Pepke v. Fla. Dep't of Families
| Decision Date | 20 August 2018 |
| Docket Number | Case No. 18-cv-60432-BLOOM/Valle |
| Citation | 324 F.Supp.3d 1258 |
| Parties | Randolph Scott PEPKE, Jr., Individually and as natural parent and guardian of L.S.P; L.S.P and L.R.P., Plaintiff, v. FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF FAMILIES, et. al., Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Southern District of Florida |
Shaun Michael Zaciewski, Law Offices of Shaun M. Zaciewski, Miami, FL, for Plaintiff.
Jason A. Glusman, Carlos A. Garcia, Wicker Smith O'Hara McCoy Ford, P.A., Scott Mitchell Teich, Quintairos Prieto Wood & Boyer PA, Carrol Y. Cherry Eaton, State of Florida Office of the Attorney General, Fort Lauderdale, FL, Lars Olgerts Bodnieks, Quintairos Prieto Wood & Boyer, PA, Miami, FL, Brian D. Degailler, Quintairos, Prieto, Wood, Boyer, P.A., Orlando, FL, for Defendants.
OMNIBUS ORDER ON MOTIONS TO DISMISS
THIS CAUSE is before the Court upon Defendant Department of Children and Families' ("DCF") Motion to Dismiss Amended, ECF No. [73], Defendant Maria Gandul's ("Gandul") Motion to Dismiss Amended Complaint, ECF No. [74], Defendant Annette Jose's ("Jose") Motion to Dismiss Amended Complaint, ECF No. [83], Defendant Quina Munson's ("Munson") Motion to Dismiss Amended Complaint, ECF No. [84], Defendant Center for Family and Child Enrichment, Inc.'s ("CFCE") Motion to Dismiss Amended Complaint, ECF No. [85], Defendant Yolanda Nogueras's ("Nogueras") Motion to Dismiss Amended Complaint, ECF No. [113], Defendant Mike Caroll's ("Caroll") Motion to Dismiss Amended Complaint, ECF No. [114], Defendant Erica Lee's ("Lee") Motion to Dismiss Amended Complaint, ECF No. [147], and Defendant Belia Pena's ("Pena") Motion to Dismiss Amended Complaint, ECF No. [148], (collectively "Motions"). The Court has reviewed the Motions, all supporting and opposing filings, the record in this case, and is otherwise fully advised in the premises. For the reasons that follow, the Court finds that, under the Rooker - Feldman doctrine, it lacks subject-matter jurisdiction over Plaintiff's claims of constitutional violations under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, requiring the dismissal of this action without prejudice.
Plaintiff, Randolph Scott Pepke Jr. ("Plaintiff"), filed this lawsuit individually and as the natural parent and guardian of Lila Snow Pepke, Layla Sky Pepke, and Lily Rain Pepke (collectively "the children") against Defendants arising out of dependency proceedings filed against Plaintiff in state court. See ECF No. [60]. According to the Amended Complaint, DCF and CFCE are two political subdivisions of the State of Florida, Defendants Nogueras, Pena, and Lee were child protective investigators working for DCF, Gandul was a client relations coordinator working for DCF, Caroll was a secretary working for DCF, Jose was a quality management manager working for DCF, and Munson was a mental health professional responsible for providing reports to DCF and CFCE. Id. at ¶¶ 3-4, 7-12, 14. On November 6, 2015, DCF allegedly removed the children from Plaintiff's care and custody, placing them in foster care after receiving frivolous reports of abuse. Id. at ¶ 16. Plaintiff alleges the foregoing occurred without proper investigation or without use of alternative measures to consider the children's best interests. Id.
While the children were in foster care, Plaintiff alleges that CFCE failed to maintain their proper welfare and failed to maintain supervision over the children after receiving reports that the children were neglected, abused, and abandoned by foster families, the children's biological mother, and CFCE personnel. Id. at ¶ 17. In addition, Plaintiff alleges that CFCE's case managers failed to complete and submit multiple vital reports, documentation and welfare concerns to DCF. Id. at ¶ 18. DCF, in turn, ignored information it received regarding reports of child abuse, neglect, and abandonment of the children while in foster care and with the biological mother, and ignored incomplete home studies, case plans, the lack of communication with other agencies, the failure to provide services for the children, and the lack of communication with Plaintiff regarding the unavailability of case manager replacements. Id. at ¶ 19. Child protective investigators Pena, Nogueras, and Lee failed to properly investigate, knowingly gave false information at the shelter hearing, ignored medical examiner facts, and worked with the biological mother in an attempt to falsely accuse Plaintiff and deprive him of custody over the children. Id. at ¶¶ 21-22. Pena also directed non-party Sandra Murillo to file a false restraining order against Plaintiff which was later dismissed. Id. at ¶ 23. With regard to Gandul and Caroll, Plaintiff alleges they failed to properly investigate Plaintiff's numerous requests and complaints about Pena, Nogueras, and Lee's conduct during the years 2015 through 2017. Id. at ¶ 24. Jose purportedly failed to maintain an accurate record of the facts and events despite knowing about the abuse to the children and the reports of false information by DCF. Id. at ¶ 25. Munson failed to report known abuse to the children while in the biological mother's custody and the care of foster families while the children were in DCF's protective custody and under CFCE's supervision. Id. at ¶ 26. Plaintiff further alleges that Munson falsified information to DCF, the dependency judge, and CFCE about Plaintiff's conduct on two occasions.
During the course of the dependency proceedings in state court, from September 2016 to June 12, 2017, Plaintiff alleges that non-party child advocate agency employees, Brenda Crouch and Alison Irvin, submitted "vital critical time sensitive communications by phone and email requesting the termination of weekly visits" to CFCE case managers, which CFCE and DCF ignored. Id. at ¶ 28. Further, at a dependency hearing held on January 12, 2016, the guardian ad litem appointed to protect the children's interests voiced "serious concerns" when the children were placed with their biological mother. Id. at ¶ 29. Rather than investigate those concerns, Plaintiff alleges that DCF removed the guardians from the case without notice of a hearing to Plaintiff in March of 2016. Id. From March of 2016 until August of 2016, no guardian ad litem was appointed for the children. Id. at ¶ 30. Plaintiff states that DCF knowingly failed to investigate or properly convey vital information to the dependency court judges so that they could make decisions in the "best interests of the children." Id. at ¶ 31.
Plaintiff further alleges that long before the children were placed back in his care, the biological mother failed to attend hearings in dependency court or otherwise make a claim for the children after she falsely accused him and never attended a hearing after July of 2016, violating numerous court orders. Id. at ¶ 37. Despite recommendations and evidence demonstrating that Plaintiff was not a danger to the children and that it would be in the children's best interest to be in his permanent custody, DCF continuously failed to close the case and interfered with and harassed Plaintiff and the children. Id. at ¶ 38. By August 15, 2016, the children were placed back in Plaintiff's custody after it was determined that they would be harmed if left in the care of their biological mother and foster families. Id. at ¶ 32. Plaintiff further alleges that it was demonstrated to the dependency court that the biological mother had coached and manipulated the children to make up stories about Plaintiff. Id. After he received custody of the children in August of 2016, Plaintiff states that DCF continued with its frivolous filings and held at least 30 more hearings in an attempt to harass him and defame his character. Id. at ¶ 39. After the dependency court acknowledged the compelling evidence that continuing supervision should be terminated, supervision was officially terminated on May 19, 2018 and the case was formally closed by court order on April 3, 2018. Id. at ¶ 41.
During the course of the proceedings and prior to the return of the children, Plaintiff alleges that the biological mother subjected the children to physical abuse, verbal abuse, bullying, being forced fed unnecessary medication, being brainwashed to believe that Plaintiff was the culprit, being coached with lies and misrepresentations, having their homework neglected causing them to fail, and being left at home unattended for extended periods of time exceeding eight hours. Id. at ¶ 33. In addition, Plaintiff alleges that the children were subject to abuse while in DCF's custody and under CFCE's supervision, including being locked in rooms, being neglected leading to tooth decay and medical issues such as ring worm, being spit in their faces and food, being physically abused, and being forced to wear clothing and shoes that did not fit, which caused them injury. Id. at ¶ 34.
Based on the foregoing allegations, the 36-count Amended Complaint pleads the following claims against Defendants: 42 U.S.C. § 19831 (" § 1983") against CFCE (Count I), § 1983 against Pena individually (Count II), § 1983 against Nogueras individually (Count III), § 1983 against Lee individually (Count IV), § 1983 against Gandul individually (Count V), § 1983 against Caroll individually (Count VI), § 1983 against Jose individually (Count VII), § 1983 against Ronnita Waters ("Waters") individually (Count VIII), § 1983 against Munson individually (Count IX), § 1983 against Terilee Wunderman ("Wunderman") individually (Count X), negligence against DCF (Count XI), negligence against CFCE (Count XII), abuse of process against DCF (Count XIII), abuse of process against CFCE (Count XIV), abuse of process against Pena (Count XV), abuse of process against Nogueras (Count XVI), abuse of process against Lee (Count XVII), abuse of process against Gandul (Count XVIII), abuse of process against Caroll (Count XIX), abuse of process against Jose (Count XX), abuse of process against Waters (Count XXI), abuse of process...
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