Smith v. Jackson, CV-06-12-B-W.
| Decision Date | 28 November 2006 |
| Docket Number | No. CV-06-12-B-W.,CV-06-12-B-W. |
| Parties | Clifford W. SMITH, Plaintiff, v. Joseph A. JACKSON, Gary Moen, Jeffrey Bearce and the Town of Winslow, Maine, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Maine |
Benjamin R. Gideon, Berman & Simmons, P.A., Lewiston, ME, for Plaintiff.
Edward R. Benjamin, Jr., Thompson & Bowie, Portland, ME, for Defendants.
ORDER ON DEFENDANTS' MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT
Clifford Smith brought a three-count complaint alleging excessive force by police officers in effecting his arrest in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1983, on negligence grounds, and in violation of the Maine Civil Rights Act. Defendants move for summary judgment on all counts. The Court concludes that the Defendant's guilty plea to criminal trespass does not preclude his claim of excessive force against the arresting officers. The Court further concludes that there are factual issues that preclude summary judgment on the issues of qualified immunity under § 1983, discretionary function under the Maine Tort Claims Act, and objective reasonableness under the Maine Civil Rights Act. Because the Plaintiff has conceded that summary judgment should be granted as to one officer and the town, the Court grants the motion for summary judgment as to those defendants, but denies the motion as to the other two defendants.
Clifford Smith and Lori Choie had a volatile, sometimes romantic relationship.1 Def.'s Statement of Material Facts (DSMF) ¶¶ 3 9, 40 (Docket # 12). Police officers from the town of Winslow, Maine had been called to Ms. Choie's residence at 7 Bellevue Street on numerous occasions, commonly to address some type of dispute between Ms. Choie and Mr. Smith; often when they arrived, either Ms. Choie or Mr. Smith or both would be highly intoxicated. Id. ¶¶ 38-40. On April 25, 2004, the Winslow Police had removed Mr. Smith from Ms. Choie's residence after she had called the police and, on the same day, he had been served with a trespass notice, advising him that he was prohibited from going to her residence. Id. ¶ 29.
On May 2, 2004, Mr. Smith was at a bar with friends and became intoxicated. Id. ¶ 30. He proceeded to Ms. Choie's residence to find the door locked. Id. ¶ 31. He forced the lock with a pocket knife and entered her house without knocking or making any further announcement of his presence. Id. ¶ 31, 32. After entering Ms. Choie's house, he found her in bed with another man. Id. ¶ 33. Mr. Smith decided to set fire to some pizza boxes that were on the stove and to take $21.00 that Ms. Choie had left on a table. Id. ¶ 47-49. After Ms. Choie awoke to find Mr. Smith in her house, the burned pizza boxes, and the missing $21.00, the police were called.2 Id. ¶ 47.
Officer Joseph Jackson was working his patrol shift in Winslow and at approximately 11:20 p.m., he was dispatched to Ms. Choie's residence, having received a report of a break in. Id. ¶ 34. It reported that the person who had broken into the house was still inside and was refusing to leave and confirmed that Clifford Smith was that person. Id. ¶ 35, 36. Officer Gary Moen was also on patrol and was handling a different complaint when the call about the Choie incident came in. Id. ¶ 37. Because Officer Moen had prior experience with Mr. Smith, having handled numerous complaints and calls for assistance at the Choie residence, he decided to respond to provide assistance to Officer Jackson. Id. ¶ 38. Sergeant Jeffrey Bearce also heard the radio traffic at about 11:20 p.m. Id. ¶ 41. Sergeant Bearce was aware that the Waterville Police had been looking for Mr. Smith to serve a Protection from Abuse Order on him. Id. ¶ 42. After confirming that the person at Ms. Choie's residence was the same Mr. Smith for whom the Waterville Police had been searching, Sergeant Bearce advised that he would come to the scene with the Protection from Abuse paperwork so that the Winslow Police could serve it on Mr. Smith. Id. ¶¶ 43, 44.
Officer Jackson arrived first and found Mr. Smith sitting in the hallway. Id. ¶ 45. When he went inside, he observed burned pizza boxes. Id. ¶ 48. Ms. Choie and the man she was with stated that Mr. Smith had broken into the residence, had started a fire, had taken $21.00 on the table, and had refused to leave. Id. ¶ 47, 49. After he exited the residence, Mr. Smith remained sitting on the front steps hunched over with his elbows on his legs.3 Pl.'s Statement of Additional Material Fact (PSAMF) ¶ 9 . By this time, the two other officers had arrived and all three officers were laughing and talking to Mr. Smith. (PSAMF) ¶ 11. While sitting outside, Mr. Smith was doing nothing to resist the officers. Id. ¶ 14. He was neither physically provocative nor aggressive toward the officers in any way. Id. ¶ 15. He was not attempting to flee. Id. ¶ 19. He was not using profanity, and was not verbally abusive toward the officers in any way. Id. ¶ ¶ 20. He was not moving in any way at all. Id. ¶ 21.
One officer said something to the effect: "You know what you did, now you just need to come with us." Id. ¶ 12. Mr. Smith may have mumbled something in response. Id. ¶ 13. At some point, Mr. Smith said in a mumbled, but not raised, voice something like "No, I'm not going anywhere." Id. ¶ 16. One officer began walking back to a cruiser and the other two officers remained in front of the stairs where Mr. Smith was sitting. Id. ¶ 17. Officers Jackson and Moen began to make fun of Mr. Smith's drunken state and to antagonize him and continued to do so for a while. Id. ¶ 22.
Officer Jackson then handcuffed Mr. Smith by the left hand, grabbed him and violently wrenched him off the stairs, with so much force that his whole body went up into the air. Id. ¶ 23. Officer Jackson threw Smith violently to the ground, thrusting his knee into Smith's back on the way down. Id. ¶ 24. As Smith's body struck the ground, his face smashed into the cement pad in front of the stairs where he had been sitting. Id. ¶ 25. As Officer Jackson was throwing Smith to the ground, Officer Moen was standing right next to him watching. Id. ¶ 26. After Mr. Smith was thrown to the ground, Mr. Smith said, `You broke my nose, you hurt me." Id. ¶ 28. In response, Officers Jackson and Moen laughed and denied throwing Mr. Smith to the ground, stating falsely that he had tripped and fallen down the steps. Id. ¶ 29. When the officers picked Mr. Smith up off the ground, his face was bloody. Id. ¶ 30. Although an ambulance arrived, Officer Jackson announced that he would personally transport Mr. Smith to the hospital by police cruiser rather than allowing the ambulance to take him. Id. ¶ 31. Mr. Smith subsequently pleaded guilty to a charge of criminal trespass; a burglary charge was dismissed upon that guilty plea. DSMF ¶ 113.
Plaintiff filed a complaint against Officers Jackson and Moen on three counts: (1) Violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1983, (2) Negligence; and, (3) Violation of the Maine Civil Rights Act.4 Defendants move for summary judgment as to all counts.
Summary judgment is appropriate only "if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law." Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c); Santoni v. Potter, 369 F.3d 594, 598 (1st Cir.2004). "Once the movant avers an absence of evidence to support the nonmoving party's case, the latter must adduce specific facts establishing the existence of at least one issue that is both `genuine' and `material.'" Sheinkopf v. Stone, 927 F.2d 1259, 1261 (1st Cir.1991) (internal citation omitted). An issue is "genuine" if "the evidence is such that a reasonable jury could return a verdict for the nonmoving party." Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 248, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986). A fact is "material" if it has the "potential to affect the outcome of the suit under the applicable law." Santiago-Ramos v. Centennial P.R. Wireless Corp., 217 F.3d 46, 52 (1st Cir.2000) (citation omitted). In applying this standard, the record is viewed in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party. FDIC v. Anchor Props., 13 F.3d 27, 30 (1 st Cir.1994).
In their motion for summary judgment, Defendants assert that the doctrine of issue preclusion bars the § 1983 claims. They note that following the incident, Mr. Smith pleaded guilty to the charge of criminal trespass. Defs.' Mot. for Summ. J. at 9. Defendants argue that Mr. Smith's plea and conviction for criminal trespass necessarily means that they were acting lawfully in arresting him and, further, that they had the right to use reasonable force to effect the arrest. Defs.' Mot. for Summ. J. at 9.
It is "well established that the doctrine of collateral estoppel, or issue preclusion, applies in civil rights actions brought pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983." Cinelli v. Revere, 820 F.2d 474, 479 (1st Cir.1987) (supplemental opinion); Davis v. Schifone, 185 F.Supp.2d 95, 100 (D.Mass. 2002). A federal court "must give the same preclusive effect to issues already decided as would be given by the courts of the state in which the federal court sits." Cinelli, 820 F.2d at 479; see also Kremer v. Chem. Constr. Corp., 456 U.S. 461, 466, 102 S.Ct. 1883, 72 L.Ed.2d. 262 (1982); 28 U.S.C. § 1738. In the state of Maine, a prior criminal conviction "conclusively establishes all facts essential to the final judgment of conviction." Napier v. Town of Windham, 187 F.3d 177, 184 (1st Cir. 1999) (quoting Hanover Ins. Co. v. Hayward, 464 A.2d 156, 160 (Me.1983). The "convicted party is precluded from litigating the issues essential to that conviction in subsequent civil actions." Napier, 187 F.3d at 184.
Under Maine law, a person is guilty of criminal trespass if he "[r...
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