Hawkins v. City of Saginaw

• Court: Court of Appeal of Michigan
• Writing for the Court: PER CURIAM
• Docket Number: 374361
• Decision Date: 15 December 2025
• Citation: Hawkins v. City of Saginaw, 374361 (Mich. App. Dec 15, 2025)
• Parties: STACY HAWKINS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CITY OF SAGINAW, OFFICER STEVEN LAUTNER, DETECTIVE NATASHA MCNAB, ISAAC HEINZ, and REBECCA HEINZ, Defendants-Appellees.

1

STACY HAWKINS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CITY OF SAGINAW, OFFICER STEVEN LAUTNER, DETECTIVE NATASHA MCNAB, ISAAC HEINZ, and REBECCA HEINZ, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 374361

Court of Appeals of Michigan

December 15, 2025

UNPUBLISHED

Saginaw Circuit Court LC No. 2024-001964-NO

Before: SWARTZLE, P.J., and O'BRIEN and BAZZI, JJ.

PER CURIAM

Plaintiff Stacy Hawkins, appeals as of right the trial court's order granting summary disposition to defendants, City of Saginaw (the City), Officer Steven Lautner, Detective Natasha McNab, Isaac Heinz, and Rebecca Heinz (jointly, Heinz defendants), (collectively, defendants), under MCR 2.116(C)(8) (failure to state a claim on which relief can be granted), and dismissing plaintiff's claims with prejudice. We affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand for further proceedings.

I. BASIC FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

The following factual allegations are taken from the plaintiff's complaint and other matters in the record. On October 18, 2023, plaintiff's pregnant girlfriend Patricia McQueen, was involved in an altercation with the father of her children, Tommie Lee Jackson III, at his residence located in Saginaw, Michigan. While McQueen was sitting in her vehicle, Jackson and McQueen initially had a civil conversation; however, Jackson subsequently "began punching the car so hard that the lights on the car and the radio began flashing on and off with each punch." Jackson further punched McQueen in the face through the open car window, and "then punched towards the rear of the car and punched their 4-year-old son in the face." McQueen drove away from the premises, contacted emergency services, informed the 911 agent of what transpired, and directed the police to her residence located at 622 South Bond Street, Saginaw, Michigan.

Officers from the Saginaw Police Department, including Officer Lautner, arrived at McQueen's home and interviewed McQueen and her children. Plaintiff was present at the residence and he overheard McQueen detail the alleged assault involving Jackson to the officers. The officers then went to Jackson's home, where Jackson and his friends informed law enforcement that "there was no confrontation" between Jackson and McQueen, rather, McQueen "just drove up and began screaming at him then tried to hit him with her car," and, "she would have hit him with the car but stopped for the tree." The officers returned to McQueen's residence and "they told her they were placing her under arrest for attempting to hit [Jackson] with the car," without seeking additional information from McQueen. McQueen was charged with felonious assault, MCL 750.82. Plaintiff subsequently called one of McQueen's friends, Tonya Nemitz, to clarify what occurred during the confrontation between McQueen and Jackson, as Nemitz witnessed the incident from her vehicle. Nemitz confirmed that Jackson "was punching McQueen's car so hard that the lights on the car were blinking off and on," but she did not see Jackson punch McQueen.

Based on the foregoing information, plaintiff contacted the Saginaw Police Department, and he requested that an officer speak to Nemitz; but Officer Lautner, who did not return plaintiff's call for hours, declined interviewing Nemitz because she was not an "independent witness." On October 19, 2023, plaintiff visited the Saginaw Police Department headquarters, where he spoke to Detective McNab, who was responsible for overseeing McQueen's case. Plaintiff asked Detective McNab to review footage from the security cameras of an elementary school adjacent to Jackson's residence "to see if there was footage that showed what actually happened." The pertinent police report did not indicate that Detective McNab, or another member of the Saginaw Police Department, sought the requested footage or interviewed Nemitz. However, plaintiff's affidavit was attached to the aforementioned report, essentially reiterating the factual allegations concerning the underlying incident with McQueen and the resulting police investigation.

On October 19, 2023, McQueen was issued a surety bail bond for $2,500, with $375 to be paid per annum; the surety bail bond document lists Kozy Bail Bond Agency as the surety, but it is unclear who signed as the indemnitor. However, the document and the register of actions pertaining to McQueen's case indicates that the trial court set the bail bond at $10,000, with a 10% cash or surety rate. Plaintiff allegedly covered the cost of the bail bond, and the "bail bonds company kept the money Plaintiff paid as part of the cost for its services in bailing Ms. McQueen out of jail." On July 23, 2024, McQueen's trial date, the prosecution opted to dismiss the charges against McQueen after reviewing Nemitz's proposed testimony and the elementary school security footage.^[1]

In a distinct incident that occurred on August 20, 2024, McQueen attempted to provide food to the children of a local named Travis Bullock near the Dollar General in Saginaw, but Bullock became aggressive towards McQueen to the point emergency services was contacted.

After McQueen returned to her residence and disclosed what occurred to plaintiff, plaintiff drove to the Dollar General to speak to Bullock, during which Bullock "raised his voice and walked away." While plaintiff was on a videocall with McQueen, the mother of Bullock's children proceeded to thank McQueen for purchasing food for her children. As the two continued conversing, the Heinz defendants, officers employed by the Saginaw Police Department, "pulled into the back parking lot of Dollar General just behind where Plaintiff's car was parked. Plaintiff then ended his conversation with the mother and began pulling off so as not to be in the way of whatever the police intended to do in the parking lot."

The Heinz defendants followed plaintiff as he pulled out of the parking lot and turned on their police lights, resulting in plaintiff stopping his vehicle "as the officers were right behind him with their lights on." Officer Isaac approached plaintiff, as plaintiff was seated in the driver's seat of his car, and inquired why plaintiff was present at the Dollar General store. Plaintiff responded asking why he was "being pulled over." Officer Isaac "accused Plaintiff of loitering and told him he would cite him for loitering if he caught him there again." The Heinz defendants then "spoke to the group of people at the Dollar General and told them that Plaintiff was on the sex offender registry and that is probably why he was trying to speak to their children." Plaintiff alleged that the relevant police report authored by Officer Isaac did not indicate that police investigated any call regarding Bullock, "which is why the police were called to Dollar General," but the report did note that the caller claimed "one of the males threatened her." Plaintiff provided links to videorecordings of his August 20, 2024 interaction with Officer Isaac in his complaint.^[2]

On September 25, 2024, plaintiff filed a complaint in the Saginaw Circuit Court contending that the City "maintained an official custom of failing to train its officers to afford the fair and just treatment during the executive investigations they conduct into whether a crime occurred," and the City "received repeated complaints of constitutional violations related to its officers' failure to properly investigate and of their affecting unconstitutional seizures of individual persons." Plaintiff further asserted that he maintained standing regarding defendants' violation of the "Fair and Just Treatment Clause," Const 1963, art 1, § 17, "where [plaintiff] would not have had to put up the money he lost bonding Ms. McQueen out and he would not have had to suffer for l0 months along with Ms. McQueen as she faced and lamented now-dismissed charges she was and is innocent of." The "Factual Allegations" section of the complaint additionally provided:

70. Plaintiff alleges that when Officers Isaac and Rebecca Heinz pulled Plaintiff over they were not investigating the crime they were called to investigate and did not have the requisite reasonable articulable suspicion that a crime was afoot involving Plaintiff but instead were on their own personal mission based on their own personal, prejudice, and wrong assumptions. They then disparaged Plaintiff to others with information they acquired from the Law Enforcement Information Network (LEIN).

71. Plaintiff contends that he had an interest in Defendants' affording Ms. McQueen her constitutionally guaranteed right to fair and just treatment during their executive investigation into her accusations and the accusations against her and where Plaintiff personally suffered financially, mentally, and emotionally because of [the City's] failure to train its officers to afford Ms. McQueen this constitutional right[.] Plaintiff is entitled to in excess of S25,000 in damages plus any exemplary or punitive damages.

72. Plaintiff contends that he had an interest in Defendants[] affording him his constitutional right to be free from an unreasonable seizure of his person and where Defendants violated that right because of [the City's] failure to train its officers on effecting [sic] traffic stops without violating Const 1963, art 1, Sec 11[.] Plaintiff is entitled to in excess of $25,000 in damages plus any exemplary or punitive damages.

Plaintiff advanced four counts in his complaint; the first count against the City pertained to its alleged failure "to train officers to afford fair and just treatment during executive investigations," which resulted in McQueen's improper arrest, plaintiff's payment of her bail bond, and plaintiff's "extreme mental and emotional distress" for the 10 months that "the false charges were pending against her." Plaintiff advanced a...