Sanford v. City of Detroit

355 F. Supp. 3d 619
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Michigan
DecidedJanuary 16, 2019
DocketNo. 17-13062
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 355 F. Supp. 3d 619 (Sanford v. City of Detroit) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Michigan primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sanford v. City of Detroit, 355 F. Supp. 3d 619 (E.D. Mich. 2019).

Opinion

R. STEVEN WHALEN, UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE

Before the Court is Plaintiff's Motion to Compel Production of Documents Relevant to Plaintiff's Monell Claim, as well as the Individual Defendants' Personnel Files, Disciplinary records, Training Records, and Handwritten Notes [Doc. # 39]. For the reasons and under the terms discussed below, the motion is GRANTED IN PART AND DENIED IN PART.

On September 17, 2007, four people were shot to death in a house on Runyon *621Street on the East Side of Detroit. This cases arises out of the arrest, prosecution, and imprisonment of Plaintiff Davontae Sanford for those murders. Mr. Sanford was 14 years old at the time of the homicides, and served approximately nine years in prison before his attorneys and the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office stipulated to set aside his conviction in June of 2016. On July 19, 2016, the trial court dismissed the homicide charges.

Mr. Sanford alleges that the Defendant police officers Russell and Tolbert, who initially investigated the quadruple homicide, fabricated evidence against him, including admissions and a sketch of the crime scene they prepared, but falsely attributed to Mr. Sanford. He also alleges that these Defendants suppressed exculpatory evidence, including the fact that one Vincent Smothers confessed to the Runyon Street homicides, as well as other evidence corroborating Smothers' confession. In Count I of the complaint [Doc. # 1], Mr. Sanford brings a Fourteenth Amendment Due Process claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for fabrication of inculpatory evidence, suppression of material exculpatory evidence, and coercion; in Count II he brings a Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment claim against the individual Defendants; and in Count III, he brings a claim against Defendant City of Detroit under Monell v. Department of Social Services of City of New York, 436 U.S. 658, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 56 L.Ed.2d 611 (1978), alleging that numerous "improper, flawed, erroneous and inappropriate police investigative methods constituted customs, policies and practices" of the City. Complaint , ¶ 151.1

In their Joint List of Unresolved Issues [Doc. # 61] regarding Plaintiff's motion, the parties classify their dispute under three general categories:

(1) Whether Plaintiff's Monell claim arose before the Detroit bankruptcy, and whether it has therefore been discharged.

(2) Whether Plaintiff's discovery requests seeking employment, personnel, and training records of the individual Defendant police officers is overbroad, or is barred by the restrictions on personal information contained in Kallstrom v. City of Columbus , 136 F.3d 1055 (6th Cir. 1998).

(3) Whether records that Plaintiff seeks are protected by attorney-client, work product, of deliberative process privilege.

1. The Monell Claim

On December 4, 2018, the Court granted Defendant City of Detroit's motion to dismiss, holding that Plaintiff's claim against the City is a "prepetition claim" that was discharged when the Detroit bankruptcy plan was confirmed on November 12, 2014, and became effective on December 10, 2014. See In re City of Detroit, Michigan , 548 B.R. 748 (Bankr. E.D. Mich. 2016). "Sanford's claims against the City must be considered prepetition claims. As such, it is barred by the City's bankruptcy. 11 U.S.C. §§ 524(a)(2)." Opinion [Doc. # 142] at 12.

Accordingly, any discovery requests directed at the Plaintiff's Monell claim are irrelevant, and will be DENIED.

2. Employment Records of Individual Defendants

a.

Defendants correctly argue that in Kallstrom , the Sixth Circuit found that police officers have a constitutionally protected privacy interest in certain personal information that under certain circumstances *622outweighs the need for disclosure. Specifically, the Court found that disclosure of the officers' "addresses, phone numbers, and driver's licenses and the officers' families' names, addresses, and phone numbers" would increase the risk of harm to the officers and their families. Id ., 136 F.3d at 1067.

On the other hand, the Plaintiff has a right to discovery of relevant evidence. However, as discussed above, given the dismissal of the City, relevant evidence does not include material bearing on the Plaintiff's Monell claim. Plaintiff stated in the Joint List of Unresolved Issues [Doc. # 61], at 6, Pg. ID 202, "All records pertaining to the individual Defendants' respective employment records and histories within and, as to Defendant Tolbert, departure from, the Detroit Police Department, are directly relevant to Plaintiff's claims against Defendants in this case, and in particular to their Monell claim against Defendant City." The Monell claim is gone, so to a large extent Plaintiff's discovery request for personnel records must be denied.2 But Plaintiff is entitled to discovery of Defendants' employment records relating to any disciplinary actions or findings contained therein. As the scope of discovery under Fed.R.Civ.P. 26 is broader than that under the Federal Rules of Evidence, the Defendants must produce all disciplinary actions contained in their employment/personnel files, not just those related to Brady violations, coerced confessions, or fabricated evidence. If Defendants claim privilege as to any of the material, they must provide a privilege log. Pursuant to Kallstrom , the Defendants may redact personal information such as addresses, phone numbers, and driver's licenses and the officers' families' names, addresses, and phone numbers, as well as medical information protected under HIPPA.

b. Training Records

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
355 F. Supp. 3d 619, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sanford-v-city-of-detroit-mied-2019.