Hill v. Cook Cnty., Case No. 18-cv-08228

• Decision Date: 31 May 2020
• Docket Number: Case No. 18-cv-08228
• Citation: 463 F.Supp.3d 820
• Parties: Robert HILL, Plaintiff, v. COOK COUNTY, the Sheriff of Cook County, the Village of Robbins, Robbins Police Officers Kimble, Franklin, Henderson, Carey, and Hatchett, Cook County Sheriffs Shader, Gleason, Gray, D'Oronzo, Nowaczyk, and McGuire, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Illinois

463 F.Supp.3d 820

Robert HILL, Plaintiff,

v.COOK COUNTY, the Sheriff of Cook County, the Village of Robbins, Robbins Police Officers Kimble, Franklin, Henderson, Carey, and Hatchett, Cook County Sheriffs Shader, Gleason, Gray, D'Oronzo, Nowaczyk, and McGuire, Defendants.

Case No. 18-cv-08228

United States District Court, N.D. Illinois, Eastern Division.

Signed May 31, 2020

Julie Marie Goodwin, Jonathan I. Loevy, Mariah Esperanza Garcia, Loevy & Loevy, Chicago, IL, for Plaintiff.

T. Andrew Horvat, Cook County State's Attorney's Office, Daniel Jerome Burns, Daniel Matthew Noland, Elizabeth A. Ekl, Paul A. Michalik, Terrence Michael Burns, Reiter Burns LLP, Chicago, IL, for Defendants Cook County, Sheriff of Cook County, T. Shader, Sheriff Gleason, Sheriff D. Gray, Sheriff F. D'Oronzo, Sheriff F. Nowaczyk, Sheriff C. McGuire.

Shawnte Miaundra Raines, Emanuel C. Welch, Ellen Kornichuk Emery, John Patrick Reding, Jr., Ancel Glink, P.C., Chicago, IL, for Defendants Village of Robbins, Detective D. Kimble, Det. Sgt. T. Franklin, Officer Henderson, Officer Carey, Commander D. Hatchett.

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

Steven C. Seeger, United States District Judge

After a bench trial in state court, a judge on the Circuit Court of Cook County found Plaintiff Robert Hill guilty of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, and two counts of armed robbery. But more than four years after his conviction, the Circuit Court of Cook County dismissed the indictment based on government misconduct. Hill now sues for the events that led to his arrest and conviction, including a decade of incarceration.

Hill filed a 13-count amended complaint against Cook County, the Sheriff of Cook County, the Village of Robbins, Illinois, and a collection of law enforcement officers. Defendants moved to dismiss. For the reasons stated below, the motions are granted in part and denied in part. At this early stage, most of the claims pass muster.

Background

At the motion-to-dismiss stage, the Court must accept as true the well-pleaded allegations of the complaint. See Lett v. City of Chicago , 946 F.3d 398, 399 (7th Cir. 2020). The Court "offer[s] no opinion on the ultimate merits because further development of the record may cast the facts in a light different from the complaint." Savory v. Cannon , 947 F.3d 409, 412 (7th Cir. 2020).

On November 25, 2005, two armed men robbed Frank's Liquor Store in Robbins, Illinois. See Am. Cplt. ¶ 11 (Dckt. No. 50). They concealed their identities before walking in. Id. at ¶ 12. Once inside, the robbers turned their weapons on the store owner, Fakhri Elayyan, and shot him. Id. They shot his daughter, Ghada Elayyan, too. Id. They grabbed money from the cash register and ran to the nearby 139th Street housing development. Id. The father survived his gunshot wounds, but the daughter unfortunately did not. Id.

Police officers from the Village of Robbins responded to the crime. Id. at ¶ 14. Defendant Sergeant Kimble was the lead detective, and he investigated the crime with Defendant Officers Franklin, Henderson, Carey, and Hatchett (collectively, the "Robbins Defendants"). Id.

The morning after the crime, the Robbins Police Department began receiving anonymous tips from concerned citizens. Id. at ¶ 15. But Hill alleges that the Robbins Police Department had already created a narrative for the crime: Darian Nance and Carnell Tyler were the two robbers inside the store, and Hill was their getaway driver. Id. He alleges that the Robbins Defendants focused on one anonymous tip that fit that narrative and built all of the evidence around it – so much so that they fabricated testimony and ignored exculpatory evidence. Id.

Specifically, the Robbins Defendants allegedly failed to document other phone calls with tips, and failed to record the names of key witnesses. Id. "Rather than do the police work necessary to properly solve the crime," the amended complaint alleges, the Robbins Defendants "seized upon one such ‘tip’ and focused their attention on gathering evidence through manipulation and coercion to reach their end goal of making the case fit a presupposed narrative." Id.

According to a police report prepared by Defendant Kimble, Carnell Tyler – one of the alleged robbers – voluntarily showed up at the Robbins police station later that day. Id. at ¶ 16. He asked to sleep in a cell overnight. Id. While at the station, Tyler confessed that he participated in the robbery and the shooting. Id. He told officers that his accomplice Nance actually shot the store owner and his daughter, and after grabbing the cash, the two of them ran back to the housing project. Id. Tyler didn't say that Hill was at the store as the getaway driver. Id. In fact, he never mentioned Hill and never mentioned a getaway driver. Id.

Despite the alleged confession, Tyler didn't stay in custody long. An attorney from the Felony Review Division of the Cook County State's Attorney's Office interviewed him on November 28, 2005, and released him from custody immediately after the interview. Id. at ¶ 17.

Two days after the crime, the Robbins Defendants visited Hill at his mother's home and interviewed him about the armed robbery. Id. at ¶ 19. Hill told the officers that he wasn't involved. Id. The officers left without arresting him. Id.

Hill claims that the Robbins Defendants continued to pursue their original theory of the crime. Id. at ¶ 20. They interviewed two witnesses from the 139th Street housing development. Id. Both witnesses had criminal cases pending against them. Id. According to the amended complaint, the Robbins Defendants coerced the two witnesses into making false statements implicating Hill in the crime. Id. The witnesses received consideration, "known and still unknown," for their stories. Id.

On December 6, 2005, Officers Kimble, Franklin, Henderson, Carey, and Hatchett returned to Hill's home and arrested him. Id. at ¶ 21. The Robbins Police Department arrested Nance and Tyler that same day. Id.

The Robbins Defendants allegedly coerced the two witnesses to tell their false stories to a grand jury and support the "police version of events." Id. at ¶ 22. Both of them testified in front of the grand jury and implicated Hill. Id.

But Nance and Hill were not detained for long. The Felony Review Division of the Cook County State's Attorney's Office released Nance without charges. Id. at ¶ 23. The Division found that the witness statements identifying Nance as the shooter lacked credibility. Id. at ¶ 24. The Felony Review Division released Hill without charges, too. Id. at ¶ 25. It found that the witness statements implicating Hill as the getaway driver similarly lacked credibility. Id. But Tyler – the person who confessed at the police station – was charged with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, and armed robbery. Id. at ¶ 26.

The Robbins Defendants continued to investigate the robbery. The officers performed canvas interviews and searched for physical evidence, but they found no forensic evidence that linked Hill to the crime. Id. at ¶ 27. Hill claims that the Robbins Defendants either failed to document the evidence, or documented the evidence and later destroyed it, "all of which was favorable" to Hill. Id. After nearly two years of investigation, Tyler was the only person charged with the crime. Id. at ¶ 28.

On October 22, 2007, the Cook County Sheriff's Department stepped into the investigation. Id. at ¶ 29. The team consisted of Officers Shader, Gleason, Gray, D'Oronzo, Nowaczyk, and McGuire (the "Cook County Sheriff Defendants"). Id.

The amended complaint alleges that the Cook County Sheriff Defendants knew that the Robbins Police Department "routinely violated citizens’ constitutional rights during police investigations." Id. at ¶ 30. They also allegedly knew that the Robbins Police Department was an unprofessional operation. See id. at ¶¶ 29–32.

The amended complaint gives a number of examples of how the Robbins Police Department had earned a reputation for unprofessional police work. (Once again, the Court reminds the reader that it is merely summarizing the complaint's allegations, which the Court must accept as true at this stage.) The Cook County Sheriff Defendants allegedly knew that the "evidence room at the Robbins Police Department was maintained in disarray, with evidence of homicides and other serious crimes strewn openly throughout the room: untagged guns stored in bins, vials of blood spoiling on open shelves, and a ‘neglected collection of about 200 rape kits’ that dated back to the mid 1980's, many of which were never tested or otherwise investigated." Id. at ¶ 31. So, according to the amended complaint, the Robbins Police Department allegedly did shoddy police work and the Cook County Sheriff Defendants knew it.

Yet the Cook County Sheriff Defendants relied on the investigation by the Robbins Police Department, and then pursued the investigation with "unconstitutional tactics of their own." Id. at ¶ 32. They pursued the same goal: "arresting and prosecuting Robert Hill for a crime he did not commit." Id.

The Cook County Sheriff officers conferred with the Robbins team and reviewed their case file. Id. at ¶ 33. They knew that the Felony Review Division had determined that all statements implicating Hill were false. Id. But they "continued to try to charge him without cause." Id.

The Cook County officers re-interviewed certain witnesses and discovered that the statements implicating Hill were false. Id. at ¶ 34. They also found exculpatory evidence that was undocumented or suppressed. Id. Nevertheless, they didn't independently disclose their discoveries. Id. Instead, they adopted the Robbins Defendants’ investigative reports, "further fabricated evidence, and coerced witnesses into conforming to the narrative created by" the Robbins Defendants. Id.

The Cook County Sheriff Defendants arrested Hill on October 29, 2007, about one week after taking over the case. Id. at ¶ 35. They arrested him even though they...