Lombardo v. Saint Louis City, Case No. 4:16-CV-01637-NCC

• Decision Date: 01 February 2019
• Docket Number: Case No. 4:16-CV-01637-NCC
• Parties: Jody LOMBARDO and Bryan Gilbert, Plaintiffs, v. SAINT LOUIS CITY, Ronald Bergmann, Joe Stuckey, Paul Wactor, Michael Cognasso, Kyle Mack, Erich vonNida, Bryan Lemons, Zachary Opal, Jason King, and Ronald DeGregorio, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Missouri

361 F.Supp.3d 882

Jody LOMBARDO and Bryan Gilbert, Plaintiffs,

v.SAINT LOUIS CITY, Ronald Bergmann, Joe Stuckey, Paul Wactor, Michael Cognasso, Kyle Mack, Erich vonNida, Bryan Lemons, Zachary Opal, Jason King, and Ronald DeGregorio, Defendants.

Case No. 4:16-CV-01637-NCC

United States District Court, E.D. Missouri, Eastern Division.

Signed February 1, 2019

Kevin M. Carnie, Patrick Ryan McPhail Patrick Ryan McPhail, The Simon Law Firm, P.C., St. Louis, MO, Krystal Kathleen Weigl, Ryan Michael Sweet, Flint Law Firm, LLC, Edwardsville, IL, Andrew W. Callahan, Law Office Of Andrew W. Callahan, Fort Collins, CO, for Plaintiffs.

J. Brent Dulle, Myles Durkin McDonnell, St. Louis City Counselor's Office, H. Anthony Relys, Attorney General Of Missouri, St. Louis, MO, for Defendants.

NOELLE C. COLLINS, UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

This matter is before the Court on Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment (Doc. 63).¹ The Motion is fully briefed and ready for disposition. For the following reasons, Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment will be GRANTED.

I. Legal Standard

Summary judgment is appropriate when no genuine issue of material fact exists in the case and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. See Celotex Corp. v. Catrett , 477 U.S. 317, 322-23, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986). The initial burden is placed on the moving party. City of Mt. Pleasant, Iowa v. Associated Elec. Co-op., Inc. , 838 F.2d 268, 273 (8th Cir. 1988). If the record demonstrates that no genuine issue of fact is in dispute, the burden then shifts to the non-moving party, who must set forth affirmative evidence and specific facts showing a genuine dispute on that issue. Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc. , 477 U.S. 242, 249, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986). In determining whether summary judgment is appropriate in a particular case, the Court must view the facts in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party, and all justifiable inferences are to be drawn in his favor. Benford v. Correctional Medical Services , No. 1:11CV121 JAR, 2012 WL 3871948, at *4 (E.D. Mo. Sept. 6, 2012) (citing Celotex Corp. , 477 U.S. at 331, 106 S.Ct. 2548 ). The Court's function is not to weigh the evidence but to determine whether there is a genuine issue for trial. Id. (citing Anderson , 477 U.S. at 249, 106 S.Ct. 2505 ). "Credibility determinations, the weighing of the evidence, and the drawing of legitimate inferences from the facts are jury functions, not those of a judge." Id. (quoting Torgerson v. City of Rochester , 643 F.3d 1031, 1042 (8th Cir. 2011) ).

II. Background and Undisputed Facts²

On October 20, 2016, Plaintiffs Jody Lombardo and Bryan Gilbert ("Plaintiffs") filed a twenty-count action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and Missouri state law against the City and Police Officer Defendants. On December 8, 2015, Plaintiffs' son, Nicholas Gilbert ("Mr. Gilbert"), died while in the custody of the Saint Louis Metropolitan Police Department ("SLMPD"). There were multiple SLMPD officers involved in the incident, all of whom are named Defendants in the lawsuit along with the City of St. Louis ("City"). Those Officers include: Ronald Bergmann ("Seargant Bergmann"), Michael Cognasso ("Officer Cognasso"), Roland DeGregorio ("Officer DeGregorio"), Jason King ("Officer King"), Bryan Lemons ("Officer Lemons"), Kyle Mack ("Officer Mack"), Zachary Opel ("Officer Opel"), Joseph Stuckey ("Officer Stuckey"), Erich vonNida ("Officer vonNida"), and Paul Wactor ("Officer Wactor").³

Plaintiffs contend that Mr. Gilbert's death was the direct result of the use of excessive force (Counts V, VII, IX, XII, XIII, XV, XVI, XVII, and XVIII), a deliberate indifference to his need for medical care (Counts VI, VIII, X, XIV, and XIX), and negligence by Defendants (Count XX). Plaintiffs further allege that the City is liable for the death of Mr. Gilbert because its policies, customs, and practices caused the deprivation of Mr. Gilbert's constitutional rights and thus his death (Counts I-IV).

This Court previously dismissed Count XX against the City as well as the official capacity claims against all of the named Police Officer Defendants. (Doc. 22.) In Plaintiffs' response to the Motion for Summary Judgment, Plaintiffs indicated they are not pursuing their claims for deliberate indifference to medical needs or common law negligence claims. They, therefore, consent to dismissal of Counts IV, VI, VIII, X, XIV, XIX, and XX. (Doc. 79.)

Thus, the Counts that remain are as follows: the § 1983 Counts against the City based on its policies, practices, protocols, customs, procedures, and training (Counts I-III) and the § 1983 Counts against each named Police Officer Defendant in their individual capacity based on the alleged use of excessive force in violation of the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments (Counts V, VII, IX, XI, XII, XIII, XV, XVI, XVII, and XVIII).⁴

A. The Events in the Holdover Cell

The undisputed facts are as follows. On December 8, 2015, at approximately 1:35 p.m., Nicholas Gilbert ("Mr. Gilbert") was arrested by SLMPD officers on suspicion of trespassing and occupying a condemned building and for failing to appear in court for an outstanding traffic violation, a misdemeanor. After his arrest, Mr. Gilbert, who was five feet three inches tall and weighed 160 pounds, was brought to the holdover in the SLMPD's central patrol station. The holdover is a secure holding facility within the SLMPD's central patrol station where prisoners are kept on a temporary basis before being transported to the City's Justice Center downtown. The holdover is comprised of a booking area, where the clerk sits behind a semicircular desk, a main holding cell where prisoners are kept before they are booked, and a locked cell block with eight individual cells for prisoners after they have been booked. In the central patrol holdover, Mr. Gilbert was placed in the main holding cell. During the booking process, Mr. Gilbert was cooperative, and he checked "no" to a question asking whether he had any medical condition of which the police should be aware. After he was booked, Mr. Gilbert was transferred from the main holding cell to an individual cell. (Doc. 78 ¶¶ 13-16, 22, 24, 25, 26, 31; Doc. 86 ¶¶ 1, 3.)

There were several officers in the holdover area at this time, including Officers King, Wactor, DeGregorio, and Stuckey.

Officer King, who was in the holdover assisting a probationary officer with the booking process, observed Mr. Gilbert in his cell, grabbing at the air. Mr. Gilbert's behavior struck Officer King as unusual. Officer Wactor, who was also in the holdover area at the time, had observed Mr. Gilbert waving his hands in the air "almost like he was practicing some type of martial arts." Officer Stuckey, who was in the holdover behind the desk preparing paperwork for a prisoner transport run, had briefly noticed Mr. Gilbert acting strangely, rattling the bars of his cell, throwing his shoe, and bobbing up and down. Officer Stuckey noticed behavior from Mr. Gilbert that he associated with Organic Brain Syndrome.⁵ (Doc. 86 ¶ 84.) However, Officer Stuckey had only glanced at Mr. Gilbert for a second or two, had no contact with him, and had no idea whether he had mental problems. (Doc. 78 ¶¶ 31–32, 36, 42, 37, 43.)

After Officer King observed Mr. Gilbert grab at the air and when he looked up again after attending to his probationary officer, Officer King noticed that Mr. Gilbert was tying an article of clothing around the bars of his cell and putting it around his neck. Upon seeing Mr. Gilbert tie an article of clothing around the bars of his cell and to his neck, Officer King stated that Mr. Gilbert appeared to be trying to hang himself. Officers DeGregorio, Stuckey, and Wactor were in the holdover at the time that Officer King made that statement. Upon hearing Officer King, Officer Wactor went to notify a supervisor. Upon hearing Officer King, Officer DeGregorio looked up from his paperwork and saw Mr. Gilbert with clothing tied around his neck and connected to the top bars of his cell. Thereafter, Officer DeGregorio proceeded, like Officer Wactor, to attempt to alert a supervisor of the situation. And upon hearing officers state that Mr. Gilbert was trying to hang himself, Officer Stuckey, who was sitting in the holdover behind the clerk's desk, turned around and saw that Mr. Gilbert had an article of clothing around his neck. (Doc. 78 ¶¶ 31–33, 36, 38, 40–44.)

Officer Stuckey requested Ms. Veronica Wilburn, the clerk who booked Mr. Gilbert, to unlock the secure door to the cell block so that he could respond to Mr. Gilbert's cell. Officer Stuckey proceeded to Mr. Gilbert's cell, and he was followed by Officer DeGregorio and by Sergeant Bergmann, a supervisor who had just entered the holdover and been advised that Mr. Gilbert was attempting to harm himself. (Doc. 78 ¶¶ 45, 46–47.)

As Officer Stuckey approached Mr. Gilbert's cell, the cell door opened.⁶ When the cell door opened, Mr. Gilbert did not have any clothing tied to his neck. Early in the encounter, Mr. Gilbert had his hands up.⁷

Officer Stuckey then grabbed Mr. Gilbert by his left wrist and attempted to spin him around to handcuff him. He was able to cuff Mr. Gilbert's left wrist, but Mr. Gilbert evaded having his right wrist cuffed, and he began to struggle with Officer Stuckey and with Officer DeGregorio and Sergeant Bergmann, who had arrived in the cell as well. During the struggle, Mr. Gilbert was brought to a kneeling position over a concrete bench inside the cell. Officer DeGregorio attempted to control Mr. Gilbert by grabbing his left bicep and left wrist. Sergeant Bergmann attempted to control Mr. Gilbert by grabbing his right arm, which Mr. Gilbert was flailing and concealing underneath him in an attempt to avoid being handcuffed. While Mr. Gilbert was kneeled over the bench, Sergeant Bergmann and Officer Stuckey were able to get his right wrist cuffed. (Doc. 78 ¶¶ 49, 52, 53–57; Doc. 86 ¶ 8.)

The...