Hutchins v. Peterson, 2:00-CV-457.
| Decision Date | 14 March 2001 |
| Docket Number | No. 2:00-CV-457.,2:00-CV-457. |
| Citation | 139 F.Supp.2d 575 |
| Parties | Lisa HUTCHINS and Dustin Hutchins, by his next friend and guardian, Lisa Hutchins, Plaintiffs, v. Michael PETERSON, Shawn Lundrigan, and Thomas L'Esperance, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Vermont |
Thomas Walter Costello, Thomas W. Costello, P.C., Brattleboro, VT, Herbert G. Ogden, Liccardi, Crawford & Ogden, Rutland, VT, for Lisa Hutchins, Dustin Hutchins, by his next friend and guardian, Lisa Hutchins bnf Lisa Hutchins, plaintiffs.
Nancy Goss Sheahan, McNeil, Leddy & Sheahan, P.C., Burlington, VT, James F. Carroll, Powers, English, Carroll & Ritter, Ltd., Middlebury, VT, Joseph Leon Winn, Vermont Attorney General's Office, Montpelier, VT, for Michael Petersen, Shawn Lundrigan, Thomas L'Esperance, defendants.
Plaintiffs Lisa Hutchins ("Hutchins") and Dustin Hutchins ("Dustin") (collectively, "Plaintiffs") bring this action against defendant-police officers, Michael Peterson ("Peterson"), Shawn Lundrigan ("Lundrigan"), and Thomas L'Esperance ("L'Esperance") (collectively, "Defendants"), for depriving Hutchins of her civil rights under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and the Vermont Constitution and for various common law torts stemming from their allegedly unlawful arrest and prosecution of Hutchins for distribution of crack cocaine. Lundrigan and L'Esperance ("Movants") move to dismiss the complaint under Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6) for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. Plaintiffs move to amend the complaint. For the reasons that follow, Lundrigan and L'Esperance's motion to dismiss (Paper 20) is DENIED and Plaintiffs' motion to amend the complaint (Paper 22) is GRANTED.
Around November 1997, various members of Vermont law enforcement, including Defendants, were conducting an investigation of an alleged "crack house" at 44 Maple Street in Brattleboro, Vermont. As part of that investigation, they hid a video camera in a van in a driveway across the street from 44 Maple Street in order to monitor the comings and goings of its visitors.2
On November 3, 1997, a day on which the police videotape was running from 9:15 a.m. until 4:30 p.m., Lundrigan entered 44 Maple Street to make an undercover buy of crack. There were several people present in the house, one of whom, a white woman, accepted Lundrigan's payment for the drugs. Lundrigan described this woman as "in her thirties with tattoos on her left arm" and with "dirty blond, shoulder length, straight hair."3 Compl. ¶ 11 (Paper 9). When Lundrigan returned to 44 Maple Street for another undercover buy three days later, he asked a man there named William Hathaway for the name of "the girl" who sold him the drugs. See Proposed Am. Compl. ¶ 13. Hathaway said that her name was "Julie."4 Id. ¶ 14.
On November 24, 1997, three weeks after Lundrigan's first undercover buy of crack at 44 Maple Street, Defendants went to Hutchins' residence "intend[ing] to confront and arrest [her]" because they believed her to be the "unknown `Julie' who had sold crack cocaine to Lundrigan on November 3." Compl. ¶¶ 17-19. Peterson and/or L'Esperance "told [Hutchins] she was not in any trouble" and then proceeded to question her "about her involvement in drug sales at 44 Maple Street." Proposed Am. Compl. ¶ 20. Hutchins told the officers that she had not been present at 44 Maple Street on November 3 and had never sold crack cocaine or any other drug. L'Esperance then asked her to step outside to the front doorstep of her apartment building and Hutchins complied.
Although Hutchins did not know it, L'Esperance's purpose in asking her to step outside was so that Lundrigan could view her from the parked vehicle outside in which he was sitting for a "one person show up."5 Compl. ¶ 22. Upon seeing Hutchins, Lundrigan signaled to the officers that she was the "Julie" they were looking for. Hutchins was then arrested, handcuffed and taken away. Dustin, her son, was at their residence during her arrest, and heard "his mother yelling to him when she was handcuffed" and "viewed her being taken away." Id. ¶¶ 28-29.
At some point after Hutchins' arrest (although the complaint does not say exactly when), the police "obtained information" that Hutchins "did not sell drugs at 44 Maple Street." Id. ¶ 33. However, Plaintiffs assert that "Defendants continued to press charges against [Hutchins] for a period in excess of five months." Id. ¶ 34. "On or about April 29, 1998," the charges against Hutchins were dismissed. Id. ¶ 37.
Hutchins' arrest and prosecution on federal criminal drug charges with a possible prison sentence of twenty years
(a) caused [her] to suffer from emotional distress and humiliation, (b) required her to report to a probation officer and abide by conditions imposed by the Court and the probation officer including random urinalysis testing and disclosure of confidential medical records, (c) caused [her] to be repeatedly named in newspaper articles as a suspected drug dealer, (d) caused [her] to require the assistance of legal counsel to fight the wrongful and unfounded charges, (e) caused [her] to require the assistance of a professional investigator to clear her name, (f) caused conditions of release allowing [her] to travel only in Vermont, and (g) thus effectively allowed plaintiff Dustin to travel only in Vermont.
Id. ¶ 35. Plaintiff Dustin "suffered humiliation, anxiety, embarrassment and loss of parental consortium." Id. ¶ 36.
Plaintiffs filed a complaint on October 31, 2000, in Windham Superior Court, Bennington, Vermont, alleging that Defendants' acts were intentional and violated Hutchins' rights under the Fourth, Fifth, Ninth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, "including the right to be secure against unreasonable search of one's person, the right to be secure in one's person, and the right not to be deprived of liberty without due process of law, all in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1983." Compl. ¶¶ 38, 41. They also alleged that Defendants deprived Hutchins of her civil rights secured by Articles 1, 9, 10, and 11 of Chapter I of the Vermont Constitution, "including the right to be secure in one's person, and the right not to be deprived of liberty without due process of law," in violation of the Vermont Constitution Chapter II § 71. Id. ¶ 43. Further, under Vermont common law, Plaintiffs alleged that the defendants' conduct constituted invasion of privacy, intentional infliction of severe emotional distress by extreme and outrageous conduct, false arrest and false imprisonment. Finally, Plaintiffs alleged that "as a result of the foregoing," Dustin suffered a loss of parental consortium. Id. ¶ 48. In their proposed amended complaint, Plaintiffs also seek to add a common law claim of malicious prosecution and assert that Defendants' acts were malicious in addition to being intentional.
Lundrigan and L'Esperance removed the case to federal court on December 8, 2000, and now move, under Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6), for dismissal of the entire complaint for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. As the first ground for their motion, they assert that, because they had probable cause to arrest Hutchins, their actions did not deprive her of a federally-protected right and therefore her § 1983 claim must be dismissed. Second, Movants argue that even if they deprived Hutchins of federally-protected rights, such rights were not clearly established and thus, they are entitled to qualified immunity on her federal claims. Third, Movants assert that Hutchins' state claims should be dismissed on the basis of qualified immunity as well.
Movants also argue that Dustin's claim of loss of parental consortium should be dismissed because it is derivative, and therefore its viability depends on the viability of the underlying tort claims. Their sole argument on this issue, which they only mention in a footnote in their memorandum and nowhere, for that matter, in their actual motion, is that because Hutchins' claims are not viable, neither is Dustin's. See Mem. on [sic] Supp. of Defs. Lundrigan's and L'Esperance's Mot. to Dismss [sic] at 4 n. 2 (Paper 21) [hereafter, "Movants' Mem."].
Plaintiffs move to amend the complaint to add some factual details, an allegation that the defendants acted with malice, and a state tort claim of malicious prosecution.
In considering a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim, a court must accept as true the factual allegations of the complaint and draw all reasonable inferences in favor of the plaintiff. Hamilton Chapter of Alpha Delta Phi, Inc. v. Hamilton Coll., 128 F.3d 59, 63 (2d Cir.1997). "[T]he district court may dismiss the complaint only if `it appears beyond doubt that the plaintiff can prove no set of facts in support of his claim which would entitle him to relief.'" Charles W. v. Maul, 214...
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