Knowlton v. City of Wauwatosa

• Decision Date: 28 January 2022
• Docket Number: 20-CV-1660
• Parties: KATHRYN KNOWLTON, et al., Plaintiffs, v. CITY OF WAUWATOSA, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Wisconsin

KATHRYN KNOWLTON, et al., Plaintiffs,
v.
CITY OF WAUWATOSA, et al., Defendants.

No. 20-CV-1660

United States District Court, E.D. Wisconsin

January 28, 2022

DECISION AND ORDER ON DEFENDANTS' MOTION TO STAY PROCEEDINGS PURSUANT TO THE DOCTRINES OF YOUNG, HECK, AND PULLMAN

NANCY JOSEPH, UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE

Currently before me is Defendants' motion to stay proceedings in this case pursuant to the doctrines of Young, Heck, and Pullman. (Docket # 83.) For the reasons explained below, Defendants' motion is denied.

BACKGROUND

On September 8, 2021, Plaintiffs filed a Third Amended Complaint asserting sixteen claims for relief. (Third Am. Compl., Docket # 56.) Plaintiffs assert that Dennis McBride, who is the Mayor of the City of Wauwatosa, unlawfully enacted an emergency order that imposed a curfew on Wauwatosa streets from October 7, 2021 to October 12, 2021. This emergency order, Plaintiffs contend, gave rise to an increased presence of the Wauwatosa Police Department and resulted in the issuance of municipal citations for violating the order. Plaintiffs contend that Weber and McBride knew that the Wauwatosa Police Department was acting under an unlawful order that the police did not have probable cause to arrest Plaintiffs. Among Plaintiffs' requested relief are orders finding that the City of Wauwatosa's curfew was unlawful, illegally enacted, and unconstitutional. (Third Am. Compl. at 201.)

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Thirty-five out of 69 Plaintiffs have municipal citations pending in Wauwatosa Municipal Court for allegedly violating the emergency order. (Docket # 84 at 2.) In June 2021, the City of Wauwatosa moved for a stay of the municipal citation proceedings (Declaration of George M. Schimmel ¶ 3, Docket # 85) and City of Wauwatosa Municipal Court Judge Richard J. Baker issued an order granting the City's motion on July 28, 2021 (id.) Plaintiffs filed their Third Amended Complaint (Corrected) on September 8, 2021. (Docket # 56.) The City contends that because this new complaint materially changed the causes of action and expanded that scope of the litigation, it changed its position on staying the municipal proceedings and now wishes to lift the stay on the municipal proceedings and proceed in state court. (Schimmel Decl. ¶ 5.) Defendants filed the instant motion to stay the federal court proceedings pending resolution of the municipal proceedings on September 30, 2021. (Docket # 83.)

ANALYSIS

Defendants move to stay this case pursuant to the abstention doctrines of Younger, Heck, and/or Pullman. As an initial matter, the basis for Defendants' requested stay of the federal proceedings are municipal citation proceedings commenced against 35 of the 69 named Plaintiffs in this case based on alleged violations of the October 7 to October 12, 2020 curfew order. Defendants argue that with the exception of Count 10 in the Plaintiffs' Third Amended Complaint (violations of the Driver's Privacy Protection Act), “all Plaintiffs' claims involve allegations that an ‘unlawful' curfew order-which was in effect from October 7, 2020 - October 12, 2020, in Wauwatosa-resulted in Plaintiffs being subjected to illegal seizures, excessive force, illegal searches, and other constitutional violations.” (Docket # 84 at 2.) This is not entirely accurate. Several of the Plaintiffs in this case do not allege that they were present

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or in any way participated in the October 2020 protests. For example, the Third Amended Complaint alleges no facts connecting plaintiffs Andrew Aaron, Robert Agnew, Kamila Ahmed, Isiah Baldwin, Steven Conklin, Christine Groppi, Joseph Hayes, Sean Kafer, Joey Koepp, Rosalind Rogers, Mariah Smith, and Brandon Wilborn to the October 2020 emergency order. While some of these Plaintiffs indeed attended protests and allege such constitutional violations as excessive force and illegal seizures stemming from the events, the allegations do not arise from the October 2020 emergency order.

Taking plaintiff Andrew Aaron as just one example, the complaint alleges that Aaron was protesting in Wauwatosa on July 7, 2020 and August 13, 2020. (Third Am. Compl. ¶ 811.) He alleges that he was targeted by Wauwatosa Police Department officers for video recording the protests and was tackled to the ground, arrested, and his camera was seized. (Id. ¶¶ 812-820.) He was issued a municipal citation for disorderly conduct. (Id. ¶ 821.) Aaron alleges that he was arrested without probable cause, suffered...