Reid v. State of N.H.
| Decision Date | 06 June 1995 |
| Docket Number | No. 93-1579,93-1579 |
| Citation | 56 F.3d 332 |
| Parties | Gordon C. REID, Plaintiff, Appellant, v. STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE, et al., Defendants, Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit |
Robert G. Whaland, William A. Grimes and McDonough & O'Shaughnessy, Manchester, NH, on brief, for appellee.
Carolyn M. Kirby, Asst. County Atty., Manchester, NH, on Motion for Summary Affirmance for appellee.
Before SELYA, CYR and BOUDIN, Circuit Judges.
After a New Hampshire court set aside his convictions on two charges of felonious sexual assault against a child, pro se plaintiff Gordon C. Reid initiated this civil rights action for compensatory and punitive damages against, inter alia, Hillsborough County prosecutors Marguerite Wageling and Paul McDonough, Manchester police officers Gary Simmons, Ronald Paul, James Ahern and Richard Gilman, and defense attorney Richard Renfro. The district court dismissed all claims, and Reid appealed.
For the reasons hereinafter discussed, we affirm the district court order dismissing the claims against prosecutors Wageling and McDonough, as well as the claim that Renfro conspired with the prosecutors to conceal exculpatory evidence from Reid. We vacate the order dismissing the false arrest and malicious prosecution claims against the police defendants and the due process claim alleging that the police defendants intentionally concealed exculpatory impeachment evidence from the prosecutors.
Reid was arrested, without a warrant, on June 21, 1986, and charged with three counts Reid represented himself at trial, personally cross-examining the State's witnesses, including Misty, with assistance from stand-by counsel. After the jury acquitted Reid on one count, he moved to set aside his convictions on the two remaining counts.
of felonious sexual assault upon a six-year-old girl, Misty ____ ("Misty"). 1 He was incarcerated immediately upon arrest. Manchester Police Sergeant Gary Simmons testified at the probable cause hearing ultimately held on August 22, 1986, and Reid was bound over for trial. Between September 9, 1986 and June 24, 1987, with assistance from stand-by counsel, Reid filed five successful motions to compel disclosure of exculpatory evidence
Sometime in September 1988, in response to a further motion to disclose exculpatory evidence, the State produced documents tending to undermine the credibility of Misty, her sister Wendy, and their mother. Among the documents were Manchester Police Department reports, dated December 20, 1985 ("1985 Report") and April 4, 1986 ("1986 Report"), prepared by Sergeant Simmons, containing questionable accounts of previous sexual assaults allegedly made against Misty by other individuals. 2 Reid also was provided with a New Hampshire Department of Children & Youth Services ("DCYS") file on Misty and her family, which included reports that Misty's mother had beaten and bruised Misty and engaged in sexual intercourse with her boyfriend in front of Misty. These allegations originated, in part, with Misty's sister, Wendy. It further revealed that Misty's mother had characterized Wendy's allegations as lies prompted by Wendy's drug use and desire to move in with her boyfriend when Wendy was only sixteen years old. The DCYS file also described aberrant sexual behavior by Misty herself, at age six, such as performing fellatio on another child. 3
Reid was released on bail while the superior court conducted a "nonevidentiary hearing" on the motion to set aside his convictions. The court concluded that the police reports of prior sexual assaults constituted exculpatory impeachment evidence which gave rise to a reasonable probability that the outcome of Reid's trial would have been different had the evidence been disclosed to the trial court, since it directly undermined the testimony of Misty and her mother. Under the New Hampshire Rape Shield Law, Rev.Stat.Ann. Sec. 632-A:6, "a defendant must be afforded the opportunity to show, by specific incidents of sexual conduct, that the prosecutrix has the experience and ability to contrive a statutory rape charge against him." State v. Howard, 121 N.H. 53, 61, 426 A.2d 457 (1981). On October 5, 1988, the superior court set the two remaining convictions aside and ordered a new trial. In December 1988, all charges against Reid were dropped.
The original civil rights complaint in federal district court alleged that between the date of arrest, June 1986, and the date his convictions were set aside, October 1988, prosecutors Wageling and McDonough caused Reid to be deprived of his liberty without probable cause in violation of the Fourth Amendment. It alleged that the prosecutors, by withholding the exculpatory evidence, violated Reid's rights to due process, a fair trial, equal protection of the laws, and to confront and obtain witnesses. Reid further alleged that he was arrested by Manchester Police Sergeant Gary Simmons on the basis of unreliable information and that Simmons continuously withheld exculpatory On June 19, 1989, a United States magistrate judge recommended that all but one claim be dismissed. 4 The report and recommendation noted that prosecutors Wageling and McDonough were absolutely immune from suit under Imbler v. Pachtman, 424 U.S. 409, 96 S.Ct. 984, 47 L.Ed.2d 128 (1976), and that Reid had failed to allege the requisite state action to sustain a claim against defense counsel Renfro under Polk County v. Dodson, 454 U.S. 312, 320-21, 102 S.Ct. 445, 450-51, 70 L.Ed.2d 509 (1981).
evidence between June 1986 and October 1988. Finally, he alleged that Richard Renfro, Esquire, deprived Reid of his Sixth Amendment right to the effective assistance of counsel by failing to prepare the case adequately for trial.
Reid filed an amended pro se complaint, alleging federal and state civil rights violations and adding Manchester Police defendants Gilman, Ahern and Paul. It alleged that the police defendants arrested Reid on the basis of unreliable information, in violation of the Fourth Amendment, and deliberately suppressed exculpatory evidence from the time of his arrest until after his trial, in violation of his right to equal protection, the effective assistance of counsel, a fair trial, due process, and the right to confront and obtain witnesses. The first amended complaint also alleged that prosecutors Wageling and McDonough had instructed their codefendants in the present civil rights action, and the witnesses at Reid's criminal trial, not to mention the police reports on prior sexual assault complaints relating to Misty, thereby prompting these codefendants to respond falsely to inquiries concerning the withheld evidence both before and during the criminal trial. See Hilliard v. Williams, 465 F.2d 1212, 1215 (6th Cir.1972), rev'd, 540 F.2d 220, 221 (6th Cir.1976) (per curiam). The first amended complaint reiterated Reid's allegation that the prosecutors deliberately withheld the exculpatory evidence before, during, and for fourteen months after Reid's criminal trial, resulting in his unlawful conviction and imprisonment. Finally, it alleged that the defendant officers and prosecutors had conspired to deprive Reid of his constitutional rights.
The magistrate judge issued a Further Report and Recommendation on February 6, 1990, which concluded that the first amended complaint stated an actionable Fourth Amendment claim for false arrest against the police defendants and that Reid's motion to add police defendants Gilman, Ahern and Paul should be allowed. Citing Imbler, 424 U.S. at 430, 96 S.Ct. at 994, the magistrate judge concluded, nonetheless, that the claims against prosecutors Wageling and McDonough were barred by absolute prosecutorial immunity. Finally, the report recommended that the claim against Attorney Renfro be dismissed.
On March 22, 1991, the district court adopted the Further Report and Recommendation, effectively dismissing prosecutors Wageling and McDonough, and defense counsel Renfro, as defendants. 5
On June 10, 1992, following further discovery, Reid requested leave to file the third amended complaint, reasserting all claims against the prosecutors, adding a conspiracy claim against Renfro, and naming additional police and prosecutor defendants. The third amended complaint further particularized the claims against the police defendants, asserting that their failure to disclose exculpatory evidence constituted actionable malicious prosecution and violated Reid's constitutional rights. In contrast to the first amended complaint, which indicated that the prosecutors knew about the exculpatory evidence but instructed the police and others to conceal it, Reid's third amended complaint, liberally As for the prosecutors and Attorney Renfro, the third amended complaint alleged, in the alternative, that the prosecutors knew of the exculpatory evidence but failed to disclose the information to Renfro, or that the prosecutors disclosed the exculpatory information to Renfro but enlisted him in their conspiracy to conceal the exculpatory information from Reid. We turn to the various claims raised on appeal.
construed, see Estelle v. Gamble, 429 U.S. 97, 106, 97 S.Ct. 285, 292, 50 L.Ed.2d 251 (1976), asserted that the police defendants knew the police reports and the DCYS file existed, but concealed them from the prosecutors for almost two years, between June 1986 and August 1988. Thus, the third amended complaint restated Reid's previous allegations against the police defendants and pleaded distinct claims for negligence, false arrest, malicious prosecution, wrongful withholding of exculpatory evidence, and conspiracy.
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