Jennings v. City of Stillwater, No. 03-6206.

• Decision Date: 14 September 2004
• Docket Number: No. 03-6206.
• Citation: 383 F.3d 1199
• Parties: Alison JENNINGS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CITY OF STILLWATER, a municipal corporation; Detective Robert Buzzard, individually and in his official capacity as police officer for the city of Stillwater; Officer Les Little, individually and in his official capacity, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit

383 F.3d 1199

Alison JENNINGS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CITY OF STILLWATER, a municipal corporation; Detective Robert Buzzard, individually and in his official capacity as police officer for the city of Stillwater; Officer Les Little, individually and in his official capacity, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 03-6206.

United States Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit.

September 14, 2004.

Mark Hammons (Tamara L.F. Gowens with him of the brief), Hammons & Associates, Inc., Oklahoma City, OK, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Margaret McMorrow-Love, Oklahoma City, OK, for Defendants-Appellees.

Before EBEL, KELLY, and McCONNELL, Circuit Judges.

McCONNELL, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiff Alison Jennings claims that members of the Stillwater, Oklahoma Police Department (the "Defendants") violated her constitutional rights by failing to adequately investigate an alleged rape and by discouraging her from pursuing prosecutions of the alleged assailants. The underlying facts stem from a sexual encounter between Ms. Jennings, then an Oklahoma State University ("OSU") student, and Alvin Porter, J.B. Flowers, Evan Howell and Marcellus Rivers, four members of the OSU football team whom we will refer to, for convenience, as the "football players." The encounter took place early Sunday morning on November 21, 1999, at a party at the house of a football teammate, Tim Sydnes. Plaintiff claims that she was raped; the football players maintain that the encounter was consensual. The football players were not charged with any crime as a result of these events.

In this suit brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, Plaintiff claims that lead investigator, Detective Robert Buzzard, did everything in his power to derail the investigation and make certain that the football players would be shielded from public and legal scrutiny. Specifically, Plaintiff alleges that Detective Buzzard failed to collect material evidence, failed to challenge the football players' account of the events, discouraged Plaintiff from prosecuting the football players in violation of state and federal law, and finally, caused the physical evidence from the alleged rape to be destroyed, making it difficult to maintain a civil action against the football players. The district court granted summary judgment to the defendants on all claims. For reasons set forth below, we affirm.

I. Background

Because this case arises on appeal from a grant of summary judgment, we will recount the facts in the light most favorable to the party opposed to summary judgment, namely Plaintiff. The case has not gone to trial and many of these facts are disputed. The question before us is whether, resolving all disputed questions of material fact in favor of Plaintiff, she has stated a claim for legal relief.

Shortly after the alleged assault, Plaintiff checked herself into a hospital. Pursuant to standard procedure, the Stillwater Police Department was notified, and two officers were dispatched to the hospital. There, a nurse assembled a "rape kit," which included samples of Plaintiff's blood and other bodily fluids. At about the same time, two other officers, Detective Buzzard and Officer Les Little, were dispatched to the Sydnes house.

Detective Buzzard was a 1994 OSU graduate. He had received an athletic scholarship to play baseball as a student. Detective Buzzard's second cousin, whom he sees about twice a year, is OSU's director of media relations. [424]. At the onset of the 1998-99 football season, Detective Buzzard addressed the football team about the police department's "role within the community and the involvement with citizens." [425.] Detective Buzzard served as lead investigator in the Jennings sexual assault case. In that capacity, he was primarily responsible for deciding who would be investigated and what evidence would be collected. [461].

After his visit to the Sydnes residence, Detective Buzzard went to the football team's on-campus offices to interview each of the accused football players. He met with each player for no more than half an hour. In written statements, each of the football players admitted to having some form of sexual contact with Plaintiff, but maintained that it was consensual. [See App. 705 (Howell); 706-07 (Rivers); 709-10 (Porter); 711 (Flowers); see also 415-18 (Report of Det. Buzzard)]. After this initial round of interviews, the football players were not again questioned by police. One further fact alleged by Plaintiff, which has some basis in the record [see 517-18] but is vigorously disputed by Defendants, is that prior to being interviewed separately by Detective Buzzard, the football players met together with Detective Buzzard and their coach, from which Plaintiff infers that Detective Buzzard might have assisted the football players in formulating a unified story and strategy.

Thereafter, Detective Buzzard interviewed Plaintiff. The session was videotaped. During this interview Plaintiff indicated that she had been drunk at the time of the alleged assault, [713-14] and that she might have trouble physically identifying each of the suspects [714]. Our review of the tape and transcript reveals that on several occasions, Detective Buzzard challenged her account of the events of the previous night. He stated that police had interviewed "numerous people" at the party and told Plaintiff "something is not jiving, okay, with what you're saying and what everybody else is telling me." [App. 714]. Later, at deposition, Detective Buzzard admitted that the "numerous people" who had contradicted Plaintiff's account were none other than the four football players. [App. 1011]. Detective Buzzard was also interested in whether Plaintiff had any part in leaking the story to the press, inquiring about this at both the beginning and end of the short interview. [See App. 714, 717]. Plaintiff expressed some reluctance to pursue criminal prosecutions. At the conclusion of the interview, Detective Buzzard said that he had some "paperwork to get." [717] After asking Plaintiff for a second time whether she had leaked the story to the media, Detective Buzzard placed a "waiver of prosecution" form in front of Plaintiff, which she signed. [717]. Detective Buzzard later testified that he never used a waiver of prosecution form in any of the other fifty rape investigations in which he has been involved. [993].

Plaintiff's signing of the waiver did not end the investigation. Many of the written witness statements were obtained after Plaintiff signed the waiver form. [See 392; 458] Over the course of the investigation, a team of nearly twelve officers collected over twenty written statements from potential witnesses. [1442, 1445].

Within twenty-four hours of her interview with Detective Buzzard, Plaintiff returned to the police station. She asked to retract the waiver of prosecution and to be re-interviewed by a female officer. The request was granted, and Plaintiff was interviewed by Officer Skye Woodward. [See App.137-97]. Officer Woodward is not a defendant, and Plaintiff apparently concedes that this interview was properly conducted. Plaintiff seemed more comfortable talking to Officer Woodward, and described the events in greater detail. Plaintiff told Officer Woodward that she had been uncomfortable discussing the case with Detective Buzzard (146) and that she did not feel Detective Buzzard gave her a fair chance to present her story because he was "more in favor of the football team and protecting the players." (147). Plaintiff further indicated she was confused about the purpose and effect of the prosecution waiver form. [147-48].

Plaintiff informed Officer Woodward that she was likely drunk at the party and could not remember all of the night's events. [142]. She insisted, however, that the sexual contact was not consensual. [145,153] Plaintiff stated that prior to the night in question, she had never spoken to any of the football players [155], and while she conceded that she might have agreed to have sex with one of the football players [167-68], she most certainly would not have agreed to have sex with all of them at the same time. [Id.]

The discussion moved toward whether Plaintiff wished to press charges against the football players. [185-96]. Plaintiff was at least partially mollified when she learned that the players had been suspended from school, "so that they got a little bit of ... what they deserve." [187]. However, the central issue on Plaintiff's mind was the public nature of the trial and the associated media scrutiny. [See, e.g., 188,191,193]. Ultimately, Plaintiff was less than certain that she wanted to prosecute.

The interview concluded as follows:

Q: [Officer Woodward] Is that what you think? Again I do not want to put words in your mouth.

A: [Plaintiff] Yeah. I mean, — I don't 100 percent feel like they got what they deserved, but I don't have the energy or anything to go on and do the whole legal thing.

Q: You're sure?

A: Yeah.

Q: I don't want you to feel like you don't have an opportunity.

A: Oh, I know. AndI — obviously, I did because I signed that waiver thing but after I got thinking about it last night, I was like, "No, that was stupid." So I came back in. But it really has a lot to do with them getting suspended today and the media. I don't want to deal with the media. Also I don't feel like seeing them again. I don't want to deal with them again.

* * *

Q: Do you have any questions? We'll just leave it at this.

A: So, okay, so this pretty much ends it. Like I don't want to do anything more about that. It is done. It's a done deal.

Q: It is your case. We're going to do what you want to do.

A Right.

Q: It is over.

A: Okay. I would much rather do that than have this huge court thing and have the media following me everywhere and calling me all the time.

[193-96].

Plaintiff maintains that the investigation into the alleged rape was deficient. In particular, she criticizes Detective Buzzard's decision not to re-interview the football...