Jordan v. Fournier
| Citation | 324 F.Supp.2d 242 |
| Decision Date | 02 July 2004 |
| Docket Number | No. CIV.03-178-P-S.,CIV.03-178-P-S. |
| Parties | Jason JORDAN, Plaintiff, v. Martin FOURNIER, et al., Defendant |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Maine |
Kelly A. McMorran, Thomas P. Peters II & Associates, P.A., Lewiston, ME, for Jason Jordan, Plaintiff.
Michael J. Schmidt, Wheeler & Arey, P.A., Waterville, ME, Edward R. Benjamin, Jr., Thompson & Bowie, Mark E. Dunlap, Norman, Hanson & Detroy, Portland ME, William R. Fisher, Attorney General's Office, Augusta, ME, for Martin Fournier, James Lawlor, Roland Godbout, Ronald Gagnon, Richard Small, William Welch, Androscoggin, County of, City of Auburn, City of Lewiston, Maine Department of Public Safety, Maine Drug Enforcement Agency, Michael Cantara, Michael Kelly, Roy McKinney, Roger Stricker, Gerry Baril, Defendants.
AMENDED ORDER AFFIRMING THE RECOMMENDED DECISION OF THE MAGISTRATE JUDGE
The United States Magistrate Judge filed with the Court on June 3, 2004 her Recommended Decision (Docket No. 66). The Plaintiff filed his objections to the Recommended Decision on June 21, 2004 (Docket No. 67) and Defendants filed their response to those objections on June 24, 2004 (Docket No. 68) and June 25, 2004 (Docket No. 69). Defendants City of Auburn, City of Lewiston, Small, Welch and Lawlor filed their response to the Recommended Decision on June 28, 2004 (Docket No. 70) and Defendants Androscoggin County, Fournier and Gagnon filed their response to objections to the Recommended Decision on June 30, 2004 (Docket No. 71).
I have reviewed and considered the Magistrate Judge's Recommended Decision, together with the entire record; I have made a de novo determination of all matters adjudicated by the Magistrate Judge's Recommended Decision; and I concur with the recommendations of the United States Magistrate Judge for the reasons set forth in her Recommended Decision, and determine that no further proceeding is necessary.
1. It is therefore ORDERED that the Recommended Decision of the Magistrate Judge is hereby AFFIRMED.
2. The four pending motions for summary judgment (Docket Nos. 23, 25, 27 and 29) are GRANTED for all Defendants as to all of Plaintiff's claims against them.
Jason Jordan is the plaintiff in this 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action seeking damages from multiple defendants because on August 9, 2002, Officers Roland Godbout, Martin Fournier, and James Lawlor arrived at his 15 Witherell Road, Wales, Maine, home in the middle of the day and arrested him. There is no dispute that the officers made this arrest in the mistaken belief that Jordan was William Conly, a man who recently resided at the same address and for whom the officers had a valid arrest warrant stemming from the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency's "Operation Crackdown." Jordan claims that this mistaken identity arrest violated his Fourth Amendment rights to be free from unreasonable seizure1 and amounted to the intentional infliction of emotional distress under Maine law.
Four motions for summary judgment are now ready for decision. There is one by the a group that is made up of Gerry Baril, Roger Stricker, Roy McKinney, Michael Kelly, Michael Cantara, the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency, and the Maine Department of Public Safety. (Docket No. 23.) There is one by the "City defendants," consisting of the Cities of Lewiston and Auburn, William Welch, Richard Small, and James Lawlor. (Docket No. 25.) There is one by the "County defendants," being Androscoggin County, Martin Fournier, and Ronald Gagnon. (Docket No. 27.) And, there is one by Roland Godbout. (Docket No. 29.)
All four motions argue, in addition to other issues of liability, that Jordan's Fourth Amendment rights simply were not violated by his mistaken identity arrest. With this I agree, despite Jordan's insistence that the three arresting officers did not make adequate efforts to ascertain his identity at the time of his arrest; the mistaken arrest, albeit negligent, did not offend the Fourth Amendment. As Jordan has not generated a genuine dispute of material fact to the contrary, I recommend that the Court GRANT summary judgment to all the defendants on Jordan's Fourth Amendment claims. With respect to the state law claims against the arresting officers for intentional infliction of emotional distress, I recommend that the Court also GRANT the defendants' motions as to those claims as well.
A moving defendant is entitled to summary judgment "if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law." Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c). A fact is material if it has the "potential to affect the outcome of the suit under applicable law." Santiago-Ramos v. Centennial P.R. Wireless Corp., 217 F.3d 46, 52 (1st Cir.2000). A genuine issue is one that "may reasonably be resolved in favor of either party." Cadle Co. v. Hayes, 116 F.3d 957, 960 (1st Cir.1997).
As part of the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency (MDEA) "Operation Crackdown," the Androscoggin County Grand Jury indicted William Conly on a charge of drug trafficking on August 6, 2002, and on that day a warrant of arrest was issued for Conly by the Androscoggin County Superior Court listing his last known address as 15 Witherell Road, Wales, Maine, where Conly had lived until approximately two months prior to the time of the arrest.
On August 9, 2002, Roland Godbout was a police officer employed by the City of Lewiston, on assignment as an agent of the MDEA as of July 1, 2002. Prior to the arrest Godbout did not personally know William Conly or Jason Jordan but Godbout did obtain a photograph of William Conly from the Lewiston police file.
When a number of persons are to be arrested simultaneously, or at least as close in time as manpower and logistics permit, it is necessary for law enforcement agencies to pool their manpower in order to staff the various teams which will be sent to make the physical arrests. The goal of this approach is to avoid having persons the police are seeking to arrest being warned of that fact by receiving information about the arrests of others. In accordance with this goal, on August 9, 2002, Godbout, along with Deputy Fournier, who worked for the Androscoggin County Sheriff's Department, and Detective Lawlor, who worked for the City of Auburn Police Department, went to 15 Witherell Road around noontime to arrest William Conly. Lawlor's understanding was that a number of arrest warrants had been issued by the Androscoggin County Grand Jury, and the MDEA wanted to serve those warrants, and take those indicted persons into custody, in as short a time period as was possible.
As the officers got out of the van, Godbout went around to the back of the house to be sure no one escaped from the back door. The other two officers approached the front door. At that moment, Jordan was resting in bed at his home having left work early that day due to illness. He was just drifting off into sleep when he was awakened by the sound of his dogs barking. He heard "beating" on his front door while he simultaneously observed a "silhouette" on his back porch, this being Godbout. Upon exiting his bedroom, clad only in his underwear, Jason observed a uniformed police officer at his door. The officer, Fournier, began yelling or screaming through the door for Jason to put his dogs away. Jordan complied with this demand.
He then went to the door and opened it and encountered Fournier and Lawlor. One or both of the officers asked Jordan to step outside.3 Jordan asked if he could go in and get some pants on, to which an officer said, "No, this will only take a minute." The officers did not ask Jordan to identify himself. Jordan stepped out onto his front deck, at which time he was immediately grabbed, spun around, and handcuffed. When Jordan inquired as to the reason he was being arrested, he was told that grand jury indictments had been issued and that there was a warrant for his arrest for "trafficking." The whole episode happened fairly quickly with Jordan being given very little opportunity to say anything. Having learned a long time ago that you just do not argue with law enforcement officers, Jordan submitted to the arrest. Throughout this process Jordan remained clad only in his underwear. After several requests, Jordan was allowed to put on pants and shoes with the assistance of the officers, but he remained shirtless throughout his ordeal, his shirt having been thrown over his handcuffs.
During the entire time the officers were at his residence placing him under arrest, not one of them asked Jordan his name. Jordan states that he and his fiancee, who was also present, had repeatedly asked the officers what was going on, although Jordan at no time, in no way resisted the arrest.
Jordan was escorted by the officers, handcuffed, from his front steps to a waiting Androscoggin County prisoner transport vehicle parked at the end of his driveway. At the time of Jordan's arrest on his front porch, Godbout was not present but was around the back of Jordan's house. He rejoined the officers and Jordan on the way down the driveway. Fournier, it is undisputed, told Godbout that it was Bill Conly who had been arrested. Jordan was placed in the rear of the vehicle, while the three officers rode in the van's front area. The van made a stop at the Lewiston Armory to let out Godbout, and then proceeded to the Androscoggin County Jail.
Jordan was taken from the prisoner van to the jail booking area by Fournier and Lawlor. During the booking process at the jail, Jordan was asked various questions, including "what's your nickname" and do "they just call you Bill?" The two officers appeared...
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