Wilson v. Gregory

• Decision Date: 01 July 2021
• Docket Number: No. 20-4161,20-4161
• Parties: Sarah WILSON, as Administrator of the Estate of Jack Huelsman; Cheryl Huelsman, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Eric GREGORY and Meredith Walsh, individually and in their official capacities as employees of Clermont County, Ohio; Clermont County, Ohio/Clermont County, Ohio Board of Commissioners; Robert Leahy, in his official capacity as Sheriff of Clermont County, Ohio, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

3 F.4th 844

Sarah WILSON, as Administrator of the Estate of Jack Huelsman; Cheryl Huelsman, Plaintiffs-Appellants,

v.Eric GREGORY and Meredith Walsh, individually and in their official capacities as employees of Clermont County, Ohio; Clermont County, Ohio/Clermont County, Ohio Board of Commissioners; Robert Leahy, in his official capacity as Sheriff of Clermont County, Ohio, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 20-4161

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

Argued: April 22, 2021

Decided and Filed: July 1, 2021

ARGUED: M. Caroline Hyatt, GERHARDSTEIN & BRANCH CO. LPA, Cincinnati, Ohio, for Appellants. Jeannette E. Nichols, CLERMONT COUNTY PROSECUTOR, Batavia, Ohio, for Appellees. ON BRIEF: M. Caroline Hyatt, Alphonse A. Gerhardstein, GERHARDSTEIN & BRANCH CO. LPA, Cincinnati, Ohio, for Appellants. Jeannette E. Nichols, G. Ernie Ramos, Jr., CLERMONT COUNTY PROSECUTOR, Batavia, Ohio, Kimberly A. Rutowski, LAZARUS & LEWIS, LLC, Cincinnati, Ohio, for Appellees.

Before: KETHLEDGE, STRANCH, and BUSH, Circuit Judges.

STRANCH, J., delivered the opinion of the court in which KETHLEDGE, J., joined, and BUSH, J., joined in part. STRANCH, J. (pp. 863–64), also delivered a separate concurring opinion in which KETHLEDGE, J., joined in Part A. BUSH, J. (pp. 864–66), delivered a separate opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part.

JANE B. STRANCH, Circuit Judge.

The claims in this case result from a mental health crisis suffered by Jack Huelsman, who lived with what family members describe as symptoms of paranoia and bipolar disorder. In the midst of the crisis, his wife, Cheryl Huelsman, a nurse, called their daughter and urged her to call 911. Clermont County Deputies Eric Gregory and Meredith Walsh responded to the call. They were aware of Mr. Huelsman's mental health and that there might be guns in the house. When they arrived, Deputy Gregory called off the paramedics who had also responded. Deputy Gregory spoke with both Mrs. Huelsman, who expressed her desperate fear that her husband would commit suicide, and Mr. Huelsman, whom Deputy Gregory considered to be lucid. Mrs. Huelsman repeatedly exhorted Gregory not to leave Mr. Huelsman alone, but the Deputy left him inside the home, unattended, for about nine minutes. Mr. Huelsman committed suicide.

Mrs. Huelsman and her daughter Sarah Wilson (the "Huelsmans") sued the Deputies and other County officials (the "Defendants"). They asserted claims for deprivation of civil rights under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 ; denial of public services under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA); and multiple torts under Ohio law. The district court granted the Defendants’ motion for summary judgment. We AFFIRM that decision as to the Huelsmans’ § 1983 and ADA claims and VACATE it as to their state law claims against Deputies Gregory and Walsh.

I. BACKGROUND

A. Factual Background

At age 64, Mr. Huelsman experienced what family members describe as symptoms of paranoia and bipolar disorder. On September 19, 2015, he accused Mrs. Huelsman of playing recordings of political speeches outside his door; taking and crumpling Korean money; stealing his wallet and keys; and sabotaging his electronic devices. Mrs. Huelsman had worked as a nurse in the area for many years, often encountering people experiencing mental health crises, and was familiar with the types of first responders that would generally be dispatched to respond to calls of mental health crises. Distressed, she called their daughter, Ms. Wilson, to tell her about Mr. Huelsman's mental health crisis and ask for help calming Mr. Huelsman. Mr. Huelsman repeated his delusions to Ms. Wilson, told her that Mrs. Huelsman "wouldn't be able to stay in the house because she wouldn't get life insurance if he killed himself " and said that "[h]e was a prisoner in his own home" and "had no reason to live" (in Ms. Wilson's words) before hanging up. (R. 40, Wilson Dep., PageID 347, 380) Ms. Wilson and Mrs. Huelsman decided to call 911, but because Mrs. Huelsman felt she could not do so within Mr. Huelsman's earshot, Ms. Wilson made the call. Once on the phone with the 911 dispatcher, she explained:

[MS. WILSON:] I'm not exactly positive what's wrong with my dad, but I think he's having a psychiatric emergency. He's -- it sounds like he's completely out of his mind. He's hearing voices. He's talking about possibly committing suicide. I think he needs to be transported to -- Good Sam [a nickname for a local hospital] is where we would like for him to go.

...

911 OPERATOR: Okay. I've got a couple questions for you. If you don't know the answer, you can just say, I don't know. Is he violent?

MS. WILSON: I don't know.

911 OPERATOR: Does he have a weapon?

MS. WILSON: Yes.

911 OPERATOR: Okay. What type of weapon does he have?

MS. WILSON: There are guns in the house. I'm pretty sure that my mom has, over the past couple months, locked them all up in a safe. I don't know that he has access to them right now, but I am not positive about that. And I don't -- I don't think he has a weapon on him currently. I don't think there's any danger to the life squad or anything like that.

911 OPERATOR: Okay. Where is he now?

MS. WILSON: He is, I think, in his family room.

911 OPERATOR: Okay. Is this a suicide attempt?

MS. WILSON: I don't think so.

911 OPERATOR: Okay. Is he thinking about committing suicide?

MS. WILSON: I think that's a possibility.

911 OPERATOR: Okay. Is he completely alert?

MS. WILSON: It sounds like he's completely alert. I just got off the phone with him. And he -- he heard voices outside of his bedroom door this morning. He said there was a screaming match about politics. And he thinks that my mom played a recording to try and make him appear crazy.

911 OPERATOR: Okay.

MS. WILSON: And then he -- he thinks that she stole his keys and his wallet and disabled his computer and his phone so that he can't go anywhere, so that he appears crazy and he might as well kill himself, because his life is destroyed. And that -- he is mentally ill. He has a mental disorder.

911 OPERATOR: Okay.

MS. WILSON: And I think he has been on kind of a downward decline, like possible dementia, maybe Alzheimer's. But it hasn't been diagnosed yet. So something was definitely going on this morning that is a lot worse.

911 OPERATOR: Okay. All right. Well, I'm sending paramedics to help you out.

(R. 50-12, 911 Call Tr., PageID 1778–82)

Deputies Gregory and Walsh responded to the call. The dispatcher told them, verbally and in writing via their car computer:

[likely 12:07 p.m.] 64 year old, Male, Conscious, Breathing. Psychiatric / Abnormal Behavior/ Suicide Attempt. Caller Statement: HEARING VOICES 64 [year old male].

[12:09 p.m.] MALE IS BI-POLAR

[12:10 p.m.] The caller is not with the patient. There is a single patient. It's not known if he is violent. He has access to a weapon. A gun is accessible. The patient is inside the same structure. This is not a suicide attempt. He is thinking about but not threatening to commit suicide. He is completely alert (responding appropriately).

[12:12 p.m.] CALLER IS NOT ON SCENE, MALE DID NOT SOUND VIOLENT TO HER ON THE PHONE, HE IS BI-POLAR AND SHE BELIEVES HE MAY HAVE BEEN HAVING A MENTAL DECLINE IN THE LAST COUPLE OF MONTHS.

(R. 41-6, CAD Rep., PageID 467–68) The parties dispute whether Deputies Gregory and Walsh were aware of this information from the dispatcher before arriving at the Huelsmans’ home. Walsh subsequently confirmed that her later report contained this information and that there was no other way she could have learned of it. Nevertheless, both Deputies were aware that Mr. Huelsman was acting abnormally, and they had been trained in mental health crisis intervention, which included learning the information that a majority of people who die by suicide lived with preexisting mental health conditions.

While they were on their way, Mrs. Huelsman spoke with Mr. Huelsman to try to calm him and deescalate the situation. The Deputies arrived and Mrs. Huelsman invited Deputy Gregory inside. Deputy Gregory asked about what was happening and Mrs. Huelsman told him that Mr. Huelsman "was having a mental illness crisis," explaining the situation and Mr. Huelsman's delusional accusations. (R. 39, Huelsman Dep., PageID 234) Deputy Gregory responded, as Mrs. Huelsman recalled it, "I'm not going to put him in the back of a squad car and haul him away based on what you're telling me." (Id. at PageID 235) She replied to the effect that "you have to understand that this is not his normal behavior. He is completely and totally ... out of his mind ... and we definitely need this intervention." (Id. at PageID 236) Mr. Huelsman had been silent up to this point, but then said that the voices he believed he was hearing were actually coming from the radio and that he thought Mrs. Huelsman had manipulated his devices. In Deputy Gregory's recollection, Mr. Huelsman was unable to explain exactly how any of them were not working properly.

In the meantime, emergency medical services (EMS) personnel had arrived and were waiting for the Deputies’ go-ahead. Though EMS personnel's ability to provide mental health services was limited to asking basic questions to test a person's mental acuity, their training and policy permitted them to assess a person's mental condition and make a recommendation to a deputy that the person should or should not be detained. Within four minutes of his arrival at the Huelsmans’ home, Deputy Gregory called off EMS.

After that, as Mrs. Huelsman explained:

[Deputy Gregory] kind of looked down a little bit and he says what I think we have here is a domestic dispute, and he without asking any other questions or anything, he said I think we have a domestic dispute. I said I can assure you that this is not a domestic dispute. This is a mental illness crisis.

And he said ... I want you to come with me, talking to me, and he took me back around and out the back door and led me over close to the tree.

(Id. ) Mrs. Huelsman thought this was "good" because to her, Deputy Gregory's...