Arkebauer v. Kiley

• Court: U.S. District Court — Central District of Illinois
• Writing for the Court: RICHARD MILLS
• Citation: Arkebauer v. Kiley, 751 F.Supp. 783 (C.D. Ill. 1990)
• Decision Date: 30 November 1990
• Docket Number: No. 90-3206.,90-3206.
• Parties: Roger ARKEBAUER, Plaintiff, v. Michael KILEY, Individually and as State's Attorney of Shelby County, Illinois, Defendant.

751 F. Supp. 783

Roger ARKEBAUER, Plaintiff, v. Michael KILEY, Individually and as State's Attorney of Shelby County, Illinois, Defendant.

No. 90-3206.

United States District Court, C.D. of Illinois, Springfield Division.

November 30, 1990.

D. Peter Wise, Springfield, Ill., for plaintiff.

Carol J. Barlow, Asst. Atty. Gen., Springfield, Ill., for defendant.

OPINION

RICHARD MILLS, District Judge:

One of the most fundamental maxims governing the relationship between the federal government and individual states is that federal courts should refrain from enjoining pending state criminal prosecutions. Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37, 91 S.Ct. 746, 27 L.Ed.2d 669 (1971).

This principle is based upon the concept of Our Federalism, a recognition of and sensitivity to the legitimate interests of both state and national governments. Id. at 44, 91 S.Ct. at 750-51. The federal government, anxious as it may be to vindicate and protect federal rights, always must endeavor to do so in ways that will not unduly interfere with the legitimate activities of the states. Id.

The exceptions to this rule are both few and strictly applied. Absent a showing of bad faith, harassment, or other unusual circumstances calling for equitable relief, a federal court will not enjoin a pending state court prosecution. Id. at 54, 91 S.Ct. at 755. Further, before obtaining an injunction of a pending state court proceeding, an individual must demonstrate irreparable injury which is "both great and immediate" as well as establish that the threat to his federally protected rights cannot be eliminated by his defense against the state prosecution. Id. at 46, 91 S.Ct. at 751.

On April 12, 1988, Roger Arkebauer was indicted by a Shelby County, Illinois Grand Jury and charged with the offenses of solicitation to commit murder and conspiracy to commit murder. Ill.Rev.Stat. ch. 38, ¶¶ 8-1(a), 8-2(a) (1989). On August 30, 1990, Arkebauer filed an action in this Court pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 seeking to enjoin the state court prosecution. Arkebauer was scheduled to begin trial on Monday, September 17, 1990. On the preceding Friday, September 14, following a hearing on Arkebauer's motion for preliminary injunction, we granted the motion and preliminarily enjoined the state court prosecution.

FACTS

The facts underlying this case are not in dispute. Because of the rarity with which federal courts enjoin state criminal prosecutions and for a clear understanding of what is at issue we here set forth the facts in some detail. Those facts are gleaned from the materials submitted in support of and in opposition to Arkebauer's complaint and motion for preliminary injunction as well as the state court opinion affirming the trial court's suppression of Arkebauer's statements. People v. Arkebauer, 198 Ill. App.3d 470, 144 Ill.Dec. 643, 555 N.E.2d 1162 (5th Dist.1990).

On January 15, 1988, Jack Ahola was the First Assistant State's Attorney for Macon county. At approximately 7:00 a.m. Ahola met with agents David McClearen and Lee Bensyl of the Illinois State Police. The agents had received information that Raymond Ruhl was attempting to hire a person to kill his wife. The events relating to the plot to murder Lisa Ruhl occurred in four separate counties—Shelby, Macon, Christian, and Champaign. The agents were aware that Arkebauer was a key figure in the murder for hire plot and they, along with Ahola, decided that Arkebauer should be brought in and asked to give information which would enable the agents to arrest Ruhl. At this meeting the agents and Ahola discussed making a deal with Arkebauer whereby he would not be prosecuted in exchange for information.

The agents then went to the Caterpillar Tractor Company where Arkebauer worked, picked up Arkebauer, and took him back to the Macon county State's Attorney's office. At the office Ahola told Arkebauer that "we" would not prosecute him if he agreed to help.¹ Arkebauer agreed to cooperate and provided information to Ahola and the State Police regarding the contemplated murder plot. Ahola then took Arkebauer before Macon County Circuit Judge Patton and obtained a search warrant and an eavesdrop order based upon Arkebauer's information. After obtaining the eavesdrop order Arkebauer placed a call to Ruhl from the state's attorney's office.

After participating in the eavesdrop, the agents discussed their plan to arrest Ruhl and told Arkebauer that it would be best if he did not go home on the chance that Ruhl would try to contact him there.

During the attempt to arrest Ruhl a shoot-out occurred and both Ruhl and agent Bensyl were killed. A second State Police officer was wounded. Concerned that Arkebauer had "tipped-off" Ruhl regarding the pending arrest, State Police agents interviewed Arkebauer in the early morning hours of January 16 at the Pana, Illinois police department. Based upon this and succeeding interviews as well as a polygraph examination the agents concluded that Arkebauer had not warned Ruhl of the forthcoming arrest.

During the investigation of the shooting and Arkebauer's possible involvement in warning Ruhl, Arkebauer contacted attorney Guy Casey who in turn contacted Ahola. At a meeting between these two, Ahola told Casey that Arkebauer had been promised immunity but that he had not taken Arkebauer before a judge to obtain formal immunity. See Ill.Rev.Stat. ch. 38, ¶ 106-1 (1989). When Casey suggested that Ahola should formalize the immunity agreement, he was told that Ahola could not do so as Ruhl was dead and there was no case pending.

Michael Kiley, the Shelby County State's Attorney, was contacted on January 15, 1988, by agent Bensyl regarding the potential prosecution of Ruhl. As a result of this conversation Kiley wrote a letter to the State Police summarizing his conversation with agent Bensyl. In the letter, Kiley stated that he and agent Bensyl had discussed briefly an arrangement entered into by the Macon County State's Attorney's office in which a promise of a grant of immunity was given to an unknown individual who Kiley subsequently learned to be Arkebauer.

As previously mentioned, Arkebauer was indicted in Shelby County on April 12, 1988. Ahola testified that the indictments brought against Arkebauer in Shelby County were substantially the same charges for which Ahola promised Arkebauer he would not be prosecuted. Based upon Ahola's promise of immunity, Arkebauer moved to suppress his statements to the police and state's attorney and to dismiss the indictment. The trial court held that Arkebauer's statements had been "coerced" by the promise of immunity and were thus involuntary and had to be suppressed. The trial court denied Arkebauer's motion to dismiss the indictment.

The State appealed the trial court's order granting Arkebauer's motion to suppress. The Illinois Appellate Court, Fifth District, affirmed the trial court's ruling suppressing Arkebauer's statements. In the last substantive paragraph of its opinion, the appellate court states:

we note that while the State is correct that a State's Attorney of one county cannot bind another State's Attorney of another county with his promises, that problem does not arise here. The circuit court determined that Arkebauer could be prosecuted in Shelby County, and we find this a proper determination.

People v. Arkebauer, 198 Ill.App.3d 470, 144 Ill.Dec. 643, 555 N.E.2d 1162 (5th Dist. 1990).

LAW

In seeking an injunction of the pending state court prosecution, Arkebauer relies upon the decision in Rowe v. Griffin, 676 F.2d 524 (11th Cir.1982). In Rowe an FBI informant reported that he had been with three Ku Klux Klansmen who killed a civil rights worker during the evening of March 25, 1965. After being assured of immunity by the Attorney General and an Assistant Attorney General of the State of Alabama as well as by the FBI, Rowe provided further information regarding the murder and testified against the three Klansmen.

Thirteen years later, the district attorney of Lowndes County, Alabama, obtained new information regarding the murder which indicated that Rowe had down-played his role in the crime. Rowe was indicted in September, 1978 for murder and the prosecution was halted by the district court after holding that Younger abstention did not apply because the prosecution was in bad faith. On appeal the circuit court held that "in the absence of credible evidence that Rowe testified untruthfully or otherwise failed to perform his part of the bargain, the prosecution of Rowe, after Rowe was assured of immunity from prosecution by state prosecutors, was per se a bad faith prosecution." Id. at 526.

The circuit court applied a contractual analysis and stated: "when such a promise of immunity induces a defendant to waive his fifth amendment rights by testifying at the trial of his confederates or to otherwise cooperate with the government to his detriment, due process requires that the prosecutor's promise be fulfilled." Id. at 528. The Rowe court set forth a three-part test requiring the state defendant to establish that (1) an agreement was made; (2) the defendant performed on his side; and (3) the subsequent prosecution is directly related to offenses in which the defendant, pursuant to the agreement, either assisted with the investigation or testified for the government. Id. at 527-28.

On the other hand, the Defendant relies principally upon the decision in Staten v. Neal, 880 F.2d 962 (7th Cir.1989) in arguing that this Court should not enjoin Arkebauer's prosecution. Staten was imprisoned in the Vandalia Correctional Center in Fayette County, Illinois prior to being transferred to the Urbana Community Correctional Center in Champaign County, Illinois. Staten escaped from the Champaign County facility, was apprehended in Indiana, and returned to Iowa to face robbery charges.

The Iowa prosecutor, relying upon Illinois Department of Corrections records, and believing that Staten had escaped from the Fayette...