Chappell v. City of Cleveland

• Decision Date: 30 September 2008
• Docket Number: No. 1:06CV2135.,1:06CV2135.
• Citation: 584 F.Supp.2d 974
• Parties: Dorothy CHAPPELL, Administratrix of the Estate of Deceased Brandon McCloud, Plaintiff, v. CITY OF CLEVELAND, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Ohio

Page 974

584 F.Supp.2d 974

Dorothy CHAPPELL, Administratrix of the Estate of Deceased Brandon McCloud, Plaintiff, v. CITY OF CLEVELAND, et al., Defendants.

No. 1:06CV2135.

United States District Court, N.D. Ohio, Eastern Division.

September 30, 2008.

Gordon S. Friedman, Terry H. Gilbert, Friedman & Gilbert, Kenneth A. Bossin, Cleveland, OH, for Plaintiff.

Aretta K. Bernard, Mariam A. Shah, Stephen W. Funk, Roetzel & Andress, Akron OH, Lewis W. Adkins, Jr., Roetzel & Andress, Patrick A. D'Angelo, Patrick A. D'Angelo, LLC, Paul W. Flowers, Paul W. Flowers Co. L.P.A., W. Craig Bashein, Bashein & Bashein, Cleveland, OH, for Defendants.

OPINION & ORDER

KATHLEEN McDONALD O'MALLEY, District Judge.

Before the Court is the Motion for Summary Judgment of Defendants John Kraynik and Philip Habeeb (Doc. 62). For the reasons discussed below, the motion is DENIED.

I. BACKGROUND

This case arises from the tragic shooting death of 15-year-old Brandon McCloud in the City of Cleveland, Ohio during the early morning hours of September 1, 2005. Plaintiff, Dorothy Chappell, the grandmother of McCloud and Administratrix of his estate, has filed an action against Defendants, City of Cleveland Police Detectives Philip Habeeb and John Kraynik (collectively, the "Detectives"), alleging that the Detectives used excessive and unreasonable deadly force by shooting McCloud and causing his death while executing a search warrant in Chappell's home. Chappell has asserted the following causes of action against the Detectives: (1) a Fourth Amendment excessive force claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983;¹ and (2) Ohio law claims for (a) assault and battery; (b) reckless conduct; (c) wrongful death; and (d) survivorship.

The Detectives have now filed a joint motion for summary judgment. The Detectives first argue that they are entitled to qualified immunity from Chappell's § 1983 claim as a matter of law, because Chappell cannot establish that they acted in an objectively unreasonable manner under the applicable constitutional standards. More specifically, the Detectives contend that the undisputed facts confirm that, at the time they had to make the "split-second" judgment about whether to use deadly force—the moment in which they assert the Court must judge the reasonableness of a police officer's conduct according to binding Supreme Court and Sixth Circuit precedent—they were confronted with a criminal suspect who had unexpectedly and suddenly moved out of a closet in a small, dark bedroom with a knife in his right hand. Accordingly, the Detectives claim, in light of those undisputed facts, the Court must conclude that they had probable cause to believe that McCloud presented a serious threat to their physical safety and that they therefore did not violate any clearly established legal standards in using deadly force. Second, the Detectives argue that, particularly if they are entitled to qualified immunity under § 1983, they also should be granted statutory immunity under Ohio law from Chappell's state law claims.

Chappell, on the other hand, has vigorously opposed the Detectives' joint motion. Chappell argues that: (1) the shooting was unjustified; (2) there are critical and material factual disputes that preclude the entry of summary judgment in favor of the Detectives; and (3) the Detectives' characterization of controlling precedent is far too narrow.

II. STATEMENT OF FACTS

At approximately 5:00 A.M. on September 1, 2008, Detectives Habeeb and Kraynik were executing a search warrant at Chappell's and McCloud's residence located at 7712 Jeffries Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio, when they shot and killed McCloud in his bedroom. Many of the events leading up to the shooting, the events during the shooting itself, and the events after the shooting are at least marginally disputed by the parties. The statement of facts articulated below specifically identifies each factual dispute; otherwise, if not specifically identified, a fact is not deemed to be in dispute.²

A. The Events Leading To The Detectives' Use of Deadly Force On September 1, 2005

On the evening of August 31, 2005, Detectives Habeeb and Kraynik were investigating an armed robbery of a pizza deliveryman at knifepoint. (Habeeb Dep. 87:11-91:5, May 30, 2007; Kraynik Dep. 41:24-42:22, May 29, 2007.) During the robbery, the victim, who had received a phone call to deliver pizza to an abandoned home, suffered a broken arm while trying to avoid the advance of a knife-wielding suspect who was wearing a gray wig, a wolf mask, and a long-sleeved black shirt. (Habeeb Dep. 90:17-91:5; Kraynik Dep. 42:13-46:1.) The robbery took place at the 7800 block of Jeffries Avenue in Cleveland, which was near the residence of Chappell and McCloud at 7712 Jeffries Avenue. (Habeeb Dep. 89:13-21; Kraynik Dep. 41:24-42:2.)

Upon learning the details of the robbery, both Detectives Habeeb and Kraynik immediately believed that McCloud was the primary suspect, in part because McCloud previously had admitted to committing 10-12 similar pizza delivery robberies with the same modus operandi and in the same general vicinity. (Habeeb Dep. 81:5-8, 88:13-16; Kraynik Dep. 46:3-15.) Detectives Habeeb and Kraynik had first met McCloud in May 2005, when they interviewed him about his involvement in these other pizza delivery robberies. (Habeeb Dep. 80:7-10; Kraynik Dep. 25:9-19.) During this May 2005 interview, which lasted for several hours, Detectives Habeeb and Kraynik stated that McCloud told them, in great detail, how he committed the robberies. (Habeeb Dep. 80:7-84:5; Kraynik Dep. 36:23-37:14.) For example, Detective Kraynik described McCloud's participation in these robberies as follows:

From top to bottom Mr. McCloud admitted to participation in each and every incident. He admitted to committing the aggravated robbery. Each time he told me, specifically, what he did it with, what weapons he used. Mostly knives, but in one or two of the instances he did use a firearm. I believe it was a—he said at one point he had used—actually beat someone over the head with it in the course of he was running away and he lost the weapon, that's why he went back to knives. But without hesitation he told me of his participation in each and every incident that I put up on that board.

(Kraynik Dep. 36:23-37:11.)³

Detectives Habeeb and Kraynik, now believing their primary suspect to be McCloud, who they knew from the May 2005 interview had made a practice of fleeing from robberies through backyards while discarding clothing items to change his appearance, continued their investigation of the pizza delivery robbery by searching nearby backyards where an eyewitness had observed the robber. (Habeeb Dep. 91:8-92:17; Kraynik Dep. 48:11-49:1.) During the search, the Detectives recovered a gray wig and a long-sleeved black shirt in a backyard just north of the home where the pizza was supposed to be delivered. (Habeeb Dep. 92:20-93:3; Kraynik Dep. 48:22-49:1.)

After depositing this evidence with uniformed officers, Detectives Habeeb and Kraynik then attempted to acquire information associated with the number of the phone that called the pizza delivery restaurant. (Habeeb Dep. 93:24-94:16; Kraynik Dep. 51:14-22.) This investigation revealed the identity of a young female who had placed the order. (Id.) The Detectives proceeded to interview the female, who advised that she had placed the order at the request of other individuals, including a boy she had met a year earlier. (Habeeb Dep. 95:11-96:14; Kraynik Dep. 51:14-52:25.) Using her cell phone, the female provided Detectives Habeeb and Kraynik with two telephone numbers from which she had received the calls asking her to place the orders. (Habeeb Dep. 95:16-22; Kraynik Dep. 52:20-25.) Investigation of these telephone numbers revealed that one number was linked to a cell phone with no subscriber information available, but that the other number was the hard line listed for 7712 Jeffries Avenue, Chappell's and McCloud's home. (Habeeb Dep. 96:25-97:10; Kraynik Dep. 52:20-25.)

Next, at around midnight, after a phone consultation with Lieutenant Michael Connelly,⁴ Detectives Habeeb and Kraynik went to Chappell's and McCloud's residence at 7712 Jeffries Avenue in an attempt to conduct a consent search of the house for evidence and/or possibly speak with McCloud if he was home. (Habeeb Dep. 97:11-105:19; Kraynik Dep. 54:13-61:2.)⁵ The Detectives, who were joined by two uniformed officers—Officer Raymond Francell and Officer Kevin Grady, knocked on the door several times, but there was no answer. (Id.)

Detectives Habeeb and Kraynik then returned to their police station to prepare a search warrant application for entry into Chappell's and McCloud's house at 7712 Jeffries Avenue to discover any evidence that would connect McCloud to the pizza delivery robbery. (Habeeb Dep. 105:20-22; Kraynik 63:3-11, 65:2-7.) Using a disk of old search warrants from the Cuyahoga County Prosecutors Office, the Detectives finished preparing the application at approximately 3:00 A.M. on September 1, 2005. (Habeeb Dep. 105:20-107:3, 109:20-111:18; Kraynik Dep. 71:20-73:20.) At that time, the Detectives drove to the residence of Judge Timothy McGinty of the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, so that he could review the application. (Id.) Judge McGinty reviewed the application and signed the search warrant, which expressly authorized execution of the warrant at any time—"making search in the day or night season." (Habeeb Dep 114:25-115-4; Kraynik Dep. 84:25-85:11; Doc. 63-16.)

The Detectives then returned to Jeffries Avenue, Chappell's and McCloud's street, to conduct surveillance of the house. (Habeeb Dep. 122:4-17; Kraynik Dep. 87:9-20.) Detectives Habeeb and Kraynik stated that they wanted to wait for McCloud to come home or to wait until they observed activity in the house before executing the search warrant, so that they did riot have to engage in a "dynamic entry," but instead could knock on the door and...