Eversole v. Steele
| Decision Date | 16 August 1995 |
| Docket Number | No. 94-2622,94-2622 |
| Citation | 59 F.3d 710 |
| Parties | Ruth M. EVERSOLE, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Harold STEELE, In His Official Capacity as Sheriff of Fayette County, Indiana, George Zimmerman, as Former Sheriff of Fayette County, Indiana and Individually; Joseph Todd, Individually and in His Official Capacity as Lieutenant Detective of the Connersville, Indiana Police Department, et al., Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit |
Frank W. Hogan (argued), Symmes, Voyles, Zann, Paul & Hogan, Indianapolis, IN, for plaintiff-appellant.
Robert T. Keen, Jr. (argued), Diana C. Bauer, Miller, Carson, Boxberger & Murphy, Fort Wayne, IN, for Harold Steele, George Zimmerman and Ted McQuinley.
George E. Purdy, Alan S. Townsend, Bose, McKinney & Evans, Indianapolis, IN, Robert T. Keen, Jr., Miller, Carson, Boxberger & Murphy, Fort Wayne, IN, for Joseph Todd and Dennis Sherck.
Robert W. Geddes, Hume, Smith, Geddes & Green, Indianapolis, IN, for Tom Helms.
Philip Linnemeier, Kightlinger & Gray, Indianapolis, IN, for Lee Davidson.
Before COFFEY and KANNE, Circuit Judges, and MORAN, District Judge. *
Ruth M. Eversole filed suit under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 against the sheriffs of Rush, Union, Fayette and Franklin Counties, Indiana, and the arresting officers and co-directors of a four-county drug enforcement task force operating in the above listed counties, alleging that they unlawfully arrested her in violation of her right to be free from arrest without probable cause under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. Eversole alleges that the defendants mistakenly determined, based on the handwritten records of two pharmacies, that she had made two purchases of codeine-containing cough syrup within a forty-eight hour period, in violation of Indiana Code Sec. 35-48-4-7(b). 1 The district court granted summary judgment in favor of the police officers involved in the arrest, finding that the actions of Detectives McQuinley and Sherck were not taken pursuant to an unconstitutional policy as required for a successful Sec. 1983 claim against a governmental entity and that the officers were entitled to qualified immunity from suit. We affirm.
On April 5, 1988, Ruth Eversole, a 54-year-old woman, is alleged to have purchased four ounces of cough syrup containing codeine from Thielking Drug Store in Connersville, Fayette County, Indiana. Then, on April 8, 1988, she is alleged to have made a second purchase of cough medicine containing codeine, this time from Hooks Drugs in Liberty, Fayette County, Indiana. Each of these two drug stores, pursuant to Indiana statute, maintained a handwritten record of sales of schedule V controlled substances, which listed the name and address of each purchaser, the date of the purchase, as well as the type and quantity of the cough medicine containing narcotics sold, and the initials of the person who recorded the sale. See 856 Ind.Admin.Code Sec. 2-6-18(a)(5). As each sale occurred, the pharmacist or salesperson recorded this information in writing.
Eversole's purchase from Thielking Drug Store was entered on the second line of its log, which recorded the sales which occurred in the time period between April 4, 1988 and April 13, 1988. The pharmacist's handwritten date of Eversole's purchase was marginally legible, and could have been interpreted as either April 5, 1988 or April 8, 1988. The entry on the first line reflected a sale occurring on April 4, 1988 and the entry on the third line reflected a sale occurring on April 6, 1988. Eversole's purchase from Hooks Drugs was entered on the third line of its log, which recorded sales which occurred between April 4, 1988 and April 22, 1988. The handwritten date of Eversole's purchase on Hooks's log, as contrasted with the date on Thielking's log, was legible: April 8, 1988.
In 1988, law enforcement officials from four Indiana counties, including Rush, Union, Fayette and Franklin Counties, and several municipalities within those counties, formed a task force to combat the ever increasing drug trafficking and use of illegal narcotics. Detective Lieutenant Ted McQuinley of the Fayette County Sheriff's Department and Detective Captain Dennis Sherck of the Connersville Police Department served as co-directors of the RUFF Drug Task Force, which also received support from the police departments in Connersville and Rushville.
In 1989, the RUFF Drug Task Force began a comprehensive investigation of violations of Indiana Code Sec. 35-48-4-7(b), which prohibits the purchase of more than four ounces of schedule V controlled substances containing codeine used in cough syrup within any given forty-eight hour period. See supra n. 1. As part of this investigation, RUFF's investigating officers inspected copies of schedule V controlled substances sales records from drug stores and pharmacies in the four-county area, including the records of Thielking Drug Store and Hooks Drugs.
Detective McQuinley, along with other members of RUFF, reviewed the sales records, and transcribed the date of each purchase as well as the purchaser's name on a blank calendar. As noted above, the entry of the date recorded on the log of Eversole's purchase of codeine-laden cough syrup from Thielking Drug Store was unclear, and McQuinley mistakenly interpreted her April 5, 1988 purchase from Thielking Drug Store as having occurred on April 8, 1988, the same date as her purchase of cough syrup containing codeine from Hooks Drugs.
Based on the dates and purchases he transcribed from the pharmacy records to his calendar, McQuinley concluded that Eversole had purchased more than four ounces of a schedule V controlled substance containing codeine within a forty-eight hour period in violation of Indiana Code Sec. 35-48-4-7(b). On June 3, 1989, the Deputy Prosecutor of Fayette County, Indiana, filed an Information charging Eversole with Possession of a Controlled Substance, which stated:
Affiant herein, being duly sworn upon oath, says on information and belief that Ruth Eversole, on or about 4/8/88 and 4/8/88 at the County of Fayette in the State of Indiana, without a valid prescription or order of a practitioner acting in the course of his professional practice, knowingly or intentionally obtained more than 4 ounces of Schedule V controlled substances containing Codeine in a (48) hour period, all of which is contrary to the form of the statute in such cases made and provided, to-wit Indiana Code 35-48-4-7(b), and against the peace and dignity of the State of Indiana.
The material witnesses for the State are: Detective Capt. Dennis Sherck, CPD and Det. Lt. Ted McQuinley, FCSD.
Detective Sherck executed and presented an Affidavit of Probable Cause charging Eversole with the illegal purchases of schedule V controlled substances to Fayette County Superior Court Judge Louis Heeb who, after reviewing the same, issued a bench warrant for Eversole's arrest on June 13, 1989.
On June 13, 1989, Deputy Joe Jarman of the Rush County Sheriff's Department, along with four other officers, 2 served Eversole with the bench warrant at her home in Connersville, Indiana. After Deputy Jarman read the bench warrant to Eversole, who was suffering from a heart malady, she informed him that she felt ill and needed a heart patch. The arresting officers allowed Eversole to put on a heart patch and drink a glass of lemonade while she rested on her porch. After composing herself, Eversole was escorted, without handcuffs, by the police to the Connersville Police Station where she was fingerprinted, photographed, and booked on the charge of unlawful possession of schedule V controlled substances containing codeine. Shortly thereafter she was transferred to the County Jail, and released by the police on a $200 bond.
Eversole entered a plea of not guilty at her initial appearance. Thereafter she contacted the pharmacist at Thielking Drug Store concerning her arrest and he explained that the handwritten entry on Thielking's records which appeared to be April 8, 1988 was actually April 5, 1988. When the prosecutor learned of this information, he moved the court and the court granted the motion to dismiss the criminal charge against Eversole.
On June 12, 1991, Eversole filed a complaint under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 against twelve law enforcement officers, including members of the RUFF Drug Task Force and the sheriffs of Rush, Union, Fayette and Franklin Counties, Indiana, alleging that they unlawfully arrested her in violation of her right to be free from arrest without probable cause. After a hearing, the district court dismissed, with prejudice, the complaint as against three of the defendants, and granted summary judgment in favor of the remaining nine defendants, finding that the actions of Detectives McQuinley and Sherck were not taken pursuant to an unconstitutional policy as required for a successful Sec. 1983 claim against a governmental entity and also that the officers were entitled to qualified immunity from suit. 3 On appeal, Eversole challenges the district court's ruling with respect to two of the defendants, Detective McQuinley of the Fayette County Sheriff's Department and Detective Sherck of the Connersville Police Department.
Eversole raises two issues on appeal. First, she claims that the district court erred when it found that the actions of Detectives McQuinley and Sherck were not taken pursuant to an unconstitutional policy as required for a successful Sec. 1983 claim against a governmental entity. Second, she asserts that the district court erred in finding that the officers were entitled to qualified immunity from suit.
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Malesevic v. Tecom Fleet Services, Inc.
...the unconstitutional acts of its employees only if those actions were taken pursuant to official policy or custom." Eversole v. Steele, 59 F.3d 710, 715 (7th Cir.1995). See also Sams v. City of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 117 F.3d 991, 994 (7th Cir.1997). Moreover, a plaintiff cannot claim munici......
-
Smith v. Milwaukee County
...at the time in question. See Siegert v. Gilley, 500 U.S. 226, 232, 111 S.Ct. 1789, 1793, 114 L.Ed.2d 277 (1991); Eversole v. Steele, 59 F.3d 710, 717 (7th Cir.1995); Zorzi v. County of Putnam, 30 F.3d 885, 892 (7th Cir.1994). The key point for the second question is whether a reasonable per......
-
Tun ex rel. Tun v. Fort Wayne Community Schools
...... the decisionmaker — was at the apex of authority for the action in question." Gernetzke, 274 F.3d at 468 (citing Eversole v. Steele, 59 F.3d 710, 716 (7th Cir.1995)). Reduced to that simple equation, Tun's official capacity claim clearly fails. None of the school officials he has sued, ......
-
Rush v. City of Mansfield
...it, sets the standards for the training? COUNSEL: Correct. And it is actually in the ASORT policy manual.”); contra Eversole v. Steele, 59 F.3d 710, 717 (7th Cir.1995) (“Because the Task Force was nothing more than a joint effort of four counties in the State of Indiana to implement existin......
-
An empirical analysis of section 1983 qualified immunity actions and implications of Pearson v. Callahan.
...1992). (113.) Id. at 545 n.4. (114.) 987 F.2d 1 (1st Cir. 1993). (115.) Id. at 7 (emphasis added). (116.) See, e.g., Eversole v. Steele, 59 F.3d 710, 717 (7th Cir. 1995) ("When a defendant raises the defense of qualified immunity, this court engages in a two-part, objective inquiry: the cou......