Elder v. Thompson
| Decision Date | 22 April 2014 |
| Docket Number | Case No.: 4:13-cv-00047 |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Western District of Virginia |
| Parties | MICHAEL ELDER, Plaintiff, v. OFFICER THOMPSON, Defendant. |
By: Hon. Jackson L. Kiser
On August 27, 2013, Plaintiff Michael Elder ("Elder") filed a pro se complaint against the City of Danville ("the City"), and Officer E. K. Thompson ("Thompson") of the Danville Police Department. The City moved to dismiss the complaint against it pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure; that motion was granted. (See Order, Dec. 12, 2013 [ECF No. 36].) Thompson, the only remaining defendant, moved for summary judgment on March 21, 2014. (Mot. for Summ. J., Mar. 21, 2014 [ECF No. 55].) The matter was fully briefed, and the parties appeared for oral argument on the Motion on April 17, 2014. Having considered the briefs and arguments of the parties, and after having reviewed the relevant portions of the Record, the matter is now ripe for disposition. For the reasons stated below, Thompson's Motion for Summary Judgment will be GRANTED IN PART and DENIED IN PART. Specifically, Thompson's summary judgment motion will be granted as to Elder's claims of false arrest and illegal search. Thompson's motion will be denied on Elder's claims of excessive force and deliberate indifference to a serious medical condition. Those claims will proceed to trial.
Defendant Officer E. K. Thompson is a Sergeant with the Danville Police Department. (See Def.'s Mem. in Supp. of Mot. for Summ. J. Ex. B pg. 1 [ECF No. 56-2] [hereinafter "Thompson Aff."].) In that capacity, Thompson had occasion in the past to interact with Plaintiff Michael Elder, such that, on the date in question, he recognized Elder's name and face. (Id. pg. 1.) Prior to the encounter at issue in this case, Thompson noticed what he assumed to be an arrest warrant for Michael Elder at the police station. (Id.) Generally, warrants and other court documents are placed in slots assigned to separate beats in the police station; the slots are commonly referred to as the "pigeon hole." If a warrant is to be served in the geographic area that Beat 10 covers, for example, it is placed in Box 10. According to Thompson, he had noticed a "jacket"—the outer cover of court documents—with Elder's name in the pigeon hole, and he assumed the document was a warrant for Elder's arrest.2 According to Elder, Thompson had attempted to serve the "warrant" several times before, including using the Fugitive Task Force to attempt to serve it. (Pl.'s Br. in Opp. to Def.'s Mot. for Summ. J. pg. 11 [ECF No. 63].) Thompson admits that he had been by Elder's home looking for him several times. (See Def.'s Mem. in Supp. of Mot. for Summ. J., March 21, 2014 [hereinafter "Def.'s Br."] Ex. E 20:14-16 [ECF No. 56-6].) At no point, however, did Thompson ever open the jacket to read the warrant;he merely read the cover, which included Elder's name, address, "Contempt of Court," and Martinsville as the issuing court. (See Def.'s Br. Ex. E 20:7-11.) What Thompson assumed to be a warrant was merely a summons.
On October 25, 2011, Thompson was on patrol in the area near Stonewall Apartments on North Main Street in Danville, Virginia. (Thompson Aff. pg. 1.) While there, Thompson encountered Elder "sitting in the driver's seat of a white four-door vehicle." (Id.) Thompson recognized Elder and recalled seeing a jacket with Elder's name on it in the pigeon hole. (Id.) Thompson approached the car and told Elder to step out of the vehicle; Elder complied. (Id.) According to Elder, Thompson approached the car in an aggressive manner and said, "I got your ass now." (Elder Aff. pg. 1.) Elder agrees that he was sitting in the car—which he asserts belonged to his wife—with his cousin, Michael. (Id.) Elder's sister, Janice Hairston, was sitting on the porch of a nearby apartment. (Id.) Thompson informed Elder that there was a warrant for his arrest. (See Elder Aff. pg. 1; Thompson Aff. pg. 1.) Elder insisted that the issue had been taken care of and that he had the paperwork to show that the issue had been resolved, but Thompson allegedly replied that he did not want to look at any paperwork. (Elder Aff. pg. 2.) Thompson then radioed police dispatch to verify Elder's outstanding warrant. (Elder Aff. pg. 2; Thompson Aff. pg. 1.) Thompson asked the dispatcher to run Elder's name "for locals"; after the dispatch confirmed that Thompson was seeking information regarding "Michael Ray Elder, date of birth 5/15/66," the system returned an automated "triple tone" which indicated to Thompson that the warrant search had returned an active warrant. . Thompson inquired into the nature of the warrant, asking, "What's it for?" The dispatcher responded that the warrant was for "FTA," which Thompson understood to mean failure to appear. (Id.)
Thompson claims he has served hundreds of warrants for failure to appear during his twelve years as a Danville police officer. (Thompson Aff. pg. 2.) He states that, to the best of his memory, every single failure to appear warrant has been in the form of a capias, which requires the arrest of the subject. (Id.) Ultimately, Thompson would discover that the Martinsville court did not issue a capias for Elder's arrest, but rather merely issued a show-cause summons that did not authorize or require Elder's arrest. (See Thompson Aff. pg. 3; Elder Aff. pg. 4.) At the time Thompson arrested Elder, however, he was under the impression that Elder's failure to appear was in the form of a capias, as the dispatcher had confirmed that a warrant existed.
According to Thompson, while he was speaking with the dispatcher, he observed Elder reach into his pockets. (Thompson Aff. pg. 2.) He allegedly told Elder to stop, and claims that Elder withdrew two objects from his pocket and tossed them through the open driver's-side window and into the back seat. (Id.) He also threw the paperwork from the Martinsville court into the back seat. (Id.) Thompson states that the two objects appeared to be folded currency. (Id.) Elder claims that he only threw the court paperwork into the car. (Elder Aff. pg. 2.)
Once the dispatcher confirmed the non-existent warrant, Thompson claims he informed Elder that he was under arrest. Thompson states that Elder refused to comply. (Thompson Aff. pg. 2.) Thompson admits he approached Elder, removed his pepper spray,3 and warned Elder twice that, if he did not put his hands behind his back, Thompson would spray him. (Id.)Thompson contends that Elder complied only after the second warning, and Thompson thereafter placed the handcuffs on him without incident. (Id.)4
According to Elder, however, Thompson never warned him about the pepper spray and never asked him to submit to arrest. Elder states that, when he tossed the court paperwork into the car, (Elder Aff. pg. 2.) Elder states that Thompson then "pushed [him] aggressively" towards Thompson's police cruiser, while Elder pleaded with Thompson to check the court paperwork. (Id.)
Thompson states that, once he maneuvered Elder to the police car and instructed Elder to get into the back, Elder began "passively resisting by stiffening up like a board and refusing to move or to allow [Thompson] to move him." (Thompson Aff. pg. 3.) Thompson continues:
At this point, I once again withdrew my mace spray and warned Mr. Elder that if he refused to comply he would be sprayed. Mr. Elder continued to maintain a stiff and rigid posture and refused to obey my instruction. At that point, I used the mace spray. Mr. Elder still refused to get into the vehicle. Instead, he bent forward and I used a tactic which I had been taught in my training of four knee[-]nerve strikes before he finally complied with my instructions to enter the vehicle.
(Id.) According to John Combs, an individual whom Thompson has ofference as an expert witness,5 a knee-nerve strike means that, "Thompson struck Elder on the side of his leg with his knee . . . ." (Def.'s Br. Ex. D, pg. 4.)
Elder relays a very different version of events. Elder claims that, while Thompson was pushing Elder towards his cruiser, Thompson "open[ed] the door with his right hand and push[ed him] into the door of the police car." (Elder Aff. pg. 2.) Elder describes the rest of the encounter as follows:
[I'm] still pleading with him to check the paperwork. As I'm pleading with [O]fficer Thompson to check the paperwork he sprays me with pepper spray then starts to hit me with his right forearm and elbow across the right side of my face and neck area. I couldn't see from that point on. I do know that I was struck in the right thigh area with something (through discovery I learned it was a metal rod that policemen use). I told the officer I couldn't get in the car with him pushing me against the car. He then stopped pushing and hitting me long enough to allow me room to get in the car.
(Elder Aff. pg. 2-3.) Once Elder was in the police cruiser, Thompson searched Elder's car.
Thompson states that the search of Elder's car was a "search incident to arrest." (Thompson Aff. pg. 3.) Thompson found two pieces of currency inside the car: one was lying on the rear passenger seat, and a second, folded bill was on the floorboard of the passenger's side of the car. (Id.) Thompson previously testified at a suppression hearing in state court that the manner in which the bill was folded—"folded up long ways and then half and then half again"—brought his attention to the bills. (Def.'s Br. Ex. E 23:24-25.) Thompson unfolded the bill and, inside, found an off-white rock that he later determined to be cocaine. (Thompson Aff. pg. 3.) Elder maintains...
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