Robinson v. Gerritson

210 F. Supp. 2d 1004, 2002 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12039, 2002 WL 1447913
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Illinois
DecidedJuly 1, 2002
Docket01 C 1040
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 210 F. Supp. 2d 1004 (Robinson v. Gerritson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Robinson v. Gerritson, 210 F. Supp. 2d 1004, 2002 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12039, 2002 WL 1447913 (N.D. Ill. 2002).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

SHADUR, Senior District Judge.

Talangea Robinson (“Robinson”) has filed a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (“Section 1983”) action, together with a related state law claim, against Village of Calumet Park (“Village”) and three of its police officers: Robert Gerritson (“Gerritson”), Jeffrey DeVries (“DeVries”) and Kimberly Reda (“Reda”). 1 Robinson charges that she was deprived of her constitutional rights under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments 2 in having been (1) arrested without probable cause, (2) detained unlawfully and ©subjected to an unreasonable search and seizure. As already indicated, Robinson also asserts a state law claim of false arrest and imprisonment.

Each of Gerritson and DeVries has filed a Fed.R.Civ.P. (“Rule”) 56 summary judgment motion, and both have complied (as has Robinson) with this District Court’s related LR 56.1. 3 For the reasons set forth in this memorandum opinion and order, DeVries’ motion is granted in its entirety and Gerritson’s motion is granted as to Robinson’s Section 1983 claims but denied as to her state law claim.

Summary Judgment Standards

Familiar Rule 56 principles impose on parties moving for summary judgment the burden of establishing both the lack of a genuine issue of material fact and the mov-ant’s entitlement to judgment as a matter of law (Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322-23, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986)). For that purpose this Court must “read[ ] the record in the light most favorable to the non-moving party,” although it “is not required to draw unreasonable inferences from the evidence” (St. Louis N. Joint Venture v. P & L Enters., Inc., 116 F.3d 262, 265 n. 2 (7th Cir.1997)). As Pipitone v. United States, 180 F.3d 859, 861 (7th Cir.1999) has quoted from Roger v. Yellow Freight Sys. Inc., 21 F.3d 146, 149 (7th Cir.1994):

*1007 A genuine issue for trial exists only when a reasonable jury could find for the party opposing the motion based on the record as a whole.

As with every summary judgment motion, this Court accepts nonmovant Robinson’s version of any disputed facts, but only so long as it is supported by record evidence. What follows in the Facts section is culled in that manner from the parties’ submissions.

Facts

Robinson worked as the general manager of the Plaza Inn Hotel in Calumet Park (“Plaza Inn”) from about August or September 1999 until September 2000 (G.St. ¶ 2). Plaza Inn was owned by Stazde Enterprises, Inc. (“Stazde”) (Vlado Lenoeh Dep. 6). Among Robinson’s duties was logging in the periodic deliveries by Brinks, Inc. of $930 in small bills to be used by the hotel staff for making change (“change deliveries” or “Brinks deliveries”) (G.St. ¶¶ 24, 33).

On September 22, 2000 Stazde Vice President Josef Lenoeh (“Lenoeh”) reported to the Calumet Park police that Robinson was suspected of stealing money from Plaza Inn (G.St. ¶¶ 9-10), 4 and on September 27 the case was assigned to investigator Gerritson (id. ¶ 13). For that purpose he was given, along with the initial police report, additional documents provided by Lenoeh, including information as to Robinson’s employment and earnings and an internal Plaza Inn memo documenting accounting shortages (id. ¶ 14).

After reviewing those papers and deciding that he needed more information, Ger-ritson obtained more documents from Le-noch on October 6 (id. ¶¶ 15-16). Among those materials were a spiral notebook containing a handwritten log of entries indicating the dates on which the $930 change deliveries were made (the “safe log”) and several dated receipts for Brinks deliveries signed by Plaza Inn employees (id. ¶ 17). Hotel workers were required to sign for the deliveries and put the money on or under Robinson’s desk, and Robinson would then record the deliveries in the safe log and place the money in the change safe (id. ¶¶ 24, 34) unless such funds (perhaps the entire amount) would have to be made available to the hotel desk clerks to make their own change (R.-G. Add.St. ¶ 7). 5 Numerous individuals had access to the back office where that money was kept (id. ¶ 12).

After considering the added documents, Gerritson wrote a report documenting three unsuccessful attempts to “pick up” Robinson on October 7 (G. Dep. Ex. 4; G. St. ¶ 22). According to his testimony, he had then intended to ask her to discuss the case with him voluntarily (G.Dep. 37). Then on October 12 Gerritson spoke with one of Robinson’s coworkers (G.St. ¶ 23).

Nearly two more months passed before Gerritson attended a December 6 meeting with Stazde accountant Bernie Nutile (“Nutile”) and other Stazde executives (id. ¶¶ 25-28). Nutile explained Plaza Inn’s procedures for handling Brinks deliveries and how she had calculated the cash short *1008 age (id. ¶ 31). Gerritson verified that the safe log was in Robinson’s handwriting and in her control (id. ¶¶ 32, 33) and further confirmed that Robinson had failed to make log entries documenting certain Brinks deliveries, even though there were receipts for those deliveries signed by Robinson or other hotel employees (id. ¶ 35). For example, documents revealed that Robinson had logged $930 Brinks deliveries twice a week from the start of her employment in September 1999 until January 2000 (id. ¶ 18). Then on February 18 Robinson personally signed for a $930 Brinks delivery, but there is no record of that delivery in the safe log (R. Dep.Exs. 2, 8). Other hotel employees signed receipts for Brinks deliveries on February 25 and March 10, but the log does not reflect deposit of that money in the change safe (R. Dep.Exs. 2, 9, 10). And although an April 30, 2000 memorandum authored by Robinson said that she had stopped the Brinks deliveries as of March 15 because the funds were not needed (R.-G. Add.St. ¶ 9), receipts signed by other hotel employees showed that Brinks deliveries were accepted (though not logged in) on March 17 and May 5 (R. Dep.Exs. 2, 11, 12).

After the December 6 meeting Gerritson decided that he had probable cause to arrest Robinson (G.St. ¶ 36). On January 3, 2001 he wrote a report documenting numerous unsuccessful attempts to “pick up” Robinson over the preceding month (id. ¶ 38). Then on January 12 Gerritson decided to go to Robinson’s house and arrest her (id. ¶ 39), asking Officer DeV-ries to accompany him, although he did not discuss the evidence against Robinson with DeVries (id. ¶ 40; D. St. ¶ 43).

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Bluebook (online)
210 F. Supp. 2d 1004, 2002 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12039, 2002 WL 1447913, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/robinson-v-gerritson-ilnd-2002.