Harney v. City of Chi.
| Decision Date | 10 December 2012 |
| Docket Number | 10–2817.,Nos. 10–2095,s. 10–2095 |
| Citation | 702 F.3d 916 |
| Parties | Timothy L. HARNEY and Patricia A. Muldoon, Plaintiffs–Appellants, v. CITY OF CHICAGO and Officer Joseph Midona, Defendants–Appellees, and Pamela DeVarela, Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Kenneth N. Flaxman (argued), Attorney, Chicago, IL, for Plaintiffs–Appellants.
Sara K. Hornstra (argued), Attorney, City of Chicago Law Department, Chicago, IL, for Defendants–Appellees.
Before FLAUM and SYKES, Circuit Judges, and CONLEY, District Judge. *
Plaintiffs Timothy L. Harney and Patricia A. Muldoon brought this civil action against the City of Chicago and one of its police officers, Joseph Midona, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging that defendant Midona entered their residence and arrested them without a warrant or probable cause in violation of the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution. The district court granted summary judgment to defendants on all claims. Agreeing that there are no genuine issues of material fact or legal grounds on which plaintiffs are entitled to proceed, we affirm that court's grant of summary judgment. The following facts are taken from the undisputed findings submitted to the district court, viewing the facts in a light most favorable to defendants and drawing all reasonable inferences in their favor.
Harney and Muldoon are married and occupy one unit of a three-unit condominium building in Chicago, Illinois. Pamela DeVarela occupies one of the other two units.1 This lawsuit developed out of a history of contentious interactions between these neighbors and the involvement of defendant Midona in this spat between neighbors.
In April 2004, DeVarela contacted the Chicago Police Department to complain about damage to a mirror on her vehicle. Officer Midona was dispatched to respond to her complaint. Although DeVarela had no proof, she claimed that the damage was caused by Harney and Muldoon. Lacking any evidence of the identity of the offender, Midona's police report indicated that the damage was caused by an “unknown offender.” At this time, Midona also apparently gave DeVarela his personal cell phone number in the event of any further incidents.
On September 21, 2004, DeVarela's dog bit Harney. Harney reported the incident to the City of Chicago and obtained medical treatment for the dog bite.
A couple days later, DeVarela telephoned Officer Midona on his cell phone, requesting that he prepare a second police report. This time DeVarela reported that on September 21, 2004, Harney and Muldoon chased her up the stairs and pushed her as she tried to enter her unit's door.
On May 16, 2005, DeVarela again called Midona to complain about damage to her vehicle. The next day, Midona and Sergeant Woznicki met with DeVarela and were shown a videotape consisting of clips DeVarela compiled from two separate videotapes.2 In her summary judgment opinion, the district judge aptly described the clips as follows:
The first clip, on March 6, 2005, depicts a man, identified as Harney, performing a series of tasks. Harney first examines his car's rear left tire, then briefly stops at DeVarela's car's rear left tire before squatting by her rear right tire and fiddling with it. He returns to his rear left tire, performs some work on it, and then turns to look at DeVarela's front left tire. After some time passes, Harney pulls his car partially out of the garage, changes the rear left tire, and drives away.
...
The second clip, on March 26, 2005, depicts a woman, identified as Muldoon, moving around the garage. Muldoon closes the garage door and walks past the rear of DeVarela's car with an object in her right hand. She then turns around, walking back toward her own car, with her right arm at her side, her wrist turned away from her body. Once she passes DeVarela's car, she turns her wrist over. She then opens the garage door and walks out.
(App. 3.)
Midona testified at his deposition that the first clip showed Harney removing the valve cap from DeVarela's tire, letting out the air and putting the cap on his own car. Midona acknowledged, however, that he could not actually see Harney take the valve cap off or even see the valve cap, but he believed the video corroborated DeVarela's claim that Harney had let the air out of her tire and taken the valve cap.
As for the second clip, Midona described the video as showing Muldoon walking behind DeVarela's car, scratching the back of the vehicle with some object, then opening the garage door again and leaving. He testified at his deposition that he heard a scratching noise on the tape. DeVarela also showed Midona and Woznicki the damage to her car that she believed Muldoon had caused. Midona observed a long scratch along the back of the car, although he did not recall at the time of his deposition whether it was on the trunk or the bumper.
DeVarela told Midona and Woznicki that she wanted to press charges. Woznicki advised her to first obtain an estimate of the cost of repairing her car and then contact the police. DeVarela obtained an estimate that same day.
The next day, on May 18, 2005, Midona received another call from DeVarela. Midona then went to the condominium building with detectives Kurt Kourakis and Gloria Ekerman, who had been assigned to investigate. The detectives went to DeVarela's unit to talk with her. While DeVarela gave Kourakis her account of how her vehicle had been damaged, DeVarela's roommate showed Ekerman the video clips. DeVarela later played the same video for Kourakis, identifying the people on the videotape were Harney and Muldoon. Kourakis later testified about the contents of the video he viewed, which was consistent with the district court's description above.
DeVarela then provided the detectives with this “compilation” video as well as the repair estimate for her car. After finishing with DeVarela, the detectives went with Midona to arrest Harney and Muldoon.
Harney contends that he heard someone ring the doorbell. The record is unclear as to the location of the doorbell, but giving plaintiffs the benefit of any doubt, we will assume it was located outside of the front walkway of the condominium building rather than directly outside of Harney and Muldoon's particular unit.3
In response to the doorbell, Harney exited his condominium unit and saw the officers inside the gate on the front walkway to the condominium building.
Once Harney stepped outside his unit, Midona advised that he was under arrest and that there was a videotape of him letting air out of DeVarela's tire. Midona also asked to speak with Muldoon, informing Harney that there was also a videotape of Muldoon keying DeVarela's car. Harney told the officers that Muldoon had been injured and was in bed.
While still outside of his unit, Harney told the officers that he would go get Muldoon. The officers followed Harney into the unit. Harney did not invite the officers in, but he also did not instruct them to remain outside or tell them that he would be right back. The record does not reveal whether the door had closed prior to the officers entering the unit or if they slipped in behind Harney prior to the door closing.4
The officers walked about eight to ten feet into the unit to the kitchen. Harney went to the bedroom to tell Muldoon that the police wanted to speak with her about keying DeVarela's car. While Harney was speaking with Muldoon, the officers instructed Harney and Muldoon that they needed to come out of the bedroom. Harney had not heard the officers enter behind him and did not know that they were in the unit until he was instructed to leave the bedroom. Even so, neither Harney nor Muldoon objected to the officers' presence in their home.
Harney and Muldoon came out of the bedroom, and Muldoon was informed that she was under arrest. Harney and Muldoon then followed the officers outside of the condominium building and were taken to the police station. Harney was charged with misdemeanor theft; Muldoon was charged with felony property damage. Both trials were to the bench. In both, the trial judge directed a finding of not guilty, concluding that the videotape evidence did not prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
Harney and Muldoon then filed the present lawsuit, alleging violations of § 1983 against Midona and the City of Chicago and state law claims against DeVarela. The district court granted summary judgment to Midona and the City of Chicago as to all claims. The court found that qualified immunity shielded Midona as to plaintiffs' false arrest claims. As for plaintiffs' unlawful arrest claims, the court concluded that Harney was arrested in public and that the officers had implied consent to enter Harney and Muldoon's condominium unit to arrest Muldoon. The court's grant of summary judgment to Midona mooted plaintiffs' indemnification claim against the City of Chicago.
The court reviews the district court's decision to grant summary judgment to defendants de novo and may affirm on any basis supported by the record and law. See Holmes v. Vill. of Hoffman Estates, 511 F.3d 673, 681 (7th Cir.2007). In addition to the appeal of the district court's grant of summary judgment, appellants also raise an evidentiary challenge to the district court's consideration of certain videotapes at summary judgment. The court reviews this challenge for abuse of discretion. See Everroad v. Scott Truck Sys., Inc., 604 F.3d 471, 475 (7th Cir.2010). The court also reviews for abuse of discretion the district court's awarding of costs to defendants. See U.S. Neurosurgical, Inc. v. City of Chi., 572 F.3d 325, 333 (7th Cir.2009).
Midona produced two videotapes in support of his motion for summary judgment. Plaintiffs contend that these...
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