Davis v. Duran

276 F.R.D. 227, 85 Fed. R. Serv. 384, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 50128
District Court, N.D. Illinois·Decided May 10, 2011·No. No. 08-C-6314·Published·Cited by 5 cases

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

JEFFREY COLE, United States Magistrate Judge.

INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND1

The defendants have been sued under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 in connection with Officer Duran’s alleged use of excessive force against Tyrone Dandridge. In the early morning hours of September 19, 2008, Tyrone Dandridge was present at his brother Curtis’ apartment, along with Tyrone’s girlfriend (Charde Wiggins) and Curtis’ wife (Eva). For reasons which are not important to the determination of the pending motions, Tyrone and Curtis were fighting with each other. They struggled and fell onto a glass table, which shattered into pieces. The two wrestled on the ground near the broken glass. At some point during the fight, Eva called the police and asked for immediate help. Ms. Wiggins asked Eva why she was calling the police. She then grabbed Eva’s flip phone and broke it in two pieces. When she turned around, she observed the brothers wrestling on the couch. Curtis was apparently talking to Tyrone while holding him in a bear hug.

The struggle continued for about two minutes, at which point two police officers arrived at the apartment. After being present for about five to ten seconds one of the officers — Officer Duran — fired a shot into Tyrone’s back from a distance of 5-10 feet. Following the shooting, Ms. Wiggins told the investigator that she heard Curtis say, “ouch!” while the two men were struggling on the couch, and that when the officers entered the apartment, Tyrone fell into the glass and Curtis fell onto the couch. The fall placed Tyrone with his back to the officers. Ms-. Wiggins told the investigator that Eva had yelled, “he’s stabbing him,” causing the officer to fire his weapon. Ms. Wiggins later stated that she was not in her right frame of mind when she made statements to the investigator after having just witnessed the shooting. Ms. Wiggins now states that Eva yelled, “he’s stabbing him” thirty seconds prior to when the officers entered and that this cry of alarm did not cause the officer to shoot.

At his deposition, Officer Duran stated that he was on the scene for approximately five seconds before firing his weapon, that he did not hear his partner say anything because he was giving his own verbal commands at the time, and that he did not see any evidence that Curtis had been stabbed or that either brother was bleeding. However, before he fired the shot, he observed Tyrone holding in his right hand an object that looked like a knife, was approximately 5 to 7 inches long and had a sharp tip. Officer Duran will testify that he saw Tyrone with his arm raised, making a stabbing motion with the sharp object in his hand.

[230] Sylvia Davis, the Special Administrator of the Estate of Tyrone Dandridge, seeks to exclude testimony of the defendants’ expert witnesses, Dr. James O’Donnell and Dr. Richard Goldberg.

'ANALYSIS

A.

The Motion To Bar The Testimony Of Dr. O’Donnell

The plaintiff has moved to exclude testimony from the defendants’ pharmacology expert, Dr. James O’Donnell. Dr. O’Donnell’s report concludes that “Mr. Tyrone Dandridge was experiencing the toxic effects of alcohol and was impaired by alcohol when he fought with his brother and disobeyed the Police order to stop stabbing Curtis. The BAC of 0.07g/dL (71mg%) is associated with impairments to the behavior, judgment, and risk taking. The 0.07 g/dL represents the alcohol equivalent of —4 12 ounce beers.” (Report of Dr. O’Donnell, Pis. Ex. A at 5-6). As a basis for this opinion, Dr. O’Donnell cites, among other things, a large scale review of the experimental literature dealing with the effects of alcohol on cognitive function and skills such as reaction time, tracking, concentrated attention, divided attention, performance, information processing capabilities, visual function, perception, and psycho-motor performance. (See id. at 6).

The objection to Dr. O’Donnell’s testimony is that this evidence would not be helpful to the jury because Tyrone’s alleged prior alcohol consumption is unrelated to the issue of whether Officer Duran’s use of force was reasonable. (See Plaintiffs’ Motion ¶ 4). We begin with basic principles governing the concept of relevancy under Rule 401, Federal Rules of Evidence, and the principles that govern admissibility of expert testimony under Rule 702, Federal Rule of Evidence. Naeem v. McKesson Drug Co., 444 F.3d 593, 607 (7th Cir.2006).

1.

Rule 401

Congress carefully designed the Federal Rules of Evidence to be expansive and inclusionary. See Tome v. United States, 513 U.S. 150, 115 S.Ct. 696, 130 L.Ed.2d 574 (1995); Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 509 U.S. 579, 587, 113 S.Ct. 2786, 125 L.Ed.2d 469 (1993); 2 Weinstein’s Federal Evidence, 4.04.20[3] (McLaughlin ed.2010). Thus, all relevant evidence is admissible, except as otherwise provided by the Rules of Evidence, the Constitution of the United States, or an Act of Congress. Rule 402. “Relevant evidence” is that which has “any tendency to make the existence of any fact that is of consequence to the determination of the action more probable or less probable than it would be without the evidence.” Rule 401.

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Davis v. Duran, 276 F.R.D. 227, 85 Fed. R. Serv. 384, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 50128 (N.D. Ill. 2011).

276 F.R.D. 227 (Davis v. Duran) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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