Forman v. Richmond Police Dept.
| Decision Date | 15 January 1997 |
| Docket Number | No. 96-2091,96-2091 |
| Citation | 104 F.3d 950 |
| Parties | Marc FORMAN, William Dix, Jr., and Guy Vanderpool, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. RICHMOND POLICE DEPARTMENT and Mark Smith, Lieutenant, Individually and as officer with the Richmond Police Department, Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit |
Thomas D. Margolis (argued), Muncie, IN, for Plaintiffs-Appellants.
G. Ronald Heath, Mark A. Palmer (argued), Johnson, Smith, Pence, Densborn, Wright & Heath, Indianapolis, IN, for Defendants-Appellees.
Before WOOD, Jr., RIPPLE, and KANNE, Circuit Judges.
This case arises from a police raid of an unlicensed bingo operation in Richmond, Indiana. After determining that the bingo game was being conducted in violation of Indiana law, Lt. Mark Smith of the Richmond Police Department obtained written consent to search the Richmond Plaza Bingo Center ("Bingo Center") from the operator of the bingo game, who was also the leaseholder of the premises. While conducting their warrantless, yet consensual search, Richmond police officers entered a locked room on the premises by removing its door from the hinges. Inside that room, the officers discovered ten video gambling machines that were allegedly being operated in an illegal manner. Marc Forman admitted that he was the lessee of that room and the owner of the gambling machines.
As a result of this search and further investigation of the bingo operation and the gambling machines, the police eventually arrested Marc Forman, William Dix, Jr., and Guy Vanderpool, charging them with various counts of professional gambling. The State, however, dropped its charges against Forman after an Indiana state trial court granted Forman's motion to suppress the evidence-- i.e., the gambling machines and related materials--recovered during the search of the locked room at the Bingo Center. The State also dropped the charges against Vanderpool. Dix's case, however, proceeded to trial where he was convicted on professional gambling and theft charges.
Forman, Dix, and Vanderpool subsequently filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana alleging that Lt. Smith, the Richmond Police Department, and others violated a number of their federal and state constitutional rights, as well as various state laws. This appeal is primarily concerned with their 42 U.S.C. § 1983 claims contending that Lt. Smith and the Police Department violated their Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights while conducting their warrantless search of the Bingo Center and in effectuating their subsequent arrests. Because we find Appellants' claims to be without merit, we affirm the decision of the district court granting summary judgment in favor of Appellees.
On April 3, 1992, Lt. Mark Smith--an investigator with the Special Investigations Unit and a seventeen-year veteran of the Richmond Police Department--received information that the Bingo Center had been operating without a valid bingo permit. Max Pratt, the President of the Muncie Fraternal Order of Police ("FOP"), told Lt. Smith that the Bingo Center had been using the FOP's charity bingo permit without the FOP's authorization. Pratt also informed Lt. Smith that earlier in the day he had removed a copy of that permit from the Bingo Center, that the Bingo Center continued to conduct its bingo operation, and that he was unaware of another bingo license on the premises.
Lt. Smith went to the Bingo Center that night in order to determine the validity of Pratt's claim. When Lt. Smith arrived at the Bingo Center, he observed Guy Vanderpool shut an open door at the rear of the parlor. Lt. Smith then spoke with Vanderpool who introduced Lt. Smith to Luther Ogletree, the person in charge of the Bingo Center. Ogletree told Lt. Smith that he was the operator of the bingo game and the lessor of the premises. The two men then went into an office in the rear of the building to discuss the Bingo Center's operating permit. Upon entering the office, Lt. Smith saw William Dix, Jr. and Bertha Ogletree counting money from that night's bingo operations.
After searching the office with Dix and Bertha Ogletree, Luther Ogletree was unable to produce a valid bingo permit. Lt. Smith subsequently informed Ogletree that the Bingo Center was operating illegally and that he would have to stop the game. Lt. Smith called for additional police officers to help him shut down the operation.
Lt. Smith also called the Wayne County Prosecutor, Terry O'Maley, to discuss whether the police needed a warrant to search the premises. O'Maley told Lt. Smith that they would not need a search warrant if they obtained valid consent to search the building.
Next, Lt. Smith obtained a standard Richmond Police Department Consent to Search form and read its contents to Ogletree. Ogletree stated that he understood the form, and then he signed it. Lt. Smith and other officers began searching the office and other areas of the building. In the office, the police found several thousand dollars in cash, the Bingo Center's operating records, and a handgun. When searching the rest of the building, the police encountered a locked room at the rear of the Bingo Center. Lt. Smith had seen Vanderpool close the door to this room when he first arrived at the bingo parlor that evening. The police did not ask Ogletree, Vanderpool, or anyone else if they had a key for the room; instead, they removed the door from its hinges. Ogletree was present when the police removed the door, but he did not ask the police to stop their search, nor did he otherwise attempt to withdraw or qualify his written consent to search.
Inside that room, police officers discovered ten video gambling machines and ten stools. The room did not contain any bingo supplies. Ogletree told Lt. Smith that the machines belonged to Marc Forman and provided a copy of his lease agreement with Forman. Vanderpool then informed Lt. Smith that he worked as a volunteer at the Bingo Center under Ogletree's supervision, and he gave Lt. Smith keys to both the room and the machines.
At that time, Lt. Smith once again contacted O'Maley to determine what steps to take in regard to the video gambling machines. Pursuant to O'Maley's advice, Lt. Smith confiscated the currency, the gambling machines, and the bingo operation records. No individuals were arrested that night at the Bingo Center. Later that night, Forman called Lt. Smith and claimed ownership of the gambling machines.
Three days later, Ogletree provided Lt. Smith with a bingo permit issued to the New Hope Missionary Baptist Church ("New Hope Church") of Dayton, Ohio. The next day, Richmond police officers went to the address in Dayton, Ohio but found no church there. Lt. Smith further investigated the New Hope Church permit by contacting the Indiana Secretary of State's Office. That office informed Lt. Smith that it never issued a valid charity gaming permit to the New Hope Church. Lt. Smith subsequently presented these findings, via an affidavit, to the Wayne County Superior Court and obtained a warrant to search the Bingo Center. Several Richmond police officers executed this warrant on April 8, 1992.
On April 8, 1992, Richmond police officers arrested Dix (as well as Bertha and Luther Ogletree) on charges of professional gambling. Those charges were based on Dix's activities at the Bingo Center during the first, warrantless search of the premises on April 3, 1992. O'Maley prepared, and Lt. Smith signed an Affidavit of Probable Cause against Dix on June 30, 1992. This Affidavit and an Information charging Dix with committing Professional Gambling and Theft--two class D felonies--were filed on September 22, 1992. The State filed no charges against Dix arising out of the April 8, 1992 search of the Bingo Center. The Wayne County Superior Court denied Dix's subsequent motions to dismiss the charges and to suppress the evidence taken during the April 3, 1992 search. Ultimately, a jury convicted Dix of both charges, and the Indiana Court of Appeals affirmed Dix's conviction.
On June 29, 1992, approximately two and a half months after the seizure of the video gambling machines, Lt. Smith signed an Affidavit of Probable Cause regarding Forman based on Forman's admitted knowledge and ownership of the machines. The Affidavit alleged that the police had probable cause to believe that Forman committed two counts of Professional Gambling on April 3, 1992.
The Richmond Police Department, however, took no further action against Forman until April 20, 1993. On that day, police officers made a warrantless arrest of Forman in the hallway of the Wayne County Courthouse. The previously executed Affidavit of Probable Cause and an Information charging Forman with two counts of professional gambling were filed with the Wayne County Circuit Court on April 30, 1993.
On May 4, 1993, Forman filed a motion to suppress the evidence seized from the locked room at the Bingo Center. The court granted Forman's motion noting that the officers should have asked the consenting party to unlock the door to the room before removing it from its hinges. The Wayne County Prosecutor's office subsequently dismissed the charges against Forman stating "the Court's ruling on the Defendant's Motion to Suppress precludes further prosecution." On April 12, 1995, an Indiana appellate court reversed the trial court's ruling on the Motion to Suppress. See State v. Foreman, 649 N.E.2d 120 (Ind.Ct.App.1995). That court held, as a matter of law, that the Richmond Police Department reasonably believed that Ogletree possessed common authority over the room leased to Forman, and as such, Ogletree's consent to search extended to that room. Id. at 125. The Supreme Court of Indiana, however, reversed the court of appeals and ruled that regardless of whether Ogletree had common authority over the locked room, there was sufficient evidence...
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