Sestito v. DeBrular
| Decision Date | 10 July 2009 |
| Docket Number | No. 1:09cv65.,1:09cv65. |
| Parties | Christopher SESTITO, Plaintiff, v. S.C. DeBRULAR, et al., Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Virginia |
Herbert Stanley Rosenblum, Rosenblum & Rosenblum, Alexandria, VA, for Plaintiff.
Michael Philip Freije, Eccleston & Wolf PC, Washington, DC, Alexander Francuzenko, O'Connell O'Connell & Francuzenko LLC, Rockville, MD, for Defendants.
In this § 19831 suit, plaintiff alleges that on August 2, 2007, two police officers responding to a noise complaint at plaintiffs mother's residence violated his Fourth Amendment rights by arresting him for public intoxication without probable cause and by conducting a warrantless search of the residence and its curtilage absent exigent circumstances. Defendants, the two responding officers and the property owners association, move for summary judgment as to plaintiffs constitutional and state-law claims on essentially four grounds. Specifically, defendants argue (i) that the property owners association cannot be held liable based on any municipal theory of liability; (ii) that plaintiffs arrest was supported by probable cause; (iii) that the warrantless search of the residence and its curtilage was justified by exigent circumstances; and (iv) that even assuming that either the arrest or the search was unconstitutional, defendants are entitled to qualified immunity because plaintiffs asserted constitutional rights were not clearly established at the time of the arrest and search. In addition, defendants move for partial summary judgment with respect to plaintiffs claim for lost wages.
The matter was fully briefed, and on July 10, 2009, the parties appeared for oral argument on defendants' motions.2 In the end, defendants' motions were denied in part and granted in part for the reasons stated from the Bench. This Order reflects that ruling and briefly states the bases for it.
Plaintiff Christopher Sestito is a Virginia resident whose mother owns a home located at 1004 Santa Maria Drive in Stafford, Virginia. The residence is part of a private community managed by defendant Aquia Harbour Property Owners Association, Inc. ("AHPOA"), a Virginia non-stock corporation which operates the Aquia Harbour Police Department ("AHPD"). Defendant Officer S.C. DeBrular is a police officer with the AHPD, and defendant Deputy J.M. Hierwater is a deputy sheriff with the Stafford County Sheriffs Department.
On August 2, 2007, the date of the arrest and search at issue, plaintiff was house-sitting his mother's residence while she was out of town on vacation. Plaintiff testified at his deposition in this matter that prior to the evening in issue he had been staying at his father's nearby residence and was planning to move later in the month to an apartment in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Plaintiff also testified that he intended to spend the night in question at his mother's residence. At or around 7:30 p.m., plaintiff, who was over the age of twenty-one, consumed one can of Bud Light with dinner and began to watch a baseball game on television. Plaintiff then consumed a second can of Bud Light at or around 10:00 p.m. Plaintiff testified that to the best of his knowledge, only a few other individuals were inside the home during that time, namely defendant's younger brother and a family friend living at the residence. Although plaintiff acknowledged that he had heard his younger brother laughing in the course of the evening and that he knew his brother often had friends at the house, he avers that he was unaware (i) that approximately twenty-two individuals were downstairs having a party and (ii) that many of those individuals were drinking alcohol and were either underage (under the age of 21) or minors (under the age of 18).
At approximately 11:00 p.m. that evening, plaintiff testified that he noticed two police cars with their lights flashing approach and park on the street outside the residence. At that point, he walked out of the front door and stood at the top of the front steps, where he greeted Officer De-Brular and Deputy Hierwater, who were walking up the driveway and who notified plaintiff that they were responding to a noise complaint. Plaintiff testified that he told the officers he had not heard any noise, but that he would apologize to the complainant if the officers identified the complainant. The officers, who were then standing on the front steps, informed plaintiff that the complaint was anonymous. Plaintiff then assured the officers that there was no noise coming from the house and that he would ensure that no one inside the home made any noise from that point forward. Plaintiff further testified that he then refused the officers' request to come inside the home, telling them that they would have to obtain permission from his mother. Although plaintiff testified that he offered his mother's cell phone number to the officers, he also avers that Deputy Hierwater responded that if plaintiff did not allow the officers inside the home, they would arrest plaintiff for public intoxication. After plaintiff again refused consent to search the home, the officers arrested plaintiff for public intoxication, and Officer DeBrular placed defendant in handcuffs.4
Both officers testified during their depositions that prior to arresting plaintiff, they smelled an odor of alcohol emanating from him. In addition, Deputy Hierwater testified that he observed plaintiff to have bloodshot eyes. Plaintiff does not dispute either of these observations. The officers also testified that plaintiff appeared to be agitated, which Deputy Hierwater testified was an indication, based on his experience, that plaintiff was intoxicated. Although plaintiff did not dispute that he was agitated with the officers' demands to come inside the home, he testified that he was polite to the officers during the pre-arrest exchange. These three factors—an odor of alcohol, bloodshot eyes, and agitation—are the sole observations of plaintiffs behavior cited by the officers as the basis for plaintiffs arrest. Notably, the record contains no evidence that plaintiffs speech was slurred, that he had any difficulty with balance, or that he engaged in any other behavior indicative of intoxication. Although plaintiff requested that the officers conduct a breathalyzer test on him, the officers elected not to do so; to the contrary, the record reflects that the officers did not perform (nor did they ask to perform) any sort of breathalyzer or field sobriety tests on plaintiff before or after arresting him.5
Plaintiff testified that after he was placed under arrest, Officer DeBrular walked around one side of the residence and, on circling the home and coming back from the other side, told Deputy Hierwater that he did not observe anything requiring their attention. Plaintiff further testified that Deputy Hierwater then walked around the side of the house. According to the officers' deposition testimony, they initiated these inspections of the property because they were concerned that an underage drinking party was occurring at the residence. Although Officer DeBrular testified that he recalled his dispatcher mentioning possible underage drinking when relaying the anonymous complaint (and Deputy Hierwater testified that he recalled Officer DeBrular relaying that concern), the call log, which is part of this record, mentions only music and screaming. In addition, the officers testified that they inspected the premises for possible underage drinking because, notwithstanding plaintiffs statements that there was no noise coming from the home, they also observed a number of vehicles parked along the driveway and on the street outside the house.6 Although plaintiff does not directly dispute this fact,7 Deputy Hierwater did testify (i) that none of the vehicles were parked illegally, (ii) that the vehicles parked along the street were consistent with visitors to other homes in the area, and (iii) that the officers did not attempt to identify the vehicles' owners. Finally, Deputy Hierwater testified during his deposition that at the time he walked around the side of the house, he did not consider the situation to present what he considered to be exigent circumstances.
Although the parties have devoted substantial effort to alleged disputes regarding Deputy Hierwater's observations and behavior after going around the side of the house,8 it is undisputed that a short time later, Deputy Hierwater opened the front door of the home, revealing approximately twenty-two individuals in the process of coming upstairs. After the officers conducted breathalyzer tests on a number of the individuals (but not plaintiff), some of whom were also issued summonses, plaintiff was ultimately taken into custody on charges of public intoxication, obstruction of justice, and three counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Thereafter, the officers transported plaintiff to the Rappahannock Regional Jail, where he was presented to a magistrate and ultimately arraigned the next morning before being released on the afternoon of August 3, 2007. Later on, plaintiff was found not guilty of the public intoxication and obstruction charges in a bench trial held in Stafford County District Court, and the three counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor were nolle prossed in Stafford County Juvenile Court.
In sum, the pertinent events at plaintiffs mother's residence that night, distilled to their essence and viewed in the light most favorable to plaintiff, are as follows. Plaintiff consumed two alcoholic beverages in an approximately three and one-half hour span. He was aware that at least two other individuals were inside the home and was aware that his brother might have friends at the home. When the officers arrived in response to an anonymous noise complaint, they had a conversation with plaintiff...
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Newby v. Brooks
...social event, and plaintiff stated he had one beer during the evening but exhibited no signs of intoxication); Sesito v. DeBrular, 634 F. Supp. 2d 615, 620, 622-24 (E.D. Va. 2009) (citing United States v. Brown, 401 F.3d 588, 597 (4th Cir. 2005) (finding arrest for public intoxication was n......