Belcher v. City of Foley, Ala.
| Decision Date | 02 September 1994 |
| Docket Number | Nos. 93-6654,93-6704,s. 93-6654 |
| Citation | 30 F.3d 1390 |
| Parties | Sharon Ann BELCHER, as Administratrix of the Estate of Rocky L. Belcher, Deceased, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. The CITY OF FOLEY, ALABAMA, Defendant, James Anderson; Officer Jimmy Roberson; Charles McKinley; Dwain Riebeling, Defendants-Appellants. Sharon Ann BELCHER, as Administratrix of the Estate of Rocky L. Belcher, Deceased, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. The CITY OF FOLEY, ALABAMA; James Anderson; Officer Jimmy Roberson; Defendants, Charles McKinley, Defendant-Appellant, Dwain Riebeling, Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit |
Helen J. Alford, William Wasden, Mobile, AL, for Dwain Riebeling.
Carroll H. Sullivan, W. Pemble Deashmet, Mobile, AL, for Jimmy Roberson.
Alex L. Holtsford, Jr., Montgomery, AL, for James Anderson.
Glenda G. Cochran, Sandra L. Vinik, Birmingham, AL, for Sharon Ann Belcher.
D. Scott Wright, Weyman W. McCrainie, Jr., Mobile, AL, for Charles McKinley.
Appeals from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Alabama.
Before EDMONDSON and CARNES, Circuit Judges, and HENDERSON, Senior Circuit Judge.
Rocky L. Belcher committed suicide slightly more than two hours after he was arrested and placed in jail at the Foley, Alabama, police station. Mr. Belcher's mother, Sharon Ann Belcher, acting as the administratrix of her son's estate, sued the City of Foley, Foley's Chief of Police, and three Foley police officers, alleging claims under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 and Alabama's wrongful death statute, Ala.Code Ann. Sec. 6-5-410 (1993). The individual defendants moved for summary judgment, raising qualified immunity defenses to the section 1983 claims against them in their individual capacities. The district court denied their motions and they now appeal. Because we conclude that, at the time of Mr. Belcher's suicide, the law did not clearly establish that the conduct of the individual defendants in this case constituted deliberate indifference toward Mr. Belcher, we reverse the denial of summary judgment on qualified immunity grounds.
In reviewing the district court's denial of the defendants' summary judgment motions, we view the facts in the light most favorable to the plaintiff. See Kelly v. Curtis, 21 F.3d 1544, 1546 (11th Cir.1994). 1 "Thus, what we state as 'facts' in this opinion for purposes of reviewing the rulings on the summary judgment motions may not be the actual facts," which would be established at trial. Swint v. City of Wadley, 5 F.3d 1435, 1439 (11th Cir.1993), modified, 11 F.3d 1030 (11th Cir.), cert. granted, --- U.S. ----, 114 S.Ct. 2671, 129 L.Ed.2d 808 (1994).
On the evening of August 2, 1991, Dorothy Milton and her daughter returned to their Foley home to find Mrs. Milton's eighty-year-old mother, Mary Searcy, standing in a neighboring yard. Mrs. Searcy, who lives two houses away from Mrs. Milton, told them that Rocky Belcher, who lived with her, had turned on the gas in her house and was trying to kill himself and her. (Rocky Belcher, who was 36 years old, was Mrs. Searcy's grandson and Mrs. Milton's nephew.)
At 10:34 p.m., Mrs. Milton called the Foley, Alabama, police department for assistance. Corporal Charles McKinley, who was the shift supervisor at that time, and Officers Jimmy Roberson and Dwain Riebeling responded to her call. When the officers arrived at Mrs. Milton's house, she explained to Corporal McKinley that Mr. Belcher was intoxicated, that he had threatened to kill himself and Mrs. Searcy, and that she believed he needed "professional," meaning psychiatric, help. During the conversation between Corporal McKinley and Mrs. Milton, Mr. Belcher walked over from Mrs. Searcy's house and stood next to Corporal McKinley's patrol car, which was parked in front of Mrs. Milton's house. Mr. Belcher was visibly intoxicated. Corporal McKinley instructed Officer Riebeling to arrest Mr. Belcher for public intoxication. Corporal McKinley then left to respond to another call.
Officer Riebeling arrested Mr. Belcher for public intoxication and took him to the Foley jail. While Officer Riebeling questioned Mr. Belcher for the purpose of filling out an arrest report, Mr. Belcher became belligerent. Officer Riebeling placed him in a cell. A few minutes later, Mr. Belcher began shouting that he needed his medication. Officer Riebeling went to Mr. Belcher's cell and asked him what type of medication he needed. Mr. Belcher responded only that the medication was at his house. When Corporal McKinley returned to the station, Officer Riebeling told him that Mr. Belcher had asked for his medication. Corporal McKinley said that he would take care of it.
At 11:00 p.m., Sergeant Brantley relieved Corporal McKinley as the shift supervisor, even though McKinley's shift did not officially end until midnight. 2 Officer Eddie McDonald also came on duty at 11:00 p.m.
Following Mr. Belcher's request for medication, Officer Roberson checked on Mr. Belcher three times, over a period of about thirty minutes, and on the third occasion discovered Mr. Belcher attempting to hang himself. Mr. Belcher was standing on the toilet with a strip of cloth from his shirt wrapped around his neck, and he was tying the cloth to a light fixture mounted on the wall or to an air conditioning vent. Officer Roberson unlocked the cell door and shouted for assistance. He grabbed Mr. Belcher around the waist, pulled him down off of the toilet and onto the floor. About that time, both Corporal McKinley and Officer Riebeling arrived at Mr. Belcher's cell to assist Officer Roberson. Corporal McKinley decided that Mr. Belcher should be moved to a bare cell, which has no toilet and no bed. As the officers attempted to move Mr. Belcher, he broke away and stuck his head into the toilet in an attempt to drown himself. The officers subdued Mr. Belcher, then moved him to the bare cell and took his shirt from him.
Officer Roberson stayed and talked with Mr. Belcher to calm him. Mr. Belcher told Officer Roberson that he was depressed because, that day, his ex-wife had married another man. He requested his medication, again, and said that he needed to talk to his psychiatrist. After about ten minutes, Officer Roberson left to do some paperwork. He continued to check on Mr. Belcher approximately every five minutes, during which time Mr. Belcher appeared calm.
Meanwhile, Corporal McKinley telephoned Chief Investigator Walter Crook, the senior officer available for duty that night, to tell him about Mr. Belcher's suicide attempt. Over the phone, Investigator Crook advised Corporal McKinley to obtain a warrant charging Mr. Belcher with disorderly conduct so that he could be transferred to the county jail in Bay Minette, Alabama, which is equipped to deal with suicidal inmates. Investigator Crook also recommended that a family member, rather than a police officer, should attest that Mr. Belcher had been guilty of disorderly conduct. Corporal McKinley then instructed the police department dispatcher to locate a magistrate judge who could issue a warrant charging Mr. Belcher with disorderly conduct. Soon thereafter, Investigator Crook came to the jail. When the dispatcher could not find the magistrate judge who lived in Foley, Investigator Crook told Corporal McKinley that they were "going to have to sit with [Mr. Belcher], baby-sit him for twenty-four hours a day."
Eventually, the dispatcher located a magistrate judge who lived in Robertsdale, Alabama. According to Corporal McKinley, he then sent Officer McDonald to Mrs. Milton's house to see if she or her daughter would sign an affidavit for a warrant charging Mr. Belcher with disorderly conduct. However, there is evidence that Officer McDonald did not ask Mrs. Milton to do so, and for present purposes, we must assume he did not. 3
Shortly after Investigator Crook told Corporal McKinley that they would have to "baby-sit" Mr. Belcher, Crook ordered all of the officers at the jail to meet in the courtroom to see a plan for a new alarm system. Officer Roberson checked on Mr. Belcher immediately before leaving for the meeting. He and the other officers then left Mr. Belcher unattended for somewhat longer than four minutes. 4 During that time, Mr. Belcher hung himself using the elastic from his underwear that he had tied to the lower bar of the jail-cell door. Immediately after the meeting ended, Investigator Crook went to Mr. Belcher's cell and found him hanging. He shouted for assistance. Officer Riebeling and Corporal McKinley responded. Officer Riebeling cut the elastic, while Corporal McKinley opened the cell door. Corporal McKinley checked for vital signs, then began performing CPR. Investigator Crook instructed the dispatcher to call the paramedics.
An ambulance arrived at 12:24 a.m., August 3, 1991. Ambulance medical personnel took over attempts to resuscitate Mr. Belcher and transported him to the South Baldwin Hospital a few minutes later. Mr. Belcher was declared dead on arrival.
Just over two hours had elapsed from the moment that the officers were first called to the scene of Mr. Belcher's disturbance until Mr. Belcher was pronounced dead at the hospital.
On August 3, 1992, Sharon Ann Belcher, as the administratrix of Mr. Belcher's estate, filed this section 1983 action against the City of Foley, Foley Police Chief James Anderson, Corporal Charles McKinley, Officer Jimmy Roberson, and Officer Dwain Riebeling, alleging deprivations of Mr. Belcher's constitutional rights. She alleged that the City and Chief Anderson (individually and in his official capacity) were liable under section 1983 for policies and customs that violated the constitutional rights of mentally ill and suicidal jail inmates and that caused Mr. Belcher's death. She also alleged that Corporal McKinley, Officer Roberson, and Officer Riebeling (individually and in their official capacities) were liable because they had caused Mr....
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