Ali Shamaeizadeh v. Joel Cunigan

338 F.3d 535, 2003 U.S. App. LEXIS 14584, 2003 WL 21697932
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedJuly 22, 2003
Docket01-6326
StatusPublished
Cited by124 cases

This text of 338 F.3d 535 (Ali Shamaeizadeh v. Joel Cunigan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ali Shamaeizadeh v. Joel Cunigan, 338 F.3d 535, 2003 U.S. App. LEXIS 14584, 2003 WL 21697932 (6th Cir. 2003).

Opinion

OPINION

MOORE, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiff-Appellant Dr. Ali Shamaeiza-deh (“Shamaeizadeh”) appeals the district court’s grant of summary judgment for Defendants-Appellees with respect to Sha-maeizadeh’s § 1983 claims and his state law malicious prosecution claim. On March 14, 1994, the Richmond Police Department received a call reporting the burglary of Shamaeizadeh’s residence (“the residence”). An officer responded to the call and searched the residence for the burglar. The officer then called for assistance and conducted a second search with one of his supervisors. After discovering evidence of drug paraphernalia during the second search, the two officers called narcotics experts to the scene to participate in a third search. Based on the evidence discovered, the officers secured and executed two search warrants for the residence. Shamaeizadeh was indicted for federal drug violations, but the charges were dismissed after the district court suppressed the evidence seized from the basement of the residence.

Shamaeizadeh filed a § 1983 action including federal claims and a state law malicious prosecution claim against the City of Richmond, Kentucky, the Richmond Police Department, and five individual officers (“the officers”) in their individual and official capacities. Shamaeizadeh argues that he is entitled to damages for the following reasons: (1) the second and third warrant-less searches were unconstitutional; (2) there was no probable cause for either search warrant; (3) the officers exceeded the scope of the first search warrant; (4) the officers included misrepresentations in the affidavit supporting the second warrant; (5) the officers arrested him without probable cause; (6) he was maliciously prosecuted; and (7) the City of Richmond failed properly to train and supervise its police officers. The district court granted summary judgment to the defendants on all grounds.

We REVERSE the district court’s grant of summary judgment with respect to the second and third warrantless searches, and with respect to Shamaeiza-deh’s claim that the officers exceeded the scope of the first search warrant. We AFFIRM the district court on all other grounds.

I. FACTS AND PROCEDURE

Shamaeizadeh owned a one-story house with a basement, located at 121 Millstone Drive, Richmond, Kentucky. He occupied the main floor of the residence with his fiancee, Theresa Schmitt (“Schmitt”), and rented the basement to Brian Reed (“Reed”) and Joe Ford (“Ford”). All four *541 residents of the house regarded the basement as a separate apartment.

On March 14, 1994, Schmitt placed an emergency call to the Richmond Police Department, reporting a possible burglary of the residence. Officer Mark Wiles (“Wiles”) was dispatched and arrived five minutes later. Schmitt met Wiles at the front door, invited him into the residence, and walked into the kitchen. She told Wiles that she had left the back door open for her cats, and then had passed out on the kitchen table after taking muscle relaxants and consuming a beer. When Schmitt awoke, she noticed that her room key was missing from her pocket. She went into another room and, while she was there, someone allegedly reentered the house and broke the glass top of the kitchen table. Wiles observed broken glass on the kitchen floor.

Schmitt asked Wiles to search the residence with her, and he proceeded to walk through the main floor of the residence. Wiles discovered a locked door, but did not attempt to open it because Schmitt said that it was Shamaeizadeh’s room and that Shamaeizadeh kept it locked when he was away. Wiles also discovered a broken door, which led to the basement. He did not examine the broken door because Schmitt said she had kicked it open to use the telephone a few days earlier. Wiles later said that during this search he detected the odor of growing marijuana.

After searching the main floor of the house, Wiles moved onto a deck overlooking the backyard and searched the rear of the premises. Meanwhile, Schmitt entered the basement through the broken door, walked out through the back door of the basement apartment, and met Wiles in the backyard. Explaining that the occupants of the basement apartment were away on spring break, she asked Wiles to check the basement. Wiles proceeded to search the basement.

During his search, Wiles noticed that the basement contained several rooms. Many of the doors were locked, and Wiles did not attempt to open them. He did smell what he thought was growing marijuana. After walking through the basement, Wiles called Assistant Chief of Police Wayne Grant (“Grant”) because he believed he needed the assistance of a supervisor.

Wiles and Schmitt returned to the kitchen and waited for Grant to arrive. 1 Schmitt never asked Wiles to leave. While they were waiting, Schmitt told Wiles that she believed the “government” was the burglar. Wiles was thus inclined to discredit Schmitt's allegations of burglary. When Grant arrived, Wiles briefed him about his activity thus far. Schmitt participated in the conversation, informing the officers that she would retrieve a key for the locked doors in the basement.

Wiles and Grant then conducted a second search of the basement apartment. They did not ask Schmitt’s permission to conduct the search. When they entered the basement, Wiles again smelled what he suspected was marijuana. The officers discovered small marijuana cigarette butts, known as “roaches,” in an ashtray. They also found boxes of fluorescent light bulbs under the apartment stairway and observed fluorescent lighting in one of the locked rooms turn on and off intermittently. They suspected that the fluorescent lighting was being used to grow marijuana because it is often used for that purpose. *542 Schmitt arrived with a ring of keys, but none of them fit the locked doors.

Wiles and Grant then called Assistant Chief of Narcotics Bill Jesse (“Jesse”). They related their observations to him and requested the assistance of an officer experienced in detecting narcotics. Jesse dispatched Sergeant Joel Cunigan (“Cuni-gan”) to the scene. Cunigan arrived at 9:20 p.m., approximately the same time that Wiles’s immediate supervisor, Sergeant Sam Manley (“Manley”), arrived. Wiles and Grant briefed Cunigan and Manley on the situation. Then all four officers conducted a third search of the basement apartment. They did not explicitly ask Schmitt’s permission to conduct the third search, but Schmitt participated in the walk-through of the basement.

When the officers entered the basement during the third search, Cunigan smelled a strong odor that he believed to be growing marijuana. The officers discovered a hemostat; rolling papers; a plastic bag of what was suspected to be marijuana, but was actually catnip; and a bag containing a variety of pills. At this point, they advised Schmitt of her rights. Schmitt stated her belief that Reed and Ford were growing marijuana in their basement apartment. According to Schmitt, although she never saw marijuana, the scent was so strong that she covered her vents to avoid it, particularly at nighttime.

Cunigan called a state prosecutor and submitted a sworn affidavit in support of his application for a search warrant.

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338 F.3d 535, 2003 U.S. App. LEXIS 14584, 2003 WL 21697932, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ali-shamaeizadeh-v-joel-cunigan-ca6-2003.