Gregory Robinson v. The City of South Charleston

662 F. App'x 216
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
DecidedOctober 24, 2016
Docket15-2200
StatusUnpublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 662 F. App'x 216 (Gregory Robinson v. The City of South Charleston) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gregory Robinson v. The City of South Charleston, 662 F. App'x 216 (4th Cir. 2016).

Opinion

Vacated in part and remanded by unpublished opinion. Judge Harris wrote the opinion, in which Chief Judge Gregory and Judge Niemeyer joined.

PAMELA HARRIS, Circuit Judge:

Plaintiff Gregory Robinson alleges that police officers in South Charleston, West Virginia, violated his Fourth Amendment rights by twice arresting him without probable cause. Because the district court incorrectly applied a subjective standard to the probable cause question, we vacate and remand for the requisite objective analysis of probable cause.

I.

A.

This case began with a report of employee theft at a Walmart in South Charleston, West Virginia, in July of 2012. Officer Steven Miller of the South Charleston police department responded, and met with Paul Higginbotham, Walmart’s Asset Protection Manager. Higginbotham informed Miller that store surveillance video had captured three employees, or “associates,” stealing Apple iPods. The first video, from July 6, 2012, included images of two Walmart associates, Jeremy Hartwell and Jirald Davis, and showed Hartwell removing iP-ods from a display case. In the second, filmed on July 10, a third associate—Robinson—also is on the scene, and Hartwell again is seep taking iPods from the case.

. Miller sought an arrest warrant for Robinson on July 19, 2012, and submitted an affidavit setting out the facts in support of probable cause (the “First Affidavit”). According to Miller’s affidavit, the July 10 surveillance video showed Robinson and Hartwell walking toward the display case, *218 followed by Davis, who “begins to talk to [Robinson].” J.A. 1055. While Hartwell “select[s] merchandise” from the display case and conceals it in his pocket, “Davis continues to observe [Hartwell] and distract the other associate”—presumably, Robinson—“from noticing the activity.” Id.

A Kanawha County magistrate judge subsequently issued an arrest warrant for Robinson. Robinson, who was on vacation at the time, voluntarily turned himself in to the police on July 30, 2012. The charges against Robinson were dismissed without prejudice, following a preliminary hearing at which neither Miller nor witnesses from Walmart appeared.

Walmart’s Higginbotham urged the police to resolve the case against Robinson, and on November 20, 2(312, the police again sought an arrest warrant. Officers Eric Peterson and Engracio Moyer filed the second application, accompanied by a slightly amended affidavit (the “Second Affidavit”). In this version, video of the July 10 episode shows Hartwell entering the scene with Robinson “present,” while Davis speaks with Robinson and “appears to distract the other associates”—presumably, associates other than Robinson— “from noticing the activity.” J.A. 1059 (emphasis added).

A magistrate judge again issued an arrest warrant, and Robinson once again turned himself in on the warrant. This time, the relevant police officers—Peterson and Moyer—were present at the hearing. But they were never called to testify, and at the conclusion of the hearing, the magistrate judge dismissed the charges against Robinson, without prejudice, for lack of probable cause,

B.

In December 2013, Robinson brought a § 1983 action against Officers Miller, Peterson and Moyer (the “individual defendants”); alleging two Fourth Amendment violations: first, that the officers had sought arrest warrants based on affidavits that failed to establish probable cause; and second, that the officers had arrested Robinson without probable cause. Robinson also sued the City of South Charleston, claiming that the City was liable under § 1983 for its failure to train its police officers with respect to probable cause. See Monell v. Dep’t of Soc. Servs. of City of New York, 436 U.S. 658, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 56 L.Ed.2d 611 (1978). Finally, Robinson raised state-law malicious prosecution claims against each of the individual defendants.

The defendants moved for summary judgment on all of Robinson’s claims. With respect to Robinson’s Fourth Amendment claims under § 1983—central to this appeal—the individual defendants argued, in part, that they were entitled to qualified immunity. Robinson opposed the defendants’ motion and sought summary judgment on his Fourth Amendment deficient-affidavit claims against the individual defendants.

The district court granted Robinson’s motion as to Officer Miller and denied summary judgment to the defendants. The First Affidavit, the district court held, was a “textbook example of an affidavit that utterly fails to provide a probable cause basis” for an arrest warrant. J.A. 1075. The affidavit did no more than put Robinson in the vicinity of illegal activity at his own workplace, and actually provided the “exculpatory statement” that another employee “distract[ed]” Robinson during the theft. J.A. 1076. Because Officer Miller’s decision to seek a warrant based on this “patently insufficient” affidavit, id. was objectively unreasonable, the district court concluded, Miller was not protected by qualified immunity.

*219 The Second Affidavit, filed by Officers Peterson and Moyer, fared little better. Though' it no longer contained “exculpatory language,” J.A. 1079, it continued to rest entirely on Robinson’s presence at the scene, without including any information suggesting actual involvement in criminal activity. But despite finding that the Second Affidavit failed to establish probable cause, the district court denied summary judgment to Robinson on this claim. Because Peterson and Moyer consulted with a prosecutor before seeking the arrest warrant, the district court held, they might be entitled to qualified immunity—a question that could not be resolved on summary judgment because of factual disputes regarding the nature of that consultation.

The district court turned next to Robinson’s allegation that he was arrested without probable cause, treating it as a separate Fourth Amendment claim analogous to the common-law tort of malicious prosecution. The critical question, the court held, was whether the information known to the officers at the time of Robinson’s arrests amounted to probable cause of criminal activity. And on that question, too, the district court found “pervasive discrepancies” in the record, J.A. 1102, precluding an award of summary judgment to the individual defendants on their qualified immunity defense. Among those issues of material fact, the court held, was whether the officers had “interpreted” the Walmart surveillance video as showing evidence of Robinson’s involvement in criminal activity. J.A. 1104.

Finally, the district court denied the defendants’ motion for summary judgment on Robinson’s § 1983 Monell claim against the City and on his state-law claims against the individual defendants. Defendants timely noted this appeal

II.

Under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, we have jurisdiction to review “final decisions” of the district courts.

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Bluebook (online)
662 F. App'x 216, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gregory-robinson-v-the-city-of-south-charleston-ca4-2016.