Torres v. McLaughlin, Civil Action No. 96-5865.
| Citation | 966 F.Supp. 1353 |
| Decision Date | 05 June 1997 |
| Docket Number | Civil Action No. 96-5865. |
| Parties | Felix TORRES, Plaintiff, v. John McLAUGHLIN, et al., Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Pennsylvania |
Anthony L. Cianfrani, Philadelphia, PA, for Plaintiff.
John O.J. Shellenberger, III, Office of Atty. Gen. Philadelphia, PA, for Com. of Pennsylvania.
Shelly Smith, Asst. City Solicitor, City Philadelphia Law Dept., Philadelphia, PA, for McLaughlin, Sunderhauf and City of Philadelphia.
Plaintiff Felix Torres instituted this suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania against defendants John McLaughlin, a police officer who worked for the City of Philadelphia and the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Bureau of Narcotics Investigations, John Sunderhauf, Zone Commander for the Attorney General's Bureau of Narcotics Investigation, and the City of Philadelphia. Defendants, who earlier filed motions to dismiss which we granted in part and denied in part, see Torres v. McLaughlin, 1996 WL 680274 (E.D.Pa. Nov.21, 1996), now move for summary judgment pursuant to Rule 56 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
Rather than rehearse the factual allegations in this case, which despite the benefit of discovery have not materially changed from those alleged in the complaint, we will quote from our November 21, 1996 Memorandum:
[O]n June 2, 1994, while walking alone on the streets of Philadelphia, Torres was arrested by defendant John McLaughlin, a police officer for the City of Philadelphia and the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Bureau of Narcotics Investigations. McLaughlin then took Torres to the parking lot of the Office of the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Bureau of Narcotics Investigation, where McLaughlin allegedly threw Torres to the ground and assaulted him, kicking him in the back, shoulders, and sides. See Compl. at ¶¶ 10-11. Torres was ultimately charged with the manufacture, delivery and/or possession of a controlled substance, a felony under Pennsylvania law. See Compl. at ¶ 12.
On June 10, 1994, McLaughlin testified at the preliminary hearing that he had observed Torres engage in a drug transaction on June 2 and, after arresting Torres, had confiscated a quantity of controlled substances from him. See Compl. at ¶ 13. As a result of that allegedly perjured testimony, Torres was held for trial. See id.
McLaughlin testified against Torres again on April 13, 1995, at a pretrial hearing and, on September 29, 1995, at Torres's state trial, where Torres was found guilty of possession with intent to deliver controlled substances. See Compl. at ¶ 14. Torres claims McLaughlin gave perjured testimony at both the pretrial hearing and trial. See id. Following his conviction on September 29, Torres was remanded into custody. On April 18, 1996, Torres was sentenced to a term of thirty-six to seventy-two months incarceration, fined ten thousand dollars, and assessed one hundred ninety-one dollars in mandatory court costs. See Compl. at ¶¶ 15-16.
Torres remained incarcerated until May 13, 1996, when the Honorable Genece Brinkley "vacated his sentence, dismissed all charges, and ordered his immediate release from custody." Compl. at ¶ 17.
On August 26, 1996, Torres filed this suit ... [and] alleges in his complaint that ... defendants violated his "rights to be secure in his person and property, to be free from excessive use of force, and from malicious prosecution, and due process" as well as the "rights secured [to him] by the Fourth, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution." Compl. at ¶¶ 22-23.
In our November 21, 1996 Memorandum, we parsed through Torres's inartfully drawn complaint to decipher the possible constitutional deprivation alleged. We held that "there are three restraints on Torres's personal liberty that may constitute a sufficient deprivation of liberty to rise to the level of a constitutional violation: first, Torres's warrantless arrest on June 2, 1994; second, the preliminary hearing on June 10, 1994; and, finally, Torres's conviction on September 29, 1995, and his subsequent incarceration until May 13, 1996." Torres, 1996 WL 680274, at *4 (internal citations omitted).
We went on to hold that Torres's warrantless arrest on June 2, 1994, could not state a cause of action for false arrest, because Torres had filed this suit after the expiration of the two-year statute of limitations period for such a claim. Id. at *4-5; see infra n. 10.
We then ruled that, reading the complaint in the light most favorable to Torres, it suggested that Torres was held in custody after the preliminary hearing on June 10, 1994. See Torres, 1996 WL 680274, at *5. Such a physical detention, we ruled, would be sufficient to constitute a "seizure" under the Fourth Amendment. See id. Conversely, we noted that if Torres had not, in fact, been detained following the preliminary hearing, he could not, as a matter of federal law, assert a § 1983 claim for malicious prosecution based on the preliminary hearing. See id.
According to Torres's response to defendants McLaughlin's and Sunderhauf's motion for summary judgment, he was released from police custody the same day he was arrested, June 3, 1994, after signing a bond, the terms of which included that he must:
(1) Appear before the issuing authority and in the Courts of the County of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at all times as his presence may be required, ordered or directed, until full and final disposition of the case, to plead, to answer and defend as ordered the aforesaid charge or charges.
(2) Submit himself to all orders and processes of the issuing authority or Court.
Certification of Bail and Discharge, at 2 ; see Pl.'s Response to McLaughlin Mot. for Summ. J. at 11th unnumbered page. Because of the bond, Torres did not have to post any money for bail, which was set at five thousand dollars.
Torres then appeared in state court on June 10, 1994 (for a preliminary hearing where bail was continued),2 April 13, 1995 (for a pretrial hearing), September 28, 1995 (when he pled not guilty to the charges), and, finally, September 29, 1995 (for his trial, where he was found guilty and immediately taken into custody). See id.
Neither Torres's signing of a bond on June 3, 1994, nor the June 10, 1994, preliminary hearing can, McLaughlin and Sunderhauf assert, serve as a factual predicate for a malicious prosecution claim because neither event constitutes a "seizure" under the Fourth Amendment. See McLaughlin Mem. of Law at 12-13. Torres responds that, while his prosecution was pending for close to fifteen months (from June 3, 1994, when he was released on bond, until his conviction and immediate incarceration on September 29, 1995), he "suffered restraints on his liberty which amounted to a Fourth Amendment violation." Pl.'s Response to McLaughlin's Mot. for Summ. J. at 12th unnumbered page.
The question raised in Torres's response, an issue of first impression in this Circuit, is whether Torres has a Fourth Amendment malicious prosecution claim based on the "restraints" he claims to have suffered while his criminal prosecution was pending.
Until the Supreme Court in Albright v. Oliver, 510 U.S. 266, 114 S.Ct. 807, 127 L.Ed.2d 114 (1994), finally addressed the issue of malicious prosecution claims under § 1983, there had been an "embarrassing diversity of judicial opinion" as to whether such claims were actionable under § 1983. Id. at 271 n. 4, 114 S.Ct. at 811 n. 4 ().
The petitioner in Albright alleged that Detective Roger Oliver of the City of Macomb, Illinois had, under color of state authority, violated his right under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to be free from prosecution except upon probable cause. See Albright, 510 U.S. at 267-71, 114 S.Ct. at 810-11 (Rehnquist, C.J., plurality opinion). In Albright, Detective Oliver had agreed to provide Veda Moore, a cocaine addict, with protection (from an unpaid and unhappy former cocaine supplier) and money in exchange for Moore's assistance in acting as a confidential informant, seeking out cocaine dealers and purchasing drugs from them with the money Oliver supplied. See id. at 292 n. 3, 114 S.Ct. at 823 n. 3 (Stevens & Blackmun, JJ., dissenting). Moore was singularly unsuccessful as an informant, having falsely implicated over fifty people in criminal activity, none of whom successfully prosecuted.
In the course of her work as an informant, Moore claimed that she had bought cocaine from John Albright, Jr. See id. at 268 n. 1, 114 S.Ct. at 810 n. 1 (Rehnquist, C.J., plurality opinion). The "cocaine" was, in fact, baking powder. Undeterred and without conducting any further investigation, Detective Oliver obtained a grand jury indictment against John Albright, Jr., for selling a "look-alike" substance, a crime in Illinois. See id. When he went to execute the search warrant, Detective Oliver discovered that John Albright, Jr. was a respected pharmacist in his sixties and clearly not the "dealer" of the baking soda. See id. Again undeterred, Detective Oliver, after learning that John Albright, Jr. had a son with the same first name, scratched out John Albright, Jr.'s name from the warrant and inserted that of John David Albright. See id. at 293 n. 4, 114 S.Ct. at 823 n. 4 (Stevens & Blackmun, JJ., dissenting). It immediately became obvious that John David Albright could not have sold the baking soda to...
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