Club Retro, L.L.C. v. Hilton

• Decision Date: 06 May 2009
• Docket Number: No. 08-30512.,08-30512.
• Citation: 568 F.3d 181
• Parties: CLUB RETRO, L.L.C.; Lyle K. Doublet, Individually and as Manager, on behalf of Club Retro, L.L.C.; Erica L. Doublet, Individually and on behalf of Olivia Lynn Marie Doublet; Dar J. Doublet; Christine A. Smith, Individually and on behalf of Carley A. Smith; Ronnie M. Mabou; Jonathan K. Frost, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. William Earl HILTON, Individually and in His Official Capacity as Sheriff of Rapides Parish; Michael Slocum, Individually and In His Official Capacity as a Deputy Sheriff of Rapides Parish; Ricky Doyle, Individually and in His Official Capacity as a Deputy Sheriff of Rapides Parish; Michael LaCour, Individually and in His Official Capacity as a Deputy Sheriff of Rapides Parish; James Rauls, Individually and In His Official Capacity as a Deputy Sheriff of Rapides Parish, Defendants-Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

568 F.3d 181

CLUB RETRO, L.L.C.; Lyle K. Doublet, Individually and as Manager, on behalf of Club Retro, L.L.C.; Erica L. Doublet, Individually and on behalf of Olivia Lynn Marie Doublet; Dar J. Doublet; Christine A. Smith, Individually and on behalf of Carley A. Smith; Ronnie M. Mabou; Jonathan K. Frost, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. William Earl HILTON, Individually and in His Official Capacity as Sheriff of Rapides Parish; Michael Slocum, Individually and In His Official Capacity as a Deputy Sheriff of Rapides Parish; Ricky Doyle, Individually and in His Official Capacity as a Deputy Sheriff of Rapides Parish; Michael LaCour, Individually and in His Official Capacity as a Deputy Sheriff of Rapides Parish; James Rauls, Individually and In His Official Capacity as a Deputy Sheriff of Rapides Parish, Defendants-Appellants.

No. 08-30512.

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

May 6, 2009.

Perry R. Sanders, Jr., Robert John Frank, (argued), Sanders, Jones & Frank, LLC, Colorado Springs, CO, William L. Goode, The Goode Law Firm, Lafayette, LA, for Plaintiffs-Appellees.

John F. Weeks, II (argued), Usry, Weeks & Matthews, New Orleans, LA, for Defendants-Appellants.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana.

Before KING, BENAVIDES and CLEMENT, Circuit Judges.

KING, Circuit Judge:

Defendants, the Sheriff of Rapides Parish and four deputy sheriffs, appeal the district court's denial of qualified immunity for their involvement in "Operation Retro-Fit," a preplanned, violent S.W.A.T. team raid of a nightclub, Club Retro, on February 5, 2006. As a result of events that occurred during that raid, plaintiffs, owners and select employees of Club Retro, bring 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and state law claims against those five officers in their individual and official capacities. Relevant to this appeal, they allege that defendants' planning, approving, and executing Operation Retro-Fit violated their First, Fourth, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights. Defendants moved to dismiss the complaint pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, asserting, inter alia, qualified immunity as an affirmative defense to the individual-capacity claims. The district court rejected the defense of qualified immunity for all but a few of plaintiffs' claims. It, however, granted qualified immunity for plaintiffs' due process claims, which it dismissed without prejudice. Defendants bring this interlocutory appeal challenging the district court's denials of qualified immunity and decision to dismiss the due process claims without prejudice. For the following reasons, we affirm the district court's order in part, reverse in part, and remand.

I. PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND AND FACTUAL ALLEGATIONS

A. Procedural History

A year after enduring the raid on Club Retro, plaintiffs Club Retro, L.L.C.; Lyle K. Doublet; Dar J. Doublet; Erica L. Doublet, individually and on behalf of her minor daughter, Olivia Lynn Marie Doublet; Christine A. Smith, individually and on behalf of her minor daughter, Carley A Smith; Jonathan K. Frost; and Ronnie M. Mabou filed a federal lawsuit. Their complaint alleged, inter alia, § 1983 claims of violations of their freedoms of expression, association, and assembly under the First Amendment, unlawful search and seizure and false arrest under the Fourth Amendment, and equal protection and due process violations under the Fourteenth Amendment.¹ They alleged these claims against defendants Rapides Parish Sheriff William Hilton and Rapides Parish deputy sheriffs Michael Slocum, Ricky Doyle, Michael LaCour, and James Rauls, acting in their individual and official capacities. Defendants immediately moved to dismiss the complaint under Rule 12(b)(6) on various grounds, including qualified immunity for the federal constitutional claims against them in their individual capacities. Plaintiffs responded to the motion to dismiss by filing a response and a motion to amend or correct their complaint. The court referred the motion to dismiss and motion to amend or correct the complaint to a magistrate judge. The magistrate judge granted plaintiffs' motion to amend or correct their complaint. Plaintiffs filed a supplemental and amending complaint which amended parts of the complaint (collectively, the "amended complaint"), and defendants reasserted their motion to dismiss.

The magistrate judge issued a report recommending that the district court grant in part and deny in part the motion to dismiss. It stated, inter alia, that the district court should reject the defense of qualified immunity (1) to all defendants for plaintiffs' Fourth Amendment unreasonable search and seizure claims; (2) to deputy sheriffs Slocum and Doyle for Dar's, Lyle's, and Erica's Fourth Amendment false arrest claims; and (3) to Sheriff Hilton and deputy sheriffs Slocum, LaCour, and Rauls for plaintiffs' Fourteenth Amendment equal protection claims. On the other hand, the magistrate judge recommended dismissal of Club Retro's, Lyle's, and Dar's First Amendment and plaintiffs' due process claims based on qualified immunity. After the parties filed objections to the report and recommendation, the district court entered judgment, adopting most of the magistrate judge's recommendations but — without substantial comment — refusing to dismiss the First Amendment claims. The district court dismissed without prejudice plaintiffs' due process claims.

Defendants filed a timely appeal. Because this case comes to us on appeal from the district court's order denying defendants' motion to dismiss, we consider the facts that plaintiffs set forth in their amended complaint.

B. Factual Allegations

Lyle and Dar Doublet were the owners of Club Retro, L.L.C., a business enterprise that owned and operated Club Retro, a nightclub located in Alexandria, Louisiana. Lyle managed Club Retro, L.L.C. Lyle and Dar are Creole, and Club Retro's clientele was mixed-race. Before opening to the public in October 31, 2005, Club Retro passed various inspections and received permits to serve alcohol. As part of the inspection process, the state fire marshal set Club Retro's capacity at 680 persons. Lyle and Dar also confirmed that they could permit persons under the age of twenty-one but over the age of eighteen in the club, so long as they did not serve them alcohol. While deputy sheriff Slocum and assistant district attorney Thomas B. Searcy stated that the matter was a "grey" area, Searcy received confirmation from District Attorney James C. Downs that it was permissible.

On January 21 and 28, 2006, two Rapides Parish deputy sheriffs checked Club Retro to ensure that the doors were locked and closed at 2:00 a.m. On January 21, after Lyle and Dar protested, the officers left and promised to return with a copy of the applicable ordinance. A few days later, the Doublets visited the office of the Rapides Parish Sales and Use Tax Department where they confirmed that Club Retro could remain open after 2 a.m. on Sunday mornings if they stopped selling and prevented patrons from consuming alcohol after 2 a.m. The following weekend, despite the Doublets' protestations, a deputy sheriff and his lieutenant ordered the club closed, and the Doublets complied with their order.

On the night of Saturday, February 4, 2006, and into the early hours of Sunday, February 5, 2006, Club Retro hosted a number of popular hip hop artists. Club Retro hired private security guards to search all patrons entering the club.² At approximately 12:15 a.m. Sunday morning, the club was crowded with approximately 500 patrons when persons waiting in line outside of the club crashed through the front door, pursued by forty Rapides Parish deputy sheriffs — some outfitted in full S.W.A.T. gear and black ski masks — who stormed Club Retro with shotguns, AR-15 assault rifles, and pistols drawn and pointed at both patrons and employees. At least one patron was injured in the chaos near the entranceway when a deputy sheriff "stomped" on her leg. Once inside the club, the officers forced many patrons to the ground at gunpoint, and the deputy sheriffs may have used tasers on club patrons.

The deputy sheriffs were acting pursuant to Operation Retro-Fit, a plan authorized by Sheriff Hilton; written, supervised, and executed by deputy sheriffs Slocum, LaCour, and Rauls; and supervised and executed by deputy sheriff Doyle. The sheriffs memorialized Operation Retro-Fit in a written plan that plaintiffs have attached to their complaint. The plan called for a warrantless raid on Club Retro using a S.W.A.T. team for the purposes of detecting the sale or possession of illegal narcotics, the sale of alcohol to minors, and fire code violations. The deputy sheriffs would be assisted by officers from the Metro Narcotics Unit, a K-9 Unit, the Louisiana Department of Revenue Office of Alcohol and Tobacco Control, and Louisiana Probation and Parole.

As soon as the raid began, the deputy sheriffs seized, assaulted, battered, and handcuffed Lyle and Dar, who were then transported to a warehouse holding facility and held for over six hours. Several hours later, Slocum had Judge John C. Davidson of the Ninth Judicial District Court for Rapides Parish sign arrest warrants against Lyle and Dar, based on affidavits sworn by LaCour. Although Judge Davidson initially refused because of the lack of probable cause on the night of the raid, he eventually relented and signed the warrants. The crime identified in both warrants was keeping Club Retro open past 2:00 a.m. on January 4, 2006, in violation of Louisiana Revised Statutes Annotated § 33:1236(6). The warrants additionally state that deputy sheriffs warned Lyle and Dar on January 27 and 28, 2006, that they were operating in violation of the law.³

Because of the scale and ferocity of the raid, many of Club Retro's employees thought that they were being robbed by armed gunmen. A deputy sheriff hurled himself across the bar into the bartending...