Gonzalez v. Tilmer

• Citation: 775 F. Supp. 256
• Decision Date: 30 September 1991
• Docket Number: No. 88 C 6789.,88 C 6789.
• Parties: Benito GONZALEZ, Plaintiff, v. Michael TILMER, Assistant Public Defender; Moses Collins, Assistant Public Defender; Janet Trafelet, Assistant State Attorney; Kevin Durkin, Assistant State Attorney Randy Rueckert, Assistant State Attorney; and Aubrey O'Quinn, Police Detective, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Illinois

775 F. Supp. 256

Benito GONZALEZ, Plaintiff, v. Michael TILMER, Assistant Public Defender; Moses Collins, Assistant Public Defender; Janet Trafelet, Assistant State Attorney; Kevin Durkin, Assistant State Attorney Randy Rueckert, Assistant State Attorney; and Aubrey O'Quinn, Police Detective, Defendants.

No. 88 C 6789.

United States District Court, N.D. Illinois, E.D.

September 30, 1991.

Benito Gonzalez, pro se.

Daniel Patrick Slayden, Cook County State's Attorney's Office, Chicago, Ill., for Moses Collins, Kevin Durkin.

Nancy K. Laureto, Dodge Wells, City of Chicago, Law Dept., Corp. Counsel, Chicago, Ill., for Aubrey O'Quinn.

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

BRIAN BARNETT DUFF, District Judge.

Benito Gonzalez, an inmate at the Pontiac Correctional Center, brings this action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 seeking damages and other relief for alleged violations of his constitutional rights during an interrogation following his arrest and in the course of the trial that resulted in his conviction. In its order of August 8, 1988, the court dismissed all Gonzalez's claims except his damage claim against Chicago police officer Aubrey O'Quinn. O'Quinn has filed a motion for summary judgment to which Gonzalez has responded with a summary judgment motion of his own. For the reasons that follow, the court grants O'Quinn's motion and denies that of Gonzalez.

Given the liberal construction accorded pro se pleadings under Haines v. Kerner, 404 U.S. 519, 520-21, 92 S.Ct. 594, 595-96, 30 L.Ed.2d 652 (1972), Gonzalez's complaint can be read to assert two claims against O'Quinn.¹ Gonzalez maintains that O'Quinn violated his rights under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments by detaining him for forty-eight hours before providing a judicial determination of probable cause. Gonzalez also complains that O'Quinn's harsh treatment of him during this period of detention coerced him into giving an inculpatory statement.

Facts²

O'Quinn arrested Gonzalez at 4:00 p.m. on October 29, 1984. He had reason to believe that Gonzalez was responsible for shooting a waitress in a restaurant because an eyewitness to the crime had given police a description that fit Gonzalez and had identified Gonzalez as the assailant from a photo array. Following the arrest, O'Quinn took Gonzalez to the police station where he was cuffed to a wall in an interview room and questioned. Police meanwhile tried to contact the eyewitness and arrange a lineup. The eyewitness, however, could not come to the police station until the following day. Learning this, detective Timothy Nolan submitted a request to the watch commander to hold Gonzalez past the regularly scheduled court call in order to hold the lineup the next morning. The request was approved and Gonzalez was turned over to the lockup keeper somewhere around 5:00 p.m.

The lineup was held the next day shortly after noon. The eyewitness identified Gonzalez as the man who shot the waitress. After the lineup, Gonzalez was taken back to the interview room where he again was handcuffed to the wall. O'Quinn had no further contact with Gonzalez until the trial.

At approximately 4:00 p.m., assistant state's attorney Janet Trafelet arrived at the station and began questioning Gonzalez. Shortly thereafter, Gonzalez gave Trafelet a statement regarding the shooting incident. Gonzalez asserts he signed it only because Trafelet misinformed him as to the contents of the statement and told him he could go home once he signed it. Gonzalez also maintains that he did not receive any food between the time of his arrest and the time he gave his statement.³ After he gave his statement, Gonzalez was returned to the lockup where he remained until the next day when he was taken to court for his preliminary hearing. Although the exact time of the preliminary hearing is not in the record, it appears that it was held in the late afternoon.

A jury convicted Gonzalez of aggravated battery, armed violence, and attempt murder. The appellate court vacated the conviction for aggravated robbery and armed violence and affirmed the conviction for attempt murder. That conviction has withstood several collateral challenges in both state and federal court.

Discussion

Standard of Review

Summary judgment is appropriate if there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c). The moving party has the initial burden of establishing that there is no genuine issue of material fact. Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 325, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 2553, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986). Once the moving party has pointed out the lack of a genuine issue of material fact, a non-moving party who bears the burden of proof on an issue may not rest on the pleadings. He instead must come forth with specific facts through affidavits or other materials showing that a genuine issue of material fact exists and requires trial. Id. at 324, 106 S.Ct. at 2553; Morgan v. Harris Trust and Savings Bank, 867 F.2d 1023, 1026 (7th Cir.1989). A genuine issue of material fact exists when "there is sufficient evidence favoring the nonmoving party for a jury to return a verdict for that party." Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 249, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 2510, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986).

Exhaustion of Habeas Corpus Remedies

O'Quinn advances several grounds in support of his motion for summary judgment. He first asserts that Gonzalez's challenge to the conditions of his detention is essentially a challenge to the fairness of his trial which can only be made in a habeas corpus petition because it amounts to a constitutional challenge to his conviction. Accordingly, O'Quinn, citing Hernandez v. Spencer, 780 F.2d 504 (5th Cir.1986), contends that Gonzalez cannot bring his § 1983 claim until after he has exhausted the remedies available to him under the habeas corpus statutes. Although it is true that an imprisoned § 1983 plaintiff must first exhaust his habeas remedies before pursuing his civil rights claims, see Hanson v. Heckel, 791 F.2d 93 (7th Cir. 1986), that requirement does not preclude this action.

This action would not interfere with ongoing state proceedings, undermine the validity of a criminal conviction or facilitate the circumvention of the federal habeas corpus statutes, the rationales for requiring the exhaustion of post-conviction remedies. See Scruggs v. Moellering, 870 F.2d 376, 378-379 (7th Cir.1989); see also Johnson v. Chicago, 712 F.Supp. 1311, 1316-17 (N.D.Ill.1989). In Arizona v. Fulminante, ___ U.S. ___, 111 S.Ct. 1246, 1265, 113 L.Ed.2d 302 (1991), the Supreme Court stated that admission at trial of a coerced confession is "simply an error in the trial process itself" rather than a "structural defect" in the constitution of the trial. Relying on that distinction, the Court then ruled that the admission of a coerced statement will not render a conviction invalid if it was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. In light of Fulminante, a finding that Gonzalez's statement was a product of state coercion would not necessarily, and in fact would almost certainly not, undermine his conviction. Judge Prentice Marshall dismissed Gonzalez's federal habeas corpus petition finding the evidence of his guilt "overwhelming." United States ex rel. Gonzalez v. Chrans, 87 C 10372 (N.D.Ill. June 27, 1988). That dismissal was affirmed on appeal after the close of briefing on O'Quinn's summary judgment motion. No. 88-2468 (7th Cir. Apr. 17, 1990).

More to the point, however, this § 1983 claim is not precluded because Gonzalez has in fact exhausted his habeas remedies. He has no further avenues of relief to challenge the fact of his conviction. Gonzalez was unsuccessful before the state postconviction court which found that he had waived his claim regarding his allegedly coerced statement by failing to raise it on direct appeal. In addition, as mentioned above, Judge Marshall's dismissal of Gonzalez's federal habeas corpus petition was affirmed by the Seventh Circuit after the close of briefing in this motion.⁴

Conditions of Detention/Coerced Statement

The crux of Gonzalez's suit against O'Quinn goes not to the fairness of the criminal trial (hence the concern over exhaustion of habeas remedies) but rather to the alleged acts of coercion themselves. At the outset, it must be remembered that a police officer who takes a statement from a suspect is not responsible for determining whether that statement was sufficiently voluntary to be admitted into evidence. The mere fact that an involuntary statement was introduced at trial therefore is not be enough to subject him to § 1983 liability. See Duncan v. Nelson, 466 F.2d 939, 942 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 409 U.S. 894, 93 S.Ct. 116, 175, 34 L.Ed.2d 152 (1972) (police officers who coerced defendant's confession were not proximate cause of the confession's introduction in evidence at trial) (untenable to conclude that police officers would foresee that trial judge would erroneously admit unlawful confession); cf. Hensley v. Carey, 818 F.2d 646 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 965, 108 S.Ct. 456, 98 L.Ed.2d 395 (1987) (police officer conducting lineup not liable because defendant has no right to be free from an unduly suggestive lineup separate and apart from his right to fair trial). After all, Gonzalez had available procedures to protect his right to a fair trial independent and apart from any role O'Quinn may have played in the taking of his statement. For example, if the statement were coerced as he alleges, he could have moved to have the statement suppressed.

The concern here thus is not with the admission of the statement at Gonzalez's trial. The concern is over the means employed to extract it. Although those who take a statement from a suspect may not be responsible for determining whether that statement is voluntary and therefore admissible at trial, they are responsible for their treatment of the suspect. The relevant legal question then...