Brokaw v. Mercer County

• Decision Date: 19 December 2000
• Docket Number: No. 98-1131,98-1131
• Parties: (7th Cir. 2000) C.A. Brokaw, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Mercer County, James Brokaw, Weir Brokaw, et al., Defendants-Appellees
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 1000

235 F.3d 1000 (7th Cir. 2000)

C.A. Brokaw, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Mercer County, James Brokaw, Weir Brokaw, et al., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 98-1131

In the United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit

Argued September 16, 1999

Decided December 19, 2000

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois. No. 97 C 4011--Joe Billy McDade, Chief Judge. [Copyrighted Material Omitted]

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[Copyrighted Material Omitted] Before Ripple, Manion, and Diane P. Wood, Circuit Judges.

Manion, Circuit Judge.

In July 1983, when he was six years old, C.A. Brokaw and his three-year-old sister were forcibly removed from their parents' home in Mercer County, Illinois. After he turned eighteen, C.A. filed suit against his grandfather and aunt, who he contends conspired with his uncle, a Deputy Sheriff of Mercer County, to violate his constitutional rights. C.A. also sued the social worker and other officers involved in removing him from his home, along with the state judge who presided over various hearings. Additionally, the suit named Mercer County and the State of Illinois (although the State of Illinois is no longer a party to the case). After allowing C.A. to amend his pro se complaint, the district court dismissed the complaint for failure to state a claim. Brokaw appeals. We reverse as to all defendants except the presiding judge and Probation Officer Hansen.

I. Factual Background

Because this case comes to us from a 12(b)(6) dismissal, we assume that the facts alleged in the complaint are true, and read those facts, and all reasonable inferences flowing from those facts, in the light most favorable to C.A. Bethlehem Steel Corp. v. Bush, 918 F.2d 1323, 1326 (7th Cir. 1990). In determining whether C.A. failed to state a claim, we also consider any additional consistent facts presented by C.A. on appeal. Albiero v. City of Kankakee, 122 F.3d 417, 419 (7th Cir. 1997). With this in mind, we go back in time to 1983.

In early July of that year, the plaintiff's father, Dennis Brokaw, who had recently been released from the hospital and who was still recuperating, was invited by his sister, Karen Weaver, and their father, Weir Brokaw, to Weir's home. The invitation specifically excluded Dennis' wife, Bonnie, and their children, the plaintiff C.A. and C.A.'s sister. As it turned out, they were excluded because Karen and Weir were attempting to convince Dennis to leave his family. During the next few days, Weir and Karen brought intense pressure on Dennis to leave his family and to obtain a divorce because they objected to Dennis and his family's religious beliefs and practices. Dennis refused. Soon thereafter, on the evening of July 5, 1983, there was a confrontation between C.A.'s parents and Weir Brokaw and Karen Weaver, during which C.A.'s parents expressed their "vehement repugnance" of Weir and Karen's attempts to split the family apart.

The next morning Weir and Karen, along with James Brokaw (Weir's son and Dennis and Karen's brother and, significantly, a Deputy Sheriff for Mercer County) conspired in a plan to end the marriage. Together, in response to the previous evening's confrontation and because they disagreed with Dennis and Bonnie's religious beliefs, James, Karen and Weir decided to file "baseless and scurrilous"¹ claims of child neglect. They believed that this would cause C.A. and his sister to be removed from their parents' home, and in turn prompt Dennis to divorce his wife and leave his family. To further this plan, they enlisted the help of the Sheriff of Mercer County, Marvin Thirtyacre, and "fabricated concerns about the welfare of Plaintiff and his sister."

At about noon that same day (July 6, 1983), Sheriff Thirtyacre contacted Penny Ingersoll, who was a caseworker for the Department of Children and Family Services, and arranged a meeting for later in the afternoon. Thirtyacre, Weir, James and Karen met with Ingersoll briefly outside the courthouse in Aledo, Illinois, and a few minutes later Judge Susan Gende joined them. During this meeting, Thirtyacre, Weir, James and Karen allegedly made allegations of child neglect to cause the DCFS to remove C.A. and his sister from their home.

According to C.A., although Judge Susan Gende attended this meeting, she did not issue a court order concerning the children's custody. Nonetheless, at dusk that evening, two men walked into C.A.'s home, grabbed C.A. and his three- year-old sister, and carried the crying children out of their home. C.A.'s parents chased the intruders while repeatedly demanding that they identify themselves and explain what was happening. The men refused, one shouting: "We don't have to tell you a damn thing!" C.A. believed he was being kidnaped and was going to be killed. His parents also believed that their children had been kidnaped, and they called the police. (They later learned that their children were removed based on the alleged child neglect.)

The strangers, who were later identified as Deputy Sheriff Jonathon Weakley and Probation Officer James Bartelt, drove C.A. and his sister to a lane that led into a cornfield, where they were met by Deputy Sheriff James Brokaw and Sheriff Martin Thirtyacre. While it is unclear from the record, it appears that from there the children were taken to a foster home where they spent the night.

The next day Sheriff Thirtyacre filed a petition for adjudication of wardship, and the children were ordered to remain in foster care. About one week later, on July 13, 1983, Probation Officer Vickie Hansen picked up C.A. from the foster home and drove him to a courthouse. At the courthouse, Judge Gende and several other of the defendants questioned C.A. about the alleged abuse, and according to C.A., he "was frightened and coerced into answering questions, [and] Defendants attempted to make him say derogatory statements about his parents."

About three weeks later, Judge Gende began presiding over an adjudication hearing. The hearing was continued until August 3, 1983, at which time Judge Gende ordered C.A. and his sister wards of the state, in part based on a social study prepared by Probation Officer James Bartelt. C.A. contends that the report contained false information, and that his parents were denied the opportunity to disprove those allegations because they were not given access to the report until after the hearing and after the court had already made C.A. a ward of the state. After her ruling, Judge Gende allegedly threatened the parents' attorney that if the children's parents appealed her decision of wardship, she would personally see to it that they would not see their children until they were adults, but that if they did not appeal, she would be more inclined to allow the children to return home someday.

It is unclear what, if any, investigation took place or what facts came to light, but on October 28, 1983, almost four months after they were first removed from their home, Judge Gende entered an order permitting C.A. and his sister to return home, finding insufficient evidence that they needed protection. However, it was not until July of 1984--after C.A.'s parents dismissed a federal lawsuit they had filed concerning their children's custody-- that Judge Gende dismissed the order of wardship.

In February 1997, after he had reached the age of majority, C.A. filed a pro se complaint in federal court against Mercer County; Marvin Thirtyacre, the Mercer County Sheriff; James Brokaw, a Mercer County Deputy Sheriff; Weir Brokaw, his paternal grandfather; Karen Weaver, his paternal aunt; the State of Illinois; Penny Ingersoll, a caseworker for the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services; Steve Dickens, a caseworker for the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services; Susan Gende, a state judge in the 14th Judicial Circuit of Illinois; James Bartelt, the Director of the Mercer County Probation Department; Jonathon Weakley, a Mercer County Deputy Sheriff; and Vickie Hansen, a Mercer County Probation Officer. The district court, thinking this late-filed complaint was barred by the statute of limitations, ordered C.A. to show cause why the complaint should not be dismissed. C.A. responded by citing Illinois' tolling statute, which provides that the statute of limitations does not begin to run on a minor's claim until he reaches the age of eighteen. 735 ILSC 5/13-211. The district court then struck the complaint, ordering C.A. to file an amended complaint specifying the legal basis on which it was brought. C.A. complied with the order, and filed an amended complaint under 42 U.S.C. sec. 1983, alleging claims under the First, Fourth, Fifth, Eighth, Ninth, Tenth, and Fourteenth Amendments. C.A. also alleged state law claims of intentional infliction of emotional distress and false imprisonment.

All of the defendants, except Thirtyacre, appeared and filed motions to dismiss. The district court dismissed the federal claims against all of the defendants, including Thirtyacre, for failure to state a claim, or based on sovereign, absolute, or qualified immunity. The district court further stated that because it had dismissed all of C.A.'s federal claims, it was dismissing his state law claims as well. C.A. moved for leave to file an amended complaint, which the district court denied. C.A. appeals.²

II. Analysis

On appeal, C.A. contends that the defendants violated and conspired to violate 42 U.S.C. sec.sec. 1983, 1985(3), by depriving him of certain constitutional rights, and that he is entitled to attorney's fees under Section 1988. We first consider the Section 1983 claim.

A. Section 1983

In order to state a claim under Section 1983, a plaintiff must allege that the defendants deprived him of a right secured by the Constitution or laws of the United States, and that the defendants acted under color of state law. Starnes v. Capital...