Mitchell v. City of Boston, 98-CV-11674-PBS.
| Decision Date | 26 January 2001 |
| Docket Number | No. 98-CV-11674-PBS.,98-CV-11674-PBS. |
| Parties | Marvin MITCHELL, Plaintiff v. CITY OF BOSTON, Trent Holland, and Robin Demarco, Defendants |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Massachusetts |
Noah N. Rosmarin, Adkins & Kelston, Boston, MA, for plaintiff.
Merita A. Hopkins, Kevin S. McDermott, City of Boston Law Dept., Boston, MA, for defendants.
On January 23, 1990, Marvin Mitchell, the plaintiff in this civil rights action, was convicted after a jury trial of forcible sexual intercourse with an eleven-year-old girl, and sentenced to nine to twenty-five years in state prison. Ultimately, he was exonerated by DNA evidence and released in April 1997.
Mitchell has now brought suit against the City of Boston and two Boston police officers, Trent Holland and Robin DeMarco. The complaint contains causes of action under federal civil rights law, state civil rights law, and state common law.1 The common thread that runs throughout these claims is the allegation that the individual defendants engaged in a conspiracy to convict Mr. Mitchell with fabricated evidence and perjured testimony while the City of Boston countenanced a pattern or practice of such illegal police conduct.
The individual defendants have moved for summary judgment on all of the claims against them. For the reasons stated below, the motion for summary judgment on Counts IV, V, VI and VII is ALLOWED. The individual defendants' motion for summary judgment on Count II of the complaint is DENIED with respect to Trent Holland and ALLOWED with respect to Robin DeMarco.
The following facts, unless otherwise noted, are undisputed:
On the morning of September 22, 1988, eleven-year-old Rhea DaSilva ("Rhea") reported to her mother ("Mrs. DaSilva") that she had been assaulted and raped on her way to school. She described her assailant as a slim, tall, light-skinned black man in his early twenties or late teens with short hair, and a long, narrow, clean-shaven face. She also described the assailant as being cross-eyed and wearing pinkish pants and a red and white shirt with some sort of emblem on it.
Mrs. DaSilva took Rhea to the Area B Boston Police Station to make a report. At the station Rhea spoke with an officer who completed an incident report. From there, Mrs. DaSilva took Rhea to the emergency pediatric care unit at Boston City Hospital, where both Rhea and her mother spoke with a detective from the Sexual Assault Unit of the Boston Police.
On the morning following the attack on her daughter, Mrs. DaSilva drove around her Roxbury neighborhood looking for someone who might fit the description of her daughter's assailant. At some point that morning, Mrs. DaSilva spotted Marvin Mitchell ("Mitchell") on Humboldt Avenue in Roxbury. At the time Mitchell was a slim, somewhat tall, and reasonably light-skinned black man in his early twenties. On that morning in particular he was also wearing a sweatshirt with a large red and white emblem on it. Unlike the description of the assailant, however, Mitchell had a well developed mustache and goatee and was not cross-eyed. Nor was he wearing pinkish pants. Mrs. DaSilva phoned the Area B Police Station and reported that she had located her daughter's assailant.
Trent Holland ("Holland") and Robin DeMarco ("DeMarco"), who were young officers and partners working on drug and other crimes, learned of the reported rape and were given a description of the assailant during roll call at the Area B Police Station. While he was standing on a Roxbury street corner, Mitchell was confronted by Holland and DeMarco and arrested for public drinking. Though the parties' dispute the circumstances and legitimacy of the arrest2, Mitchell was never prosecuted for the drinking offense.
Mitchell was taken to the Area B Police Station where he was booked. The parties' versions of what transpired during and subsequent to the booking diverge. Mitchell contends that he was interrogated by Holland concerning, among other things, what clothes he had worn the previous day. In response to these questions, Mitchell states that he told Holland that he was wearing the same gray pants that he was wearing at the time of his arrest. Both Holland and DeMarco contend that Mitchell spontaneously declared that he was wearing pinkish-colored pants the previous day. Neither officer noted Mitchell's supposed incriminating statement in an incident report, as would be required by police procedures. In addition, neither officer reported the alleged statement to the Sexual Assault Unit, as required by police policy. Indeed, no mention of Mitchell's alleged statement was made by either officer for well over a year.
Holland and DeMarco notified the Sexual Assault Unit concerning their suspicions that Mitchell was the assailant in the DaSilva case. The police arranged to have Rhea and her mother brought back to the police station to begin checking a photo book with hundreds of pictures for a possible identification. Mitchell was photographed and fingerprinted — procedures which would not have ordinarily been undertaken with a public drinking arrestee. Then the photo of Mitchell was shown to Rhea as part of an eight-picture photo array. Rhea identified Mitchell as looking like the man who raped her.3 After Rhea confirmed the identification of Mitchell in another photo array, Mitchell was arrested for the rape.
Since neither Holland nor DeMarco informed the Sexual Assault Unit of Mitchell's alleged statement about wearing pink pants the previous day, Mitchell's house was never searched following his arrest to either confirm or deny that he possessed a pair of pink pants or other evidence of the crime, as would ordinarily have been required by procedure.
On November 4, 1988, a grand jury returned a four count indictment against Mitchell, alleging two counts of forced sexual intercourse with a minor and two counts of unnatural sexual intercourse with a minor. During the grand jury proceeding, a detective from the sexual assault unit summarized the evidence against Mitchell, which did not include his purported pink pants admission. After the indictment, but prior to trial, both Holland and DeMarco received the prestigious Commissioner's Commendations for apprehending Mitchell, the alleged rapist.
Approximately one month before the trial, in December 1989, Holland contacted Assistant District Attorney Leslie O'Brien ("O'Brien"), who was prosecuting the Mitchell case. During his communications with O'Brien, Holland revealed for the first time Mitchell's purported statement that he had worn pink pants on the day of the crime. Holland further reported that Mitchell made other incriminating statements that he would remember when he saw Mitchell in person. Holland was then identified as a witness in the Commonwealth's case against Mitchell. Mitchell contends that Holland knew at the time he contacted O'Brien that the prosecution's case had been considerably weakened by the fact that Mitchell had submitted to a blood test that showed there was no match between his blood and a spot of bloodsemen mixture found on the victim's sweatshirt.
Mitchell's trial began on January 18, 1990, before Superior Court Judge J. Owen Todd. In addition to offering the testimony of Rhea and Mrs. DaSilva, the prosecution called David Brody of the Boston Police Crime Lab. Mr. Brody testified that, while the blood mixed with semen found on Rhea's sweatshirt did not match Mitchell's blood type, Mitchell could not definitively be ruled out as a suspect.4 Holland was intended to be called as the final witness. Holland took the stand, but before he testified concerning the circumstances under which Mitchell made his allegedly incriminating statement, Judge Todd ordered a voir dire examination of the witness. During the voir dire examination, Holland testified that while he was asking Mitchell routine booking questions, Mitchell confessed to wearing pink pants the previous day. After hearing an objection from Mitchell's attorney, Judge Todd indicated that he was not satisfied that the Commonwealth had demonstrated that Mitchell's statement was made following a valid waiver of his Miranda rights. Upon the Commonwealth's request, Judge Todd adjourned and agreed to delay his evidentiary ruling until the following day. After court had adjourned, Holland indicated to O'Brien that DeMarco, who was still Holland's partner, would also have information relevant to Mitchell's alleged statement.
The following day of trial, January 19, 1990, two local newspapers published articles reporting that Holland, who was currently investigating the high profile Charles Stuart murder case, was cited in a recent Massachusetts Appeals Court decision for having possibly committed perjury.5 When the trial resumed that day the parties agreed that Holland's testimony should be stricken.
The same morning, DeMarco, who had not been subpoenaed to testify and had not been identified by the prosecution as a witness, met with O'Brien. DeMarco was then called in lieu of Holland as the Commonwealth's final witness. DeMarco testified that, during Mitchell's booking, she and other officers were having a conversation about how people often wear the same clothes every day. According to DeMarco's testimony, Mitchell interjected by stating "I didn't have these clothes on yesterday, ... I had pink pants on." Based on DeMarco's version of events, Judge Todd held that Mitchell's statements were not procured in violation of Miranda and were therefore admissible.6
Mitchell's trial concluded on January 19, 1990. The jury deliberated for two days and returned convictions on two of the four counts. Judge Todd sentenced Mitchell to nine to twenty-five years in the state prison. During his incarceration, Mitchell's mother and brother passed away. Mitchell maintained his innocence throughout and vowed to clear his name...
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