Jackson v. Long

• Decision Date: 17 December 1996
• Docket Number: 96-1274,Nos. 96-1273,s. 96-1273
• Citation: 102 F.3d 722
• Parties: J. Ronnie JACKSON, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Charles H. LONG, Individually, and in his official capacity as Sheriff of Buncombe County, Defendant-Appellant. Teresa A. PENLAND, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Charles H. LONG, Individually, and in his official capacity as Sheriff of Buncombe County, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

Page 722

102 F.3d 722

J. Ronnie JACKSON, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Charles H. LONG, Individually, and in his official capacity

as Sheriff of Buncombe County, Defendant-Appellant.

Teresa A. PENLAND, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Charles H. LONG, Individually, and in his official capacity

as Sheriff of Buncombe County, Defendant-Appellant.

Nos. 96-1273, 96-1274.

United States Court of Appeals Fourth Circuit.

Argued Sept. 25, 1996.

Decided Dec. 17, 1996.

ARGUED: William Alfred Blancato, Bennett & Blancato, L.L.P., Winston-Salem, NC, for Appellant. Sean Patrick Devereux, Whalen, Hay, Pitts, Hugenschmidt, Master & Devereux, P.A., Asheville, NC; C. Frank Goldsmith, Jr., Goldsmith, Goldsmith & Dews, Marion, NC, for Appellees.

Before RUSSELL, NIEMEYER, and MOTZ, Circuit Judges.

Reversed and remanded by published opinion. Judge NIEMEYER wrote the opinion, in which Judge RUSSELL concurred. Judge MOTZ concurred in the judgment only.

OPINION

NIEMEYER, Circuit Judge:

When Buncombe County (North Carolina) Sheriff Charles H. Long received a complaint from a female inmate in the Buncombe County Detention Center that she had been raped by a jailer, Sheriff Long conducted a brief investigation and then referred the matter to the North Carolina Bureau of Investigation for a criminal investigation. While the criminal investigation was continuing, Sheriff Long dismissed both the accused jailer and the matron on duty on the floor where the incident allegedly occurred. He also issued a press release announcing his action, and in further public comments, he stated that if the dismissed jailers were cleared, they could reapply for their jobs. Criminal charges filed against the jailer accused of the rape were ultimately dropped, and the matron on duty was never criminally charged. Both, however, appeared to have been violating detention center policy at the time of the alleged incident.

Both dismissed employees filed actions against Sheriff Long under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging that they were deprived of their property interests in their employment and their liberty interests in their reputations without due process of law in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. They also alleged state law claims. Sheriff Long filed a motion for summary judgment in which he asserted, among other things, qualified immunity and immunity under the Eleventh Amendment. The district court denied the motion and this interlocutory appeal followed.

Because we find that Sheriff Long's conduct was shielded by qualified immunity and that the dismissed employees failed to assert a sufficient claim against him in his official capacity, we reverse and remand these actions to the district court with instructions to dismiss the § 1983 claims filed against Sheriff Long.

I

When inmate Sharon Brock returned to the Buncombe County Detention Center from work release on the evening of July 16, 1993, she complained to the matron on duty that on the previous evening she had been raped in her cell by Ronnie Jackson, the supervising jailer on duty at the time of the alleged assault. Inmate Brock showed the matron bruises on her pelvic region and scrapes on her chest and labia which she claimed were produced during the attack. The matron contacted her supervisor, and the Sheriff's Department immediately began an investigation. When Sheriff Long learned of the allegations the next morning, he suspended Jackson and another jailer, Teresa Penland, with pay, pending the results of the investigation. Penland was the matron on duty on the floor at the time of the alleged assault.

Jackson denied any sexual contact with inmate Brock, and Penland denied any knowledge of an assault, but both cooperated with the Sheriff's investigation, giving accounts of their interactions with Brock on the day in question. While some details of their stories differed, both stated that Brock was upset and periodically tearful on July 15 spending varying periods out of her cell on the telephone trying to arrange transportation for her work release the following day. Both also acknowledged that Jackson had brought inmate Brock some food and that another male jailer, Kelce Lytle, had accompanied Jackson to Brock's floor on that same day. Jackson and Lytle both reported that Penland had escorted Lytle to see some inmates, leaving Jackson unaccompanied on the women's floor for some period of time, in violation of detention center policy.

Several days after commencement of the departmental investigation, Sheriff Long requested that the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation ("SBI") undertake an independent investigation into potential criminal violations. When the SBI began its investigation, the Sheriff's Department ceased its own. Although no one in the Sheriff's Department participated in the SBI investigation, the SBI briefed Sheriff Long on its progress. After Sheriff Long learned that Jackson had failed a polygraph test when asked if he had ever had sexual contact with Brock and that Brock's own polygraph had been negative, but inconclusive, he terminated the employment of both Jackson and Penland on August 5, 1993. He refused to give any reason for the terminations, stating that these jailers served at his pleasure and it was his pleasure to terminate them.

Upon dismissing Jackson and Penland, Sheriff Long issued a press release as follows:

As a result of an internal investigation by the Buncombe County Sheriff's Department, two detention officers have been dismissed from employment at the Buncombe County Detention Center.

The investigation was ordered by Sheriff Charles H. Long after allegations were made of an alleged assault on an inmate in the custody of the Buncombe County Jail.

Sheriff Long has requested that the State Bureau of Investigation conduct an independent investigation into any possibl[e] criminal violation arising from this incident.

Further information regarding this matter will not be released at this time, pending investigation.

Long also made some public statements about the matter during the next several days. He told The Asheville Citizen-Times that the jailers were fired for violation of an unspecified departmental policy. The article also attributed to Long the following statements:

I did what was best for the department.... Any conduct over there (jail) will not be tolerated if it will put me or the county in peril.

Television station WLOS attributed the following to Sheriff Long

Any time we have an assault, or anything that might be of an unlawful nature it's a matter of concern ... we have a high liability in the detention center and we have a lot of worry ... we don't like for these things to happen.

WLOS reported Sheriff Long to have said that the jailers could reapply for their jobs if they were cleared of any wrongdoing.

News reports contained information from other sources, including the plaintiffs themselves, revealing their names and the fact that the nature of the assault was sexual. Jackson himself apparently informed reporters that he had failed a polygraph test.

Almost two weeks after being fired, Penland sent a letter to Sheriff Long requesting a "civilian board hearing." In her letter, postmarked August 18, 1993, Penland alleged that her August 5 termination was motivated by personal and not "occupational" reasons. Counsel for Sheriff Long informed Penland that she was not entitled to any appeal because she had missed the five-day deadline for disciplinary appeals prescribed by departmental Policies and Procedures. Moreover, counsel advised Penland that there was no provision for appeal of a Sheriff's decision to terminate employment. He informed Penland, nevertheless, that her dismissal would be automatically reviewed by the "Sheriff's Review Board" at its next regular meeting. Jackson never requested a hearing of any kind because, as he explained, Penland had advised him of the letter she had received in response to her request for a hearing.

In May 1994, Jackson was indicted for second degree rape and sexual activity by a custodian. In the course of pursuing his criminal defense, Jackson obtained numerous psychiatric records of inmate Brock, revealing a history of mental illness. The records disclosed that Brock had previously made unsubstantiated accusations of sexual abuse against a variety of relatives, guardians, and acquaintances, although her father did plead no contest to charges of sexual abuse. After revelation of these documents, state prosecutors dismissed all criminal charges against Jackson.

Jackson and Penland each filed actions against Sheriff Long, individually and in his official capacity, under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and under state law. They alleged that in firing them, Sheriff Long had deprived them of their property interest in their employment and their liberty interest in their reputations without due process of law in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment and of a parallel state constitutional provision. They also alleged under state law that Sheriff Long had defamed them in making his comments to the press. The complaints did not separately allege constitutional tort claims against Sheriff Long in his official capacity and did not allege that any regulation, policy, or practice of the Sheriff's Office formed a basis for the conduct they alleged was illegal.

Sheriff Long filed a motion for summary judgment, contending (1) that the plaintiffs did not have a property interest in their employment, (2) that the plaintiffs were not deprived of any liberty interest since all public statements were true and neither plaintiff had ever requested a name-clearing hearing, (3) that the plaintiffs failed as a matter of law to state a claim against him in his official capacity, (4) that in his official capacity he was entitled to Eleventh Amendment immunity, and (5) that in his individual capacity he was entitled to qualified immunity. ¹

In denying Long's motion in all respects, the district court denied Long's claims of...