Spiegel v. Cortese

• Decision Date: 14 January 2000
• Docket Number: 98-1790,Nos. 97-4113,97-4236,s. 97-4113
• Citation: 196 F.3d 717
• Parties: (7th Cir. 1999) Marshall Spiegel, Plaintiff-Appellee, Cross-Appellant, v. Joseph Cortese, Detective, Defendant-Appellant, and James Hennelly and Holly Zielke, Defendants, Cross-Appellees
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 717

196 F.3d 717 (7th Cir. 1999)

Marshall Spiegel, Plaintiff-Appellee, Cross-Appellant, v. Joseph Cortese, Detective, Defendant-Appellant, and James Hennelly and Holly Zielke, Defendants, Cross-Appellees.

Nos. 97-4113, 97-4236, 98-1790

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit

Argued January 20, 1999

Decided November 1, 1999

As Amended January 7, 2000

Rehearing and Rehearing En Banc Denied January 14, 2000

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division. No. 95 C 3697--Ruben Castillo, Judge. [Copyrighted Material Omitted]

Before Coffey, Ripple, and Kanne, Circuit Judges.

Coffey, Circuit Judge.

Marshall Spiegel sued Detective Joseph Cortese, four other City of Chicago police officers, an employee of the City's Department of Aging (collectively, the "individual defendants") and the City of Chicago under 42 U.S.C. sec. 1983, alleging that the individual defendants arrested him without probable cause in violation of the Fourth Amendment and that the arrest was conducted pursuant to an unconstitutional official policy or custom. The district court previously dismissed Spiegel's claims against three of the officers and the employee from the city's Department of Aging, holding that the four were not personally involved in Spiegel's arrest. Cortese argued at three separate stages in the case that qualified immunity shielded him from liability, but the district court rejected his argument, and, after a jury trial, entered judgment against him. Thus Cortese only appeals the district court's decision, arguing that the trial judge should have granted his post-trial motion for judgment as a matter of law because he was entitled to qualified immunity. Spiegel cross-appeals, arguing that the district court erred in dismissing the claims against the individual defendants other than Cortese and another police officer. The core issue in this appeal is whether qualified immunity shields a police officer who concludes that there is probable cause to arrest a suspect based on a putative victim's allegations that the suspect denies. Because we hold that qualified immunity applies in such a case, we reverse the judgment of the district court. As to Spiegel's cross- appeal, we affirm.

This lawsuit has its roots in an altercation between neighbors over noise at Hollywood Towers, a high-rise apartment complex in Chicago, Illinois. In January 1993, Loren Cherny and Min Bobin, then 73 and 74 years old, respectively, began renting an apartment directly above the apartment occupied by Spiegel and his wife Carol, who at the time were 36 and 42 years old, respectively. Soon after Cherny and Bobin moved in, the Spiegels began accusing them of making too much noise. Cherny and Bobin denied the accusations, but the Spiegels persisted in their accusations until Cherny and Bobin asked the condominium association to intervene and halt what they believed were excessive complaints by the Spiegels. The condominium association investigated the dispute and ultimately concluded that the Spiegels' complaints were unfounded.

Around 6 p.m. on May 29, 1993, Carol Spiegel confronted Cherny and Bobin in front of their apartment, complaining that noise from their apartment prevented her from taking a nap. Shortly thereafter, Marshall Spiegel appeared in the hallway, about 10 feet away from Cherny and Bobin, carrying his seventeen-month-old son. Spiegel backed Cherny against a wall and yelled, "come on, hit me, you old fart." At that time Spiegel kneed him, bruising Cherny's upper thigh.

Spiegel recalled the altercation differently. He asserted that when he arrived with his son, he overheard Cherny and Bobin screaming at his wife, and he complained that Cherny and Bobin had been making too much noise. According to Spiegel, Cherny responded, "tough," stepped toward him and shoved Spiegel's chest with both his hands, and Bobin also shoved him. The doorman subsequently appeared and broke up the confrontation, returning the Spiegels to their apartment.

On May 31, 1993, Spiegel went to the police department and filed a police report alleging that both Bobin and Cherny had shoved him during the May 29th confrontation. Although the officer interviewing him filed a report based on the incident, he advised Spiegel to wait a few weeks and then request a summons against Cherny and Bobin at the warrant office. Spiegel accordingly on June 21 went to the warrant office and advised Sergeant Kajari, a City of Chicago police detective, that he wanted to file charges against Cherny and Bobin. Two days later, he returned to the office and obtained a summons against Cherny and Bobin for battery. On June 25, Cherny and Bobin went to the same police station to file their own report based on the May 29th incident and were interviewed by Detective Cortese, whom Sergeant Kajari assigned to investigate the report. Detective James Hennelly also was present during the interview. Cherny and Bobin told Cortese and Hennelly that on May 29, Carol Spiegel knocked on their door around 6 p.m., and when they opened it, she began yelling about noise from their apartment. Cherny and Bobin further claimed that when Marshall Spiegel joined the altercation, he backed Cherny against a wall, dared Cherny to hit him and then kneed Cherny in the inner thigh. Cherny gave Cortese photographs of his bruised thigh, a report summarizing the incident that he filed with the condominium association and then showed Cortese the actual bruise.

Later the same day, Cortese reviewed the May 31st police report and documents Cherny and Bobin had provided relating to complaints both parties lodged with the condominium association after the altercation. In one complaint dated June 1, 1993, Cherny omitted mention of any physical blow by Spiegel. On June 25, Cortese called the Spiegels, spoke with Carol Spiegel and informed her that he needed to speak to her husband as soon as possible but did not see fit to question Carol at this time about the May 29th altercation. When Marshall Spiegel returned Cortese's call, Cortese told him that Cherny and Bobin had filed a battery charge against him and that he was subject to arrest and that he should report to the police station. Spiegel responded that he had filed charges against Cherny and Bobin two days earlier, and insisted that their charge against him was retaliatory. He further asserted that Cherny and Bobin had shoved him, that he had not physically attacked them and that he had corroborating witnesses, although he did not identify them. He also told Cortese that Cherny and Bobin had reported to the Illinois Department of Child and Family Services that he had used his child as a shield during the confrontation. Cortese gave Spiegel his Miranda warnings over the phone and advised him to retain an attorney. During the same phone call Spiegel spoke with Sergeant Kajari, and repeated his conversation with Cortese to him. Kajari advised Spiegel that he would not interfere with Cortese's investigation. After he retained an attorney, Spiegel followed Cortese's directive and reported to the police station, where he was arrested for battery. He was subsequently prosecuted for battery in Illinois state court and was acquitted of the charge after a jury trial.

In June 1995, Spiegel filed this action against the City of Chicago and five Chicago police officers--Detectives Cortese and Hennelly, Captain Brannigan, Sergeant Murphy and Sergeant Kajari. Spiegel alleged that: (1) his June 25, 1993 arrest violated the Fourth Amendment because it was not supported by probable cause; (2) the individual defendants conspired to deprive him of his Fourth Amendment rights; (3) the Fourth Amendment violation was carried out pursuant to an official policy or custom; and (4) the City was liable for any damages that might be assessed against the individual defendants based on the alleged unlawful arrest. Spiegel subsequently amended his complaint to add a claim against Holly Zielke, an employee of the City of Chicago's Department of Aging, alleging that she conducted a biased investigation (although the complaint does not specify how she became involved) and urged Cherny and Bobin to charge Spiegel, and urged the individual defendants to arrest him.

The individual defendants thereafter moved to dismiss the action, contending that Spiegel's arrest was supported by probable cause, and furthermore that the defendant-officers were entitled to qualified immunity; that Zielke was not responsible for any actions challenged by Spiegel; that Spiegel's detention was not excessive; and that Spiegel's allegations of a "conspiracy" to deprive him of constitutional rights were not supported in the record. The City filed a separate motion to dismiss, arguing that Spiegel's arrest was lawful and that the claim seeking to hold it liable for any damages assessed against any of the individual defendants was premature because no defendant had as yet been adjudged liable.

The district court granted the defendants' motion to dismiss the claims against Hennelly, Brannigan, Murphy and Zielke, holding that they were not responsible for the decision to arrest Spiegel, and also dismissed the conspiracy claim and the two claims against the City of Chicago, holding that Spiegel had inadequately alleged a conspiratorial agreement, that Spiegel's arrest was not the result of an unconstitutional policy or custom and that the pre-judgment respondeat superior claim against the City was premature. The court denied the motion as to the claims against Cortese and Kajari, holding that Spiegel had stated a claim based on the detectives' alleged failure to further investigate the charge against Spiegel once Spiegel had questioned the credibility of Cherny and Bobin.

In July 1996, Cortese and Kajari made a $5,001 offer of judgment pursuant to Rule 68 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure that included a disclaimer of liability. After Spiegel rejected the...