Miami Health Studios, Inc. v. City of Miami Beach

• Decision Date: 12 January 1973
• Docket Number: No. 72-1927-Civ.,72-1927-Civ.
• Citation: 353 F. Supp. 593
• Parties: MIAMI HEALTH STUDIOS, INC., a Florida Corp., a/k/a Magic Figure Maker System, Inc., et al., Petitioners, v. The CITY OF MIAMI BEACH, a Political Subdivision of the State of Florida, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Florida

353 F. Supp. 593

MIAMI HEALTH STUDIOS, INC., a Florida Corp., a/k/a Magic Figure Maker System, Inc., et al., Petitioners, v. The CITY OF MIAMI BEACH, a Political Subdivision of the State of Florida, et al., Defendants.

No. 72-1927-Civ.

United States District Court, S. D. Florida.

December 26, 1972.

Supplemental Opinion January 12, 1973.

Paul F. Gerson, Miami Beach, Fla., for petitioners.

Joseph A. Wanick, City Atty., Miami Beach, Fla., Richard Gerstein, State's Atty., Stuart Simon, County Atty., Miami, Fla., for defendants.

FINAL JUDGMENT

MEHRTENS, District Judge.

This cause came on for hearing on Friday, December 8, 1972, after due notice, upon Petitioners' Motion for Temporary Restraining Order and other relief. The Court, having heard testimony presented by the parties and argument of counsel, hereby makes the following memorandum opinion its findings of fact and conclusions of law, in accordance with Rule 52(a), Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

Jurisdiction for this action is founded upon 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and 28 U.S.C. §§ 1343(3) and (4) and 2201.

Petitioner Miami Health Studios, Inc., a/k/a Magic Figure Maker System, Inc., is a Florida corporation engaged in business at 517 Arthur Godfrey Road on Miami Beach, Florida. The other named petitioners are employees or agents of the corporation who have been arrested and charged with violating various subsections of Florida Statute § 796.07 (1971), F.S.A., a copy of which is attached hereto as Appendix "A". The petitioner's premises consist of a regular gymnasium/exercise room equipped with weightlifting equipment, steam rooms and sauna baths, and individual massage rooms or booths.

Defendant City of Miami Beach is a political subdivision of the State of Florida. Richard E. Gerstein is the State Attorney whose jurisdiction, the Eleventh Judicial Circuit in and for Dade County, Florida, includes the City of Miami Beach. Rocky Pomerance is the Chief of Police of the defendant city. James Levenson is the Acting Constable for the Fifth District of the State of Florida. The other named defendants are individual police officers of the City of Miami Beach or Deputy Constables of the Fifth District.

Beginning on or about July 18, 1972 and on at least nine other occasions,¹ individual police officers of the defendant city, acting in undercover capacities, visited the petitioner's premises posing as potential customers. The August 14, 1972 "raid" was the only such raid against these petitioners conducted by the office of the Constable and his deputies, and as the evidence clearly showed, was conducted independently by that agency. No prior consultation was had with either the State Attorney's office or the Miami Beach Police Department. The August 14, 1972 raid, standing alone, would not require the exercise of this Court's equitable jurisdiction via the "special circumstances" test of Younger and its progeny (See, infra at p. 596). Although at the hearing the Court expressed concern over the disregard by the Deputy Constables of certain rights of the petitioners arrested on that occasion, whatever injury to petitioners' federally protected rights arising out of that separate occurrence could have been eliminated by petitioners' defense to that single criminal prosecution. All charges resulting from the August 14 raid by the Constable's office were subsequently dropped.

The Court cannot, however, consider each of the ten raids conducted by the Miami Beach police officers an isolated good-faith attempt to enforce F.S. 796.07, F.S.A. Each of the first nine raids was conducted in a similar manner as outlined below; the November 30, 1972 raid will be discussed separately. On each of the first nine raids, two undercover officers would enter the premises, seeking a massage treatment. Once the undercover officer had satisfied himself that the massage which he had received was violative of the provisions of the questioned statute, he would pay the prescribed fee. Marked bills were utilized on several occasions; at other times they were not used. The officer would thereafter wait for his partner to finish receiving his treatment and the two would then identify themselves and effectuate arrests of those employees who had given the massages, as well as the other employees who were on the premises. Two or three other police officers who had been stationed outside of the premises would then be signalled. They would enter the premises and would assist in the arrests, searches, seizures and transportation of the arrestees and seized items to headquarters for processing.

As many as six officers were present on several of the raids. Customers were searched and warned not to return to the premises. Several of the raids were covered by television cameras and the press. Arresting officers stated on numerous occasions that they were going to continue the raids and arrests until petitioner's employees quit their jobs and until the business was closed down. Some employees were unnecessarily detained in jail until "processing" was completed, for as long as seven hours; some were threatened with overnight detention pending bond hearings in the morning. "Evidence" was seized without search warrants from areas other than the cubicles in which the alleged misdemeanors took place. No search or arrest warrants were presented to petitioners on any occasion. In no instance did any police officer testify that there was any attempt to obtain either arrest or search warrants.

On November 30, 1972 a larger number of officers than on previous raids effectuated an arrest of all employees on the premises, a wholesale seizure of twelve massage tables, vibrators, business records and other items, including four telephones which were removed from the walls. The officer who decided to seize the telephones testified that it was his opinion that the telephones were "accouterments" of the crime which could be used to prove violations of the statute. The removal of the telephones and the seizure of all the equipment on November 30, 1972 effectively closed petitioner's business.

None of the charges against the petitioners have been brought to trial in the Municipal Court or the Dade County Criminal Court of Record, even though many of the charges were filed more than 60 days before this action was instituted. These charges would thus be subject to dismissal under the Florida Speedy Trial Rule, Rule 3.191, Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure, 33 F.S.A., if a demand for speedy trial were filed by petitioners.

COMITY CONSIDERATIONS

Based upon the foregoing factual findings, this Court has both the jurisdiction and the duty to exercise that jurisdiction in this case. The Court is cognizant of the teachings of Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37, 91 S. Ct. 746, 27 L.Ed.2d 669 (1971), its companions² and its progeny in the Fifth Circuit.³

The Supreme Court's holding in Samuels, n. 2, supra, is applicable to the facts and circumstances of the instant case:

"We therefore hold that, in cases where the state criminal prosecution was begun prior to the federal suit, the same equitable principles relevant to the propriety of an injunction must be taken into consideration by federal district courts in determining whether to issue a declaratory judgment . . ."

401 U.S. 66 at 73, 91 S.Ct. 764 at 768.

The relevant equitable principles were spelled out in Younger. In order to obtain equitable relief, the traditional prerequisite has been a showing of irreparable injury. But in light of the

"fundamental policy against federal interference with state criminal prosecutions, even irreparable injury is insufficient unless it is `both great and immediate.' . . . the threat to the plaintiff's federally protected rights must be one that cannot be eliminated by his defense against a single criminal prosecution." (Citations omitted)

Younger, supra, at 46, 91 S.Ct. at 751.

Similarly, the mere fact that a statute may be unconstitutionally vague or overly broad does not justify federal court intervention. To enjoin a pending state prosecution, the plaintiff must additionally demonstrate "bad faith, harassment, or any other unusual circumstance that would call for equitable relief." Id. at 54, 91 S.Ct. at 755.

Petitioners in the instant action came before this Court only after a series of eleven raids by the defendants, and after their business was effectively closed down by the removal of the massage equipment and the business telephones on November 30, 1972. Cf. Hunt v. Rodriguez, 462 F.2d 659 (5th Cir. 1972). Certainly the behavior of the defendants, especially that of the defendant City and its police officers, in continuing to arrest and harass the petitioners, in making wholesale seizures of petitioner's property without warrants and in not bringing any of the criminal prosecutions to trial so that petitioners could have had the opportunity to challenge the statute in question, meets the Younger special circumstances test to allow this Court to reach the merits of petitioners' claims. In Shaw v. Garrison, 467 F.2d 113 (5th Cir. 1972), a case arising out of the attempt by District Attorney Jim Garrison of New Orleans to connect Clay Shaw with the assassination of President Kennedy, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals stated:

"We hold, as the language of Younger makes clear, that a showing of bad faith or harassment is equivalent to a showing of irreparable injury for purposes of the comity restraints defined in Younger, because there is a federal right to be free from bad faith prosecutions.7 Irreparable injury need not be independently established."

And continuing from footnote 7:

"Irreparable injury is not merely inferred; irreparable injury for the purposes of Younger is conclusively shown by a showing of bad faith or harassment."

Id. at 120

This Court is satisfied that petitioners have demonstrated harassment and irreparable injury sufficient to invoke the Court's jurisdiction to grant prophylactic relief. "When the...