Southdakota v. Scheeler, Case No. 1:13-cv-504

• Decision Date: 03 March 2015
• Docket Number: Case No. 1:13-cv-504
• Parties: D.D. and S.D., a minor, Plaintiffs, v. James Scheeler, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Ohio

D.D. and S.D., a minor, Plaintiffs,
v.
James Scheeler, et al., Defendants.

Case No. 1:13-cv-504

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF OHIO WESTERN DIVISION

March 3, 2015

Judge Susan J. Dlott

Order Granting in Part and Denying in Part Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment and Denying Plaintiffs' Motion to Strike Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment

This matter is before the Court on Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment (Doc. 22) and Plaintiffs' Motion to Strike Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment (Doc. 25). Both motions are opposed. For the reasons the follow, Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment will be GRANTED IN PART and DENIED IN PART, and Plaintiffs' Motion to Strike Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment will be DENIED.

I. BACKGROUND¹

A. Facts

This action arises from the arrest of a teenage girl at a church festival. Plaintiff S.D., a fourteen-year-old girl, attended the St. Bartholomew church festival on July 28, 2012, arriving around 7:00 p.m. (Doc. 16 at PageID 116.)

Defendant James Scheeler is an officer with the Springfield Township Police Department who was on second shift patrol on July 28, 2012. Officer Scheeler arrived at the festival around 11:00 p.m. in response to a 10:57 p.m. "Officer Needs Assistance" call made by police officers on the scene at St. Bart's festival due to a fight in progress. Although the fight had been broken

Page 2

up by the time he arrived on scene, Officer Scheeler observed a large crowd containing numerous groups of teenagers as well as teenagers shadowboxing in an area that was still very loud due to continued screaming and hollering.

1. S.D.'s Testimony

S.D. and Officer Scheeler have different recollections of how they interacted on July 28, 2012. S.D. witnessed the festival fight and knew the names of the boys involved; she testified that her first encounter with the Officer occurred shortly thereafter. After the fight ended and while the police officers were arresting the people involved in the fight, S.D. approached a group of about five or six police officers to tell them what she witnessed and offer to help. (Doc. 16 at PageID 165.) S.D. testified that Officer Scheeler told her she needed to leave or go away, a response that irritated her. (Id. at PageID 170.) Officer Scheeler does not recall this incident. (Doc. 21 at PageID 531-32.)

According to S.D., after the Officer told her to go away, she started walking away with her friend, Dana Dawson, towards the rides area of the festival. (Doc. 16 at PageID 170-72.) S.D. testified that Officer Scheeler followed her and Dana Dawson. (Id. at PageID 170-71, 179.) S.D. and Dana Dawson talked as they walked, and S.D. made some comments, although she does not remember exactly what she said. She testified she may have said something to the effect of "fuck the police" because she was irritated with the group of police officers who did not listen to her earlier. (Id. at PageID 180-81, 183-84.) She also said something along the lines of "you guys are useless" and could have called the police "idiots." (Id.) In her deposition, S.D. initially testified that she might have called the police "bitches" but did not recall; later in her testimony, S.D. denied calling the police "bitches." (Id. at PageID 179, 236.) S.D. did not direct her comments toward any police officer. (Id. at PageID 179.)

Page 3

As she was walking away and talking to Dana Dawson, Officer Scheeler stopped S.D. and told her she needed to leave the festival. (Id. at PageID 180.) S.D. kept walking but stopped right before the exit because she needed to call her sister. (Id.) The Officer told her she needed to leave the festival, and S.D. told the Officer she couldn't because she needed to call her sister and would leave as soon as her sister was with her. (Id. at PageID 183.)

S.D. testified she then pulled out her phone to call her sister, and Office Scheeler told her to give him her phone. (Id. at PageID 186.) S.D. refused and said she needed to call her little sister so she could leave. (Id.) The Officer said, "Give me your phone; I'm going to break it." (Id.) S.D. refused, and then the Officer knocked the phone out of her hands. (Id.) S.D. does not remember if the Officer told her to leave again. (Id. at PageID 187.) She also testified she was focused on her phone and on calling her sister, and does not remember whether the Officer advised her that she could be arrested if she did not leave the festival. (Id. at PageID 191.)

S.D. testified that after the Officer knocked her phone out of her hands, "that's when he grabbed my wrist and turned - he, like, swirled me around because I was facing the other way and he grabbed my left wrist and, like, swirled me around and, like, dragged me back to the cop car." (Id. at PageID 186.) Later in her deposition, Plaintiff clarified that she was not dragged but rather "grabbed and forced to, like walk/run with him back to the cop car." (Id. at PageID 190.)

It is undisputed that when Officer Scheeler grabbed her arm to effectuate the arrest, S.D. pulled away. S.D. does not know if she screamed or said anything in response. (Id. at PageID 203.) Dana Dawson witnessed S.D. not complying with Officer Scheeler's commands to leave the festival and witnessed S.D. screaming and pulling away from Officer Scheeler multiple times while she was being arrested and taken to the police cruiser.

Page 4

S.D. admits to being "hysterical" while in the back of the police cruiser, but does not know if she screamed or said anything in response to being initially arrested. (Id. at PageID 203, 209, 221.) S.D. stated, "I don't think I was resisting because I let him put me in the cruiser without trying to get out" and confirmed that by the time she got to the cruiser, she would have stopped flailing or resisting. (Id. at PageID 221.)

S.D. did not tell Officer Scheeler she was injured that night and did not notice she was hurt until after she had been released by Officer Scheeler. The "Arrest and Investigation Report" created by Officer Scheeler on July 28, 2012 answers "No" to the question, "Does Arrested have any health problems, illnesses, injuries, or mental disorders." (Doc. 21-10 at PageID 657.) Plaintiff alleges injuries to her stomach near her belly ring and to her left wrist. The left wrist injury required therapy and ultimately surgery. (Doc. 16 at PageID 77-80.)

S.D. was charged with disorderly conduct pursuant to Ohio Rev. Code 2917.11(A). (Doc. 21-10 at PageID 657.) Plaintiff's juvenile court case was dismissed because she "completed thirty hours of community service, and completed her anger management classes." (Doc. 22-1 at PageID 722-27.)

2. Officer Scheeler's Testimony

Officer Scheeler does not recall an initial interaction where S.D. approached him after the festival fight. Rather, Officer Scheeler interacted with S.D. while he was performing crowd control measures. Officer Scheeler addressed S.D.'s group and told them to move their group and exit the festival, and the group responded by slowly making their way towards the entrance driveway area. (Doc. 21 at PageID 533.) Officer Scheeler was behind the groups he was trying to force to exit the festival. (Id. at PageID 535.)

Page 5

S.D.'s group caught Officer Scheeler's attention as he was performing crowd control measures, because the group was not exiting the festival, and S.D. was being loud. (Id. at PageID 536.) S.D.'s group was near the exit, and S.D. started using "vulgar language." (Id.) Officer Scheeler testified that he warned S.D. she needed to exit the festival, and gave her three to four warnings, "at which time she then continued with the vulgar language while families [were] exiting the festival." (Id.) The Officer testified that S.D. was "screaming vulgar language" amongst her friends, but the language was not directed at him. (Id. at PageID 541.) Officer Scheeler testified that S.D.'s group was pleading with S.D. to leave, but she continued being loud and obnoxious and using vulgar language. (Id. at PageID 545.)

The Officer testified that S.D. stopped short of the exit and refused the leave. (Id. at PageID 542.) He stated that she "was having a three-year-old temper tantrum in the middle of the festival [ . . . ] causing people to stop and watch, which hindered the rest of the people in the festival from leaving." (Id. at PageID 547.) Officer Scheeler does not recall S.D. being on the telephone, and he denies batting S.D.'s phone out of her hand. (Id. at PageID 543.) He testified that after numerous warnings to S.D.'s group to leave the festival, he advised S.D. that if she did not leave, she would be arrested for disorderly conduct. (Id. at PageID 548-49.) After advising her that she would be arrested, Defendant Scheeler grabbed S.D.'s left arm and put her into an escort position. (Id. at PageID 549.) Defendant denies twisting S.D.'s wrist. (Id. at PageID 552.)

Officer Scheeler then turned S.D. around and walked her approximately twenty feet to his police cruiser. (Id. at PageID 550, 553.) Officer Scheeler stated that S.D. then became "dead weight," and put her feet down on the ground and had a "temper tantrum" by refusing to move forward. (Id. at PageID 569.) Officer Scheeler testified that S.D. was not trying to run, strike

Page 6

him, or be violent, but was refusing to walk with him while he was escorting her to the car. (Id. at PageID 570.) The Officer did not place her in handcuffs. (Id.) S.D. did not complain of pain, and the Officer did not notice any blood on S.D.'s midriff. (Id. at PageID 572.)

B. Procedural History

Plaintiff D.D., on behalf of his daughter, S.D., filed this action on July 19, 2013 against Officer James Scheeler, Springfield Township, Ohio, and the Springfield Township Board of Trustees. Plaintiffs allege the Officer's conduct amounted to false arrest and excessive force in violation of S.D.'s federal and state Constitutional rights, deliberate indifference to her medical needs in violation of her federal...