Love v. Bolinger

• Decision Date: 22 May 1996
• Docket Number: No. IP 95-1465 C B/S.,IP 95-1465 C B/S.
• Citation: 927 F. Supp. 1131
• Parties: Joseph LOVE, et al., Plaintiffs, v. Steve BOLINGER, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Indiana

927 F. Supp. 1131

Joseph LOVE, et al., Plaintiffs, v. Steve BOLINGER, et al., Defendants.

No. IP 95-1465 C B/S.

United States District Court, S.D. Indiana, Indianapolis Division.

May 10, 1996.

Publication Granted May 22, 1996.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Linda D. Thompson, Indianapolis, IN, for Plaintiffs.

Ronald W. Frazier, Frazier Law Offices, John R. Maley, Barnes & Thornburg, Mary Ann Oldham, Office of the Corporation Counsel, John T. Roy, Stephenson Daly Morow & Kurnick, David L. Steiner, Deputy Attorney General, Sally F. Zweig, Johnson Smith Pence Densborn Wright & Heath, Indianapolis, IN, for Defendants.

ENTRY

BARKER, Chief Judge.

On June 14, 1995, Joseph Love died in his jail cell. His estate, his parents and his brother brought this lawsuit, alleging various federal and state constitutional causes of action against a number of state, county and city defendants, arising out of Joseph Love's arrest, the criminal proceedings against him, his death, and an alleged cover-up of the circumstances of his death. The matter is currently before the Court on Defendants Karl Manders' ("Manders") and Bob Ward's ("Ward") Motion to Dismiss for failure to state a claim pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6).¹ For the following reasons, the Defendants Motion to Dismiss is granted.

I. Standard for Motion to Dismiss

A motion to dismiss pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6) tests the sufficiency of the complaint and not the merits of the suit. Gibson v. City of Chicago, 910 F.2d 1510, 1520 (7th Cir.1990), quoting, Triad Assocs., Inc. v. Chicago Housing Authority, 892 F.2d 583, 586 (7th Cir.1989), cert. denied, 498 U.S. 845, 111 S.Ct. 129, 112 L.Ed.2d 97 (1990). All well-pleaded allegations are presumed to be true and are viewed in the light most favorable to the plaintiff; and we must accept as true all reasonable inferences to be drawn from those allegations. Whirlpool Financial Corp. v. GN Holdings, Inc., 67 F.3d 605, 608 (7th Cir.1995); McTigue v. City of Chicago, 60 F.3d 381, 382 (7th Cir.1995); Richmond v. Nationwide Cassel L.P., 52 F.3d 640, 644 (7th Cir.1995). The only question is whether relief is possible under any set of facts that could be established consistent with the allegations. Northern Trust Co. v. Peters, 69 F.3d 123, 129 (7th Cir.1995).

II. Background

The complaint alleges a plethora of federal and state constitutional violations against twenty-six defendants. Generally, plaintiffs allege that Joseph Love was falsely arrested by members of the Indiana State Police; that during the criminal proceedings against him, various defendants conspired to deny him adequate representation; that during and immediately after a competency hearing on June 14, 1996, various other defendants beat him and ultimately killed him by choking him; and that after this, various other defendants attempted to cover up the true facts surrounding his death. Plaintiffs do not allege that either Manders or Ward was involved in any of the acts occurring prior to Joseph Love's death. Therefore, a detailed summary of all of the factual allegations in the complaint is not necessary to address the issues concerning Manders and Ward.

Manders is the Coroner of Marion County, and Ward, the Chief Deputy Coroner. They are sued both in their individual and official capacities. The complaint alleges as follows: Manders and Ward prevented plaintiffs Gene and Johnie Love, parents of the decedent, from seeing the body of their son until June 20, 1995, six days after his death and after an autopsy had been performed. (Complaint, ¶ 57). An autopsy was performed on June 15, 1995, which "conclusively showed that Joe Love had a healthy heart", and also showed that Joe Love's body arrived at the pathology department of Indiana University with a purple and congested face and neck, "clearly visible during the autopsy and presented clear evidence of asphyxiation." Furthermore, the autopsy showed that Joe Love had blood in his stomach, lungs and throat, "all of which indicate internal trauma during the time he was still alive." (Complaint, ¶ 58). Ward and Manders withheld the full autopsy report from Love's family until October 1995, four months after the autopsy was performed, claiming to be awaiting toxicology reports which were actually completed by July 11, 1995. (Complaint, ¶ 62).

Despite the clinical findings, Manders and Ward appeared on television and proclaimed that Joseph Love had "just collapsed in the courtroom" and that he had died from a heart attack; and conveyed the impression that Joseph Love "had gone berserk in the courtroom, collapsing in a frenzied state that lead sic to his heart attack ..." (Complaint, ¶ 60). Subsequently, the "false story was changed" to statements and "leaks" that Joseph Love had died of asphyxiation. The official death certificate reflected death by asphyxiation. Another "false story" was then "leaked" to convey the impression to the public that "officers had sat on Joe Love to restrain him", accidentally causing asphyxiation.²

When Joseph Love's body was released on June 20, 1995, Ward told the Love family that all of the body parts were present. In fact, the brain and portions of the heart and throat were missing, as was discovered by an independent autopsy conducted that same day. (Complaint, at ¶ 63). Joseph Love's brain was given to his father Gene Love, in a bucket, in October 1995.³ (Complaint, ¶ 68).

Finally, the complaint alleges that various defendants, including Manders and Ward, released stories to the media, accompanied by a mug shot of Joseph Love released by the Sheriffs Department, "for the purpose of demonizing the memory and image of Joe Love in the public eye," for the purpose of discouraging any public interest or inquiry into the cause and manner of Joseph Love's death, and to "influence any potential jury or grand jury pool members by saturating the public with false information about the circumstances of Joe Love's death." (Complaint, at ¶ 71).

III. Analysis

The court's job has been made extremely difficult by the plaintiffs' shotgun approach to this case. Both the complaint and the Response Brief defy all usual forms. By speaking in generalities rather than analyzing different claims separately, and by lumping together the numerous defendants, plaintiffs have greatly increased the amount of time and energy the court was required to expend trying to determine exactly which factual allegations might give rise to particular causes of action against Manders and Ward.⁴

A. State Tort Claims

Although the language of the complaint makes it seem as if Plaintiffs are bringing state law claims of defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress,⁵ plaintiffs have simplified our task to some degree by declaring in their Response Brief that the sole bases for their claims against Manders and Ward are 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983 and 1985. (Response at 4). Plaintiffs state clearly, and we will take their statements at face value, that they "have not plead nor do they raise any tort claims in this present lawsuit", and that "any reference to criminal or tortious activity in the complaint is for the purpose of demonstrating overt acts in furtherance of the conspiracy or habit, pattern, and practice of the entity that violated the rights of the Plaintiffs...." (See, Brief at 2, 8-9, 14). Thus any state law tort claims presented in the complaint are hereby dismissed. We will limit our present inquiry to whether the facts as pled, and any inferences that can reasonably be made from these facts, can state any claim against Defendants Manders and Ward under 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983 or 1985.

B. § 1983

To bring a claim under § 1983, a plaintiff must allege (1) that an action taken by a defendant deprived the plaintiff of a right protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States and (2) that the defendant's action was taken under color of state law.⁶ Vasquez v. Hernandez, 60 F.3d 325, 328 (7th Cir.1995), reh'g denied, cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 116 S.Ct. 1545, 134 L.Ed.2d 648; West v. Phillips, 883 F.Supp. 308, 313 (S.D.Ind.1994). "The first step in analyzing a section 1983 claim is to identify the specific constitutional injury." Vasquez, 60 F.3d at 328.

Given the allegations against Manders and Ward, the issue may be narrowed as follows: whether the victim of state-occasioned killing, and/or his survivors, has any constitutional rights violated by a state-occasioned cover-up of the circumstances of his death. The complaint is unclear as to which constitutional rights were allegedly violated by the actions of Manders and Ward. In their Response Brief, plaintiffs allege that Manders and Ward acted under color of law "to deprive Joe Love of his rights to life and liberty, to equal access to the courts, to speech, to substantive and procedural due process, to be free of unwarranted and unreasonable searches and seizures, to privacy, and to fundamental fairness and to deprive his family of a full, fair and impartial investigation and prosecution of the people who killed Joe Love and who helped to cover up the killing ..." (Brief at 4-5, 12).

1. Joseph Love's Constitutional Rights

"After death, one is no longer a person within our constitutional and statutory framework, and has no rights of which he may be deprived." Whitehurst v. Wright, 592 F.2d 834, 840 (5th Cir.1979). The alleged cover-up by Manders and Ward took place after Joseph Love was killed, and thus could not have violated any of Joseph Love's constitutional rights. Id.; Guyton v. Phillips, 606 F.2d 248 (9th Cir.1979) ("the Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983 and 1985, does not provide a cause of action on behalf of a deceased based upon alleged violation of the deceased's civil rights which occurred after his death."). We do not hold that cover-up of a wrongful death is without civil or criminal effect; rather, we hold that "the victims of a cover-up are the decedent's survivors, not the decedent himself." Gibson, ...