Tribble v. Dist. of Columbia
| Decision Date | 26 February 2016 |
| Docket Number | Civil Case No. 2013 CA 003237 B |
| Parties | SANTAE A. TRIBBLE, Plaintiff, v. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, Defendant. |
| Court | D.C. Superior Court |
Calendar IV
On August 18, 1978, seventeen-year-old Santae Tribble was arrested for a murder he did not commit of a man he did not know. During the twenty-five years that followed, Mr. Tribble was charged, convicted, and sentenced to concurrent terms of twenty years to life in prison. During his imprisonment, Mr. Tribble was transported from the D.C. Jail to the District of Columbia's former prison in Lorton, Virginia, and from there to institutions around the United States, far from his home, his family, and his friends. This journey of injustice subjected Mr. Tribble to all the horror, degradation, and threats to personal security and privacy inherent in prison life, each heightened by his youth, actual innocence, and life sentence.
The consequences of Mr. Tribble's unjust imprisonment did not vanish upon his release from prison; on the contrary, he endured continuing restrictions on his freedom while on parole and during periods of re-incarceration, and he currently suffers from the "triple diagnosis" of severe depression, drug addiction, and chronic medical conditions (HIV and Hepatitis C), all caused by his unjust imprisonment. In sum, Mr. Tribble's ordeal did not merely deprive him of his liberty in a constitutional sense—it ruined his life, leaving him broken in body and spirit and, quite literally, dying.
In this lawsuit brought against the District of Columbia ("the District"), Mr. Tribble seeks relief through the civil justice system pursuant to the District of Columbia Unjust Imprisonment Act ("the Act" or "DCUIA").1 The Act requires no finding of malicious prosecution or, even, bad faith on the part of the government and, indeed, is in no way based on the circumstances surrounding the initial arrest and prosecution; rather, once the requirements of the Act are met, as the parties agree they have been in the present case, the Act renders the District strictly liable for compensatory damages, as awarded by the court, sufficient to make the plaintiff whole.2
Born on April 6, 1961, Santae Tribble grew up and attended school in the District of Columbia. His father was a factory worker, and his mother was a nurse's aide. Mr. Tribble's parents separated when he was five or six years old, and while he was raised primarily by his "no-nonsense" mother, he saw his father regularly. Plaintiff was particularly close with his older sister, Jule, who, as he described it, looked out for him as a "buddy," "mother," "mentor," and "teacher". He was also close with his older brother James (and, later, with James' wife, Deborah) and his grandfather, who would often sit on the porch supervising Mr. Tribble and his friends at play. Mr. Tribble's good friend, George Mozee, spent much of his time over at plaintiff's house from the age of five (when plaintiff was three years old). Mozee testified at trial that plaintiff had a good childhood, where he was surrounded by friends, work, discipline, and a "proud" family who "cared for each other."
By all accounts, Mr. Tribble was a positive, fun-loving, and resilient child and youth. Mozee described Mr. Tribble as "someone who could pick his [own] spirits up" and who was never anxious, nervous, or depressed. Mr. Tribble had many friends and was a top athlete. Even Mr. Tribble's learning difficulties, and his particular issues with reading and spelling, which caused him to drop out of Sousa Middle School at age fifteen, did not diminish his happiness and optimism. As described by all, Mr. Tribble was a good kid with a strong peer group and family.
As he moved into his teenage years, Mr. Tribble spent much of his time playing sports and socializing with his friends. He used alcohol and marijuana casually, but had no contact with harder drugs besides a single instance of PCP use.3 With respect to heroin, the drug that plays a central role in this case, none of plaintiff's friends used the drug, and plaintiff did not know anyone who did.
Plaintiff also followed his family's example and worked hard. Willie James Calloway, who mentored and employed plaintiff during Mr. Tribble's teenage years, described plaintiff as motivated, conscientious, inquisitive, and willing to learn and follow instructions. Calloway commented that along with his "happy-go-lucky" and fun-loving attitude, plaintiff maintained a strong work ethic and a sense of pride in his workmanship. Mr. Tribble and his childhood friend George Mozee talked at length about joining the military and serving in the same unit, and they even visited the recruiting station on Good Hope Road together. Mozee enlisted on July 29, 1979. By that time, Mr. Tribble was incarcerated.
On August 18, 1978, just four months after his seventeenth birthday, the police arrested Mr. Tribble for the July 26, 1978 armed robbery and murder of a taxi driver named John McCormick. The United States Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia charged plaintiff with felony murder and other offenses related to the killing. These events forever altered thecourse of Mr. Tribble's life, and although he consistently protested his innocence, he was forced to spend the next twenty-five years in prison.
Having grown up with respect for authority and the judicial system, Mr. Tribble fully expected that, as an innocent man, he would be exonerated and released. To his shock, however, a jury found him guilty of armed robbery and felony murder on January 21, 1980. Mr. Tribble was devastated. His lawyer argued for a Youth Act sentence, but the trial court sentenced him on May 12, 1980, to concurrent prison terms of twenty years to life.
The combination of the injustice of his false imprisonment, his youth, and the belief that he might never again be free, crushed Mr. Tribble's sense of hope and optimism. The happy-go-lucky, optimistic, and resilient teenager descended into depression, anger, and despair from which he has not emerged. He turned to heroin to cope with a situation that appeared unbearable and unending. As a consequence of his intravenous heroin use, Mr. Tribble contracted HIV and Hepatitis C, which have ravaged his body and mind. Recognizing the potential consequences of his diagnoses, Mr. Tribble constantly wondered whether he would even be released before his death.4
Plaintiff remained confined for exactly twenty-five years from that date of his arrest, a time period that permanently altered plaintiff both physically and emotionally.5 Imprisonment was excruciatingly difficult for Mr. Tribble. In addition to the severe deprivation that came from incarceration generally, including the complete loss of freedom, privacy, and control over his life, time behind bars meant constant fear and threats to his sense of security and actual safety. Plaintiff suffered particularly acutely knowing that he was, in fact, innocent of the charges that led to his incarceration.
Mr. Tribble spent the first almost nine years of imprisonment confined in District of Columbia facilities: the Correctional Treatment Facility at the D.C. Jail ("CTF"); the Youth Center at Lorton Reformatory ("Lorton"), a prison complex formerly operated by the District of Columbia in Lorton, Virginia; CTF again; and, from June 13, 1980, until July 20, 1989, at either the Maximum or the Central facility at Lorton.
During his time in District of Columbia facilities, Mr. Tribble's family visited him regularly, providing some, albeit brief, respite from the monotony and loneliness of prison life. His father came nearly every Saturday, which brought the two closer together. Mr. Tribble's son, Santae Tribble Jr., who was born during plaintiff's imprisonment, testified that his first memories of his father derive from the prison visits that occurred at least once a week as a toddler.
Despite the happiness they brought, these visits had another effect: they served as reminders of people, events, and experiences missed, and of a life lost. Stories of family and friends brought temporary enjoyment, but they also intensified Mr. Tribble's feelings of isolation and deprivation. Plaintiff's father, mother, and sister died while he was incarcerated, and plaintiff agonized over not being able to be with them or to attend their funerals. And Mr. Tribble missed much more. Santae Jr. commented that he noticed his father's sadness and disappointment at not being able to watch his only son grow up, help his son's mother, or simply "be there" for his family. Plaintiff overflowed with emotion as he testified about the despair he felt as an innocent man forcibly removed from friends and family and confined.
Mr. Tribble was deprived of his ability to even see family and friends on July 20, 1989, when he was transferred out of Lorton and, for the most part, out of range of loved ones. He did time at FCI Petersburg, USP Lewisburg, FCI Raybrook, a facility in Talladega, Alabama, FCIAshland Kentucky, a facility in Springfield, Missouri, and another stint at FCI Petersburg. Years went by without a visit, and even telephone calls were expensive and difficult to arrange. Plaintiff returned to Lorton on July 23, 1992, and remained there until February 3, 1999, when the District of Columbia closed Lorton permanently, after which he was transferred to prisons in Sussex, Virginia, and Terre Haute, Indiana.
The transfers to prisons out of the jurisdiction dramatically worsened the conditions of Mr. Tribble's imprisonment on two levels: first, his loneliness and lack of connection to friends and family increased; and second, he was acutely aware of the negative impact his absence had on his family. For example, Mr. Tribble's family sent a letter to the authorities requesting that Mr. Tribble be transferred closer to home so that his father, who had been diagnosed with cancer, and Santae...
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