People Helpers, Inc. v. City of Richmond

• Citation: 789 F. Supp. 725
• Decision Date: 13 April 1992
• Docket Number: No. 91-682.,91-682.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Virginia
• Parties: PEOPLE HELPERS, INC., et al, Plaintiffs, v. CITY OF RICHMOND, et al, Defendants.

789 F. Supp. 725

PEOPLE HELPERS, INC., et al, Plaintiffs, v. CITY OF RICHMOND, et al, Defendants.

No. 91-682.

United States District Court, E.D. Virginia, Richmond Division.

April 13, 1992.

Joseph William Kaestner, Thomas Bert Weidner, IV, Kaestner, Galanides & Spieth, Richmond, Va., for People Helpers, Inc., et al.

George Timothy Oksman, Michele Anne Gillette, Office of the City Atty., Richmond, Va., for City of Richmond.

Herndon Philpott Jeffreys, Jr., and John Adrian Gibney, Jr., Shuford, Rubin, Gibney & Dunn, Richmond, Va., for Joyce Riddell and William T. Riddell.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

RICHARD L. WILLIAMS, District Judge.

This matter is before the Court on the Defendant City of Richmond's (the "City") Motion for Summary Judgment, pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 56. For the reasons stated below, this motion is DENIED.

On January 16, 1992, this Court denied Defendants Joyce and William Riddell's Motion to Dismiss pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6). Subsequently, on January 29, 1992, the Court granted the City of Richmond's Motion to Dismiss as it pertained to Plaintiffs Rebecca and Gary Thomas, but denied the City's Motion in regards to People Helpers and Robert Elam, the chief operating officer of People Helpers. Thus, in the instant motion, the City is asking for summary judgment against Mr. Elam and his organization, People Helpers. This case is set to go to trial on April 27, 1992.

I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND

A. General Information

Plaintiff People Helpers, Inc. is a nonprofit Virginia corporation whose mission includes finding decent and affordable housing within neighborhood communities for individuals with mental and physical handicaps. In many instances, these individuals are black. In February of 1991, People Helpers rented apartments in and eventually purchased the building at 1207-09 West 47th Street in the City of Richmond (the "Building"). Subsequently, People Helpers moved in a number of handicapped individuals into the Building as tenants.

The Plaintiffs allege that the Defendant City of Richmond, through several of its agents, committed acts designed to frighten and to intimidate the Plaintiffs and thereby stop them from continuing to house physically and mentally handicapped individuals in the Building. Based upon these allegations, the Plaintiffs contend that the City violated their right to provide housing to blacks and disabled people free from intimidation, interference, and coercion pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 3617 and Virginia Code § 36-96.5. They seek damages, permanent injunctive relief, and a declaratory judgment against the City.

B. The Allegations of the City

The City maintains that the evidence in the case lays out the following scenario: In the Spring of 1991, the City's Chief of Staff, Joyce Wilson, was called by Defendant Joyce Riddell concerning the Building. Mrs. Riddell complained at great length about various objectionable activities going on there, including prostitution, drug addicts, overcrowding, and panhandling. (Wilson Aff. § 2) She also expressed her deep concern to Ms. Wilson about the "type" of person who was moving into the Building. Id. At about the same time, Mrs. Riddell made similar complaints to Councilman Charles Perkins, and Mr. Perkins asked Ms. Wilson to make the appropriate inquiries. In early July, Ms. Wilson contacted Lt. John Carlson of the Richmond Bureau of Police and asked him to look into the activities going on in the Building. Id. at § 5. Lt. Carlson then ordered two vice detectives, Harry Pherson and Randy Clouse, to investigate. (Carlson Aff. at § 4.)

Independently of Ms. Wilson's involvement and before she took any action on the complaints, another neighbor, Mrs. Diana Rollins, complained about the property to Ms. Eileen Wimbish, a city zoning officer. Although Ms. Wimbish admits that Mrs. Rollins made some statements indicative of biased and improper motives, her complaints did make out some possible violations of the City's zoning ordinance, including the illegal use of the Building as a "lodging house" or "nursing home." (Wimbish Aff. at §§ 3-4.) After obtaining authorization from her supervisor, Ms. Wimbish began looking into the matter. She learned that the property (then not owned by People Helpers) lacked a necessary document called a "certificate of zoning compliance" and asked the owner of the Building to apply for it. Id. at §§ 5-6.

Detectives Pherson and Clouse visited the Building on July 10, 1991. The detectives claim that they went to several apartments in the building and that the tenants spoke to them willingly. (Pherson Aff. at §§ 5-9.) Some but certainly not all of the tenants were clients of People Helpers. Detective Pherson states that two tenants who were not clients of People Helpers complained that the People Helpers clients were contributing to the excessive noise and public drunkenness in the Building. One of the tenants claimed that People Helpers was overcharging its clients for rent. Id. at § 12. Mr. Robert Elam arrived in the midst of the investigation and demanded to know what was going on. He briefly described People Helpers and his affiliation with it to the detectives. Id. at § 11.

Pherson and Clouse went back for a second investigation a few days later and spoke with tenants and friends of tenants who gave them the impression that People Helpers was billing multiple occupants of the same apartment for the full apartment rent. Id. at § 14. Despite their suspicions of fraud, the two detectives concluded that there was not sufficient evidence to prosecute either People Helpers or the Building owner. They reported their findings to Lt. Carlson and then closed their investigation of the Building. Id. at § 15.

Carlson, however, was not completely satisfied. He called the rental agent for the Building who confirmed that several apartments were being rented by People Helpers. (Carlson Aff. at § 6.) Next, Lt. Carlson contacted Social Security to ask about the process by which federal Social Security benefits are assigned to third parties, although he states that to the best of his recollection he never mentioned People Helpers or the reason for his inquiry. Id. at § 7. Lt. Carlson conducted no further investigation at this time and reported his findings to Joyce Wilson, the City's Chief of Staff.

Like Lt. Carlson, Ms. Wilson was unexplainably unsatisfied with what the investigation had turned up so far. Based on her experience, she somehow concluded that the complaints about the property fit the familiar pattern of an improperly supervised home for adults. (Wilson Aff. at § 6.) To further investigate, Ms. Wilson called Robert Elam who reacted in a way she labels as "assertive, defensive, argumentative, and very talkative." Id. at § 7.

Shortly thereafter, Elam and his attorneys requested a meeting which took place on August 1, 1991. Present at the meeting were Ms. Wilson, Lt. Carlson, another police officer, Mr. Elam, counsel for People Helpers, and Mr. Elam's personal attorney. Id. at § 8. At the meeting, People Helpers explained its activities in detail and Mr. Elam even offered to let the City review his personal records, which it declined to do. (Carlson Aff. at § 9.) Elam denied at the meeting that there was any client misbehavior, claiming that People Helpers did not deal with anyone needing a case manager, such as mentally ill people or mentally handicapped people; he said further that his clients were mostly persons who needed help managing their money, such as recovering alcoholics and recently released jail inmates. (Wilson Aff. § 8.) People Helpers' position was that any neighborhood complaints about tenant misconduct were pretextual lies offered to mask racism and other improper motives. Id. at § 9. It is the City's view that the meeting ended inconclusively. Id.

The very next day, August 2, 1991, Mrs. Wimbish (the City's zoning officer) made an inspection of the Building. The inspection was conducted with another City official and was accompanied by Mr. Elam and by a representative of the Building's owner. (Wimbish Aff. at § 9.) Mrs. Wimbish looked at most but not all of the apartments for evidence of illegal use, and she found none. Id. at § 8. Due to the fact that Mr. Elam "talked continuously," Mrs. Wimbish claims that she had to spend more time in the People Helpers apartments than in the others. Id. at § 9. Mrs. Wimbish inspected the leases Mr. Elam had brought with him and found nothing unusual or improper in them. Two days later, the certificate of zoning compliance was issued to the owner of the Building, and the City's chief zoning officer wrote an unequivocal letter indicating that the Building was not in violation of the zoning ordinance. (Letter of Roy Benbow to Joyce Wilson.)

Meanwhile, Mrs. Riddell kept up her campaign against the Building and its occupants. She continued to call Ms. Wilson and Lt. Carlson with complaints and persisted in her efforts to get the City to shut People Helpers down. (Wilson Aff. at § 10.) According to Ms. Wilson, Mrs. Riddell no longer made any allegations of specific tenant misconduct, but she did voice concerns about "black tenants on welfare and `section 8'ers' living in the Building." Id. In addition, at a meeting between some of the key players that was intended to be private, Mrs. Riddell chose to bring a full entourage of angry neighbors with her. One neighbor stated that "apartments should rent to the same calibre of people who already live in the neighborhood." Id. at § 11.

In October of 1991, after receiving complaints from Mrs. Riddell of panhandling, disturbances of the peace, public urination, public fighting, and building code violations, Lt. Carlson again decided to call Mr. Elam and arranged to meet Elam at the Building. (Carlson Aff. §§ 10-11.) Mr. Elam took Lt. Carlson through several apartments, and Carlson was genuinely impressed by the improvements Elam had made. Id. at § 12. Lt. Carlson then offered to serve as a mediator between ...