Mountain Pure, LLC v. Roberts

• Decision Date: 13 June 2014
• Docket Number: Case No. 4:13–cv–00119–KGB.
• Parties: MOUNTAIN PURE, LLC, Angela Smith, Gerald Miller, Court Stacks, Kimberly Harbeson, Scott Morgan, Tracy Bush, Quinton Riley, Kadeena DePriest, William Morris, Plaintiffs v. Cynthia M. ROBERTS, Bobbi Spradlin, and John Does 1–20, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Arkansas

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MOUNTAIN PURE, LLC, Angela Smith, Gerald Miller, Court Stacks, Kimberly Harbeson, Scott Morgan, Tracy Bush, Quinton Riley, Kadeena DePriest, William Morris, Plaintiffs
v.
Cynthia M. ROBERTS, Bobbi Spradlin, and John Does 1–20, Defendants.

Case No. 4:13–cv–00119–KGB.

United States District Court, E.D. Arkansas, Western Division.

Signed June 13, 2014.

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B. Michael Easley, Easley & Houseal, P.A., Forrest City, AR, Timothy O. Dudley, Attorney at Law, Little Rock, AR, for Plaintiffs.

Richard M. Pence, Jr., U.S. Attorney's Office, Little Rock, AR, for Defendants.

ORDER

KRISTINE G. BAKER, District Judge.

On March 6, 2013, plaintiff Mountain Pure, LLC, and individual plaintiffs who are employees of Mountain Pure filed this action asserting Fourth Amendment claims under Bivens v. Six Unknown Agents of Fed. Bureau of Narcotics, 403 U.S. 388, 91 S.Ct. 1999, 29 L.Ed.2d 619 (1971), against named defendants Cynthia M. Roberts, a special agent with the Office of the Inspector General of the Small Business Administration, and Bobbi Spradlin, a special agent with the Internal Revenue Service (collectively, “named defendants”),

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as well as other agents named as John Does 1–20 (Dkt. No. 1). On December 20, 2013, plaintiffs filed an amended complaint (Dkt. No. 20). Plaintiffs allege that named defendants Ms. Roberts and Ms. Spradlin planned and executed a search of the Mountain Pure bottling plant that allegedly violated their constitutional rights under the Fourth Amendment. On January 24, 2014, named defendants filed a motion to dismiss (Dkt. No. 25), to which plaintiffs responded (Dkt. No. 27) and named defendants replied (Dkt. No. 31). For the reasons that follow, named defendants' motion to dismiss is denied.

I. Factual Background

The following facts are taken from plaintiffs' amended complaint (Dkt. No. 20), unless otherwise cited, and accepted as true at the motion to dismiss stage. On January 18, 2012, approximately 40 to 50 federal and state law enforcement agents searched the Mountain Pure bottling plant on Interstate 30 in Little Rock, Arkansas (Id. at 2, ¶ 4). The agents conducted the search pursuant to search and seizure warrants issued by U.S. Magistrate Judge Beth Deere. These warrants authorized the search for and seizure of evidence of alleged economic crimes in connection with a Small Business Administration loan made to John Stacks, the principal owner of Mountain Pure (Id. ¶ 5). Law enforcement had no reason to believe that Mr. Stacks or any employee of Mountain Pure was a drug dealer, gang member, violent criminal, or otherwise armed or dangerous (Id. ).

Plaintiffs contend that law enforcement agencies “conducted a SWAT team raid” (Id. ¶ 6). The agents approached the bottling plant in a long convoy with lights flashing. They surrounded the plant and blocked all exits. They were armed, some with their weapons drawn, and wore bullet proof vests (Id. ). Upon entering the plant, the agents secured the premises by forcing everyone present into one area and confiscating all cell phones (Id. ¶ 7).

During the search, some agents had their weapons drawn (Id. ). The agents searched the bottling plant for at least eight hours and perhaps longer (Id. at 3, ¶ 8). They refused to allow anyone to leave for at least three hours after the building was secured, held some for up to eight hours, and prohibited all communication with anyone outside the building, including the owner and corporate counsel (Id. ).

The agents, while detaining all employees, ordered some employees to submit to interrogation (Id. ¶ 9). Although the employees, including the individual plaintiffs, were not free to leave, the agents did not inform the employees of their Miranda rights (Id. ). Some employees, including individual plaintiffs, requested assistance of counsel, but their requests were denied (Id. ).

The agents seized thousands of documents during the search, many of which allegedly fell outside the scope of the warrants (Id. ¶ 10). For example, some seized documents concerned operation of the machines at the bottling plant, and their seizure prevented Mountain Pure from ordering parts and supplies, resulting in lost profits (Id. ). Plaintiffs contend that no reasonable officer could believe that these items were within the scope of the items authorized to be seized by the warrant (Id. ). The agents also seized personal property of individual plaintiffs, such as college textbooks and iPods, which plaintiffs contend were irrelevant to the investigation and beyond the scope of the warrant (Id. at 3–4, ¶ 11).

Plaintiffs in their amended complaint allege in some detail what certain individual plaintiffs experienced during the raid, including

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but not limited to agents shoving plaintiff Scott Morgan against the wall and holding him there with a hand against his throat, denying plaintiff Gerald Miller the right to speak with company counsel and informing him that he could not leave until he submitted to interrogation, continuing to interrogate and detain plaintiff Tracy Bush despite requests for counsel and a refusal to answer questions without counsel, and pointing a loaded firearm at plaintiff Court Stacks's head (Id. at 5–7, ¶¶ 17–22). Plaintiffs claim, in part, that the search was unnecessary as the agents could have secured the documents or other items seized with a subpoena (Id. at 4, ¶ 13). Plaintiffs also claim that “[t]he only discernible reason for a SWAT type raid was publicity, and that objective was achieved. The raid was publicized on both television and in the newspapers” (Id. ).

Plaintiffs allege in their complaint that the named defendants planned and executed the search. They contend the named defendants determined the search's scope and directed the actions of agents under their control, such as the refusal to release individual plaintiffs until they submitted to interrogation. They also maintain that the named defendants participated in the challenged conduct during the search.

II. Legal Standard

“To survive a motion to dismiss, a complaint must contain sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to ‘state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.’ ” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009) (quoting Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 570, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007) ). A claim is facially plausible “when the plaintiff pleads factual content that allows the court to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged.” Id. (citing Twombly, 550 U.S. at 556, 127 S.Ct. 1955 ). “While a complaint attacked by a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss does not need detailed factual allegations, a plaintiff's obligation to provide the ‘grounds' of his ‘entitle [ment] to relief’ requires more than labels and conclusions, and a formulaic recitation of the elements of a cause of action will not do.” Twombly, 550 U.S. at 555, 127 S.Ct. 1955 (alteration in original) (citations omitted). “When ruling on a motion to dismiss, the district court must accept the allegations contained in the complaint as true and all reasonable inferences from the complaint must be drawn in favor of the nonmoving party.” Young v. City of St. Charles, 244 F.3d 623, 627 (8th Cir.2001).

A government official sued in his individual capacity may raise the affirmative defense of qualified immunity. Qualified immunity “will be upheld on a 12(b)(6) motion only when the immunity is established on the face of the complaint.” Weaver v. Clarke, 45 F.3d 1253, 1255 (8th Cir.1995). The doctrine of qualified immunity “protects government officials from liability for civil damages insofar as their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known.” Stepnes v. Ritschel, 663 F.3d 952, 960 (8th Cir.2011) (quoting Pearson v. Callahan, 555 U.S. 223, 231, 129 S.Ct. 808, 172 L.Ed.2d 565 (2009) ) (internal quotation marks omitted). To determine if qualified immunity applies, the Court must conduct a two-prong inquiry by examining: “(1) whether the facts that a plaintiff has alleged ... make out a violation of a constitutional right and (2) whether the constitutional right violated was clearly established at the time of defendant's alleged misconduct.” Id. (alteration in original) (internal quotation marks omitted). “Unless the answer to both of these questions is yes, the defendants are entitled to qualified immunity.”

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Krout v. Goemmer, 583 F.3d 557, 564 (8th Cir.2009). The Supreme Court has held that the qualified immunity analysis in a Bivens action is identical to that in a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 lawsuit. See, e.g., Wilson v. Layne, 526 U.S. 603, 609, 119 S.Ct. 1692, 143 L.Ed.2d 818 (1999).

To conclude that the right that the government official allegedly violated is “clearly established,” “the contours of the right must be sufficiently clear that a reasonable official would understand that what he is doing violates that right.” Anderson v. Creighton, 483...