Cherrington v. Skeeter

• Decision Date: 24 September 2003
• Docket Number: No. 01-3637.,01-3637.
• Citation: 344 F.3d 631
• Parties: Mary Cherrington and Daija King, a Minor, by and through Her Mother and Next Friend, Mary Cherrington, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Andre Skeeter, John Kinney, and City of Circleville, Ohio, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

344 F.3d 631

Mary Cherrington and Daija King, a Minor, by and through Her Mother and Next Friend, Mary Cherrington, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Andre Skeeter, John Kinney, and City of Circleville, Ohio, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 01-3637.

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

Argued: August 7, 2002.

Decided and Filed: September 24, 2003. Pursuant to Sixth Circuit Rule 206

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Jeffery M. Blosser (argued and briefed), Kevin O'Brien & Associates, Co., Columbus, OH, for Plaintiffs-Appellants.

Philip K. Hartmann (briefed), Brian M. Zets (argued and briefed), Stephen Jesse Smith (briefed), Schottenstein, Zox & Dunn, Columbus, OH, for Defendants-Appellees.

Before: MOORE and GILMAN, Circuit Judges; ROSEN, District Judge.^*

ROSEN, D. J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which GILMAN, J., joined. MOORE, J., concurred in the result only.

OPINION

ROSEN, District Judge.

Plaintiffs/Appellants Mary Cherrington and her daughter, Daija King, appeal the District Court's decision to grant summary judgment in favor of Defendants/Appellees Andre Skeeter, Jon Kinney, and the City of Circleville, Ohio in this action brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. For the reasons stated below, we affirm in part and reverse in part the rulings of the District Court, and remand this case for further proceedings.

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

In the summer of 1996, the Defendant/Appellee City of Circleville, Ohio commenced an undercover law enforcement investigation in response to concerns of increased illegal drug trafficking activities within the City. Because of insufficient resources and a concern that the City's traditional police force could not conduct an anonymous undercover operation amidst Circleville's small population, the City sought outside assistance in its investigation. Specifically, Defendant/Appellee Police Chief Jon Kinney contacted a private security firm, which in turn referred Chief Kinney to Defendant/Appellee Andre Skeeter, a private investigator. Based on this referral, Chief Kinney met with Skeeter, reviewed his credentials, conducted a background check, and then decided to hire him.

Skeeter was sworn in as a police officer on September 3, 1996, and began his undercover investigation under the direct supervision of Investigator Kevin Clark. Skeeter spoke with Clark on a regular basis, and submitted periodic reports on the progress of his investigation. Skeeter also met from time to time with Chief Kinney. Throughout his investigation, Skeeter was not told to target any particular individuals, but rather was directed to go out into the Circleville community, befriend people, and determine who to target for further investigation. Through these efforts, Skeeter came into contact with Plaintiff/Appellant Mary Cherrington. The two became friends, periodically smoking marijuana or snorting cocaine together.¹

After nearly a year of this investigation, Chief Kinney, Investigator Clark, Skeeter, and the county prosecutor decided to conclude the matter by arresting selected individuals and seeking their cooperation in additional drug purchases. Chief Kinney further determined, in consultation with the county prosecutor, that these individuals should be taken to a motel rather than the Circleville police department or the county jail, in order to avoid tipping off potential targets of this "buy-bust" operation. Skeeter chose Cherrington as one of the individuals to arrest, believing that she might be willing to cooperate with the authorities.

Accordingly, on the evening of Friday, August 29, 1997, Skeeter arranged for a mutual acquaintance, Leslie Jones, to go to Cherrington's residence and ask her to purchase $100 worth of cocaine. Cherrington agreed, left her home to make the purchase, and returned about a half an hour later. A short time later, Cherrington's friend, Scott Smallwood, arrived at her house and began smoking crack in the kitchen. Skeeter then arrived at Cherrington's home, accompanied by another law enforcement agent. Upon witnessing Smallwood smoking crack and learning that Cherrington had made the requested cocaine purchase, Skeeter placed both Cherrington and Smallwood under arrest. This arrest apparently occurred at around 2:30 a.m. on Saturday, August 30, 1997.

Cherrington was told to pack a bag, and Skeeter then drove her and her two-year-old daughter, Plaintiff/Appellant Daija King, to a Travel Lodge motel at the outskirts of Circleville. At around 3:15 a.m., Cherrington signed a form indicating that she had been advised of her Miranda rights by Inspector Clark, and that she had agreed to waive these rights and voluntarily speak to the police. Cherrington remained at the motel with her daughter for the next 24 hours, during which time she cooperated with the authorities by arranging a drug purchase. Cherrington testified at her deposition that she requested permission to contact someone to pick up Daija, but that this request was refused, leading her to surreptitiously call a friend to come and get her daughter. Before this friend could arrive, however, Cherrington and Daija were taken from the motel and placed in a police car.

On Sunday, August 31, 1997 at 3:37 a.m., about 24 hours after her arrest, Cherrington was taken to the Circleville police department for processing and placed in a cell. Her daughter Daija was released to a friend. Over 48 hours later, at around 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday, September 2, 1997,² Cherrington was arraigned on drug trafficking charges. She subsequently pled guilty to two counts of trafficking in cocaine.

Based on these incidents, Plaintiffs/Appellants Mary Cherrington and Daija King brought this § 1983 suit on May 13, 1999, alleging that Defendants/Appellees Skeeter, Kinney, and the City of Circleville violated their rights under the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.³ By Opinion and Order dated May 11, 2001, the District Court granted Defendants' motion for summary judgment, denied Plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment, and ordered that Plaintiffs' claims be dismissed. Through their present appeal, Plaintiffs challenge only certain aspects of the lower court's decision: (i) the dismissal of Daija King's claims; (ii) the grant of qualified immunity to the individual Defendants on Mary Cherrington's Fourth Amendment claim of an unlawfully prolonged detention without arraignment; and (iii) the determination that Plaintiffs failed to identify a basis for municipal liability against the Defendant City of Circleville. We affirm the first of these rulings, but reverse and remand on the remaining two points.

II. ANALYSIS

A. The Standards Governing This Appeal

This case is on appeal from the District Court's grant of summary judgment to Defendants. Accordingly, we review this District Court ruling de novo. See Holloway v. Brush, 220 F.3d 767, 772 (6th Cir. 2000). Likewise, to the extent that this appeal challenges the District Court's decision to confer qualified immunity upon the individual Defendants, we review this question of law de novo. See Gardenhire v. Schubert, 205 F.3d 303, 310 (6th Cir. 2000).

B. The Individual Defendants Are Protected by Qualified Immunity Against the § 1983 Claims Asserted by Daija King.

Among the grounds advanced in Defendants' summary judgment motion in the court below, the individual Defendants, Andre Skeeter and Chief Kinney, argued that they were shielded from liability under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 by the doctrine of qualified immunity. In addressing the § 1983 claims asserted by Plaintiff Daija King, the District Court did not explicitly conduct a qualified immunity analysis, but instead found more generally that the individual Defendants did not act "objectively unreasonabl[y] under the circumstances" in electing to keep mother and daughter together during the arrest and initial detention of Plaintiff Mary Cherrington. (District Court Op. at 6, J.A. at 715.) Upon assessing Defendants' conduct under the standards of qualified immunity, we reach the same conclusion.

The Supreme Court has instructed that a qualified immunity inquiry generally entails two discrete analytical steps. As a threshold matter, we must ask whether the record, viewed most favorably to the plaintiff, establishes that "the officer's conduct violated a constitutional right." Saucier v. Katz, 533 U.S. 194, 201, 121 S.Ct. 2151, 2156, 150 L.Ed.2d 272 (2001); see also Burchett v. Kiefer, 310 F.3d 937, 942 (6th Cir.2002). "If no constitutional right would have been violated were the allegations established, there is no necessity for further inquiries concerning qualified immunity." Saucier, 533 U.S. at 201, 121 S.Ct. at 2156. "On the other hand, if a violation could be made out on a favorable view of the parties' submissions, the next, sequential step is to ask whether the right was clearly established." 533 U.S. at 201, 121 S.Ct. at 2156; see also Burchett, 310 F.3d at 942.

To this point, the parties have made little effort to identify the constitutional rights of Daija King that might have been implicated by Defendants' conduct. Indeed, the record on appeal fails to indicate that the parties even addressed Daija King's claims in their submissions to the District Court. Plaintiffs' appellate brief offers only slightly more guidance, summarily asserting that Daija was "falsely arrested and illegally detained." (Plaintiffs/Appellants Br. at 12.) This suggests that Daija's § 1983 claims rest upon the Fourth Amendment prohibition against unreasonable seizures. And, to be sure, the Supreme Court has recognized that "whenever a police officer accosts an individual and restrains his freedom to walk away, he has `seized' that person." Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 16, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 1877, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968); see also Burchett, 310 F.3d at 942. Under this definition, Daija King was "seized" when Defendants insisted that she remain with her mother as the latter was...