Thurman v. Village of Homewood

• Decision Date: 02 May 2006
• Docket Number: No. 05-2940.,05-2940.
• Citation: 446 F.3d 682
• Parties: Clifton THURMAN, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. VILLAGE OF HOMEWOOD, Harry Boerema, Curt Wiest, et al., Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

446 F.3d 682

Clifton THURMAN, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. VILLAGE OF HOMEWOOD, Harry Boerema, Curt Wiest, et al., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 05-2940.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued January 17, 2006.

Decided May 2, 2006.

Kenneth N. Flaxman (argued), Chicago, IL, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Paul Rettberg, David E. Neumeister (argued), Eileen E. Madda, Querrey & Harrow, Chicago, IL, Peter F. Heraty, Bufornd Law Office, Chicago, IL, for Defendants-Appellees.

Before BAUER, ROVNER, and SYKES, Circuit Judges.

ROVNER, Circuit Judge.

This case arises out of an incident at a Home Depot in Homewood, Illinois, in which police officers questioned the plaintiff, Clifton Thurman, because he was in possession of a gun in the store. Thurman contends that the questioning and detention by the officers deprived him of his freedom of movement in violation of his Fourth Amendment rights and that the Village of Homewood caused the violation of his rights by failing to properly train the officers. He further asserts that the police officers and an attorney acting on their behalf retaliated against him in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1983 by filing a complaint against him with the Chicago Police Department, and defamed him in violation of Illinois law. Thurman's lawsuit named the officers, the attorney, and the Village of Homewood as defendants. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of the defendants on the federal claims, and dismissed the state law claim for lack of jurisdiction. Accordingly, we construe all facts along with reasonable inferences in the light most favorable to Thurman. Fisher v. Lovejoy, 414 F.3d 659, 661 (7th Cir.2005).

Thurman was shopping at Home Depot when store employees noticed that he was armed and reported it to the Homewood police. Thurman was dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt, and his clothes did not signal that he was a police officer. Officers of the Homewood Police Department, Robert Misner and Harry Boerema, who are defendants in this action, responded to that call (officers Curt Wiest and Kenneth Strunk subsequently responded as backup.) After speaking with the store's assistant manager, the officers approached Thurman and asked if he was armed. Thurman responded in the affirmative, and stated that he had a "star around [his] neck and credentials in [his] pocket." He then showed the officers his badge, which stated Chicago Police but did not contain any identifying information such as his name or photo. Thurman acknowledged that badges can be stolen, and in fact the fraudulent use of badges has been the subject of media reports as well. See Main, Frank and Warmbir, Steve, "Bogus badges: crooks new weapon of choice: From the trivial to the terrible, crimes committed by cop wannabes have exploded in the Chicago area in recent years, an investigation shows", Chi. Sun-Times, p. A16, January 8, 2006 (noting that its investigation revealed that it is easy to obtain a badge and official-looking credentials, including purchasing real badges online). The officers requested additional identification from Thurman, and he produced his driver's license and firearm registration card. The firearm serial number on the firearm card was whited out and another number was hand-written in its place. Thurman also proffered an identification card that stated Chicago Police Department. The card contained Thurman's photo, but did not indicate that he was a police officer with the department, as opposed to an employee in another capacity. The officers then asked him for his commission card, which is a card issued by police departments that is signed by the police and fire commission and identifies the person as a police officer. Thurman stated that he did not know what a commission card was, to which one of the officers responded that he would know what a commission card was if he was a police officer. Commission cards are issued to Homewood officers, but are apparently not used by the Chicago Police Department.

The officers also asked Thurman for the name of his supervisor and the police district to which he was assigned. When he indicated that he worked for the 21st District, the officers contacted the Illinois State Police District 21 which replied that he was not employed there.

One of the officers who had formerly been employed with the Chicago Housing Authority and had been familiar with the 21st District area, asked Thurman to confirm that there were public housing buildings near the 21st District station. Thurman responded that there was nothing behind the police station. The officer then accused Thurman of lying, stating that he was not actually a police officer.

At that point, the officers, as Thurman put it, "got around to asking" him for the phone number to the 21st District. Thurman then provided it, and the officers promptly called the number to verify that he was an officer there. Upon receiving that verification, they returned the weapon to Thurman and left the store. The entire incident took approximately 20-25 minutes from the initial confrontation to the resolution by Thurman's estimate, or less than 14 minutes according to the police dispatch records from their arrival at the scene to their departure.

Thurman concedes that the officers properly confronted him given the report that he was armed in the store, and that it was appropriate for them to question him to determine whether he was a police officer. He nevertheless contends that the officers unreasonably extended the duration of the investigative stop, thus violating his Fourth Amendment rights. Thurman maintains that the badge and identification that he initially showed the officers was sufficient to confirm that he was an officer entitled to carry a firearm.

In evaluating the reasonableness of an investigation, we consider whether "`the police diligently pursued a means of investigation that was likely to confirm or dispel their suspicions quickly, during which time it was necessary to detain the [person].'" Leaf v. Shelnutt, 400 F.3d 1070, 1092 (7th Cir.2005), quoting United States v. Sharpe, 470 U.S. 675, 686, 105 S.Ct. 1568, 84 L.Ed.2d 605 (1985). The reasonableness of the detention is determined considering the totality of the circumstances. Leaf, 400 F.3d at 1091.

Even taking the facts in the light most favorable to Thurman, there is no basis on which a jury could find a Fourth Amendment violation here. Thurman acknowledges that the stop itself was proper, as he was wearing civilian clothes and carrying a firearm in a store. Thurman produced a badge that had no identifying information, and which could have been stolen or fabricated. Moreover, the firearm registration card that he provided did nothing to dispel that suspicion. The card had been altered in that the firearm serial number was whited out and overwritten with a hand-lettered number. The identification card provided by Thurman revealed that he was an employee of the Chicago Police Department, but did not establish that he was an officer in that department and therefore entitled to carry a firearm. In order to confirm his status, the Homewood officers continued the inquiry.

One officer familiar with the 21st District at which Thurman claimed to work, questioned him as to the buildings surrounding the police station. That question was another avenue explored to confirm or dispel the suspicion of his status, because a person working at that station would be familiar with the local geography. It failed to clear Thurman only because the Homewood officer's information was outdated. The public housing buildings with which he had been familiar had been razed since he worked at the CHA, and therefore the question did not elicit the expected answer. Moreover, the officers attempted to verify his employment by telephone, but checked with District 21 of the Illinois State Police instead of the 21st District of the Chicago Police Department. There is no...