Cady v. Arenac County

Decision Date30 July 2009
Docket NumberNo. 08-1795.,08-1795.
Citation574 F.3d 334
PartiesRobert Ward CADY, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. ARENAC COUNTY and Curtis G. Broughton, individually and in his official capacity as Arenac County Prosecutor, Defendants-Appellees.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

ARGUED: Russell C. Babcock, The Mastromarco Firm, Saginaw, Michigan, for Appellant. Jason David Kolkema, Johnson, Rosati, Labarge, Aseltyne & Field, P.G., Lansing, Michigan, for Appellees. ON BRIEF: Russell C. Babcock, Victor Joseph Mastromarco, Jr., The Mastromarco Firm, Saginaw, Michigan, for Appellant. Jason David Kolkema, Johnson, Rosati, Labarge, Aseltyne & Field, P.G., Lansing, Michigan, for Appellees.

Before MARTIN and GILMAN, Circuit Judges; ZOUHARY, District Judge.*

GILMAN, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which ZOUHARY, D.J., joined. MARTIN, J. (pp. 345-49), delivered a separate concurring opinion.

OPINION

RONALD LEE GILMAN, Circuit Judge.

This case raises the question of whether Robert Ward Cady's constitutional rights were violated when the Arenac County Prosecutor required Cady, as a condition for dismissing the criminal assault and battery charges pending against him, to enter into an agreement to temporarily refrain from filing a civil lawsuit against the parties with whom he had had a physical altercation. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of both Arenac County and the Arenac County Prosecutor, concluding that the prosecutor's actions were protected by absolute prosecutorial immunity. Although we do not fully agree with the district court's analysis, we AFFIRM its judgment for the reasons set forth below.

I. BACKGROUND
A. Factual background

On the evening of September 4, 2004, police officers were dispatched to the property of Robert Seaman in response to a call claiming that a person was being restrained after he was observed breaking into vehicles. Seaman was having a Labor Day party that evening at his residence. The officers arrived to find Cady being assisted in getting up from the ground. According to the police report, the officers received conflicting accounts about what had taken place. Cady first claimed that he was hit by a water balloon coming from the Seaman property as he drove by and that, when he sought to investigate, individuals from the Seamans' party assaulted him. He then changed his story and claimed that he stopped at what he believed was a friend's house and that individuals "jumped him." The officer interviewing Cady noted that Cady emitted "the odor of intoxicants." This caused the officer to administer a breathalyzer test, which showed that Cady had a blood-alcohol level of 0.101.

In contrast, the four individuals at the Seamans' Labor Day party (Robert Seaman, Marcia Seaman, Scott Diebold, and Thomas Kolczynski) told the police that Cady came onto the Seaman property and assaulted Robert Seaman. After Robert called out for help, the other three at the party came to assist him. They restrained Cady until the police arrived. A fifth individual, Robert Dewar, told one of the officers that while Cady was being held down, he saw Diebold punching Cady in the head "about five times." The police then re-interviewed Diebold, a corrections officer based in New York, and further questioned his account of the events. They ultimately discredited Dewar's story and told him to leave the property because he "was getting everyone excited." Several of the individuals involved, including Cady, appeared to have injuries. During his deposition, Assistant Prosecutor Vollbach described Cady as having gotten "the worst of the tussle."

After the officers evaluated these conflicting accounts, Cady was arrested and taken into custody. He spent the night in jail and was released the following afternoon having been issued a citation and charged on a "weekend warrant" with two state misdemeanor counts of assault and battery.

In April 2005, Cady entered into a Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) with Assistant Prosecutor Vollbach, which provided in pertinent part as follows:

The Defendant, Robert Ward Cady, voluntarily and understandably agrees to the dismissal of the current charges pending against him: two counts of Assault and Battery, subject to the following conditions:

1. During the next six (6) months, I will demonstrate my desire to live within the law by not violating any statute of the State of Michigan requiring criminal intent.

2. During the next six (6) months, I will not be arrested for any criminal acts or traffic violations more serious than a civil infraction.

3. If Defendant Cady pursues any civil claims or remedies against the victims or other participants pertaining to the incidents relative to this matter, People will reissue charges.

I, Robert Ward Cady, agree to the above terms and conditions and understand that if I violate any of the terms of this agreement during the next six (6) months, the Prosecution will re-issue the current charges pending against me.

Cady signed the DPA, but later claimed that he did so "with the understanding that the provision was unconstitutional." He did not, however, communicate this belief to the Arenac County Prosecutor's Office. Assistant Prosecutor Vollbach acknowledged during his deposition that the Prosecutor's Office had never before executed a DPA containing similar waiver-of-civil-claims language, but said that he had done so to allow a six-month "cooling-off" period between the parties to the altercation.

Less than five months later, Cady nonetheless filed a civil lawsuit against the Seamans, Diebold, and Kolzcynski in the county circuit court. The complaint alleged assault, battery, and negligence arising out of the events of September 4, 2004. Upon learning of the civil lawsuit, Arenac County Prosecutor Curtis Broughton and Assistant Prosecutor Vollbach decided to reissue the criminal charges against Cady. Cady pled not guilty, and was ultimately acquitted by a jury on all charges.

B. Procedural history

In March 2007, Cady filed a claim pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against Arenac County and County Prosecutor Broughton in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. The complaint alleged that the defendants violated Cady's constitutional rights under the Petition Clause of the First Amendment by including the waiver-of-civil-claims language in the DPA.

After discovery was completed, the district court heard oral arguments relating to the defendants' Motion for Dismissal and Summary Judgment. It later issued a memorandum opinion in favor of both defendants. The court found that because Broughton is a "policymaker with final decision-making authority," Cady had stated a claim that met the requirements for suing Arenac County as set forth in Pembaur v. City of Cincinnati, 475 U.S. 469, 106 S.Ct. 1292, 89 L.Ed.2d 452 (1986). It also concluded that, based upon the factors laid out in Justice O'Connor's concurring opinion in Town of Newton v. Rumery, 480 U.S. 386, 107 S.Ct. 1187, 94 L.Ed.2d 405 (1987), and substantially adopted by the Sixth Circuit in Coughlen v. Coots, 5 F.3d 970 (6th Cir.1993), the DPA's release-dismissal provision did not serve the public interest and was unenforceable due to "prosecutorial overreaching."

Nonetheless, the district court held that Cady's claim was barred by absolute prosecutorial immunity. The court identified the following three acts of the prosecutor as being challenged by Cady: (1) the issuance of charges against Cady, (2) the inclusion of the waiver-of-civil-claims language in the DPA, and (3) the prosecution of Cady. Citing Imbler v. Pachtman, 424 U.S. 409, 96 S.Ct. 984, 47 L.Ed.2d 128 (1976), the court concluded that all three acts are subject to absolute prosecutorial immunity, a doctrine that protects prosecutors from claims brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The court therefore granted summary judgment in favor of both defendants and dismissed Cady's complaint. Cady timely appealed.

II. ANALYSIS
A. Standard of review

We review de novo a district court's grant of summary judgment. Allen v. Highlands Hosp. Corp., 545 F.3d 387, 393 (6th Cir.2008). Summary judgment is proper where no genuine issue of material fact exists and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c). In considering a motion for summary judgment, the district court must construe all reasonable inferences in favor of the nonmoving party. Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 587, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 89 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986). The central issue is "whether the evidence presents a sufficient disagreement to require submission to a jury or whether it is so one-sided that one party must prevail as a matter of law." Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 251-52, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986).

B. Immunity issues

"An absolute immunity defeats a suit at the outset, so long as the official's actions were within the scope of the immunity." Imbler, 424 U.S. at 419 n. 13, 96 S.Ct. 984. If absolute immunity applies to the defendants, we do not need to reach the substantive issues such as whether the DPA is unenforceable under the factors set out in Rumery. See Imbler, 424 U.S. at 419 n. 13, 96 S.Ct. 984. Because Cady brought suit against County Prosecutor Broughton in both his individual and official capacities, we will separately analyze the issue of whether this immunity applies to Broughton in his individual capacity, to Broughton in his official capacity, and to Arenac County. "Whether absolute immunity protects a defendant from liability under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 is a legal question that this Court reviews de novo." Gregory v. City of Louisville, 444 F.3d 725, 737 (6th Cir.2006) (citation omitted).

a. Broughton in his individual capacity

The Supreme Court in Imbler held that "a state prosecuting attorney who acted within the scope of his duties in initiating and pursuing a criminal prose...

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