Amnesty America v. Town of West Hartford
| Decision Date | 15 March 2004 |
| Docket Number | No. 03-7332.,03-7332. |
| Citation | 361 F.3d 113 |
| Parties | AMNESTY AMERICA, suing in its representative capacity o/b/o arrestee victims of officially sanctioned, intentional and malicious physical brutality and excessive force to coerce the involuntary service of walking as arrestees and pre-trial detainees by police officers of the Town of West Hartford, CT, on April 1, 1989 and June 17, 1989, Plaintiff, William E. Waugh, Suzanne C. Verdi, R.N., Harry M. Ong, Eleanor Brady, arrestees and pre-trial detainees, suing o/b/o themselves and others similarly situated, and Edward Dombroski, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. TOWN OF WEST HARTFORD, Defendant-Appellee, Robert McCue, Chief of Police, Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit |
John R. Williams, Williams & Pattis, New Haven, CT, for plaintiffs-appellants.
Marcia J. Gleeson, Sack, Spector & Karsten, LLP, West Hartford, CT, for defendant-appellee.
Before: CARDAMONE, SOTOMAYOR, and KATZMANN, Circuit Judges.
Plaintiffs-appellants William E. Waugh, Suzanne C. Verdi, R.N., Harry M. Ong, Eleanor Brady, and Edward Dombroski (collectively, the "plaintiffs") appeal from the decision of the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut (Dorsey, S.J.), granting summary judgment in favor of defendant-appellee, the Town of West Hartford ("defendant" or "the Town"). In 1992, plaintiffs filed this lawsuit pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging that they were the victims of excessive force perpetrated by the Town's police officers at two peaceful anti-abortion protests that took place in West Hartford in 1989. The district court held that, inter alia, plaintiffs had not shown that the police officers' alleged actions at the demonstrations were taken pursuant to a municipal custom or policy, see Monell v. Department of Social Services, 436 U.S. 658, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 56 L.Ed.2d 611 (1978), and the plaintiffs therefore had failed to establish a basis upon which the Town could be held liable for the officers' actions.
On appeal, plaintiffs assert that the district court erred in granting summary judgment in favor of the Town, arguing that their proffered evidence creates material issues of fact under two independent theories of municipal liability. First, plaintiffs claim that the Town failed to supervise its police force at both demonstrations, because its police chief was present at the demonstrations and allegedly witnessed the brutality but failed to stop it. Second, plaintiffs allege that the Town acted with deliberate indifference in failing to train its officers to arrest passively resisting protesters without using excessive force, even after the Town had received complaints about the use of force during the first demonstration. Plaintiffs also challenge the district court's striking of various pieces of plaintiffs' evidence as inadmissible.
For its part, the Town asserts that the district court's decision was correct in all respects, and also that we may affirm the decision on either of two independent bases. First, because plaintiffs' proffered affidavits are fourteen years old, the Town contends that they are insufficient to oppose a summary judgment motion absent an affirmative showing that the affiants remain competent to testify at trial. Second, the Town argues we should dismiss the appeal pursuant to Fed. R.App. P. 28, because plaintiffs' briefs lack legal arguments and adequate citations to the record.
We hold that (1) there are issues of material fact as to whether the Town's police officers used excessive force when they removed plaintiffs from the demonstrations and arrested them; (2) plaintiffs have proffered sufficient evidence to preclude summary judgment as to whether the Town may be held liable for failing to supervise its police officers; (3) plaintiffs have not proffered sufficient evidence to raise issues of fact as to the Town's failure to train its officers in the use of force; and (4) the district court was entitled to consider the remainder of plaintiffs' proffered affidavits, despite the fact that they were fourteen years old, because the Town did not present any evidence that the affiants are no longer available or competent to testify. Further, we note that the deficiencies in plaintiffs' briefs are sufficiently serious to warrant a warning to plaintiffs' counsel. We need not reach the merits of the district court's evidentiary rulings, although we note that at trial, plaintiffs are free to reiterate their objections to those rulings.
This suit arises out of two anti-abortion demonstrations that took place in 1989 at the Summit Women's Center (the "Women's Center"), a West Hartford clinic that performed abortions.1 The first demonstration occurred on April 1, 1989, when dozens of protesters gathered at the Women's Center. After the protesters entered the Women's Center, some remained in the reception area, and others chained themselves together in order to block entry to the area in which medical services were provided. The purpose of the demonstration was to prevent women from obtaining access to the Women's Center, and to ensure that no abortions were performed there that day.
When the Town's police arrived and attempted to remove the demonstrators from the premises, the protesters employed "passive resistance" techniques to impede their arrest, including going limp, refusing to identify themselves, and refusing to unlock the chains that they had used to bind themselves together. It is undisputed that the police were forced to employ some degree of physical coercion in order to arrest the protesters and remove them from the premises. Plaintiffs allege, however, that the police responded with far more force than was necessary, and inflicted severe pain on the demonstrators by dragging them out of the building by their elbows, using choke holds, and lifting them off the floor by their wrists. Moreover, one officer allegedly shoved and pinned a sitting protester's head to the floor with his foot, and some threatened those who were praying aloud that they would "get more" if they "kept crying out in praise of the Lord." The protesters who were subjected to this treatment "screamed" in pain, and the demonstrators assert that they could hear the continuous screams and protestations of their fellow arrestees. By the end of the day, sixty-one protesters had been arrested; most were charged with trespass or criminal mischief, and a few were charged with assaulting officers. Plaintiffs further allege that those who were arrested were mistreated by police while being held in jail and while being escorted into the courtroom. Moreover, plaintiffs assert that many demonstrators suffered excruciating pain that caused some to black out, and others suffered lasting physical damage as a result of their treatment.
It is undisputed that the Town's police chief, Robert McCue, was present at the Women's Center during the demonstration, and that he supervised his officers' handling of the situation. The Town, for its part, asserts that McCue witnessed no brutality, and that the police utilized only "pain compliance techniques, which we refer to as `come-along holds,' [that] were specifically designed and intended to allow officers to use the minimum necessary force to move arrestees." Come-along holds are assertedly designed to inflict only minimal pain, although "[t]he amount of pain is directly correlated to the amount of resistance." The police purportedly employed come-along holds only after they were unsuccessful in verbally convincing protesters to move. The Town asserts that its officers complied with the police department's official, written policy on the use of force to make arrests, which states that "[t]he basic rule is that in all cases an officer shall use only so much force as is necessary to make the arrest," and that the amount of force used must be proportional to the seriousness of the offense and the danger presented by the arrestee.
The alleged brutality that occurred during the April demonstration did not go unnoticed. On April 2, 1989, one day after the demonstration, The Hartford Courant ran a story on the arrests, including the claim that at least one protester had been beaten by police. Plaintiffs also allege that one protester's son attempted to complain to the police department, approaching McCue after the protester was arraigned and stating that he had witnessed police brutality. McCue allegedly replied that, as the Police Chief, he was responsible for the officers' actions during the arrests, and that he was not taking complaints. McCue, however, denies any recollection of complaints filed after the demonstration. The Town subsequently denied the allegation of brutality contained in the Courant article, and Chief McCue issued a press release on April 20, asserting that
After the demonstration, however, the police department developed a written policy for handling anti-abortion protests. The policy consisted of logistical instructions for each police squad, and provided that the demonstration and arrests were to be videotaped, all arrestees photographed at the scene,2 and ambulances stationed at the demonstration site. Moreover, the policy instructed all officers to "present him or herself in a professional manner and ... be conscious of the fact that they will be in a `fish bowl,'" to "have absolutely no dialogue with anti-abortion demonstrators... except that which is required for the conduct of official Police business," and to "not discuss in any fashion the demonstration event with members of the news...
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