Hutsell v. Sayre

5 F.3d 996, 1993 U.S. App. LEXIS 24888
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedSeptember 29, 1993
Docket92-6216
StatusPublished
Cited by33 cases

This text of 5 F.3d 996 (Hutsell v. Sayre) 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
Hutsell v. Sayre, 5 F.3d 996, 1993 U.S. App. LEXIS 24888 (6th Cir. 1993).

Opinion

5 F.3d 996

85 Ed. Law Rep. 1055

Stanley R. HUTSELL, Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
Ray SAYRE, Badge No. 6545, individually and in his capacity
as an officer of the University of Kentucky Police
Department; W.A. Hayes, Badge No. 6217, individually and in
his capacity as an officer of the University of Kentucky
Police Department; and The Board of Trustees of The
University of Kentucky, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 92-6216.

United States Court of Appeals,
Sixth Circuit.

Argued June 15, 1993.
Decided Sept. 29, 1993.

William C. Jacobs, Catherine M. Stevens (argued and briefed), Lexington, KY, for plaintiff-appellant.

John C. Darsie, Jr., Office of Legal Counsel University of Kentucky, Stephen L. Barker (argued and briefed), Phillip M. Moloney, Sturgill, Turner & Truitt, Lexington, KY, Walter G. King, John T. Ballantine, Ogden, Newell & Welch, Louisville, KY, Paul C. Van Boven, University of Kentucky Office of Legal Counsel, Lexington, KY, for defendants-appellees.

Before: NELSON and SUHRHEINRICH, Circuit Judges, and EDMUNDS, District Judge.*

SUHRHEINRICH, Circuit Judge.

In this Sec. 1983 action, plaintiff Stanley R. Hutsell alleges that defendants University of Kentucky police officers Ray Sayre and W. A. Hayes, as well as the Board of Trustees of the University of Kentucky ("UK"), violated his Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights by seeking an arrest warrant without probable cause for an assault of a female student on the UK campus. The district court ruled that plaintiff's claims against UK and the officers in their official capacities were barred by the Eleventh Amendment, and that the officers were entitled to qualified immunity in their individual capacities. For the reasons that follow, we AFFIRM.

I.

UK student Stacey Prieshoff was assaulted by an unknown assailant on Saturday, September 22, 1990, between 1:30 and 2:00 a.m., on the university campus. Defendant UK police officers Sayre and Hayes were dispatched to the scene shortly after the assault occurred.

Officer Sayre took Prieshoff to the UK Medical Center for examination and treatment of a gash in the back of her head. Prieshoff told Sayre that her assailant struck her in the back of the head with "something." She described her assailant as a black male, 5'10", 170 pounds, medium build, black short afro, stubble on his face, ruddy complexion, no glasses, and wearing a dark jacket, a light colored shirt, and blue jeans.

While Sayre and Prieshoff were at the hospital, Hayes investigated the scene of the assault. Two individuals, Michael Fox and Darren Birch, handed Hayes a white bandanna, a shoe and a wallet which they found on the ground. Prieshoff identified the bandanna and the shoes as hers. The wallet contained plaintiff's driver's license and his Lexington transit identification card.

At approximately 5:30 a.m. that morning, Hayes telephoned plaintiff's residence, but received no response. Later that morning, two other officers went to two addresses listed on plaintiff's identification cards. Hutsell was at neither. The pair then proceeded to the Lexington Transit Bus Garage where plaintiff worked. They were informed that he was not scheduled to work that day.

The next day, September 23, 1990, Prieshoff went to the UK Police Department to assist in the construction of a composite drawing of her assailant. Sayre testified that Prieshoff identified her assailant as Negro, male, between 21 and 25 years of age, medium build, and black hair. At the time, plaintiff, a black male, was 44 years old, with balding gray hair and a mustache.

On September 24, 1990, Hayes ran a criminal history check on plaintiff, which revealed that plaintiff had a previous arrest for criminal solicitation-prostitution. Hayes obtained a photograph of plaintiff from Lexington Metro Central Records and, with the assistance of Lexington-Fayette Urban County Police Department, prepared a photographic lineup of plaintiff and five other black males with a history of arrests or convictions for sexual offenses, and who resembled plaintiff in appearance.

That afternoon, Hayes went to Prieshoff's apartment with the photographic lineup. Prieshoff selected plaintiff's photograph as most resembling her assailant; however, she told Hayes that she could not be "100% certain" because it was more difficult to identify someone in a photograph than in person. Prieshoff explained "that was the person, you know, out of the line-up [sic], I was drawn to that picture and I felt that, you know, he was--he was the one."

Also on the morning of the 24th, Hayes reached plaintiff by telephone, informed him that his wallet had been found and requested that plaintiff come to the station to identify it. When Hutsell appeared, he was advised that he was a suspect in an attempted rape and was advised of his rights. Plaintiff agreed to be interviewed by Hayes and Sayre. He told the officers that his wallet had been missing since Thursday, September 20, 1990. Plaintiff stated that he thought he had lost it at the UK hospital while visiting his wife, who was a patient there. Sayre subsequently checked the hospital's records; plaintiff's wife had not been a patient there since 1986. Plaintiff also consented to a search of his vehicle. The search of his vehicle revealed a baseball bat and work gloves in his trunk.

Hayes's involvement on the case ended on September 26, 1990. Sayre continued to investigate the matter. He interviewed Fox, who told Sayre that Prieshoff had stated that a black man attempted to rape her and struck her in the back of the head with "a bat or something like that."

Based upon this information, Sayre approached Fayette District Judge Thomas Clark in order to obtain a criminal complaint against plaintiff. Judge Clark issued a warrant for plaintiff's arrest on December 14, 1990, after reviewing Sayre's affidavit and revised complaint.

Plaintiff was indicted and tried in state court. On March 26, 1991, he was acquitted of the charge of Criminal Attempt, Rape 1st Degree. Plaintiff brought this suit on September 23, 1991, in federal court under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983, alleging that UK and its agents, Hayes and Sayre, violated his Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights by obtaining an arrest warrant without probable cause and seeking money damages. The district court dismissed the action and this appeal followed.

II.

A.

Because plaintiff's suit implicates the Eleventh Amendment, which presents a potential jurisdictional bar,1 and Congress has not abrogated state sovereign immunity in suits under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983, Cowan v. University of Louisville School of Medicine, 900 F.2d 936, 940-41 (6th Cir.1990) (citing Quern v. Jordan, 440 U.S. 332, 341, 99 S.Ct. 1139, 1145, 59 L.Ed.2d 358 (1979)), we begin our analysis here. It is well-settled that " 'a suit in federal court by private parties seeking to impose a liability which must be paid from public funds in the state treasury is barred by the Eleventh Amendment.' " Cowan, 900 F.2d at 940 (quoting Quern, 440 U.S. at 337, 99 S.Ct.

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5 F.3d 996, 1993 U.S. App. LEXIS 24888, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hutsell-v-sayre-ca6-1993.