Garris v. Rowland
| Decision Date | 24 June 1982 |
| Docket Number | No. 81-1215,81-1215 |
| Citation | 678 F.2d 1264 |
| Parties | Walter E. GARRIS, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. G. F. ROWLAND, Officer, Fort Worth Police Department, and City of Fort Worth, Texas, Defendants-Appellants. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Richard E. Henderson, Asst. City Atty., Fort Worth, Tex., for defendants-appellants.
Don Gladden, Fort Worth, Tex., for plaintiff-appellee.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas.
Before CLARK, Chief Judge, and THORNBERRY and GARZA, Circuit Judges.
Plaintiff-Appellee, Walter E. Garris, brought this 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action against Defendants-Appellants, Officer G. F. Rowland, the Fort Worth Police Department and the City of Fort Worth, Texas, alleging a violation of his civil rights resulting from his unlawful arrest in March, 1978. Garris successfully recovered $25,000 in damages after a jury trial in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas who ordered expunction of all official records reflecting Garris' arrest and detention. Defendants-Appellants now appeal. We affirm in part and reverse in part.
It is indeed an understatement to suggest that the record before us discloses an unfortunate set of circumstances bordering on the absurd. This case truly involves a tragedy of errors. Cf. Rodriguez v. Ritchey, 556 F.2d 1185, 1186-88 (5th Cir. 1977) (en banc), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 1047, 98 S.Ct. 894, 54 L.Ed.2d 799 (1978). Because of the unique record before us, we set forth the relevant facts in detail.
On the morning of March 8, 1978, an unknown person stopped two fifth-grade female students on their way to Westcreek Elementary School in South Fort Worth to ask them directions to a nearby high school. This incident was observed by a parent of a student who reported what she saw to the principal of Westcreek, Charles Franklin. Because of problems which had been experienced in that area, Mr. Franklin telephoned Officer Charles Gillespie who was the school district's liaison officer with the Fort Worth Police. 1 Franklin testified that he related to Gillespie the incident involving the conversation between the adult male in a green car and the schoolchildren as it was revealed to him by the parent. He stated that he did not inform Gillespie that any child solicitation had occurred.
Officer Gillespie then contacted his partner, Fort Worth Police Officer G. F. Rowland, and informed him that Franklin had called and revealed that he had received information that someone had attempted to pick-up two schoolchildren. Believing a solicitation to have occurred, Gillespie and Rowland proceeded to the Westcreek Elementary area and surveyed the area in an effort to locate the driver of the green car. They did not, however, go to the school to discuss the matter with either Principal Franklin or the schoolgirls, whose identities at this point were unknown. Neither was an attempt made to contact or determine the identity of the parent who had observed the incident. During that day, Principal Franklin made an announcement over the school's intercom requesting the two girls to come forth. The schoolchildren came forth and told their principal that a man had stopped them and had only requested directions to several schools in the area, including a nearby high school; they stated
that the person had not tried to get them into his car. Later in the day, after returning from their unsuccessful attempt to locate the suspect, Gillespie telephoned Franklin to determine the full details of the incident. Contrary to Principal Franklin's testimony, Gillespie stated that Franklin told him that the schoolgirls said the driver had asked them to "show me where the school is." This harmless incident of March 8th set the stage for the sad, though incredible, events upon which this lawsuit is premised.
The following morning, on March 9, 1978, Walter Garris travelled to the Westcreek Elementary School area in connection with his employment as a landscape architect-site planner with the Department of Housing and Urban Development. He had been requested to evaluate a site for a proposed construction project, and in performing such an evaluation, he was required, among other things, to measure distances of right-of-way as well as to examine the entire neighborhood. Garris testified at trial and upon polygraph examination that he spoke to no one while making his report.
On this same morning, Joan Massengale was driving her son to school at Westcreek Elementary when she passed the scene where Garris was performing the survey. As she related to Principal Franklin, she observed Garris standing outside his car, and she believed he was talking to two small schoolchildren. She proceeded past the site, made a U-turn, and returned where she obtained the license plate number of Garris' car. 2 She continued to Westcreek Elementary and there informed Franklin of her observations. Franklin again phoned Officer Gillespie to report the incident as it had been related to him. Once again the record testimony conflicts as Officer Gillespie asserts that Franklin indicated to him that "the suspect was back." After his conversation with the principal, Gillespie and Rowland again returned to the Westcreek area to see if the suspect could be located. Neither Gillespie nor Rowland went to the school although police officer John Barton spoke with both Franklin and Mrs. Massengale, wrote up an incident report, and ran a check to determine to whom the license plate number was registered. Unlike the previous day, no suggestion was tendered nor attempt was made to determine who the children were or what, if anything, was said to them.
On March 10, 1978, having obtained Garris' name from tracing the license number, Officer Rowland immediately swore out an affidavit to obtain a warrant for Garris' arrest for the offense of child solicitation. In the affidavit which we set forth at the margin, 3 Rowland stated the facts as he Young female students envolved (sic) in encounter with subject, all know (sic) to be reliable, can describe the man trying to get them into his car. How he asked them the location of other schools, Wedgewood Middel (sic) and Southwest High.
knew them, but made the crucial mistake of misrepresenting certain material facts as being within his personal knowledge. Perhaps the most material misrepresentation was the following:
Of course, at this point in time, Rowland had spoken to no one involved in these incidents or in the reporting thereof, and thus was unaware that a simple check would have revealed that no one had ever attempted to solicit anyone. Ironically, on this same day, Officer J. F. Terrell was assigned to follow-up on Officer Barton's incident report of the previous day, and he learned that the schoolchildren involved in the March 8th incident had stated that no one had tried to get them into the car. Had Officer Terrell checked with Officer Barton, he would have learned that a warrant was being sought for Garris' arrest. Although the charges were apparently unfounded, Terrell made no attempt to correct the error since department policy called for him to merely submit his follow-up report which he did on March 15, 1978.
Based upon the misrepresentations in the warrant and unaware that material facts contained within were the product of fourth-hand hearsay, a Tarrant County Magistrate issued a warrant for Garris' arrest on March 10, 1978.
During the next few days, the police department was unable to successfully execute the warrant. It is also to be noted that Rowland made no further investigation into the incident during this time. Finally, on the morning of March 14, 1978, it was determined that the warrant would be executed at Garris' work place, the Dallas Regional Office of HUD. Officer Rowland and Officer Gillespie together with a member of the Fort Worth Fugitive Squad and a Dallas police officer proceeded to the regional office and were informed by a supervisor that Garris could be found at the Dallas Area Office of HUD. Proceeding to the area office, the four officers informed the office director of their warrant for Garris' arrest. Having been called unsuspectingly into the director's office, Garris was told that he was charged with soliciting a youth on March 3, 1978, a date which Rowland had incorrectly supplied on his affidavit. Plaintiff immediately responded that such a charge was mistaken. After talking the police out of handcuffing him, Garris was escorted by the four officials from the office in front of some fifty or so colleagues. He was taken to the Dallas County jail where he was "booked," fingerprinted and arraigned, bond having been set at $500. He was also permitted to call his home where he informed his daughter of the situation.
Since the incident had occurred in Fort Worth, Garris was transferred by the Dallas Police Department to the custody of Officer Rowland and driven to the Fort Worth Police Department for further processing.
In Fort Worth, Garris was again arraigned and bond was set at $1,000. He was informed that his failure to make bond would necessitate his spending the night in jail, and he was not given the opportunity to telephone his home to inform his family of the higher bail or his transfer to Fort Worth. Furthermore, Garris, who suffers from hypoglycemia, an illness which is complicated by stress and the absence of regular meals, had no access to his medication and was not able to eat until Officer Rowland provided him with a hamburger in the late afternoon. Garris was again processed into jail and was placed in a line-up where he was identified by Mrs. Massengale as the man she saw in the Westcreek area on March 9, 1978, the day after the alleged incident. Following the identification, Garris, who repeatedly...
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