Crawford v. Edmonson, 84-2371

• Decision Date: 13 June 1985
• Docket Number: No. 84-2371,84-2371
• Citation: 764 F.2d 479
• Parties: 18 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 415 Sara L. CRAWFORD, Special Administrator of the Estate of Scott W. Pawlisa, Deceased, and Brian Pawlisa, Deceased, as Administrator, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Jerry EDMONSON, Individually and as a Police Officer of the City of Centralia; Kermit Justice, Individually and as Chief of Police of the City of Centralia, and the City of Centralia, a municipal corporation, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 479

764 F.2d 479

18 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 415

Sara L. CRAWFORD, Special Administrator of the Estate of Scott W. Pawlisa, Deceased, and Brian Pawlisa Deceased, as Administrator, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Jerry EDMONSON, Individually and as a Police Officer of the City of Centralia; Kermit Justice, Individually and as Chief of Police of the City of Centralia, and the City of Centralia, a municipal corporation, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 84-2371.

United States Court of Appeals Seventh Circuit.

Argued April 12, 1985.

Decided June 13, 1985.

Philip B. Alfeld, East Alton, Ill., for plaintiff-appellant.

Charles Schmidt, Mitchell, Brandon & Schmidt, Carbondale, Ill., for defendants-appellees.

Before CUMMINGS, Chief Judge, and POSNER and FLAUM, Circuit Judges.

FLAUM, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiff-appellant Sara Crawford appeals from the district court's denial of her motion for a new trial following a jury verdict in favor of defendants-appellees on the section 1983 claim that she brought as Special Administrator of the estates of her two deceased sons, Brian and Scott Pawlisa. Her suit alleged that the defendants violated the civil rights of Brian and Scott Pawlisa when defendant Jerry Edmonson, a police officer for the city of Centralia, shot and killed the two boys as they fled the scene of an armed robbery.

The issues on appeal are (1) whether the trial court abused its discretion in admitting evidence of Brian and Scott Pawlisa's prior misconduct involving the use of guns for the purpose of demonstrating Captain Edmonson's reasonable perception that the boys posed a threat to him and his fellow officers, (2) whether the trial court abused its discretion in allowing the testimony of Cheryl Sprehe, an employee of the store that was robbed, and (3) whether the trial court erred in denying plaintiff's motion for a directed verdict on liability in the shooting of Scott Pawlisa. We find no error on the part of the trial court and accordingly affirm the court's entry of judgment on the jury verdict.

I.

On the night of Friday, December 21, 1979, Brian and Scott Pawlisa robbed a Long John Silver's restaurant in Centralia, Illinois. The Centralia police had staked out the restaurant that night, acting on a tip from the police chief of a neighboring community that the Long John Silver's would be robbed either Friday or Saturday night, that one of the restaurant employees would aid the robbery attempt, that it would be an armed robbery, and that one or both of the Pawlisas would be involved. The five officers participating in the stake-out (defendants Edmonson and Justice, Detectives Simer and Shaw, and Captain Qualls) had positioned themselves around the restaurant by approximately 9:15 p.m.

Between 9:30 and 10:00 p.m., the officers observed a white Chevy slowly circling the Long John Silver's. Detective Simer, who had a pair of binoculars that evening, testified that he recognized one of the car's occupants as Brian Pawlisa and informed the other officers of that fact by police radio. Shortly after 10:00 p.m., two individuals were seen leaving the car immediately behind the Long John Silver's, running across an open field, and hiding underneath a trailer in a private yard. Detective Simer testified that he identified Brian Pawlisa as one of the boys getting out of the car, and believed that he so stated over the police radio. Although Captain Edmonson testified that he was not able to identify the two suspects himself, he later testified that he knew based on Simer's identification that one of the two suspects was Brian Pawlisa.

After the boys ran and hid under the trailer, they were under constant surveillance for the next fifty or so minutes. During that time, an employee emerged from the restaurant to take out the trash and talked to the suspects across the field for a few minutes. The suspects then ran from the trailer to a shed behind the Long John Silver's. Soon thereafter, the same employee came out to the shed to speak with them again. Up to this point, no gun had been conclusively identified and all officers agreed that they had no probable cause to make an arrest. The suspects then emerged from the shed with masks over their faces. One was seen carrying a gun. Although probable cause was finally established at that point, the officers testified that they did not have enough time to get themselves in position to make a safe arrest before the suspects ran along the west side of the building and entered the Long John Silver's through the front door.

After the two suspects entered the Long John Silver's, Captain Edmonson and Detectives Simer and Shaw took positions around the back of the restaurant. The officers were partially hidden behind cars a garbage bin, the shed, and a telephone pole. Captain Qualls took a position in front and to the side of the restaurant in the adjacent open field near a "For Sale" sign. ¹ All four officers were armed with their service revolvers and 12-gauge shotguns.

When the two suspects emerged from the rear door of the restaurant a few minutes later, one carrying a gun, they immediately started running toward the open field. Simer, Edmonson, and Shaw all testified that they shouted "Halt, police," at least three times before any shots were fired. Edmonson then fired a shot into the air, but the boys continued running. By this time Captain Qualls could see them running from behind the building and he too shouted "Halt, police." The officers testified that the first suspect, the one with the gun, then started to turn to his left toward Detective Shaw's position behind the telephone pole. Edmonson then fired two shots, both aimed at the figure in front with the gun (later identified as Brian Pawlisa). Edmonson's first shot struck both boys, and the second hit only Brian. Scott Pawlisa, who was 18 years old, was hit in the back by five pellets of 00-buckshot and died within an hour. Brian, who was 17 years old, was struck by six pellets in his back and died of his wounds some twenty hours later. All four officers testified that when Edmonson fired the fatal shots, they were in fear for their lives. Detective Shaw had already attempted to fire, but his gun was apparently not loaded. Detective Simer and Captain Qualls both testified that they were about to fire and would have if Edmonson had not.

The deceased boys' mother, plaintiff-appellant Crawford, filed this action as their special administrator in December 1981, alleging a violation of her sons' civil rights under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 (1982) and seeking recovery under the Illinois Wrongful Death and Survival Acts for the defendants' negligence. The case was tried in November 1983 but ended in a hung jury, 5-1 in the defendants' favor. When the case was retried in June of 1984, Crawford dropped the negligence claims and proceeded solely on the section 1983 claim. The defense argued, as it had in the first trial, that Captain Edmonson shot Brian and Scott Pawlisa in good faith and with legal justification based upon the Illinois deadly force statute, which provides that a police officer may use force likely to cause death or great bodily harm

only when he reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or [another] person, or when he reasonably believes both that:

(1) Such force is necessary to prevent the arrest from being defeated by resistance or escape; and

(2) The person to be arrested has committed or attempted a forcible felony or is attempting to escape by use of a deadly weapon, or otherwise indicates that he will endanger human life or inflict great bodily harm unless arrested without delay.

Ill.Rev.Stat. ch. 38, Sec. 7-5(a) (1983). ² A copy of this statute was posted on the bulletin board in the Centralia police station, and was known to Captain Edmonson at the time of the shooting. The jury in the second trial deliberated for forty minutes before returning a verdict for the defendants. The trial court subsequently denied Crawford's motion for a new trial and entered final judgment on the verdict. This appeal followed.

II.

A. Admission of Evidence of Prior Misconduct

Crawford argues that the trial court erred in allowing the admission of evidence of Brian and Scott Pawlisa's prior involvement in three incidents involving the use of guns. She argues that the evidence was of no probative value, was unfairly prejudicial to her case, and served only to put the boys on trial posthumously for their past crimes. The defendants maintain that the contested evidence was relevant to Captain Edmonson's reasonable belief, at the time he pulled the trigger, that deadly force was necessary to prevent death or serious injury to himself or the other officers. They further argue that the evidence was not unduly prejudicial when compared to the boys' admitted armed robbery of the Long John Silver's that very night.

Prior to trial, Crawford filed a motion in limine to preclude the defendants from making any mention of Brian or Scott Pawlisa's prior juvenile and/or criminal records or of their supposed involvement in the armed robbery of a Hardee's restaurant three months before their death. The trial judge ruled that testimony on the Hardee's incident would be allowed as well as testimony about two other specific acts of misconduct involving guns. He disallowed any mention of prior acts of misconduct that did not involve the use of guns.

The first incident described to the jury was a cross-burning with which the boys were involved in May 1979. The incident was investigated by Lieutenant Upchurch, Centralia's juvenile officer, who reported directly to Captain Edmonson. Edmonson testified that the Pawlisas and some of their friends had built a cross, wrapped it with some rags, doused it with a flammable liquid, put it on a street corner in a predominately black community in Centralia, and set it afire. One of the boys who had allegedly participated in the cross-burning told the...