Mueller v. Powell
| Decision Date | 04 June 1952 |
| Docket Number | No. 432.,432. |
| Citation | 105 F. Supp. 344 |
| Parties | MUELLER v. POWELL et al. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Western District of Missouri |
Victor B. Harris (of Smith, Harris & Hanke), St. Louis, Mo., James T. Blair, Jr., Jefferson City, Mo., for plaintiff.
Don C. Carter, Sturgeon, Mo., R. E. Ausmus and Warren D. Welliver (of Alexander, Ausmus, Harris & Welliver), Columbia, Mo., William E. Kemp and James P. Tierney (of Kemp, Koontz, Clagett & Norquist), Kansas City, Mo., for defendants Glenn Powell & Julius Wedemier.
William E. Kemp, Elliot Norquist and James P. Tierney (of Kemp, Koontz, Clagett & Norquist), Kansas City, Mo., for defendant M. Stanley Ginn.
By this action plaintiff seeks damages for an alleged invasion of his civil rights. He claims that he was deprived of his liberty by the defendants "under color of the authority vested in them by the statutes and regulations of the State of Missouri, * * *."
There are three counts in the complaint. The first count seeks damages perforce the provisions of Section 43, Title 8 U.S.C.A. relating to the subject of Civil Rights. By the second count plaintiff asks damages against the defendants for an alleged conspiracy to deprive him of rights vouchsafed to him by the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. By the third count of the complaint plaintiff prays damages for an alleged conspiracy covered by Section 47, Title 8 U.S.C.A. relating to the general subject of "Conspiracy to interfere with civil rights."
The several counts of the complaint are based upon an actual arrest of the plaintiff by the defendants as sheriff and deputy-sheriff of Boone County, Missouri, on the evening of May 4, 1950.
In substance the plaintiff charges that, not only was he deprived of a right, namely, his liberty, by actions of the defendants under color of law, but that the defendants had designed by a conspiratorial arrangement to take away from him his liberty and to hold him incommunicado for a period of hours. The question involved is the right to reparation for claimed deprivation of liberty and, remotely, or secondarily, whether the right of the plaintiff is paramount and superior to the right of the public.
The defendants deny the averments of the complaint save only that they were respectively sheriff and deputy sheriff for Boone County, Missouri, at all the times mentioned in the complaint. It is admitted, both in the pleadings and in the testimony, that plaintiff was in fact arrested at the time asserted by him and that he was held a prisoner and interrogated by the defendant Wedemier from the time of his arrest, at approximately 8:30 on the evening of May 4, 1950, at the farm home of said Wedemier six miles distant from Columbia, Missouri, until approximately six o'clock on the morning of May 5th, and thereafter held in custody until 5 o'clock of the same day. During the time he was restrained of his liberty he was interrogated and after breakfast, on May 5th, was taken to Jefferson City, Missouri, some thirty miles distant from Columbia, for the purpose of being subjected to a mechanical lie test. The plaintiff was agreeable to such test, or otherwise it would not have been made. It was inferred from the testimony that the lie test was negative and immediately upon the return to Columbia, the plaintiff was released by the defendants. Shortly thereafter a state action was commenced by plaintiff for false arrest, and depositions were taken in that proceeding. The state action was dismissed and the suit as above described was instituted here. The evidence taken in the state court action, by agreement of the parties, was introduced in the trial here.
The undisputed evidence was that late in the evening of March 18, 1950, at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Romack, residents of Columbia, Missouri, a brutal and horrible ravishment and murder was committed in said home. Mr. and Mrs. Romack were absent at a social affair and had employed one Janet Christman to sit with and attend their baby during their absence. Some time prior to midnight the murderer and ravisher was admitted into the home, with the result that he assaulted the victim, the said Janet Christman, and brutally ravished and murdered her. When the Romacks returned home near midnight they found their baby unharmed and the lifeless and mutilated body of the victim on the floor, with all the incriminating evidence of the struggle preceding the accomplishment of the murderer's purpose. The authorities were promptly notified. A physician was called who made a careful and painstaking examination of the body and at approximately the same time the enforcement officers, upon notice, came to survey the scene and to gather evidence that might be helpful in pointing the finger of accusation at the offender and apprehending him.
Defendant Wedemier, who had had a long and qualifying experience as a detective and police officer in St. Louis, Missouri, made a careful survey of the scene. He was, of course attended by the defendant Powell, the sheriff. Not only were the premises examined, but all persons who might have had some knowledge of the premises and the facts were interviewed. The victim had been instructed not to admit unknown persons into the home. The telephone was off its hook, a front porch light was burning, and a window had been broken under circumstances which made it clear that same had been done as a ruse. A garden tool, taken from an inner or utility room inside the house, had been used to break the window and had been left on the outside of the house. It was reasonably concluded by every one familiar with the facts, including the defendants, that the crime had been committed by some one who was entirely familiar with the premises and was acquainted with the victim.
By a process of elimination those who were familiar with the interior of the home, as the offender must have been, were reduced to two — Mr. Romack, the head of the house, and the plaintiff. An inquiry concerning the whereabouts of Mr. Romack completely exonerated him. He was present during the whole evening at a social gathering and many persons confirmed his presence there. According to the statements, as well as the testimony of the Romacks, (that is Mr. Robert Edward Romack and Mrs. Ann Romack) the plaintiff was entirely familiar with the interior of the home and was acquainted with the victim; in fact she had sat as an attendant on other occasions for a child of the plaintiff and his wife. Plaintiff and the Romacks were intimate friends. This close friendship had grown out of a comradeship between the plaintiff and Mr. Romack during the school years and the late war. Many instances occurring during the association of plaintiff and the Romacks caused the Romacks to suspect plaintiff as the offender and perpetrator of the crime. It seemed obvious to them, as well as to the enforcement officers, that entry to the home had been attained by or granted to some one recognized by the murdered girl. The plaintiff had been in the home many times and in the various rooms of the home. He was familiar with the location of many articles, including the cord found about the neck of the victim and which was used to accomplish her death. Mrs. Romack was positive in her assertions that the plaintiff was the author of the crime. She based this conclusion on the fact that the plaintiff was not only familiar with the interior of the premises but that on more than one occasion he had made lustful advances toward her and had sought to take liberties clear out of line with the proprieties and had done things in her presence and in the presence of others which caused her to characterize him as being over-sexed. Moreover, to Mr. Romack, he had on occasion made comments about the victim, her figure, and appearance, as well as her development, all of which was along lustful and licentious lines. The plaintiff customarily carried a mechanical pencil, and on occasions of tension or stress, or excitement, he nervously manipulated the pencil, and it appeared from the wounds of the victim that many of them, especially those upon her face and temple, were made by an instrument corresponding in many details with the pencil carried by the plaintiff. Furthermore, on the morning following the crime plaintiff called the Romacks' home to tender his assistance in "cleaning up the mess." The public had not been advised that there was a "mess" although it had been informed of the murder.
When the murder was committed the evidence indicated that the struggle of the victim for her life and her virtue had been carried on from room to room as blood was found in many places. A footprint was discerned which corresponded in some particulars with the possible footprint of the plaintiff.
To Mr. Romack, the plaintiff had said that on the night of the crime he was driving around and that he had no alibi save only that he had no scratch marks.
All of the above, and other matters not necessary here to mention, imparted to the defendants caused them, as enforcement officers, to suspect the plaintiff as the perpetrator of the horrible crime.
The inquiry of the defendants had extended...
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Mueller v. Powell
...upon these findings, seventy-four in number, that the conclusion and judgment were based that appellant was not entitled to recover. D.C., 105 F.Supp. 344. Appellant presents four assignments of error. First, that the trial court erred in not finding that the sheriff and his two deputies we......