David Cummin v. Lanny North

CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedApril 26, 2018
Docket17-4144
StatusUnpublished

This text of David Cummin v. Lanny North (David Cummin v. Lanny North) 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
David Cummin v. Lanny North, (6th Cir. 2018).

Opinion

NOT RECOMMENDED FOR PUBLICATION File Name: 18a0217n.06

No. 17-4144

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT

DAVID L. CUMMIN, et al., ) FILED ) Apr 26, 2018 Plaintiff-Appellant, ) DEBORAH S. HUNT, Clerk ) v. ) ) ON APPEAL FROM THE LANNY NORTH, DAVID VALKINBURG, EDWIN ) UNITED STATES DISTRICT DOWNS, HOCKING COUNTY BOARD OF ) COURT FOR THE SOUTHERN COMMISSIONERS, SANDY OGLE, JEFF ) DISTRICT OF OHIO DICKERSON, JOHN WALKER, CLARK SHEETS, ) BENJAMIN E. FICKEL, KYLE HENDERSON, and ) LAINA FETHERFOLF, ) ) Defendants-Appellees. )

BEFORE: MERRITT, WHITE and DONALD, Circuit Judges.

HELENE N. WHITE, Circuit Judge. Longstanding issues between Hocking County,

Ohio elected officials and Plaintiff-Appellant, Hocking County Coroner Dr. David Cummin,

came to a head in the summer of 2014, resulting in Cummin being charged with five second-

degree misdemeanors for dereliction of duty (three counts), coercion, and obstructing official

business. Four of the five charges were dismissed prior to trial, and Cummin was acquitted of

the final charge. Thereafter, Cummin filed this malicious prosecution action under § 1983 and

Ohio state law against various Hocking County officials. The district court granted summary

judgment in favor of Defendants-Appellees and Cummin appealed. We AFFIRM.

I.

Dr. Cummin has served in the part-time, elected position of Hocking County Coroner

since 1999. For the majority of that time, Cummin worked with two part-time investigators who No. 17-4144, Cummin v. North, et al.

were paid $4,150 annually and received public-employee healthcare and retirement benefits.

Ohio changed its Public Employees Retirement System eligibility in 2013, and limited eligibility

for full benefits to employees making at least $12,000 annually. Cummin was unable to secure

additional funding, so both investigators resigned at the end of 2013. Consequently, Cummin

was the only employee at the coroner’s office beginning January 1, 2014.

The record is clear, and both parties agree, that “longstanding issues” have existed

between Cummin and Hocking County officials, particularly Defendants-Appellees Lanny North

(Hocking County Sheriff), David Valkinburg (Chief Deputy Sheriff of Hocking County), Edwin

Downs (Hocking County Sheriff’s Detective), and Laina Fetherolf (former Hocking County

Prosecutor). Cummin testified about several instances of contention, including an incident when

Cummin subpoenaed eight deputies to his office and made them read aloud portions of the

Revised Code because he felt he had not been properly notified of a death, and a case where

Cummin personally contacted several family members of a decedent because he disagreed with

the Sheriff’s Office regarding the cause of death, and told the family that the Hocking County

Sheriff was “covering up a homicide.” In 2011, Prosecutor Fetherolf successfully sought the

appointment of a Special Prosecutor, who negotiated a court-ordered protocol agreed to by

Cummin and Hocking County officials governing the conduct of Cummin and Sheriff’s deputies

at death scenes. In 2012, Prosecutor Fetherolf sought advice from a colleague at the Ohio

Attorney General’s Office regarding a dispute over the sharing of information between Cummin

and the Sheriff’s office.

Another major area of disagreement was the Sheriff’s and Prosecutor’s dissatisfaction

with inadequate coverage for the duties of the coroner’s office during Cummin’s absences from

-2- No. 17-4144, Cummin v. North, et al.

Hocking County.1 Cummin left Hocking County several times in 2014, attending continuing-

medical-education seminars in Dublin, Ohio from January 9–12 and January 23–26, and taking

personal trips to Jamaica and New York in July. When Cummin did not arrange for anyone to

cover the office’s duties while he travelled in January, Prosecutor Fetherolf filed a Complaint for

Writ of Mandamus seeking an order directing Cummin to provide coverage for his duties when

he was unavailable. Fetherolf voluntarily dismissed the mandamus action when Cummin

proposed a plan to provide coverage in the future.

On July 19, 2014, while Cummin was in New York, a homicide-suicide double shooting

occurred in Hocking County. Because Hocking County does not maintain sufficient facilities or

personnel to conduct autopsies of victims of apparent homicide, traditionally those autopsies are

performed by the Franklin County Coroner’s office, which in turn bills the Hocking County

Coroner. The homicide victim’s body was taken to the morgue so it could be transported to the

neighboring Franklin County Coroner to conduct the autopsy. However, Franklin County bills

Hocking County approximately $1,100 per autopsy, and the Hocking County Coroner’s lab and

morgue account had only $610.25.

After being notified of the shooting, Cummin called Defendant-Appellee John Walker,

one of three Hocking County Commissioners, about what to do with the homicide victim’s body.

According to Cummin:

I told him that we had a problem, that I only had - - I didn’t have enough money in my budget for an autopsy and that I had a homicide victim that was on scene. It occurred about 10:00 p.m. And that I didn’t know what I was supposed to do since I couldn’t send him legally for autopsy until I had moneys to prove that - - in

1 See Ohio Rev. Code § 313.06 (“The coroner, his deputy, and assistants shall be available at all times for the performance of their duties as set forth in sections 313.01 to 313.22, inclusive, of the Revised Code.”).

-3- No. 17-4144, Cummin v. North, et al.

the account. I can’t spend money that wasn’t allocated to me. I did not refuse to transport the body . . . . I did not say I wasn’t going to do an autopsy . . . . I didn’t ask for any resolution . . . . I asked him for his help.

[R.143 at PID 3673 – 74]. Cummin testified that Walker responded by assuring him that the

necessary money would be placed in the coroner’s account:

He said he could assure me that there would be money put in there. And I said, John, you can only speak for one of the three commissioners. You cannot - - I need at least two commissioners to tell me that . . . . We’re going to do things by the book and that’s how it’s going to be. I need some assurance that there will be money in there so that I don’t get - - so I’m not breaking the law.

[R.142 at PID 3408].

Following this conversation, because Cummin indicated there was “an immediate

concern” that the body needed to be transported as soon as possible, Walker called Prosecutor

Fetherolf and the other two commissioners, Defendants-Appellees Clark Sheets and Sandy Ogle.

All three commissioners agreed to transfer the funds to the coroner’s office, and Walker’s wife

memorialized the commissioner’s agreement. The hand-written memorialization, dated

12:15 a.m., July 20, 2014, stated that, on authorization of Prosecutor Fetherolf, the

commissioners would transfer funds on Tuesday, July 22 to the coroner’s lab and morgue

account so that Cummin could immediately transport the body to Columbus. After receiving a

copy of the memorialization by email, Cummin authorized the body to be transported to Franklin

County for autopsy.

The Hocking County Sheriff’s Office began investigating Cummin’s conduct in office in

July 2014. At the instruction of Defendant Valkinburg, Defendant Downs gathered reports of

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