Booker v. Ward

• Decision Date: 29 August 1996
• Docket Number: No. 95-3688,95-3688
• Citation: 94 F.3d 1052
• Parties: Charles BOOKER, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. James WARD and Thomas Kelly, Chicago Police Detectives, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 1052

94 F.3d 1052

Charles BOOKER, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. James WARD and Thomas Kelly, Chicago Police Detectives,

Defendants-Appellees.

No. 95-3688.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued June 6, 1996.

Decided Aug. 29, 1996.

Cecile Singer, Kenneth N. Flaxman (argued), Chicago, IL, H. Patrick Morris, Kevin J. Greenwood, Paul A. Tanzillo, Johnson & Bell, Chicago, IL, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Kelly R. Welsh, Office of the Corporation Counsel, Chicago, IL, Lawrence Rosenthal, John F. McGuire, Thaddeus Machnik, Benna R. Solomon, Patricia J. Kendall (argued), Susan S. Sher, Michael P. Monahan, Office of the Corporation Counsel, Appeals Division, Chicago, IL, for Defendants-Appellees.

Before BAUER, ROVNER, and DIANE P. WOOD, Circuit Judges.

BAUER, Circuit Judge.

On August 7, 1987, the defendants arrested Charles Booker for the murder of his fiancee, Lucy Williams. Booker confessed shortly after his arrest, and a jury convicted him of first degree murder. The Illinois Appellate Court found that probable cause did not exist to arrest Booker, reversed the conviction, and remanded the case for a hearing on the admissibility of Booker's confession. People v. Booker, 209 Ill.App.3d 384, 393, 395, 154 Ill.Dec. 211, 218, 219, 568 N.E.2d 211, 218, 219 (Ill.App. 1 Dist.1991) ("Booker I "). After the trial court found the confession sufficiently attenuated from the arrest to be admissible, the Appellate Court again reversed, holding that Booker's confession was the product of an unlawful arrest. People v. Booker, No. 92-0956, unpublished (Ill.App. 1 Dist.1994). The trial court then dismissed the charges upon the prosecution's motion for a nolle prosequi order.

Despite his confession, in August 1990 Booker filed an unlawful arrest claim in federal court pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983, seeking damages from Chicago Police Detectives Thomas Kelly and James Ward for his allegedly unlawful arrest and imprisonment "for crimes these defendants know plaintiff did not commit." In February 1992, the district court dismissed the case with leave to reinstate within 60 days after disposition of the state court proceedings. The court reinstated the case in November 1994. In February 1995, Booker filed his amended complaint naming Owens and Lewis as defendants in his unlawful arrest claim. ¹ The district court granted Owens' and Lewis' motion to dismiss because Booker had not added them as defendants within the two-year statutory limitations period for § 1983 claims. The district court also granted Kelly's and Ward's motion for summary judgment, holding that probable cause existed for them to arrest Booker and that even if it did not, they were entitled to qualified immunity for their actions. We affirm.

BACKGROUND

On the morning of August 7, 1987, Lucy Williams' partially clothed body was discovered in a parking lot behind her apartment building. She had been bludgeoned to death between 4:00 a.m. and 4:30 a.m., the time she usually left for work. Williams' pants and underpants lay around her ankles. A rubber floor mat from Williams' car covered her groin area. Williams had no bruises in her genital area, nor was any semen found.

Kelly and Ward arrived at the scene at 8:45 a.m. Based on their experience and the physical evidence, the detectives concluded that the killer likely knew Williams. The "overkill" evident from the numerous head wounds, and the lack of bruising and semen in the genital area, indicated that the attack was not a sexual assault, but instead was an act of rage against Williams. A random killer likely would not have placed the car mat over Williams' groin to prevent the exposure of her genital area. A piece of metal protruding from the flat front left tire of Williams' car indicated that the killer may have planned the attack and wished to prevent Williams from leaving the area. This Ward and Kelly interviewed a number of people at the crime scene. Williams' son Curtis told the detectives that his mother had returned from a date the previous evening between 8:30 p.m. and 8:45 p.m. Curtis last saw his mother alone in her bed at around 10:30 p.m. A neighbor told Ward and Kelly that she heard a scream between 4:00 and 4:30 that morning, the time Williams usually left for work.

evidence of premeditation suggested that the killer knew Williams' work schedule.

That morning, Booker received a telephone call at about 8:30 a.m. from a person at Williams' workplace inquiring about her absence. Booker telephoned Williams' apartment and "learned" she had been killed. Booker then went to her apartment, where he met Detectives Lewis and Owens. Owens contacted Kelly, who requested that Owens ask Booker if he voluntarily would accompany Owens and Lewis to the Area One headquarters to help with the investigation. Booker agreed, saying that he wanted to help in any way he could.

On the way to the station, they stopped for soft drinks and cigarettes. The three men arrived at the station between 11:30 a.m. and 11:45 a.m. When Booker asked why he was being held, Lewis and Owens told him that he was not being held, but asked him to wait for Ward and Kelly to arrive. Throughout the time he waited at the station and during the ride to the station, Booker was not handcuffed, restrained, or threatened with physical force. The officers allowed Booker to use the bathroom and the telephone in the lineup room while he waited, although an officer sat at the desk while he used the telephone. Neither Owens nor Lewis expressly told Booker that he could leave or refuse to answer questions. Before Ward and Kelly arrived at the station, Owens and another officer examined Booker's fingernails and shoes for blood. No one told Ward and Kelly of this examination.

While Booker waited at the station, Ward and Kelly continued their interviews. Elaine Sims, Williams' cousin, told them that Williams and Booker had lived together, but that Williams had asked Booker to move out three weeks before because she no longer wanted to live with or marry him. Sims also said that Williams recently had had an abortion, but told Booker she had miscarried. Sims did not say that Booker had discovered Williams' lie, but did tell the detectives that Booker was very jealous, drank heavily, and often would forget what he did while drinking. However, Sims did not say that Booker was violent or that he ever had threatened to harm Williams.

Ward and Kelly arrived at the station between 1:00 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. At around 2:00 p.m., they began interviewing Booker in the lineup room where he had been waiting. Before they asked any questions, Ward and Kelly read Booker a standard Miranda warnings form and Booker signed the form. Although they did not expressly tell Booker he could leave, the Miranda warnings advised him of his right to not answer questions. Booker told the detectives that he had tried to reach Williams by telephone at about 8:00 p.m. the previous evening, and that he had talked to her about an hour later. He did not mention having any other contact with Williams that night. Booker stated that he had been out drinking with friends throughout the evening, that he slept at his girlfriend's home, and that he did not leave her home until 7:40 a.m. that morning. He denied any knowledge of or participation in Williams' murder. During the interview, a record check indicated that Booker did not have a criminal record.

At the detectives' request, Booker agreed to provide fingerprints and to take a polygraph examination. The detectives did not tell Booker that he could leave or that he could refuse. Before administering the polygraph, the examiner read Booker his Miranda warnings and Booker signed a form acknowledging that his participation in the examination was voluntary. After the hour-long examination, the examiner told Ward and Kelly that he believed Booker was being untruthful and uncooperative, and that he was trying to beat the machine. With the detectives' approval, the examiner told Booker that he could not pass him on the test. Booker then admitted that he had lied, and that he had driven by Williams' apartment building twice during the previous night and

early morning. Ward and Kelly then told Booker he was under arrest. That evening, Booker confessed to beating Williams to death with a pipe. Booker's confession detailed why he pulled her pants down and covered her groin area with the car mat.

ANALYSIS

I. Motion to Dismiss

The district court dismissed Booker's unlawful arrest claims against Lewis and Owens because Booker had not sued them within the two-year statutory limitations period. The district court concluded that Booker's § 1983 claim for unlawful arrest in violation of the Fourth Amendment accrued at the time of his arrest on August 7, 1987. We review the district court's ruling de novo. Reed v. City of Chicago, 77 F.3d 1049, 1051 (7th Cir.1996).

a. Heck v. Humphrey

Booker claims that the defendants arrested him without probable cause on August 7, 1987. But he did not sue Lewis and Owens for unlawful arrest pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 until February 13, 1995. The statute of limitations for section 1983 claims arising in Illinois is two years. See Farrell v. McDonough, 966 F.2d 279, 282 (7th Cir.1992), cert. denied, 506 U.S. 1084, 113 S.Ct. 1059, 122 L.Ed.2d 364 (1993). To determine when Booker's § 1983 claim against Lewis and Owens accrued, we look to a recent Supreme Court decision on which both sides rely for opposite conclusions, Heck v. Humphrey, 512 U.S. 477, 114 S.Ct. 2364, 129 L.Ed.2d 383 (1994).

In Heck, the § 1983 plaintiff sued county prosecutors and a state police investigator for committing unlawful acts to secure his state court conviction. The Court affirmed the dismissal of the plaintiff's action, holding that a plaintiff seeking damages for an allegedly unconstitutional conviction or imprisonment, or for other harms caused by unlawful actions that would render a conviction or sentence invalid, has no §...