Wrice v. Burge, 14 C 5934

• Decision Date: 25 September 2015
• Docket Number: No. 14 C 5934,14 C 5934
• Parties: Stanley Wrice, Plaintiff, v. Jon Burge, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Illinois

187 F.Supp.3d 939

Stanley Wrice, Plaintiff,

v.Jon Burge, et al., Defendants.

No. 14 C 5934

United States District Court, N.D. Illinois, Eastern Division.

Signed September 25, 2015

Heidi Linn Lambros, Chicago, IL, Jennifer A Bonjean, Bonjean Law Group, PLLC, Brooklyn, NY, for Plaintiff.

Andrew M. Hale, Amy A. Hijjawi, Avi T. Kamionski, Jennifer Bitoy, Julie K. Bisbee, Shneur Z. Nathan, Hale Law LLC, Chicago, IL, Paul A. Michalik, Terrence Michael Burns, Daniel Matthew Noland, Molly E. Thompson, Paul A. Michalik, Dykema Gossett PLLC, Chicago, IL, for Defendants.

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

Elaine E. Bucklo, United States District Judge

In May 1983, Stanley Wrice ("Wrice") was convicted of a violent rape and sentenced to 100 years in prison. Over thirty years later, in December 2013, a state judge granted Wrice a new trial on the ground that two police officers working under Jon Burge's command had tortured Wrice into confessing. The state then moved to dismiss its case against Wrice.

Wrice has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the two police officers who allegedly tortured him (John Byrne and Peter Dignan); their commanding officers (Jon Burge and Leroy Martin); the lead prosecutor at his trial (Bertina Lampkin); the Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department ("CPD") from 1998 to 2004 (Terry Hillard) and his chief counsel (Thomas Needham); the Director of CPD's Office of Professional Standards from 1990 to 1998 (Gayle Shines); and Richard M. Daley, who served as the State's Attorney for Cook County from 1981 to 1989 and as Mayor of the City of Chicago from 1989 to 2011. Wrice has also sued the City, Cook County, and the Cook County State's Attorney's Office under Monell , respondeat superior , and indemnification theories of liability.

Defendants have moved to dismiss Wrice's claims on a variety of grounds. For the reasons stated below, I dismiss Bertina Lampkin, Richard M. Daley, Terry Hillard, Thomas Needham, and Gayle Shines from the case and grant the City Defendants' motion to dismiss as to Count I (except the embedded Brady claim); Count II; Count III, Count V (except the §§ 1985 and 1986 claims); Count VI (except the Brady and coerced confession claims); Count VII; Count VIII (without prejudice); Count IX, Count X, Count XI, and Count XII (except against the City).

I. Wrice's allegations

At the motion to dismiss stage, I must accept Wrice's factual allegations as true and draw all reasonable inferences in his favor. See Ashcroft v. Iqbal , 556 U.S. 662, 678, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009).

Shortly after midnight on September 9, 1982, a white woman identified as "K.B." was raped and burned in the attic of a home that Wrice shared with his brother, his sister, and his sister's boyfriend in the South Shore neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois. Compl. at ¶¶ 19, 38. Wrice and five other black men were arrested in connection with K.B.'s rape. Id. at ¶ 19. All six men were allegedly beaten by Sergeant John Byrne ("Sgt. Byrne") and Detective Peter Dignan ("Det. Dignan") during post-arrest interrogations in the Area 2 violent crimes unit. Id. Wrice and three other arrestees—Rodney Benson, Lee Holmes, and Michael Fowler—made incriminating statements and were charged with K.B's rape. Id. Bobby Joe Williams, one of the other suspects, was tortured until he implicated Wrice in K.B.'s rape. Id. at ¶ 42.

At a pre-trial suppression hearing, Wrice testified that Sgt. Byrne and Det. Dignan had tortured him and called him a "nigger" during his post-arrest interrogation. Id. at ¶¶ 20–25.¹ He also presented medical evidence of his physical injuries. Id. ¶¶ 27–30. Sgt. Byrne and Det. Dignan denied hitting Wrice or abusing him in any way. Id. at ¶ 33. Id. ¶ 36. The state trial judge found Sgt. Byrne and Det. Dignan credible and denied Wrice's motion to suppress his confession. Id. at ¶ 37.

At trial, Sgt. Byrne testified that Wrice had implicated himself in K.B.'s rape during a post-arrest interview. Id. at ¶ 39. An Assistant State's Attorney who was intermittently present during Wrice's interrogation corroborated that Wrice had confessed to the crime. Id.

The other evidence against Wrice came from two trial witnesses: Kenny Lewis ("Lewis") and Bobby Joe Williams ("Williams"). Id. at ¶ 41. The lead prosecutor in the case, Bertina Lampkin, found Lewis five days before trial during her search for additional eyewitnesses. Id. Lewis testified that he saw Wrice burn and beat K.B. on the night in question. Id. Williams, in turn, testified that he saw Wrice having sex with K.B. and heard Wrice say that he had burned her. Id. at ¶ 42. Sgt. Byrne and Det. Dignan had tortured Williams on the night of his arrest until he implicated Wrice in K.B.'s rape. Id. at ¶¶ 42, 93–94. Wrice, however, has not alleged that either the prosecution or the defense was aware of the ugly backstory behind Williams's trial testimony.

Wrice testified in his own defense. He knew that several men were upstairs drinking and using drugs on the night in question, but denied knowing anything about K.B.'s rape or taking part in the offense. Id. at ¶ 40. Wrice later heard loud noises in the attic, went upstairs, and told everyone to leave. Id. With regard to his confession, Wrice testified that his inculpatory statements were the result of torture at the hands of Sgt. Byrne and Det. Dignan. Id.

In May 1983, Wrice was convicted of rape and deviate sexual assault and sentenced to 100 years in prison. Id. at ¶ 43. The three other men who had been charged in connection with K.B.'s rape—Benson, Fowler, and Holmes—later pleaded guilty to aggravated battery and received sentences ranging from thirty months on probation to four years in prison. Id. at ¶ 44.

In October 2007, Wrice sought leave to file a second successive post-conviction petition on the ground that "newly discovered evidence substantiated his prior claim that his confession was the product of police brutality and torture." People v. Wrice , 357 Ill.Dec. 33, 962 N.E.2d 934, 936 (Ill. 2012). Wrice's newly discovered evidence was a report released in July 2006 that documented physical abuse of suspects in the Area 2 violent crimes unit under Jon Burge's command. Id. , 357 Ill.Dec. 33, 962 N.E.2d at 944–45. The Illinois Supreme Court held that Wrice was entitled to file a second successive post-conviction petition because "use of a defendant's physically coerced confession as substantive evidence of his guilt is never harmless error." Id. , 357 Ill.Dec. 33, 962 N.E.2d at 952 (emphasis from original removed).

After a post-remand evidentiary hearing in December 2013, Judge Richard Walsh of the Cook County Circuit Court found that Sgt. Byrne and Det. Dignan had lied at the suppression hearing when they denied torturing Wrice until he confessed. Compl. at ¶¶ 69, 99. The state court granted Wrice a new trial, after which the Cook County Special Prosecutor agreed to dismiss all charges against him. Id. at ¶¶ 69, 100.

In May 2014, Wrice petitioned the Circuit Court of Cook County under 735 ILCS § 5/2–702 for a certificate of innocence. Judge Thomas Byrne held that Wrice had failed to demonstrate by a preponderance of the evidence that he was innocent of raping K.B. See Dkt. No. 42–1. Although Bobby Joe Williams had recanted his trial testimony, Kenny Lewis had not. In Judge Byrne's view, Lewis's testimony that he saw Wrice raping K.B. was sufficient to defeat Wrice's assertion of innocence. Id. at 11–12. Wrice's has appealed that ruling.

II. Analysis

Wrice has asserted a variety of federal and state law claims against Sgt. Byrne and Det. Dignan; two of their commanding officers; the lead prosecutor at his trial; the Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department ("CPD") from 1998 to 2004 and his chief counsel; the Director of CPD's Office of Professional Standards from 1990 to 1998; and Richard M. Daley.

Wrice's claims include Brady violations and fabrication of evidence (Count I); false arrest and imprisonment (Counts II and VII); torture and physical abuse (Count III); coercive interrogation (Count IV); a racially motivated conspiracy and cover-up (Count V); a Monell claim against the City of Chicago (Count VI); malicious prosecution (Count VIII); intentional infliction of emotional distress (Count IX); and civil conspiracy (Count X). Wrice also seeks to hold the entities that employed the state actors who allegedly violated his rights responsible under respondeat superior (Count XI) and indemnification (Count XII) theories.

Defendants have moved to dismiss Wrice's claims on a variety of grounds including prosecutorial immunity, timeliness, and failure to state a claim. "To survive a motion to dismiss, a complaint must contain sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to ‘state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.’ " Iqbal , 556 U.S. at 678, 129 S.Ct. 1937 (quoting Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly , 550 U.S. 544, 570, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007) ). "A claim has facial plausibility when the plaintiff pleads factual content that allows the court to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged." Id.

A. Bertina Lampkin

Bertina Lampkin ("ASA Lampkin") was the lead prosecutor at Wrice's criminal trial in 1983 and now sits on the Illinois Appellate Court. Compl. at ¶ 16. Wrice has not alleged that ASA Lampkin knew anything about Sgt. Byrne and Det. Dignan torturing Wrice and Bobby Joe Williams. Instead, Wrice's claims against ASA Lampkin are based on her role in locating and preparing witnesses and then presenting their testimony at trial. Id. at ¶ 95.

Specifically, Wrice alleges that ASA Lampkin violated his constitutional rights when she (1) threatened to charge Williams with K.B.'s rape if he did not testify against Wrice, id. at ¶¶ 42, 96; (2) failed to disclose to the defense that she had coerced Williams into testifying, id. at ¶ 46, 96; (3) lied about how she found the state's other key witness, Kenny Lewis, through his mother five days before trial; i...