022.

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

Argued: June 3, 2005.

Decided and Filed: September 7, 2005.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

ARGUED:

Cynthia A. Wilson, Cookeville, Tennessee, for Appellant. Daniel H. Rader III, Moore, Rader, Clift & Fitzpatrick, Cookeville, Tennessee, for Appellees.

ON BRIEF:

Cynthia A. Wilson, Cookeville, Tennessee, for Appellant. Daniel H. Rader III, Moore, Rader, Clift & Fitzpatrick, Cookeville, Tennessee, for Appellees.

Before: RYAN, MOORE, and COOK, Circuit Judges.

RYAN, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which COOK, J., joined.

MOORE, J. (pp. 358-59), delivered a separate concurring opinion.

OPINION

RYAN, Circuit Judge.

The plaintiff, Raymond Parker Myers, brought a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 civil rights action against defendant Police Officer Nichole Hutchins, in her individual capacity, and defendant Police Chief Joe Melton, in his official capacity, for violations of Myers's rights under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments. The district court entered summary judgment for Hutchins on the grounds of qualified immunity, and for Melton because Myers failed to make out an actionable failure-to-train claim. Myers has appealed and we now reverse.

I.

On July 30, 1999, the McMinnville, Tennessee, Fire Department responded to a house fire in Warren County, Tennessee. Inside the house, firefighters discovered the bodies of Dianne Watts, her daughter Jessica Watts, and Jessica's friend, Chelsea Smith. Fire department investigators determined that the fire had been deliberately set, and autopsies revealed that each of the deceased had suffered blunt-force trauma to the head.

Prior to April 1999, Raymond Parker Myers, whom we will refer to as Raymond or Myers, and his father, Raymond Douglas Myers, Sr., lived in the house with Watts and her daughter Jessica. Watts was Raymond Douglas Myers's girlfriend. Raymond, who was 14 years old at the time of the fire, had lived in Watts's house for approximately five years. In 1998, Watts had been granted temporary legal custody of Raymond primarily to provide him with medical insurance coverage. A few months before the fire, Raymond moved out of Watts's residence and began residing with his mother, Teresa Myers, in Winchester, Tennessee.

While investigating the blaze and the three deaths, Tennessee law enforcement personnel suspected that Raymond Douglas Myers had committed the brutal crimes in Watts's household. From July 30, 1999, through August 4, 1999, law enforcement officials interviewed Raymond, his father, and his mother on several occasions at the mother's house in Winchester. On August 4, 1999, officials returned to the house and took Raymond Douglas Myers into custody. Later that afternoon, Investigator Jason Rowland of the District Attorney's Office Special Agent Phillip Gentry of the Tennessee Arson and Bomb Squad, and Officer Nichole Hutchins of the McMinnville Police Department arrived at Ms. Myers's house and began to interrogate Raymond. The record reveals that Raymond signed a Miranda waiver at 1:05 p.m. After questioning Raymond for a while, Hutchins and Gentry, apparently dissatisfied with the results of the interrogation, asked Ms. Myers for permission to take her son to the local Franklin County District Attorney's Office for additional questioning. Initially, Ms. Myers refused, telling the officers they could continue to interview her son in her home. When she asked the officers why they needed to take her son away for questioning, Hutchins responded that "[they] just needed to question him more on the case." According to Ms. Myers, Hutchins said: "He will be in real good hands, we will have him back in an hour." Ms. Myers asked if she could go with her son, to which Gentry responded: "[T]hat won't be necessary, we will have him right back." The other officers nodded in agreement. Gentry then said: "[W]e will have him back in an hour, I promise." Ms. Myers eventually relented, saying: "Ya'll [sic] have him right back in an hour." Hutchins states in her affidavit that she did not participate in any discussion to obtain Ms. Myers's consent, nor did she misrepresent any fact to Ms. Myers.

Raymond was placed in the rear of an unmarked vehicle driven by Hutchins. According to Raymond's affidavit, one of the officers immediately called someone on a cell phone and said: "We've got Raymond. We are on our way." Contrary to the representations made to Raymond's mother, the officers did not take Raymond to the District Attorney's Office in Franklin County, but to the District Attorney's Office in Warren County, which is approximately a one hour drive from Raymond's house. When they arrived at the District Attorney's Office in Warren County, Raymond was escorted into a room occupied by Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Agent Malcolm Elrod, who interrogated Raymond for approximately four hours, during which time Raymond signed a second Miranda waiver and a consent form for a polygraph examination. According to Raymond's affidavit, Elrod conducted a polygraph examination, threatened Raymond with life imprisonment, repeatedly called him profane names, and showed him photographs of the charred bodies discovered during the fire. Raymond made repeated requests to go home, to be with his mother, and to speak with an attorney, all of which were denied. Hutchins was not present during the interrogation by Elrod.

Raymond claims that, after being questioned by Elrod, he was interrogated further by Hutchins. Raymond claims that during this interrogation he was crying and told Hutchins he wanted to go home. His request was again denied. Hutchins disputes these allegations, claiming that she did not participate in any questioning of Raymond at the District Attorney's Office.

Ms. Myers eventually became frantic when her son was not returned to her home as promised. At approximately 10:30 p.m., almost six hours after Raymond was taken into custody, Clement Dale Potter, the District Attorney General for the 31st Judicial District of Tennessee, called Ms. Myers and informed her that her son would not be returning home and that to obtain his release she would have to obtain a court order. Ms. Myers claims that Potter refused to tell her where her son was being held or the reasons for his detainment.

That evening, Potter, or someone at his direction, contacted the Tennessee Department of Children's Services (TDCS) requesting assistance in placing Raymond in foster care. Raymond was detained at the District Attorney's Office in Warren County until approximately 2:30 a.m. the following morning, when he was transported to a foster home in Grundy County, Tennessee. Later that day, someone informed the Juvenile Court of Warren County that Raymond's legal guardian, Dianne Watts, had been killed and that if the boy were not taken into custody, he would be removed from the jurisdiction of the court. The Juvenile Court entered a Protective Custody Order the same day, placing Raymond in the custody of TDCS. Raymond was held in TDCS custody for more than three weeks, during which time he was interviewed several more times by Hutchins and other law enforcement officials. On August 31, 1999, through a court order, Ms. Myers secured Raymond's release and brought him home.

Raymond Douglas Myers was eventually indicted for the triple murder of Dianne Watts, Jessica Watts, and Chelsea Smith. Raymond testified at his father's criminal proceedings concerning the details of his detention and interrogation by Hutchins and other law enforcement officials. The trial court granted Raymond Douglas Myers's motion to suppress his son's statements to Agent Elrod because the court determined that those statements had been coerced. The trial court did not suppress the statements Raymond had given to Hutchins. After a jury trial, Raymond Douglas Myers was convicted of three counts of first-degree murder and one count of aggravated arson, and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

On October 10, 2003, Raymond Myers filed a § 1983 civil rights complaint against Officer Hutchins, Investigator Rowland, Agent Gentry, and Agent Elrod in their individual capacities, Attorney General Potter in his individual and official capacities, and McMinnville Police Chief Joe Melton in his official capacity, for violations of Raymond's constitutional rights under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments. Myers alleged that the defendants had conspired to deprive him of his constitutional rights, and that Chief Melton "failed to properly train Defendant Hutchins in the proper method to reasonably seize and/or obtain custody of a minor for interrogation or other purposes." The complaint also alleged several state law claims. Three days later, on October 13, 2003, Myers filed a Claim for Damages with the State of Tennessee Division of Claims Administration. All of the defendants originally named in Raymond's civil suit were also named in the claim, with the exception of Hutchins and Melton, the defendants in the present appeal. On December 16, 2003, Potter, Rowland, Elrod, and Gentry filed a motion to dismiss this case, arguing that the filing of the Claim for Damages operated as a waiver of Myers's federal causes of action against such defendants. On February 6, 2004, the district court entered a stipulated order dismissing the claims against those defendants without prejudice.

The remaining defendants, Hutchins and Melton, then filed a motion for summary judgment. Myers filed a response in opposition to the motion, while simultaneously submitting an affidavit...