Davis v. Bacigalupi

• Decision Date: 29 April 2010
• Docket Number: Civil Action No. 3:09cv556.
• Citation: 711 F.Supp.2d 609
• Parties: Crystal T. DAVIS, Plaintiff,v.Thomas W. BACIGALUPI, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Virginia

711 F.Supp.2d 609

Crystal T. DAVIS, Plaintiff,v.Thomas W. BACIGALUPI, Defendant.

Civil Action No. 3:09cv556.

United States District Court,

E.D. Virginia,

Richmond Division.

April 29, 2010.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Crystal T. Davis, Richmond, VA, pro se.

Sydney Edmund Rab, Office of the Attorney General, Richmond, VA, for Defendant.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

RICHARD L. WILLIAMS, Senior District Judge.

This matter is before the Court on the Defendant's Motion to Dismiss pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (Docket No. 5). The Court dispenses with oral argument because it would not assist in the decisional process. For the reasons set forth herein, the Court will grant in part and deny in part the Defendant's motion.

I. BACKGROUND

A. Factual Background

The Plaintiff, Crystal T. Davis, is a 24-year-old woman who was arrested on felony charges after a search of 4823 Altair Road, Richmond, Virginia, a residence located in Henrico County that the Plaintiff shared with her parents (“the residence”). The arrest was effectuated by the cooperative efforts of the George Mason University (“GMU”) Police Department (employer of Thomas W. Bacigalupi, the defendant in the instant case (“the Defendant” or “Defendant Bacigalupi”)), the William & Mary (“Wm. & Mary”) Police Department (employer of Benny D. Back, II, defendant in case # 3:09cv557 (“Officer Back”)) and the Henrico County Division of Police (the defendant in case # 3:09cv558 (“the Henrico Police”)). This arrest, and the Plaintiff's subsequent second arrest, were the products of the events detailed herein.

On or about February 13, 2006, GMU was the victim of a burglary by breaking and entering in which certain electronic equipment was taken. Curtis P. White (“Mr. White”), Conor Harris (“Mr. Harris”), and possibly a third suspect, initially believed to be the Plaintiff, were photographed and videotaped committing the crimes. Mr. White had been one of the Plaintiff's roommates on or near the Wm. & Mary campus in Williamsburg, Virginia since December of 2005. On June 6, 2006, Blue Ridge Computers, an entity created by Mr. White, invoiced BPAI, LLC (“BPAI”), an electronics dealer in Baltimore, Maryland, the amount of $2,000 for the stolen electronic equipment. The Invoice directed BPAI to “[m]ake all checks payable to Crystal Davis.” That same day, BPAI wrote a $2,000 check, drawn on an account at Wachovia Bank, to the Plaintiff, Crystal Davis. The check was endorsed and deposited by the Plaintiff at the Virginia Credit Union, and it was collected through the Credit Union Service Center on or about June 7, 2006. The Plaintiff insists that the $2,000 check simply represented rent money owed to her by Mr. White. Bank records linked the checks to the Plaintiff and the residence at 4823 Altair Road. Mr. White and/or Mr. Harris gave statements to Detective Mark Riley of the Lexington, Virginia Police Department, apparently linking the Plaintiff to the GMU burglary.

On September 6, 2007, Officer P. Millan of the GMU Police (“Officer Millan”), as Applicant, made probable cause representations to Fairfax County Magistrate Marla McCormick (“Magistrate McCormick”), who issued Arrest Warrants for three felony charges against the Plaintiff under Virginia Code Sections 18.2-178, 18.2-22 & 18.2-95, and 18.2-108 for the theft of U.S. currency and computer equipment. Following the issuance of the Arrest Warrants, Defendant Bacigalupi presented in an Affidavit to Henrico County Magistrate J. Robinson (“Magistrate Robinson”) his factual justification to search the residence. Such factual justification, contained in Item 4 of the Affidavit, included the Defendant's representation that items stolen from GMU were sold to BPAI, and a check for the proceeds of the sale was written to the Plaintiff and deposited in the Plaintiff's bank account. In Item 6 of the Affidavit, the Defendant represented that the reliability of this factual justification could be determined by considering the facts that (1) Lexington Detective Mark Riley sent photos to the Defendant of “a suspect” who Detective Riley had identified through bank records and a statement from Mr. Harris and (2) “[i]t was further discovered that another check was written to Ms. Crystal T. Davis of 4823 Altair Road, Richmond, VA 23231” that was cashed by Ms. Davis at her bank. ¹ The Plaintiff contends that Detective Riley “never implicated [her] in any way” and expressed his belief that the Plaintiff was “duped into endorsing a check by Mr. White.” In the Affidavit, Defendant Bacigalupi sought to search the residence for (1) master keys belonging to GMU, (2) GMU's electronic equipment, (3) computers with email correspondence, and (4) paper records of the suspect transactions. Magistrate Robinson authorized the search and issued a Search Warrant at 7:36 p.m. on September 6, 2007.

When the police arrived at the residence at approximately 9:00 p.m. on September 6, 2007, the Plaintiff opened the door after Defendant Bacigalupi announced that the Plaintiff's father “was on the phone and said it was OK to open the door.” The Plaintiff maintains that the Defendant's announcement was a lie and that her father had given no such instruction to the Defendant. During their search, the GMU police confiscated the Plaintiff's two computers, a jump drive, and some assorted papers from the residence. Subsequent to the search, the Plaintiff was arrested, read her Miranda rights, and questioned by the Defendant.² She was also questioned by Officer Back before being handcuffed and then transported by the Henrico Police to their “West-end Station,” where she waived her right to remain silent and executed a Miranda waiver before being questioned for several hours and put into jail.

In a handwritten statement given to the Henrico Police, the Plaintiff confessed to (1) knowing and living with Mr. White at Wm. & Mary in Williamsburg, (2) watching Mr. White use a master key to open the Wm. & Mary Recreation Center Commons after hours, (3) seeing a stash of “whitish computers” in the Plaintiff's and Mr. White's Williamsburg house for which she could not account, (4) receiving a check related to a Baltimore pawn shop (BPAI) from Mr. White, and (5) knowing that Mr. White “would steal a key and/or the entire lock and hand-file a key for himself.” See Def.'s Supp. Mem. Ex. I at 1-2. On September 10, 2007, the Plaintiff was transported from the Henrico facility to Fairfax County jail, and she was released the following day on pre-trial probation.

On or about September 14, 2007, felony charges were placed against the Plaintiff and others in connection with the GMU electronic equipment burglary. The Plaintiff cooperated with Fairfax County's prosecutor who determined her to be a “minor player” in the crimes, and all of the charges against the Plaintiff were nolle prossed on November 14, 2007. The Plaintiff contends that the charges were nolle prossed because Fairfax County knew that “they had no case against [the Plaintiff]” because she was neither present for, nor a party to, the GMU burglary. She reiterates that she “did not commit the crimes for which [she] was arrested.”

Additionally, as a result of the Plaintiff's September 7, 2007 handwritten statement, Officer Back also secured a felony Warrant of Arrest against the Plaintiff in James City County related to the Plaintiff's participation in the alleged breaking and entering of the Wm. & Mary Recreation Center Commons. The Plaintiff does not dispute the fact that she entered the Recreation Center Commons after hours, but she does insist that she was unaware that Mr. White intended to commit a crime once inside, explaining that “[m]any of us had keys to the facility from time-to-time.” The Plaintiff was arrested on Officer Back's warrant by an unnamed law enforcement official while in class on September 26, 2007. The charge was ultimately modified to misdemeanor trespass and dismissed by the trial judge on December 22, 2008.

The Plaintiff now complains (1) about her father having to make five demands to see the Search Warrant; (2) of several errors in the Henrico County Search Warrant including listing her birth date incorrectly and listing her race as “white” instead of “black;” (3) that the search of her residence exceeded the scope of the Warrant as to items to be examined; (4) that the search of the residence at night was not justified and was based on manufactured evidence; (5) that Sgt. Riley of Lexington could not implicate her in any crime; (6) that she was handcuffed; (7) that the execution of the residential search employed “shock and awe” tactics and “caused undue danger and turmoil;” (8) that GMU Police lied to gain entry; (9) that she was not treated well following her arrest because she was “shackled and escorted by two armed, sizable Caucasian men,” denied bail, and left to sleep in “a refrigerator like cell;” and (10) that her computers were ultimately returned to her in nonworking order, resulting in the loss of “important course work” that caused a delay in her graduation from college. According to the Plaintiff, these events humiliated her and caused her and her family stress, hardship, and financial losses.

B. Procedural Background

The Plaintiff filed her Complaint on September 9, 2009. On October 22, 2009, the Defendant moved to dismiss the Plaintiff's Complaint for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.³ The Plaintiff responded to the motion on November 13, 2009 (Docket No. 10), the Defendant replied on November 17, 2009 (Docket No. 11), and the Plaintiff, without leave of Court, filed a sur-reply on December 7, 2009 (Docket No. 12). Accordingly, this matter is ripe for the Court's decision.

In her Complaint, the Plaintiff makes no specific jurisdictional allegations except to state that the Defendant violated “my civil rights and those of my parents, Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.” Pl.'s Compl. at 5. She defines these rights as her ...