Hinkle v. White

• Decision Date: 16 July 2015
• Docket Number: No. 14–2254.,14–2254.
• Citation: 793 F.3d 764
• Parties: Jimmy HINKLE, Plaintiff–Appellant, v. Rick WHITE and Thomas Oliverio, Defendants–Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

793 F.3d 764

Jimmy HINKLE, Plaintiff–Appellant

v.Rick WHITE and Thomas Oliverio, Defendants–Appellees.

No. 14–2254.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued Dec. 11, 2014.

Decided July 16, 2015.

Greg Roosevelt, Attorney, Roosevelt Law Office, Edwardsville, IL, for Plaintiff–Appellant.

Clifford Berlow, Attorney, Office of the Attorney General, Chicago, IL, for Defendants–Appellees.

Before WOOD, Chief Judge, and FLAUM and MANION, Circuit Judges.

Opinion

MANION, Circuit Judge.

Jimmy Hinkle sued Rick White, an investigator with the Illinois State Police, and White's supervisor, Thomas Oliverio, alleging that they violated his due process rights by spreading rumors that he was an arsonist and a child molester. The district court concluded that Hinkle had not established a protected liberty interest and granted the defendants summary judgment. We affirm.

I.

In August 2010, while Jimmy Hinkle was finishing his elected term as Sheriff of Wayne County, Illinois, his fourteen-year-old step-daughter falsely accused him of sexually abusing her while helping her apply chigger medicine.¹ An officer with the Charleston, Illinois Police Department interviewed the step-daughter and the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (“DCFS”) notified the Illinois State Police that it had received a report that Hinkle had sexually abused his step-daughter.

Rick White, an investigator with the Illinois State Police, began investigating the step-daughter's allegations. White interviewed the step-daughter and she repeated her claim of sexual abuse. However, her sister (another of Hinkle's stepdaughters) was also interviewed and she said that Hinkle had also helped her apply chigger medication and that it was nonsexual. She also said she thought her sister was lying because Hinkle and her mom were too strict. White also interviewed Hinkle, who denied the allegation. The step-daughter later recanted her claim of sexual abuse on several occasions and an Illinois prosecutor declined to press charges against Hinkle.

Nonetheless, the accusations became well-known in the community because White talked to a lot of people with whom he had no business sharing details of the investigation. For example, while at the local Wal–Mart in January 2011, White told Roy Finley, his third cousin and a felon, to listen to the news and that there would be a story about a former Wayne County Sheriff,² whom Finley was able to determine was Hinkle from White's comments. White told Finley that there was a “bad charge” and that “the former sheriff would be looking at prison time.” White also told Stephanie Luker, a Trooper with the Illinois State Police, that there was a sexual assault case against Sheriff Hinkle. (Luker was in no way involved in the investigation of the matter.) Additionally, White told Jonah Kinsolving, an investigator with the Secretary of State's Office (who also had nothing to do with the investigation) that he (White) was investigating Hinkle for sexually abusing his step-daughter. White told Kinsolving that he (White) was right in believing Hinkle sexually abused his step-daughter. Kinsolving went home and told his wife about it and his wife in turn told her hairdresser.

If telling the local hairdresser wasn't enough to churn the rumor mill, word was also leaked to the local paper, the Disclosure, at White's instigation. White directed Greg Hanisch, an inspector for the Southern Illinois Drug Task Force (who worked out of the Illinois State Police station), to tell a local reporter to look into the Kelly Henby and Hinkle matter. Henby was apparently a private investigator who interviewed the step-daughter and to whom she recanted. Hanisch leaked to the Disclosure that an arrest warrant had been issued for Henby charging him with working as a private investigator without a license. The Disclosure also published an article that included details of the step-daughter's initial claim of sexual abuse, although the article, in essence, said the step-daughter was lying and provided an innocent explanation for what really happened, while positing that the information was made public in retaliation for Henby and Hinkle crossing White on other matters. Nonetheless, in the end, the rumor that Hinkle was a child molester permeated the public sphere.

In addition to the rumor that Hinkle had sexually abused his step-daughter, there was talk that Hinkle was also an arsonist. A couple of months before his step-daughter falsely accused him of sexually assaulting her, Hinkle's home was destroyed by a fire. White spoke with the State Fire Marshal concerning the investigation into the cause of the fire and asked a detective with the Wayne County Sheriff's Department whether he “suspected anything” about the fire. Thomas Oliverio, a lieutenant with the Illinois State Police, went one step further, saying to another investigator, “[h]ow much do you want to bet me that [Hinkle's] prize 1950 Chevy was not in the garage when he burnt his house? ... I'm telling you, he moved that car from his garage before the fire.”

After his step-daughter recanted her accusation of sexual abuse and the prosecutor declined to press charges, Hinkle filed this § 1983 suit against White and Oliverio, alleging the defendants denied him his right to liberty in the occupation of his choice without due process of law. Specifically, Hinkle alleged that the defendants, by spreading the rumors that he was an arsonist and child molester, rendered him unable to find a job in law enforcement management. The defendants moved for summary judgment. The district court granted the defendants summary judgment, concluding that Hinkle did not establish a protected liberty interest. Hinkle appeals. We review the district court's grant of summary judgment de novo. Simpson v. Beaver Dam Comm. Hosp., Inc., 780 F.3d 784, 789 (7th Cir.2015).

II.

The Fourteenth Amendment forbids a state from depriving a person of “life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” U.S. Const. Amend. XIV § 1. To prevail on a procedural due process claim, “a plaintiff must establish that a state actor deprived him of a constitutionally protected liberty or property interest without due process of law.”Dupuy v. Samuels, 397 F.3d 493, 503 (7th Cir.2005). In evaluating a due process claim, we ask two questions: 1) “whether there exists a liberty or property interest which has been interfered with by the State;” and 2) “whether the procedures attendant upon that deprivation were constitutionally sufficient.” Id.

Hinkle claims he has a protected liberty interest to pursue the occupation of his choice, namely law enforcement management. “The concept of liberty protected by the due process clause has long included occupational liberty—‘the liberty to follow a trade, profession, or other calling.’ ” Wroblewski v. City of Washburn, 965 F.2d 452, 455 (7th Cir.1992) (quoting Lawson v. Sheriff of Tippecanoe County, 725 F.2d 1136, 1138 (7th Cir.1984) ). However, “[i]t is the liberty to pursue a calling or occupation, and not the right to a specific job, that is secured by the Fourteenth Amendment.” Id. (emphasis added). Previously, “[w]e have declared that being a police officer is an occupation; being a police lieutenant is not.” Wroblewski, 965 F.2d at 455 (quotation omitted). Thus, while “[t]o be a policeman is to follow a particular calling and to be excluded from that calling is an infringement of liberty of occupation, ... a particular rank in the police force is not an occupation ...” Bigby v. City of Chicago, 766 F.2d 1053, 1057 (7th Cir.1985). In this case, Hinkle presented evidence that he applied for, and was rejected for, five out-of-state Chief–of–Police jobs. “Chief of Police” and “law enforcement management” equate more closely to holding a particular rank or job in the police force, than to following a particular calling. However, we need not rest on this point. Even if we treat law enforcement management as an occupation, as discussed below, Hinkle still cannot succeed on his due process claim because he cannot show that this liberty interest was “interfered with by the State.”

Hinkle claims the defendants interfered with his liberty interest in his occupation by spreading rumors that he had sexually abused his step-daughter and committed arson. Reading the facts in the light most favorable to Hinkle, White gravely harmed Hinkle's reputation by his unprofessional conduct that resulted in the step-daughter's false claim of sexual abuse becoming well-known in the community. It is less clear whether Oliverio's suggestion that Hinkle committed arson was broadcast more broadly and also harmed his reputation.³ But even assuming Oliverio likewise harmed Hinkle's reputation, “mere defamation by the government does not deprive a person of ‘liberty’ protected by the Fourteenth Amendment, even when it causes serious impairment of one's future employment.” Hojnacki v. Klein–Acosta, 285 F.3d 544, 548 (7th Cir.2002).

“Rather, it is only the ‘alteration of legal status,’ such as government deprivation of a right previously held, ‘which, combined with the injury resulting from the defamation, justif[ies] the invocation of procedural safeguards.’ ” Mann v. Vogel, 707 F.3d 872, 878 (7th Cir.2013) (quoting Paul v. Davis, 424 U.S. 693, 708–09, 96 S.Ct. 1155, 47 L.Ed.2d 405 (1976) ); Townsend v. Vallas, 256 F.3d 661, 669 (7th Cir.2001). Thus, we conduct a “stigma-plus” analysis to determine whether there was “an injury to reputation along with a change in legal status ...” Somerset House, Inc. v. Turnock, 900 F.2d 1012, 1015 (7th Cir.1990) (emphasis added).

In this case, the defendants did nothing to alter Hinkle's legal status. Rather, reading the facts in the light most favorable to Hinkle, the defendants defamed him. Even if that defamation seriously impaired his future employment prospects, the state did not alter his legal status. Thus, while Hinkle showed a serious stigma, without the “plus,” he cannot maintain a due...