Gros v. City of Grand Prairie

IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT _______________ m 99-10232 _______________ DANETTE HOPE GROS; ET AL., Plaintiffs, DANETTE HOPE GROS; EDITH D. SIKES, Plaintiffs-Appellees- Cross-Appellants, VERSUS THE CITY OF GRAND PRAIRIE, TEXAS, ET AL., Defendants, HARRY L. CRUM, Defendant-Appellant- Cross-Appellee. _________________________ Appeals from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas _________________________ April 25, 2000 Before DAVIS, CYNTHIA HOLCOMB Harry Crum appeals the denial of summary HALL,* and SMITH, Circuit Judges. judgment on his qualified immunity defense in a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 suit brought by Danette JERRY E. SMITH, Circuit Judge: Gros and Edith Sikes, who are cross-appealing those portions of the order that granted Crum summary judgment on qualified immunity grounds. Plaintiffs alleged that Crum, as Chief * Circuit Judge of the Ninth Circuit, sitting by of Police of Grand Prairie, Texas, violated designation. their constitutional rights by hiring and failing At the police station, Gros immediately properly to train and supervise an officer complained of her treatment to Rogers’s su- (“Rogers”) who allegedly sexually assaulted pervisors. As a result, an investigation of them, and by having a hiring policy that Rogers’s conduct with respect to this incident allowed persons with a propensity toward was conducted in which the internal violent behavior into the Grand Prairie Police investigative unit of the GPPD determined that Department (“GPPD”). Concluding that there Gros’s claim was “not sustained.” was no genuine issue of material fact as to Crum’s deliberate indifference to plaintiffs’ Sikes contends that in February 1996, while constitutional rights, we reverse the denial of responding to a call, Rogers sexually abused summary judgment and remand for further her. Sikes had been stopped by Rogers and proceedings. We also decline to exercise pen- advised that there was an outstanding warrant dent appellate jurisdiction over plaintiffs’ for her arrest for not paying traffic tickets. cross-appeals, so we dismiss those cross- Sikes asked Rogers not to take her to jail, and appeals. while telling her that he would not, Rogers be- gan to fondle her. As Sikes retreated, Rogers I. told her that she would have to make it up to Gros and Sikes allege that Rogers, a former him. Rogers grabbed her breasts and asked GPPD officer, physically, sexually, and Sikes whether she was wearing any verbally abused them. Gros contends that underwear. during a routine traffic stop, Rogers used excessive force against her. While on routine Before Sikes could answer, Rogers lifted patrol, Rogers pulled Gros over for driving Sikes’s top, pulled out her pants, and stuck his without wearing a seatbelt. After being hand inside. As he was touching her, he stated stopped for about twenty minutes, Gros exited that he wanted her “on his finger” so he could her vehicle and inquired of Rogers how much taste her on his way home. After he pulled out longer the stop would take. Rogers ordered his hand from inside her pants, he licked his Gros back into the car, at which point Gros finger and told Sikes that she tasted sweet. stated that she had an appointment and needed to leave as soon as possible. The following day, Rogers called Sikes and told her he was coming to her dormitory room Rogers then allegedly grabbed Gros’s arm, before beginning work. Sikes immediately twisted it behind her back, threw her on top of called and went to the GPPD station to report her car, and reached into her blouse and the incident and was informed that Rogers had grabbed her breast. He then handcuffed her had three other complaints lodged against him. and placed her under arrest without a Rogers went to Sikes’s dormitory room that recitation of Miranda warnings, putting her in night. his squad car on a hot day with the windows closed. Eventually he rolled down his window When compiling his report on the Sikes in- a little to aerate the inside, but then turned the cident, Rogers denied ever having touched her. volume on the radio up very high, allegedly to After an internal investigation, however, he prevent passers-by from hearing Gros’s admitted to Sikes’s charges. He was thereby requests for help. placed on indefinite suspension and charged 2 with criminal official oppression, to which he pleaded guilty. their constitutional rights in hiring Rogers. II. Plaintiffs respond by pointing to evidence that Plaintiffs filed their § 1983 claims against the district court concluded created an issue of the city, Crum, and Lieutenant Bender, the material fact properly presented to the jury. officer in charge of the Department of Internal Affairs at GPPD. The district court granted We first must determine whether plaintiffs summary judgment for the City on qualified have alleged a violation of a clearly established immunity grounds. We vacated and remanded constitutional right, before we reach the on the ground that the district court had narrower issue of qualified immunity. Siegert applied incorrect legal standards to the v. Gilley, 500 U.S. 226, 232 (1991). Here, evidence submitted by the plaintiffs. See Gros plaintiffs allege that Crum was deliberately in- v. City of Grand Prairie, 181 F.3d 613, 615- different to their constitutional rights to be free 16 (5th Cir. 1999). from false arrest, illegal search and seizure, excessive force, sexual harassment, and sexual Crum and Bender moved for summary assault. judgment on qualified immunity grounds. The district court granted Bender’s motion as to all Under Board of County Comm’rs v. Brown, claims asserted against him; these rulings are 520 U.S. 397, 407 (1997), “deliberate not being appealed. The court granted Crum’s indifference” to the “known or obvious conse- motion with respect to the claims that he main- quences” of a hiring decision can amount to a tained an improper hiring policy and that he constitutional violation on the part of the deci- improperly trained and supervised Rogers. sion maker, but “[a] showing of simple or even The court denied Crum’s motion as to his act heightened negligence will not suffice.” Thus, of hiring Rogers. “deliberate indifference” exists where adequate scrutiny of an applicant’s background would All the losing parties with respect to the lead a reasonable supervisor to conclude that claims against Crum appeal these rulings. Al- the plainly obvious consequences of the though they recognize that the grant of sum- decision to hire would be the deprivation of a mary judgment on two of their three claims is third party’s constitutional rights. Snyder v. an interlocutory order that is typically not im- Trepagnier, 142 F.3d 791, 797 (5th Cir. mediately appealable, plaintiffs urge us to 1998), cert. granted, 525 U.S. 1097, and cert. exercise our pendent appellate jurisdiction dismissed, 119 S. Ct. 1493 (1999). There over those claims that they allege are must be a strong connection between the “inextricably intertwined” with the deliberate- background of the particular applicant and the indifference-in-hiring claim. specific violation alleged. Brown, 520 U.S. at 412. Accordingly, plaintiffs cannot succeed III. in defeating summary judgment merely On the issue of qualified immunity, Crum because there was a probability that a poorly- asserts that plaintiffs presented insufficient evi- screened officer would violate their protected dence that he was deliberately indifferent to rights; instead, they must show that the hired 3 officer was highly likely to inflict the particular evaluation that Rogers was “unable to take type of injury suffered by them. Id. criticism, he disregarded supervision and didn’t adhere to dept policies”; (9) statements Because the district court denied summary by another officer that Rogers was “a little judgment on this claim, we are limited to a re- rash in his demeanor and his personality tended view of whether the factual issues on which to aggravate a situation” and “was almost to the district court based its decision were the point of being badge heavy;” (10) material, and we are precluded from reviewing comments that Rogers “needs to know the the district court’s determination that the difference between escalating and when not issues of fact in question are genuine.1 As to,” that “he is at times [too] quick to draw his evidentiary support for their contention that weapon,” that “when he reacts too fast he there was a material issue of fact whether usually reacts in an aggressive manner,” and Crum was deliberately indifferent to their that “with his take-charge attitude, sometimes constitutional rights in hiring Rogers, plaintiffs Rogers overdoes it”; and (11) information that rely primarily on the contents of Rogers’s pre- during high school, the principal suspended employment personnel file. They point to (1) Rogers for continuing to talk to a girl who had reports from his previous employment as a rebuffed his advances. police officer for the University of Texas at Arlington (“UTA”) that indicated that Rogers To defeat summary judgment, the proffered went to a psychologist after being involved in evidence must be sufficient to create an issue back-to-back incidents where force was used; of material fact whether a reasonable officer (2) statements from a UTA supervisor that if would conclude that the obvious consequence the GPPD hired Rogers, they would have to of hiring Rogers would be that he would sex- “monitor his activities and guide him in the ually harass, sexually assault, falsely arrest, use direction [they] want to go”; (3) a excessive force, or illegally search or seize a psychological test done for entry into UTA third person. In other words, the evidence that indicated Rogers was inflexible, too must demonstrate that Crum was deliberately defensive, and unwilling to take direction indifferent to this obvious consequence. conflicting with his own desire; (4) a letter of reprimand issued to Rogers for losing another This court has recently noted that Brown is officer’s location; (5) a letter of reprimand for instructive as to the quantum and quality of insubordination for refusing to sign a report; evidence of deliberate indifference that is (6) a complaint against Rogers for being ha- necessary: rassing and overbearing during a traffic stop (The overbearing complaint was sustained, but There, Reserve Deputy Stacy Burns the harassment complaint was not.); (7) an (“Burns”) stood convicted of using ex- unsustained complaint that Rogers was cessive force when he wrested a woman threatening and unprofessional and improperly from a car, badly damaging her knees in drew his weapon during a traffic stop; (8) an the process. Burns, who was the great- nephew of Sheriff Moore, Bryan Coun- ty’s Sheriff and policy-maker, had a 1 See Colston v. Barnhart, 146 F.3d 282, 284 criminal record that included arrests for (5th Cir.) (on suggestion for rehearing en banc), driving while intoxicated, driving with a cert. denied, 525 U.S. 1054 (1998). 4 suspended license, resisting arrest, likely to use excessive force in general or public drunkenness, and a conviction for possess a trigger-happy nature in particular.” assault and battery. Looking at this Aguillard, 2000 U.S. App. LEXIS 3884, at record, the Supreme Court held that *12. Thus, the court concluded that “[w]hile Sheriff Moore’s failure to examine the County may have been negligent in its Burns’s criminal record did not employment decision, the magnitude of its “reflect[] a conscious disregard for a error does not reach constitutional cogni- high risk that Burns would use excessive zance.” Id. force in violation of respondent’s federally protected right.” Likewise, in the instant case, the evidence presented by plaintiffs does not rise to the level Aguillard v. McGowen, 2000 U.S. App. of a constitutional violation. To be sure, there LEXIS 3884, at *10 (5th Cir. Mar. 15, 2000) are scattered statements in Rogers’s pre- (quoting Brown, 520 U.S. at 415-16). In employment file that suggest he was Aguillard, the deputy officer, Joseph Mc- sometimes too aggressive for UTA’s campus Gowen, was convicted of murder for a police department. There are also letters of shooting committed while he was on duty. reprimand and sustained complaints for being McGowen’s record showed, among other overbearing and abusive during a traffic stop. things, that he had previously threatened the But while these facts suggest that Crum, like mother of a juvenile with arrest, that he the county in Aguillard, might have been meddled in this mother’s supervision of the negligent in failing adequately to review Rog- child while he was off duty, that colleagues at ers’s records and in ultimately deciding to hire the police department reported that he wanted him, they do not provide sufficient evidence of to “ride where the women were,” that a female a deliberate indifference to constitutional colleague stated that she did not want to ride rights. with him under any circumstances, and, most importantly, that there was a report that he had Rogers had never sexually assaulted, assaulted and pistol-whipped a teenage boy sexually harassed, falsely arrested, improperly who was driving his car around McGowen’s searched or seized, or used excessive force apartment complex, though McGowen was against any third party. Indeed, the record neither arrested nor convicted of the alleged reflects that he never committed a serious assault. McGowen’s informal disciplinary rec- crime. Just as in Aguillard, the incident in ord included infractions for using police radio Rogers’s past that was potentially most for broadcasting personal messages and for damaging to his recordSSthe complaint for an refusing to convey information to one party in alleged improper drawing of his weapon a vehicular accident. during a traffic stopSSwas not sustained by UTA. And the reprimands and complaints that Presented with this evidence in support of were sustained do not meet Brown’s the denial of the county’s motion for judgment requirement of a “strong” causal connection as a matter of law, the Aguillard court between Rogers’s background and the specific nevertheless reversed, reasoning that “Mc- constitutional violations alleged. See Brown, Gowen had never wrongfully shot anyone 520 U.S. at 412. Instead, those reprimands before, nor did his record reveal him to be related to insubordination for refusing to sign 5 a report and for losing track of an officer on recommended him as a good officer. In patrol. addition, Rogers’s personnel file reflected that he had received good evaluations since Moreover, in reviewing the record we con- becoming a UTA police officer, and three of sider the context of Rogers’s colleagues’ those evaluations placed him above average. statements about the need further to “monitor” Two other officers who served as Rogers’s him and to the effect that he might be too “ag- personal references had only positive things to gressive,” “almost badge heavy,” and “a little say about him. rash in his demeanor.” Without exception, the UTA officers who made these statements also In the end, the evidence in Rogers’s had positive things to say about Rogers and ul- personnel file was, at worst, mixed. If mere timately recommended him as a good hire. negligence were enough to sustain a claim against Crum, we might be presented with a For instance, the officer who noted Rog- closer case, though the positive feedback still ers’s problems with being aggressive, reacting seems to outweigh the negative. That too fast under stress, and that he was “too evidence is insufficient, however, to quick to draw his weapon,” also concluded demonstrate constitutional deliberate that he “would be a good officer, but the indifference on Crum’s part, because it does above problems need to be addressed,” and not establish a strong causal connection characterized Rogers as “a real aggressive, between Rogers’s background and the professional officer, a real go-getter, who gets particular constitutional violations asserted. the job done.” Significantly, this officer’s per- sonal reference for Rogers was the worst one. With the benefit of hindsight, it is apparent that Rogers was a bad hire, but there is Another officerSSthe one who suggested insufficient evidence to show that Crum was that Rogers would have to be monitored by deliberately indifferent to plaint iffs GPPD, and who brought to light Rogers’s in- constitutional rights when he made his hiring terview with a psychologist after he was in- decision. Consequently, there are no issues of volved in “back to back incidents” of fact that warrant a jury determination, because forceSSnoted that Rogers voluntarily went to the evidence presented is not material in light the psychologist because it was department of Brown and Aguillard, and the district court policy that anyone involved in a couple of should have granted Crum summary judgment incidents of force must do so. The officer on this claim. concluded, however, that “Rogers is a good cop,” “the kind that any department would IV. want.” Plaintiffs also asserted claims against Crum for failure adequately to train and supervise Several of the officers who noted Rogers’s Rogers and for having a hiring policy that al- aggressiveness merely thought it was lowed persons with a propensity toward inappropriate for the campus environment in violent behavior into the GPPD. Because the which he worked. Those officers felt that district court granted summary judgment to Rogers would benefit from being placed in a Crum based on his qualified immunity on both larger police department, and they too of these claims, and because the court denied 6 summary judgment on plaintiffs’ deliberate- district court; each has unique elements and indifference-in-hiring claim, plaintiffs properly relevant facts. The claim for inadequate recognize that the appeal of summary training and supervision, for example, relies judgment on these two claims is an heavily on a GPPD psychologist’s evaluation interlocutory appeal not typically immediately that Rogers “has a tendency to be reviewable by this court. apprehensive and may be tense and driven which may require further [scrutiny] by his Nevertheless, plaintiffs urge us to assert jur- field training officer.” This evidence was not isdiction for these cross-appeals using pendent in Rogers’s pre-employment file from UTA appellate jurisdiction. They argue that such and is not relevant to Crum’s initial decision to jurisdiction is justified because the facts and hire Rogers. Similarly, the claim challenging legal issues of these two claims are Crum’s general hiring policy requires much “inextricably intertwined” with those of the more evidence of systemic problems, beyond appealable order denying summary judgment. the single decision to hire Rogers. They also assert that our exercise of pendent Consequently, much of the evidence necessary appellate jurisdiction would promote judicial for the hiring-policy claim is not relevant to the economy by providing both parties with a denial of summary judgment on the deliberate- speedy resolution of the entire case. indifference-in-hiring claim. Pendent appellate jurisdiction should be ex- As their closest relevant case, plaintiffs’ rely ercised only in “rare and unique” circumstanc- on Morin v. Caire, 77 F.3d 116 (5th Cir. es. Woods v. Smith, 60 F.3d 1161, 1166 n.29 1996), in which we exercised pendent (5th Cir. 1995). Plaintiffs assert that these are appellate jurisdiction in a qualified immunity such circumstances, because all three of their case, noting that “[i]n the interest of judicial claims are inextricably intertwinedSSthey arise economy, this court may exercise its discretion from the set of facts, and all concern the to consider under pendent appellate employment practices operated by Crum at jurisdiction claims that are closely related to different levels of specificity. For instance, this [denial of summary judgment] issue plaintiffs’ claim against Crum for failure properly before us.” Id. at 119. Morin does adequately to train and supervise Rogers flows not support the exercise of that discretion from Crum’s alleged disregard for the same here. information in Rogers’s pre-employment file that gave rise to the deliberate-indifference In Morin, the court properly had before it claim. Also, plaintiffs’ claim challenging the appeal of the denial of a qualified immunity Crum’s hiring policy merely recasts the delib- defense on plaintiffs’ § 1983 claims. Plaintiffs erate-indifference-in-hiring claim at a higher also asserted related state law claims that were level of generality; that is, it challenges all not subject to the “exception” allowing hiring decisions made pursuant to the policy, immediate appeal of the denial of qualified rather than the individual decision to hire immunity. In justifying its decision to exercise Rogers. pendent appellate jurisdiction over these state law claims, the court noted: But despite the fact that these claims do overlap, they were treated separately by the Although we generally exercise this 7 power with caution, it is appropriate for us to do so in this situation, for if we were to refuse to exercise jurisdiction over the state law claims, our refusal would defeat the principal purpose of allowing an appeal of immunity issues before a government employee is forced to go to trial. Id. at 119-20 (emphasis added) (footnotes omitted). Here, unlike the circumstance in Morin, declining pendent appellate jurisdiction over the claims for which summary judgment was granted in favor of Crum would not defeat the purposes of qualified immunity. Instead, as the public employee who prevailed on his qual- ified immunity defense, Crum is not being forced to trial on those claims. Consequently, we are not presented with the “rare and unique” circumstances in which we might ex- ercise our pendent appellate jurisdiction, and we decline to do so. The order denying summary judgment is REVERSED, the cross-appeal is DISMISSED for want of jurisdiction, and this matter is REMANDED. 8