Ferguson v. Short

Decision Date12 August 2014
Docket NumberNo. 2:14-cv-04062-NKL,2:14-cv-04062-NKL
CourtU.S. District Court — Western District of Missouri
PartiesRYAN FERGUSON, Plaintiff, v. JOHN SHORT, et al., Defendants.

RYAN FERGUSON, Plaintiff,
v.
JOHN SHORT, et al., Defendants.

No. 2:14-cv-04062-NKL

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF MISSOURI CENTRAL DIVISION

August 12, 2014


ORDER

In this civil lawsuit, Plaintiff Ryan Ferguson alleges violations of federal and state laws arising out the Defendants' investigation of Ferguson and his prosecution for the murder of Kent Heitholt. Defendants Short, Nichols, Westbrook, Liebhart, Stroer, and Simons were detectives at the Columbia, Missouri Police Department during the investigation and prosecution of Ferguson. Defendant Boehm was the Chief of Police at the time and Defendant Monticelli was a sergeant in the Department. Defendants Haws and White were investigators with the Boone County Prosecuting Attorney's Office. Defendant Crane was the Boone Country Prosecuting Attorney who prosecuted Ferguson. The City of Columbia and Boone County are also Defendants.

In his First Amended Complaint, [Doc. 35], Ferguson claims that certain Defendants violated his federal rights under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 by destroying and suppressing evidence (Count I), fabricating evidence (Count II), recklessly or intentionally failing to investigate (Count III), maliciously prosecuting him (Count IV),

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and conspiring with each other (Count V). He alleges the City of Columbia and County of Boone are liable for these acts because they had a custom or policy to permit such conduct. (Count VI). He also alleges Missouri state law violations for false arrest (Count VII) and defamation (Count VIII).

Pending before the Court are Motions to Dismiss filed by White, Boone County, the City of Columbia, Boehm, Monticelli and Crane. White's Motion to Dismiss is granted as it relates to Count IV and denied as to Counts III and V. The Motions to Dismiss filed by the City of Columbia and Boone County are denied. The Motions to Dismiss filed by Crane, Monticelli and Boehm are granted as they relate to Count IV, VI and VIII.

I. Background

The purpose of this Order is to determine whether certain allegations made by Ferguson in his First Amended Complaint are sufficient to state a claim recognized by law. At this stage of the litigation, the Court makes no findings of fact but instead relies solely on the following allegations made by Ferguson in his First Amended Complaint.

On November 1, 2001, Kent Heitholt was murdered next to his car. Despite an investigation by the Columbia Police Department and the Boone County Prosecuting Attorney's Office, no arrests were made for more than two years. In November 2003, Charles Erickson, a man in the same graduating class as Ferguson and who was with Ferguson the night of Heitholt's murder, read an article about the Heitholt murder. Erickson began to experience feelings of paranoia after a composite sketch provided by a witness at the crime scene resembled him.

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The night of the murder, Erickson and Ferguson had been at a bar located in downtown Columbia. Erickson and Ferguson left the bar shortly before it closed at 1:30 a.m. Erickson ingested drugs and alcohol that night. The next morning, Erickson had no memory of leaving the bar or arriving at his house. In January 2004, Erickson expressed concern to Ferguson that he had repressed the murder. A bystander overheard the conversation and informed the Columbia Police Department.

In March 2004, Erickson came to the Columbia Police Department. His behavior and appearance suggested he was mentally impaired and under the influence of alcohol or drugs. After Erickson repeatedly gave information that was inconsistent with the evidence recovered from the crime scene, Defendants Short and Nichols provided Erickson information and details about the murder and coerced a confession out of him, which also implicated Ferguson. After obtaining Erickson's fabricated confession, Defendants Short, Nichols, Westbrook, Liebhart, Stroer, Simons, Monticelli and Boehm, (Columbia Police Officer Defendants) fabricated or coerced additional witness statements to corroborate Erickson's statements. They also destroyed or suppressed evidence that would impeach statements made by Erickson about the night of the murder and other evidence that would tend to show Ferguson was not guilty of the murder.

In March 2004, Ferguson was arrested for the murder of Heitholt. Ferguson was never presented in a lineup to two possible witnesses. The Columbia Police Officer Defendants did not investigate the last person to see Heitholt alive, who also made numerous inconsistent statements about the night of Heitholt's murder and who had had a recent dispute with Heitholt. The Columbia Police Officer Defendants continued to

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fabricate evidence and reports and suppress evidence that would tend to show Ferguson was not guilty of Heitholt's murder. They also met and agreed to use fabricated evidence to induce a plea agreement from Erickson. The Columbia Police Officer Defendants and Defendants White and Haws met on multiple occasions to discuss the case. Erickson was never told about evidence that was discovered by the Defendants that would tend to show that he was not guilty. For example Detective Short and Investigators White and Haws interviewed people who were at the same bar as Erickson and Ferguson the night of the murder. The witnesses consistently told Short, White, and Haws that the bar closed at 1:30 a.m. This information undermined statements made by Erickson about the timing of the murder and his statement that after they committed the murder (approximately 2:15 a.m.), they went back to the bar.

In October 2005, Ferguson was tried by a jury and found guilty of second degree murder. After several appeals and eight years in prison, the Missouri Court of Appeals granted Ferguson's petition for writ of habeas corpus and vacated his conviction, citing a pattern of nondisclosures which included evidence that a witness at the crime scene could not identify Ferguson or Erickson after seeing their photographs. After the Missouri Attorney General's Office declined to retry Ferguson, Boehm and Crane made statements to the media about the investigation and prosecution of Ferguson which are alleged to be false statements of fact.

I. Discussion

A. Count III: Reckless or Intentional Failure to Investigate, 42 U.S.C. § 1983

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Count III alleges "Defendants Haws, White, and the [Columbia Police Officer Defendants] recklessly and/or intentionally failed to conduct an investigation that would have led to the real murderer of Heitholt and eliminated [Ferguson] and Erickson as suspects". [Doc. 35, ¶ 240]. Defendant White contends that this claim against him should be dismissed because all of the specific allegations in the First Amended Complaint concerning a failure to investigate only discuss misconduct by Columbia Police Department personnel. Thus the narrow question before the Court is whether there is any allegation in Count III that states a viable claim against White for recklessly or intentionally failing to conduct an investigation that would have eliminated Ferguson as a suspect. The Court finds that there is and therefore White's Motion to Dismiss must be denied.

"Intentionally or recklessly failing to investigate other leads or manufacturing false evidence may shock the conscience and can violate the Fourteenth Amendment's due process clause." Livers v. Schenck, 700 F.3d 340, 350 (8th Cir. 2012) (citations omitted). "Negligence and even gross negligence is not enough because the state action must be 'truly egregious and extraordinary' to shock the conscience and so severe as to amount to 'brutal and inhumane abuse of official power.' Id. (internal citations omitted). The Eighth Circuit has recognized three areas of "reckless investigation": "(1) coercing a suspect's confession; (2) purposely ignoring evidence suggesting innocence; and (3) systemic pressure to implicate a suspect in the face of evidence to the contrary." Id. (internal quotations omitted).

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While Ferguson alleges several acts of failure to investigate against the Defendants in Count III, he only factually describes one incident involving White in his Amended Complaint. During the investigation and prosecution of Ferguson, White was an investigator with the Boone County Prosecuting Attorney's Office. [Doc. 35, ¶ 17]. Prior to Ferguson's trial, and not at the direction of Prosecuting Attorney Kevin Crane, White interviewed a bartender at the bar Ferguson and Erickson went to on the night of the murder. The bartender told White everyone was out of the bar by 1:30 a.m., which is evidence that would impeach Erickson's testimony that he and Erickson were in the bar after 2:15 a.m. Thus, Ferguson's Amended Complaint alleges White purposefully ignored evidence tending to eliminate Ferguson as a suspect and suppressed the bartender's statements from Erickson, defense attorneys, and the prosecution. Id. at ¶ 161, 167-69, 241. The Eighth Circuit has held that an allegation that a defendant has "purposefully ignored evidence that strongly tended to exonerate" the plaintiff could be sufficient to support a claim for reckless investigation. See Moran v. Clarke, 296 F.3d 638, 648 (8th Cir. 2002). As alleged, Ferguson has fairly put White on notice of this Constitutional claim for failure to investigate; no more is required at this stage of the litigation.

White also argues that regardless of whether Ferguson sufficiently pleaded a claim against him, he is entitled to...

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