Sánchez v. Vill. of Wheeling

• Decision Date: 30 January 2020
• Docket Number: 19 C 2437
• Citation: 447 F.Supp.3d 693
• Parties: Jesús SÁNCHEZ, Plaintiff, v. The VILLAGE OF WHEELING, M. Bieschke, Victor Chiro, Michael Conway, J. Connolly, Joseph Kopecky, Ignacio Oropeza, T. Pinedo, the City of Evanston, and Joe Bush, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Illinois

447 F.Supp.3d 693

Jesús SÁNCHEZ, Plaintiff,

v.The VILLAGE OF WHEELING, M. Bieschke, Victor Chiro, Michael Conway, J. Connolly, Joseph Kopecky, Ignacio Oropeza, T. Pinedo, the City of Evanston, and Joe Bush, Defendants.

19 C 2437

United States District Court, N.D. Illinois, Eastern Division.

Signed January 30, 2020

Joey L. Mogul, Christian Snow, John Ladell Stainthorp, Janis M. Susler, People's Law Offices, Chicago, IL, for Plaintiff.

John A. Wall, Anthony George Becknek, James Vincent Ferolo, Howard C. Jablecki, Klein, Thorpe and Jenkins, Ltd., Chicago, IL, for Defendants The Village of Wheeling, Victor Chiro, Michael Conway, J. Connolly, Joseph Kopecky, Ignacio Oropeza, T. Pinedo, M. Bieschke.

Eileen Ellen Rosen, Andrew Joseph Grill, Catherine MacNeil Barber, Rock Fusco & Connelly, LLC, Victoria Rose Benson, Department of Law, City of Chicago, Chicago, IL, Nicholas E. Cummings, Alexandra Brien MacKey Ruggie, City of Evanston Law Department, Evanston, IL, for Defendants The City of Evanston, Joe Bush.

Nicholas E. Cummings, Evanston, IL, Victoria Rose Benson, Department of Law, City of Chicago, Chicago, IL, for Defendant Phil Levy.

James Gus Sotos, Jeffrey Robert Kivetz, Laura Marie Ranum, The Sotos Law Firm, P.C., Chicago, IL, for Defendants The Village of Wilmette, Landen Girard, The Village of Lincolnwood, Schenita Stewart.

James Gillan McCarthy, Village of Skokie Office of Corporation Counsel, Skokie, IL, for Defendants The Village of Skokie, Ronald Glad.

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

Gary Feinerman, United States District Judge

Jesús Sánchez brings this suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and Illinois law against the Village of Wheeling, seven members of the Wheeling Police Department (Detective M. Bieschke, Sergeant Victor Chiro, Sergeant Michael Conway, Detective J. Connolly, Detective Joseph Kopecky, Detective Ignacio Oropeza, and Detective T. Pinedo), the City of Evanston, and one member of the Evanston Police Department (Detective Joe Bush), alleging various misconduct in connection with his arrest, interrogation, prosecution, and conviction for a murder for which he recently was exonerated. Docs. 1, 43. Evanston Defendants move under Civil Rule 12(b)(6) to dismiss all claims against them, Doc. 49, while Wheeling Defendants move under Rule 12(b)(6) to dismiss some claims against them, Doc. 47. The motions are granted as to Sánchez's § 1983 malicious prosecution claim and otherwise are denied.

Background

In resolving a Rule 12(b)(6) motion, the court assumes the truth of the operative complaint's well-pleaded factual allegations, but not its legal conclusions. See Zahn v. N. Am. Power & Gas, LLC , 815 F.3d 1082, 1087 (7th Cir. 2016). The court must also consider "documents attached to the complaint, documents that are critical to the complaint and referred to in it, and information that is subject to proper judicial notice," along with additional facts set forth in Sánchez's brief opposing dismissal, so long as those additional facts "are consistent with the pleadings." Phillips v. Prudential Ins. Co. of Am. , 714 F.3d 1017, 1020 (7th Cir. 2013) (internal quotation marks omitted). The facts are set forth as favorably to Sánchez as those materials permit. See Pierce v. Zoetis, Inc. , 818 F.3d 274, 277 (7th Cir. 2016). In setting forth the facts at this stage, the court does not vouch for their accuracy. See Goldberg v. United States , 881 F.3d 529, 531 (7th Cir. 2018).

Rafael Orozco was shot and killed the evening of May 1, 2013. Doc. 1 at ¶ 19. Sánchez, then eighteen years old, was near the scene with non-parties Bryan Estrada, Heladio Flores, Collin Scheffler, Leslie Rubio, and Bradley DeChambre. Id. at ¶¶ 7, 20, 22-24. When Sánchez, Estrada, and Flores were attempting to get into Sánchez's car, gang members began chasing them. Id. at ¶¶ 25-26. Sánchez and Estrada, who was then fourteen years old, ran. Id. at ¶¶ 26-27, 53. They were stopped and detained by Sergeants Conway and Chiro, handcuffed, taken to the Wheeling Police Department, and put into separate interrogation rooms. Id. at ¶¶ 27-30. Flores, then fifteen years old, also was stopped and taken to the Wheeling Police Department. Id. at ¶¶ 32, 39.

From 10:20 to 11:40 that evening, Detectives Oropeza and Connolly interrogated Sánchez about the shooting. Id. at ¶ 33. Sánchez was not given Miranda warnings and the interrogation was not video-recorded. Id. at ¶¶ 34, 37. Detective Bieschke and non-party Detective McGuire conducted an unrecorded interview of Flores from 10:40 to 11:56 p.m. Id. at ¶¶ 38-41. Detectives Bieschke and Pinedo conducted an unrecorded interview of Estrada from 11:00 to 11:30 p.m. Id. at ¶¶ 52-54. The North Regional Major Crimes Task Force interviewed witnesses that evening as well, investigated the scene for evidence, and determined that the gunshots were fired from an area south of where Orozco was at the time. Id. at ¶¶ 42-43. Forensic testing later confirmed that the fatal gunshot was fired from south to north. Id. at ¶ 119.

Detectives Oropeza and Connolly interrogated Sánchez a second time from 2:50 to 3:20 in the early morning of May 2, 2013. Id. at ¶ 47. Again, they did not provide Miranda warnings or video-record the interview. Id. at ¶¶ 47-48. Detectives Bieschke and Kopecky conducted a second unrecorded interview of Flores from 3:36 to 5:04 a.m, id. at ¶¶ 49-51, and a second unrecorded interview of Estrada from 6:00 to 7:20 a.m., id. at ¶¶ 52-54.

At some point that morning, the Wheeling officers and Detective Bush agreed among themselves to charge Sánchez with Orozco's murder. Id. at ¶ 56. Despite knowing that the evidence did not implicate Sánchez, the officers agreed to "coerce [Sánchez] into giving a false statement that he shot and killed Rafael Orozco ... [and to] coerce [Estrada] and [Flores], and if necessary other witnesses, to falsely state the same or, in the alternative, have them provide false corroborating incriminating statements ...." Id. at ¶¶ 56-61. To advance their plan, the officers used a presumptive gunshot residue test—which they knew or should have known was inaccurate and unreliable—on Sánchez's, Estrada's, and Flores's hands. Id. at ¶¶ 61-63. The officers claimed that Sánchez's hands tested positive for gunshot residue, and they used that claim to prompt Sánchez and his alibi witnesses to falsely incriminate him. Id. at ¶¶ 64-65.

Officers began video-recording Sánchez in the interrogation room at 6:44 that morning. Id. at ¶ 66. Detectives Oropeza and Bush interrogated Sánchez from 7:54 to 9:17 a.m. Id. at ¶ 68. Sánchez was provided his Miranda rights in writing and was asked to read them, but he did not sign the Miranda waiver form. Id. at ¶ 69. Sánchez denied any role in Orozco's murder. Id. at ¶¶ 70-71. However, using psychological and physical coercion, engaging in deception, and denying Sánchez the right to end the interrogation, Detectives Oropeza and Bush "forced [Sánchez] to give inculpatory statements which they fabricated, in which he acknowledged that he shot and killed ... Orozco." Id. at ¶ 72.

Detectives Oropeza and Bush knew that Sánchez's statement was false and inconsistent with other evidence, so they returned at 9:52 a.m. to coerce him to alter his statement to be more consistent with the other evidence. Id. at ¶¶ 74-75. They again used psychological and physical coercion and denied Sánchez the right to end the interrogation or to see his mother or a lawyer. Id. at ¶ 76.

The same morning, Flores was transported to the Glenview Police Department, where he was interrogated for several hours by Detective Bieschke. Id. at ¶¶ 78-79. Detective Bieschke suggested stories to Flores inculpating Sánchez, lied about evidence, and coerced Flores into implicating Sánchez in the shooting. Id. at ¶¶ 79-80. Detective Bieschke knew that Flores's statements, which he "coerced and fabricated," were false. Id. at ¶ 81. During another interrogation the following day, May 3, Detectives Bieschke and Bush coerced Flores to again falsely implicate Sánchez. Id. at ¶¶ 82-83.

In the meantime, on May 2, officers falsely arrested Scheffler, then nineteen years old, and Rubio, then eighteen years old, to attempt to coerce from them statements that falsely implicated Sánchez in the shooting. Id. at ¶¶ 84-85. Scheffler and Rubio were interrogated on May 2 and May 3. Id. at ¶¶ 86-114. Scheffler's family members were not allowed to speak with him, and two non-party officers "repeatedly called him a liar, lied and misled him about the evidence, threatened him and fed him facts until he cried and broke down, and he eventually regurgitated the ... Officers’ fabricated, false narrative ...." Id. at ¶¶ 89-91. During his interrogation of Rubio on May 3, Detective Pinedo and a non-party officer "threatened her, lied to her about what other witnesses had related, and continually suggested fabricated accounts of the murder in which [Sánchez] was implicated," id. at ¶ 112, until she falsely implicated Sánchez, id. at ¶¶ 109-114.

"[B]ased on the coerced and fabricated statements taken by the Defendant Officers of [Sánchez] and his alibi witnesses," Sánchez was charged with the first-degree murder of Orozco. Id. at ¶¶ 120-121, 132. Sánchez remained in custody during pretrial proceedings and through trial. Id. at ¶ 124. Although standard gunshot residue detection tests did not detect residue on Sánchez's, Flores's, or Estrada's hands or clothes or in Scheffler's car, id. at ¶ 126, and although no physical evidence linked Sánchez to the crime, id. at ¶ 125, a jury convicted Sánchez of Orozco's murder, and he was sentenced to forty-five years in prison, id. at ¶¶ 141-142.

The Appellate Court of Illinois reversed Sánchez's conviction on April 10, 2018. Doc. 1 at ¶¶ 4, 144; see People v. Sanchez , 422 Ill.Dec. 397, 103 N.E.3d 529 (Ill. App. 2018). The appellate court ruled that Sánchez's confession "was involuntary and unreliable, that the ‘police pressured the statement out of [him],’ and that the statement was illegally obtained without...