Temple v. Trenton City Police Dep't
| Decision Date | 30 September 2019 |
| Docket Number | Civil Action No. 3:16-cv-1339 (PGS) (LHG) |
| Parties | Liberty Bell Temple III, et al., Plaintiffs, v. Trenton City Police Department, et al., Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of New Jersey |
This matter comes before the Court on two motions to dismiss filed by all Defendants in this action. (ECF Nos. 125, 130). Defendants are seeking dismissal of the Third Consolidated Amended Complaint ("TCAC") filed by Plaintiffs Liberty Bell Temple III and Edward Forchion, wherein Plaintiffs raised several claims: unlawful seizure (counts 1 and 2); substantive due process violations (counts 3-6); procedural due process violations (counts 7, 13, 14, 17 and 18), violation of the equal protection clause (counts 8-9); first amendment retaliation (counts 10-11); failure to train under Monell v. Dept. of Social Servs. of City of New York, 436 U.S. 658, 694 (1978) (count 12); negligence (counts 15, 16, 19-23, 25-27); conversion (counts 24, 28); respondeat superior liability (count 29); and malicious prosecution (count 30). Plaintiffs also seek "special damages in an amount of at least $80,000" (count 31); punitive damages (count 32); and attorney fees (count 33). The Court has subject matter jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1331.
Plaintiff Edward Forchion ("Plaintiff" or "Forchion") is a well-known marijuana activist in New Jersey known to many as "NJ Weedman." (TCAC ¶ 26, ECF No. 119). In 2015, Forchion opened a restaurant called The Joint, and The Temple (together, "The Joint"), in Trenton, New Jersey. (Id. ¶ 27). Throughout its operations, The Joint "displayed colorful signs encouraging the legalization of marijuana." (Id. ¶ 28). The Joint is in a zoning district designated for business purposes. (Id. ¶¶ 29, 34). The Joint is located across the street from Trenton City Hall (Id. ¶ 29), and in close proximity to a federal courthouse.
The TCAC names the following Defendants1: the City of Trenton; Earnest Parrey, the Police Director of the Trenton Police Department (TPD) and policymaker with regard to officer training; Edelmiro Gonzalez, Jr., a TPD captain; Yolanda Ward, a TPD detective; Herbert Flowers, a TPD police officer; Richard Kachmar, the Clerk for the City of Trenton; Sheehan Miles, a TPD police officer; Brian Suschke, a TPD sergeant; William "Bill" Haumann, an assistant prosecutor and the Chief of Forfeiture at the Mercer County Prosecutor's Office ("MCPO"); Brian Hawkins, owner and operator of Hawk's Recovery and Towing, Inc. ("Hawk's Towing"); Hawk's Towing; Angelo Onofri, the prosecutor at MCPO; John Boyle, an assistant prosecutor at MCPO; Stephanie Katz, an assistant prosecutor at the MCPO; and Kimberly Wilson, the Chief Municipal Prosecutor at the Trenton Department of Law. (Id. ¶¶ 7-25).
On February 28, 2016, TPD officers arrived at The Joint to enforce a Trenton noise ordinance and forced everyone to leave the premises. (Id. ¶ 40). Plaintiffs allege that the TPD officers arrived at The Joint "after 11 p.m. but before 2 a.m." (Id. ¶ 40). Plaintiffs allege, on information and belief, that Defendant Gonzalez and other Defendant TPD officers had no reasonable suspicion that a crime had been committed when they ordered everyone to vacate The Joint. (Id. ¶ 41). Plaintiffs further allege, upon information and belief, that Defendant Gonzalez made "false statements in an affidavit by stating that he and the other Defendant Officers were dispatched to Forchion's business [on February 28, 2016] in response to reports of disorderly conduct involving a street fight." (Id. ¶ 42). Plaintiffs also allege that (Id. ¶ 43).
Defendants—relying on a police report (City Defendants' Moving Brief, Ex. 5, February 28, 2016 Trenton Police and Fire Event Report)—dispute Plaintiffs' account of what occurred on the evening of February 28, 2016. Defendants contend that: the TPD officers were responding to a call reporting a street fight at approximately 2:30 a.m.; the customers in The Joint had exited the restaurant prior to the officers' arrival; and officers at the scene observed several men fighting and a crowd of about thirty people in front of the restaurant. (See id).
Plaintiffs allege that Defendants "waged a campaign against" Forchion and The Joint. (Id. at ¶ 46). TPD officers allegedly targeted and stopped The Joint's customers and instructed themnot to patronize the business. (Id.). In addition, TPD officers contacted neighboring businesses to prohibit The Joint's customers from using their parking lots, and the police began to routinely park police vehicles near the business. (Id. ¶¶ 47-48). Plaintiffs contend that these actions resulted in significant financial losses. (Id. ¶ 49).
TPD officers also "routinely" issued citations to The Joint for violating Trenton Ordinance § 146-22(A) (the "Ordinance"), which governs the operating hours of businesses:
(Trenton, N.J. Code § 146-22; TCAC ¶ 30). Plaintiffs claim that based on The Joint's proximity to a residential property, the Ordinance only restricts him from operating the business from 2:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. (TCAC ¶¶ 32-39). Plaintiffs further allege that TPD officer filed several false reports regarding The Joint's operation after 11 p.m (but before 2 a.m.). (Id. ¶¶ 43, 44).
In response to Forchion initiating this action alleging, inter alia, the allegations set forth above, he alleges that "even more police harassment was perpetuated on Mr. Forchion and his business patrons." (Id. ¶ 51). TPD officers continued issuing citations and continued parking police vehicles outside of The Joint. (Id.).
On April 18, 2016, law enforcement obtained a warrant authorizing a search of The Joint. (City Defendants' Moving Br., Ex. 9, April 18, 2016 Search Warrant). On April 27, 2016, TPD officers conducted a raid on the business, arresting Forchion for marijuana offenses and seizing his two vehicles. (TCAC ¶ 52). The TPD officers also seized the surveillance video from February 28, 2016, and "two silver portable hard drives containing computer files, including business records and hours of video and valuable intellectual property." (Id. ¶¶ 53, 55). "[N]o steps were taken . . . to initiate forfeiture proceedings against the DVR surveillance video" or the hard drives. (Id. ¶¶ 54, 56).
The two vehicles seized by the TPD during the April 27, 2016 search were: (1) Forchion's "iconic" NJ WEEDMAN Van, a multicolored 1986 Ford Econoline e150; and (2) his delivery car, a blue Toyota Matrix. (Id. ¶ 52).
TPD officers allegedly informed him that forfeiture proceedings would commence against the vehicles within sixty to ninety days, but no such proceedings ever took place. (Id. ¶¶ 59-61). Instead, officers obtained a search warrant for the van and the title was transferred to Defendant Hawk's Towing as the van was deemed abandoned. Then Hawk's Towing, after obtaining the title to the van, crushed and destroyed the van. (Id. ¶¶ 59, 63-65).
Forchion was not notified of the status of any forfeiture proceeding and was not notified that the van was considered abandoned and would be crushed. (Id. ¶ 68). In fact, when Forchion noticed that forfeiture proceedings had commenced against a sum of money and not the van, he contacted TPD. Defendant Suschke advised him that the prosecutor was not seeking forfeiture of the van, and that is was located at Hawk's Towing. When Forchion contacted Hawk's Towing, Defendant Brian Hawkins, the owner of Hawk's Towing, told him that the property had been deemed abandoned, and was stripped for scrap and crushed. (Id. ¶ 63).
Plaintiff contends Defendant Haumann, as chief of the Mercer County Prosecutor's Office forfeiture unit, failed to notify Forchion that the vehicles were not subject to forfeiture proceedings. (Id. ¶¶ 71-72), and that Defendants Hawkins and Hawk's Towing failed to notify Forchion that his van was deemed abandoned. (Id. ¶ 75).
The Mercer County Prosecutor's Office held the delivery car for two years and only returned it to Forchion after his lawyers made "multiple calls." (Id. ¶ 79).
On May 10, 2016, a strange incident took place, which commenced with Forchion standing outside of The Joint holding a sign that stated, "We R Open Fuck the Police" and shouting "Fuck the police" as TPD officers parked nearby. (Id. ¶ 80). Forchion and Defendants Flowers then engaged in a...
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