Cefalu v. Village of Elk Grove

• Decision Date: 13 April 2000
• Docket Number: Nos. 98-2708,98-3053,s. 98-2708
• Parties: (7th Cir. 2000) WILLIAM CEFALU and TYRONE CEFALU, Plaintiffs-Appellants/Cross-Appellees, v. VILLAGE OF ELK GROVE, et al., Defendants-Appellees/Cross-Appellants
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 416

211 F.3d 416 (7th Cir. 2000)

WILLIAM CEFALU and TYRONE CEFALU, Plaintiffs-Appellants/Cross-Appellees, v. VILLAGE OF ELK GROVE, et al., Defendants-Appellees/Cross-Appellants.

Nos. 98-2708, 98-3053

In the United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit

Argued February 23, 1999

Decided April 13, 2000

Rehearing Denied May 10, 2000.

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division. No. 94 C 1990--Rebecca R. Pallmeyer, Magistrate Judge.^* [Copyrighted Material Omitted]

[Copyrighted Material Omitted] Before COFFEY, RIPPLE, and ROVNER, Circuit Judges.

ROVNER, Circuit Judge.

Cooler heads regrettably did not prevail on the afternoon that Tyrone Cefalu arrived at his parents' printing business and found Elk Grove Village police officer Eric Perkins parked in the drive, filling out reports and monitoring traffic on the adjoining roadway. Cefalu in rather harsh terms told Perkins to leave, Perkins balked, and within moments six police officers were on the scene attempting to restore order to the chaos that had erupted. Perkins left the premises with a lacerated hand, having had the front door to the Cefalus' business slammed shut on it. Tyrone and his father William left with their own hands in cuffs, accused of battery and resisting arrest. After the Cefalus were acquitted on those charges, they filed suit against Elk Grove Village, Perkins, and several other police officers pursuant to 42 U.S.C. sec. 1983, and the case proceeded to trial. Judge Pallmeyer entered judgment as a matter of law in favor of the defendants on the charge that they conspired to cover up evidence of violating the Cefalus' civil rights, and a jury absolved the defendants of false arrest, excessive force, battery, and malicious prosecution. The Cefalus appeal from both the entry of judgment as a matter of law and the adverse verdict on the false arrest charge, and they also challenge certain rulings that the district court made over the course of the trial. The defendants cross-appeal from the denial of costs for the preparation of various computer displays. We affirm the judgment in favor of the defendants and remand the matter of costs for further consideration.

I.

Because the jury found in favor of the defendants, our summary of the facts reflects a view of the evidence that is favorable to them. See, e.g., Haschmann v. Time Warner Entertainment Co., 151 F.3d 591, 599 (7th Cir. 1998).

Early in the afternoon of February 19, 1993, after picking up some take-out for lunch, Tyrone Cefalu ("Tyrone") returned to work at his family's Elk Grove Village business, Logan Printing ("Logan"). As he drove up to the property, Tyrone saw a village police cruiser parked in the driveway. Officer Eric Perkins, employed with the village for sixteen months, was seated behind the wheel. Perkins had just finished responding to an armed robbery call and had backed his cruiser into the driveway in order to complete some paperwork and monitor traffic on the adjacent street as he neared the end of his shift. According to the village, its police officers commonly did this in the industrial park where Logan Printing was located, and it had never before heard a complaint. Business owners, in fact, appreciated the visible police presence on their properties.

Tyrone did not welcome Perkins' presence, however. A short retaining wall divided Logan's driveway. One half of the driveway, leading to the loading dock, descended several feet below grade level. The other half of the drive led to parking in the rear of the building; and the presence of Perkins' cruiser on that side of the drive blocked access to the parking lot. Tyrone drove his vehicle onto the loading-dock half of the drive and pulled up along side of Perkins' car. "What are you doing here?" Tyrone asked Perkins--in what Perkins described as an insulting and combative tone. When Perkins answered that he was, among other things, watching traffic, Tyrone remarked that he did not want Perkins to "run radar" while on the premises. Perkins indicated that he was not using radar but that in any event he was entitled to employ it so long as there was traffic on the public road. Nonplused, Tyrone told Perkins to "get off"of his property. Perkins declined.

Tyrone stepped out of his vehicle, his lunch and drink in hand, and slammed the car door shut. For a few moments, he stood next to Perkins' car, shouting obscenities. He demanded that Perkins "get the f*** off [his] property" and, pointing his finger at the police officer, called him a "f***ing punk." In the face of Tyrone's outrage, Perkins was now concerned about the prospect of interrogation, and possibly discipline, from his superiors. He radioed his supervisor, Sergeant Dion Zinnel, that he was dealing with "an irate business owner." Other officers who heard the radio call could discern someone shouting in the background. Zinnel said he would join Perkins at the scene. Perkins exited the cruiser and joined Tyrone on the front sidewalk, hoping to calm him down.

Tyrone began to move away from the squad car. Perkins told him to come back, but Tyrone kept walking. After returning to the car for a moment to respond to a follow-up call from Zinnel, Perkins caught up with Tyrone in front of the business. Tyrone continued to yell at Perkins, threatening to call the village manager.

At Logan's front door, something of a tug-of- war ensued. After Tyrone opened the door with a key, he repeated his demand that Perkins get off the property, stepped inside, and let the door (which had an automatic closing mechanism) begin to shut behind him. Perkins planted his right heel and side in the doorway, keeping the door open. He urged Tyrone to calm down. "We don't need this," Perkins told him. Unmoved, Tyrone tried to pull the door closed. Perkins stopped the door with his hand. As Perkins told the story, Tyrone glanced at Perkins' hand and then yanked the door shut on it, lacerating Perkins' finger and thumb.

Thoughts of calming Tyrone down evaporated; Perkins now resolved to arrest him for battery. Having grabbed the door before it locked shut, Perkins now took a step inside the building, grasped Tyrone's arm, and announced that he was under arrest for disorderly conduct¹ as well as battery. Tyrone tried to shake his arm free of Perkins' grip. At this point, William Cefalu entered the fray, rising from behind a counter and shouting at Perkins to let Tyrone go and get off the property. Finding himself outnumbered, Perkins retreated from the building and called for backup.

When reinforcements arrived, Perkins knocked at the front door with a colleague, Officer Edwin Medina. William cracked open the front door and told them to depart, but the officers seized the opportunity to reenter the building, informing William that they were there to arrest Tyrone. William attempted to block Medina's path, prompting Perkins to declare that William would be arrested as well. When William refused to place his hands behind his back per Perkins' order, the two officers pushed William onto a bench and struggled to handcuff him. Hearing the commotion, Tyrone emerged from a back office and shouted at the officers, "Let go of him!" Tensions were so high at this point that Medina drew his gun and ordered Tyrone to "Freeze!" Tyrone instead picked up a telephone and attempted to call the village manager. Perkins tried--unsuccessfully--to take the telephone away and cuff him. By now, Zinnel and another officer had arrived on the scene, and they helped to subdue and handcuff Tyrone.

Perkins left the premises in the company of paramedics so that his hand could be attended to, while the Cefalus were taken to the Elk Grove police station for processing. William himself was treated by paramedics for a cut on his hand, and was later taken to the hospital with elevated blood pressure. By the plaintiffs' account, William had turned quite red during the scuffle at Logan Printing, and whereas the defendants acknowledge that his blood pressure was determined to be "slightly" elevated, the plaintiffs insist that it shot off the charts, leaving him with permanent damage to his heart muscle.

Following this incident, the village received complaints from both Tyrone and his wife, and the village board of trustees, recognizing the possibility that litigation might be in the offing, ordered an investigation. The village attorney spoke with the chief and deputy chief of police about the matter, and he obtained a copy of the police report for the board's review. Further investigation was suspended while the criminal case against the Cefalus was pending; and the board was kept apprised of the status of the criminal case. Ultimately, the village attorney made no effort to look into the incident independently; he simply relied on the police chief and deputy chief for their second-hand accounts of what occurred. Nor did he take any notes, prepare a written report, or create any other form of written documentation of the results of his inquiry.

Several days after the Cefalus were arrested, Sergeant Zinnel and Lieutenant Steven Ingebrigtsen (watch commander at the time Perkins arrested the Cefalus) met with Perkins to review the incident. The senior officers agreed that Perkins could have handled his initial encounter with Tyrone better than he had and they so admonished Perkins. "[W]e all said he could have put the car in drive and drove away," Ingebrigtsen testified. Ingebrigtsen considered this mild oral reprimand to be all the discipline that was necessary. In his view, Perkins had not violated any departmental policy; he was simply an inexperienced officer who exercised poor judgment. Ingebrigtsen did not investigate the incident beyond speaking with Zinnel and Perkins. "I was satisfied with the information they supplied me," he testified. "I didn't need more." Like the village attorney, Ingebrigtsen made no written report summarizing his...