Logsdon v. Hains

• Decision Date: 06 July 2007
• Docket Number: No. 06-4085.,06-4085.
• Citation: 492 F.3d 334
• Parties: Joseph Michael LOGSDON, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Charles HAINS and Daniel McShane, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

492 F.3d 334

Joseph Michael LOGSDON, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Charles HAINS and Daniel McShane, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 06-4085.

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

Argued: April 26, 2007.

Decided and Filed: July 6, 2007.

ARGUED: Thomas W. Condit, Cincinnati, Ohio, for Appellant. Richard Ganulin, City Solicitor's Office for the City of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, for Appellees.

ON BRIEF:

Thomas W. Condit, Cincinnati, Ohio, for Appellant. Richard Ganulin, City Solicitor's Office for the City of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, for Appellees.

Before: SUHRHEINRICH, CLAY, and ROGERS, Circuit Judges.

OPINION

CLAY, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiff, Joseph Michael Logsdon, appeals the district court's order granting a Rule 12(b)(6) motion brought by Defendants, Charles Hains and Daniel McShane, and dismissing Plaintiff's § 1983 suit and related claims. Plaintiff alleged violations of his rights under the First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, and asserted various state law claims for violations of the Ohio Constitution and state common law. For the reasons that follow, we REVERSE the district court's order and REMAND for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

BACKGROUND

Plaintiff has long been "an active member of the pro-life movement" who, specifically, engages in sidewalk counseling and peaceful protest outside abortion clinics in and around Cincinnati, Ohio.¹ (J.A. at 8) Plaintiff alleges that he has "never threatened or committed any act of violence" while counseling or protesting. (Id. at 9) Plaintiff admits, however, that on several occasions, he crossed the property line of the abortion clinics to communicate with clinic patients and hand them literature. Accordingly, Plaintiff has been charged with and convicted of criminal trespass in the past. Yet, Plaintiff claims that "he has always treated judges and prosecutors with respect, served his sentence(s) with dignity, and complied with any related court orders." (Id.) Plaintiff characterizes himself as a "regular presence" at Cincinnati Women's Services ("CWS"), an abortion clinic in Cincinnati. Plaintiff admits that, on the basis of his experience at CWS and with its President, Debi Jackson ("Jackson"), his "regular presence" is an unwelcome presence. (Id.)

Plaintiff's § 1983 suit arose from two separate encounters with the City of Cincinnati police. The first occurred October 28, 2003 on the public sidewalk outside CWS, where Plaintiff protested and counseled clinic patients. On that day, Plaintiff hung a sign on the neighboring property's fence. The sign said, "God has a plan for your baby," and listed a telephone number. (J.A. at 10) A clinic patient complained about Plaintiff's sign and, apparently in response to the patient's complaint, Jackson removed Plaintiff's sign from the fence and "walked toward the CWS clinic with the intention of destroying it." (Id.) Plaintiff demanded that Jackson return his sign, to no avail. At that point, Plaintiff walked onto CWS property and took back his sign from Jackson, thereafter "promptly return[ing] to the public sidewalk." (Id.) Jackson subsequently contacted the City of Cincinnati Police.

Defendant Charles Hains ("Hains"), an officer of the Cincinnati Police Department, responded to the scene and placed Plaintiff under arrest. Defendant Hains did not have a warrant for Plaintiff's arrest and did not observe the incident at issue. Additionally, Defendant Hains refused to listen to a witness's account of the incident, admonishing her to "Tell it to the judge." (J.A. at 11) Ultimately, Defendant Hains arrested Plaintiff for criminal trespass and disorderly conduct. Plaintiff remained in custody for approximately four hours, after which time he was released on bond. Pursuant to these charges, Plaintiff appeared in Hamilton County Municipal Court on several occasions along with counsel. The court conducted a bench trial on May 10, 2004, finding Plaintiff guilty of criminal trespass, but acquitting him of disorderly conduct. On appeal heard April 22, 2005, the Hamilton County Court of Appeals reversed Plaintiff's conviction for criminal trespass upon a finding that Plaintiff was privileged to enter CWS property to retrieve his sign. Over the course of these proceedings, Plaintiff incurred attorney fees in excess of $10,000, and avers that he suffered various other harms and indignities.² Plaintiff avers that Defendant Hains acted in "malicious and/or reckless disregard of [Plaintiff's] clearly established statutory and constitutional rights." (J.A. at 12)

The second encounter took place on June 18, 2004. That day, Plaintiff again counseled clinic patients and protested on the public sidewalk near CWS. In order to communicate with a clinic patient arriving in the CWS parking lot that day, Plaintiff walked into an adjacent public park and spoke to the patient through a chain link fence. Plaintiff describes the conversation as "not hostile" and says it "lasted for several minutes" before the clinic patient entered the clinic. (J.A. at 13) Following that encounter, an employee at CWS called the Cincinnati Police to complain of trespass by Plaintiff. Defendant Daniel McShane ("McShane"), an officer of the Cincinnati Police Department, responded and placed Plaintiff under arrest for criminal trespass. Plaintiff states that McShane had no warrant for Plaintiff's arrest and refused to listen to a witness's account of the incident. Additionally, McShane was apparently not present at the scene during Plaintiff's encounter with the clinic patient. Defendant McShane filed criminal trespass charges against Plaintiff, and Plaintiff was held at the Hamilton County Justice Center for four hours that day. On this trespass charge, Plaintiff also appeared several times before the Hamilton County Municipal Court along with counsel before the court ultimately dismissed the charge on November 3, 2004. Plaintiff states that he incurred over $2,000 in attorney fees in relation to this charge. Plaintiff alleges that Defendant McShane "performed maliciously and/or in reckless disregard of [Plaintiff's] clearly established statutory and constitutional rights." (J.A. at 14)

On December 8, 2005, Defendants filed a motion to dismiss Plaintiff's § 1983 complaint for failure to state a claim. Therein, Defendants set forth five bases for granting their motion to dismiss: (1) that Plaintiff failed to plead a federal constitutional claim; (2) that qualified immunity would shield Defendants from suit; (3) that issue preclusion applied; (4) that there existed an insufficient justification for pendent jurisdiction; and (5) that Plaintiff failed to adequately plead state tort claims. Plaintiff responded with a motion to convert Defendants' motion to dismiss into a proceeding for summary judgment and for discovery, as well as a response in opposition to Defendants' motion to dismiss.

Ultimately, the district court granted Defendants' motion to dismiss. In its order dismissing Plaintiff's case, the district court reasoned as follows:

[Plaintiff's] Fourth Amendment claims clearly relate to his arrests, and his First Amendment claims are grounded in the theory that his arrests impeded his freedom of expression and of assembly. Should the arrests be supported by probable cause, then none of Plaintiff's constitutional claims survive. Having reviewed this matter, the Court finds the arresting officers, in relying on testimony of a reliable witness and finding [Plaintiff] at the scene of the alleged trespass, reasonably believed that Plaintiff committed trespass. Accordingly the Officers had probable cause.

Logsdon, 2006 WL 1793243, at *4. Additionally, the district court found that even if it erred in finding no constitutional violations, Defendants were each protected by the doctrine of qualified immunity. Id. at *8. Specifically, the district court opined that Defendant "Hains was clearly reasonable in arresting [Plaintiff,]" and that Defendant McShane "at worst ... reasonably misapprehended the law governing the circumstances he discovered." Id. Plaintiff timely appealed the district court's order.

DISCUSSION

I. PLAINTIFF'S FEDERAL CONSTITUTIONAL CLAIMS

A. Standard of Review

We review de novo the district court's grant of a Rule 12(b)(6) motion. Petty v. County of Franklin, Ohio, 478 F.3d 341, 345 (6th Cir.2007); Bloch v. Ribar, 156 F.3d 673, 677 (6th Cir.1998). Reviewing the district court's decision on a motion to dismiss, we construe the plaintiff's complaint liberally, in plaintiff's favor, accepting all factual allegations as true and drawing all reasonable inferences in favor of the plaintiff. Gazette v. City of Pontiac, 41 F.3d 1061, 1064 (6th Cir.1994) (citing Westlake v. Lucas, 537 F.2d 857, 858 (6th Cir.1976)). If, after doing so, we find that the plaintiff failed to state a claim for relief, we will affirm the district court's grant. Id. However, "[t]he district court's dismissal of a civil rights complaint on a 12(b)(6) motion is scrutinized with special care." Id. Finally, we review de novo the district court's finding of qualified immunity. Bloch, 156 F.3d at 677 (citing O'Brien v. City of Grand Rapids, 23 F.3d 990, 998 (6th Cir.1994)).

B. Qualified Immunity and Plaintiff's Fourth Amendment Claims

Plaintiff contends that the district court erred in dismissing his § 1983 suit inasmuch as his complaint states a claim for violations of his Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. The district court granted Defendants' Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss, finding that Defendants each had probable cause to arrest Plaintiff and, at any rate, were protected by qualified immunity. Having "scrutinized with special care" the district court's order dismissing Plaintiff's claims, we hold that the district court erred in granting Defendants' motion to dismiss Plaintiff's Fourth Amendment claims.

Qualified immunity shields "government officials performing...