Battiste v. Lamberti
| Decision Date | 11 August 2008 |
| Docket Number | No. 05-22970-CIV.,05-22970-CIV. |
| Parties | Lorne BATTISTE, et al., Plaintiffs, v. Broward Sheriff Alfred T. LAMBERTI, et al., Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Southern District of Florida |
Gregory Antonio Samms, Gregory A. Samms, Coral Gables, FL, Raymond J. Taseff, Chavez & De Leon, Rosalind J. Matos, ACLU of Florida, South Miami, FL, for Plaintiffs.
Beverly A. Pohl, Robert N. Nicholson, Parker Davis Eastin, Broad and Cassel, Fort Lauderdale, FL, Henry Joseph Hunnefeld, Miami City Attorney's Office, Miami, FL, Jeffrey Paul Ehrlich, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, DC, for Defendants.
OMNIBUS ORDER ON MOTIONS FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT
THIS MATTER is before the Court on the following Motions:
1) Broward Sheriffs Office ("the BSO") Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment, filed June 18, 2008 (D.E.# 143);
2) Plaintiffs' Motion for Final Partial Summary Judgment Against Broward Sheriffs Office and BSO Defendants Gregory Goodwein, Mario Barcelo Melvin Wilkin, Ron Reffett, and John Brooks, filed June 18, 2008 (D.E.# 147); and
3) The City of Miami's ("the City") Motion for Summary Judgment, filed June 18, 2008 (D.E.# 138).
The Court has reviewed the Motions, the responses and replies thereto, and all other pertinent portions of the record, and is otherwise duly advised in the premises.
Plaintiffs in this case are four union activists who protested at the Free Trade Area of the Americas ("FTAA") summit held in Miami, Florida. The summit was held from November 18 through November 23, 2003 and represented the largest joint law enforcement effort in Florida's history. The City and the Miami Police Department ("MPD") anticipated demonstrations and possibly violent protest on a large scale in connection with the summit. To plan for this event the MPD recruited individuals from various police departments from south Florida to make up a multi-agency security force of nearly forty different law enforcement agencies. Some of these participating agencies, including the BSO, signed a "mutual aid agreement" with the City with allowed them to exercise police powers outside its own jurisdiction and within the City. The City remained the lead agency organizing and directing security for the FTAA summit. The MPD's Deputy Chief Frank Fernandez was the City's operations commander at the summit.
This case stems from the arrest of all four Plaintiffs in downtown Miami on November 20, 2003. Plaintiffs were arrested on a set of railroad tracks in downtown Miami by BSO deputies as they made their way home after attending protest events connected with the summit. Defendants Melvin Wilkin, Gregory Goodwein, and Mario Barcelo were the arresting deputies and members of an "arrest team" with the BSO Field Force ("the arresting deputies"), which was marching through downtown Miami to provide security to the event. Defendant John Brooks was the BSO's on-site commanding officer at the summit, and was in charge of the two BSO Field Force units operating on November 20, 2003: the Delta and Echo units. Each Field Force unit consisted of 50-60 officers, including line deputies, grenadiers (who carry "less than lethal" munitions such as tear gas), arrest teams, and supervising officers. Defendant Ron Reffett reported directly to Brooks and was the leader of the Echo unit. Defendant Anthony Pulitano was a member of the BSO S.W.A.T. team, and was present to provide back up to the BSO Field Force.
Plaintiffs were each charged with disorderly conduct in violation of Florida Statutes § 877.03. The arrest affidavits for all four Plaintiffs stated: "Pursuant to mutual aid agreement subject was given dispersal order by Major Burden MPD after given the opportunity to disperse, subject became violent and had to be arrested." All charges against Plaintiffs were ultimately dismissed.
Plaintiffs went through several iterations of their Complaint. In the most recent, the Second Amended Complaint ("SAC"), Plaintiffs sued the City, the City's Chief of Police John Timoney, the Deputy Chief Fernandez, the Broward County Sheriff, and the following individual defendants with the BSO: Captain Brooks, Chief Reffett, and Deputies Goodwein, Barcelo, Wilkin, and Pulitano.1
Summary judgment is appropriate if the pleadings, depositions, and affidavits show that there is no genuine issue of material fact, and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Fed. R.Civ.P. 56(c); Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986). An issue is "material" if it is a legal element of the claim under applicable substantive law which might affect the outcome of the case. See Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, 477 U.S. 242, 248, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986); Allen v. Tyson Foods, 121 F.3d 642, 646 (11th Cir.1997). An issue is "genuine" if the record taken as a whole could lead a rational trier of fact to find for the nonmoving party. See Allen, 121 F.3d at 646. On a motion for summary judgment, the Court must view all the evidence and all factual inferences drawn therefrom in the light most favorable to the non-moving party and determine whether that evidence could reasonably sustain a jury verdict. Celotex, 477 U.S. at 322-23, 106 S.Ct. 2548; Allen, 121 F.3d at 646.
Further, while the burden on the movant is great, the opposing party has a duty to present affirmative evidence in order to defeat a properly supported motion for summary judgment. Anderson, 477 U.S. at 252, 106 S.Ct. 2505. A mere "scintilla" of evidence in favor of the non-moving party, or evidence that is merely colorable or not significantly probative, is not enough. Id.; see also Mayfield v. Patterson Pump Co., 101 F.3d 1371, 1376 (11th Cir.1996) ().
In Counts I-IV Plaintiffs seek to recover under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 from their respective arresting deputies. In those counts Plaintiffs claim that all three deputies violated their First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights, essentially bringing false arrest and free speech claims under section 1983.2 Specifically, Battiste sues Goodwein in Count I, Winter sues Barcelo in Count II, Hamblin sues Wilkin in Count III, and Cardona sues Barcelo in Count IV.
In their Motion for Summary Judgment on these claims, the arresting deputies argue that they are entitled to judgment as a matter of law on the basis of qualified immunity. Qualified immunity protects a public actor sued under federal law from liability unless his or her conduct violates "clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known." Kesinger v. Herrington, 381 F.3d 1243, 1247 (11th Cir.2004) (quoting Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 818, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982)). In order to be entitled to qualified immunity, the public actor must have acted within the scope of his or her discretionary authority when the allegedly wrongful acts occurred. Id. at 1248. Here, it is undisputed that Wilkin, Goodwein, and Barcelo acted within their discretionary authority as deputies with the BSO with they arrested Plaintiffs.
Because Wilkin, Goodwein, and Barcelo are entitled to qualified immunity, it is Plaintiffs' burden to show that such qualified immunity is inappropriate under the circumstances presented here. See id. The qualified immunity analysis is a two-step inquiry. See Saucier v. Katz, 533 U.S. 194, 201, 121 S.Ct. 2151, 150 L.Ed.2d 272 (2001). First, the Court must determine whether the alleged facts, if true, establish that the defendants' conduct violated a constitutional right. Id. If the alleged conduct does not amount to a constitutional violation, the inquiry ends. Id. If the alleged conduct does amount to a constitutional violation, the Court asks whether the right was "clearly established" at the time. Id.; see also, e.g., Vinyard v. Wilson, 311 F.3d 1340, 1349-50 (11th Cir.2002). The standard for deciding if an officer's conduct violated clearly established law is purely objective; the officer's subjective intent or belief is irrelevant. See Von Stein v. Brescher, 904 F.2d 572, 579 (11th Cir.1990).
The Court will undertake this analysis with respect to Plaintiffs' claims against Wilkin, Goodwein, and Barcelo. In so doing, the Court keeps in mind "the fact that we generally accord official conduct a presumption of legitimacy." Epps v. Watson, 492 F.3d 1240, 1243 (11th Cir.2007) (internal quotation and citations omitted). However, as this is the BSO Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment, the Court must view all the evidence and all factual inferences drawn therefrom in the light most favorable to Plaintiffs and determine whether that evidence could reasonably sustain a jury verdict in their favor.
In preparation for the qualified immunity analysis, the Court sets forth the following undisputed facts regarding the circumstances of Plaintiffs' arrests. Shortly before encountering Plaintiffs on the railroad tracks, the BSO Field Force (including Wilkin, Goodwein, and Barcelo as members of a Field Force arrest team) was marching north up First Avenue in a line formation at least four people deep. See, e.g., Video, D.E. # 151. From the video evidence, it is apparent that the Field Force members were outfitted in riot gear, complete with helmets, face masks, and gas masks, and that the front line of the Field Force held large shields. The Field Force was moving through downtown Miami in an attempt to disperse the crowd near the Bayfront area on Biscayne Boulevard after some individuals had become violent. See, e.g., Barcelo Depo. at 41, 43; Reffett Depo. at 33-34; Brooks Depo. at 59. All three arresting deputies were marching behind the Field Force's front line, see ...
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