Simmons v. Baker

842 F. Supp. 883, 1994 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1133, 1994 WL 33873
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Virginia
DecidedFebruary 3, 1994
DocketCiv. A. No. 3:93CV357
StatusPublished

This text of 842 F. Supp. 883 (Simmons v. Baker) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Simmons v. Baker, 842 F. Supp. 883, 1994 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1133, 1994 WL 33873 (E.D. Va. 1994).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

RICHARD L. WILLIAMS, Senior District Judge.

This matter is before the Court on the following motions: (1) defendants’ motions for summary judgment; (2) plaintiffs cross-motion for partial summary judgment; (3) plaintiffs motion for class certification; (4) plaintiffs motion for defendant class certification; and (5) defendant Boyer’s motions to dismiss and to overrule plaintiffs request for class certification. For the reasons stated below, the Court denies the plaintiffs motions, grants in part the defendants’ motions for summary judgment and grants defendant Boyer’s motion to dismiss.

I. Facts

On January 25,1992, at approximately 1:00 a.m., an elderly white woman was robbed and raped in her home in Powhatan County, Virginia. The crime was investigated by members of the Powhatan Sheriffs Office, led by Deputy Sheriff Vernon Poe, a co-defendant in this case. The victim described her assailant as a male of medium or average height (5'8" to 5'10") and average weight and build. She said her attacker had a “mild” voice with a “northern” accent. Though she could not be certain of her attacker’s race because he wore a mask and gloves, the victim told investigators that she thought her assailant was white because his voice sounded like a white man.

During their initial investigation of the rape, investigators from the Powhatan Sheriffs Office determined that the attacker had entered the home through a window in the kitchen. He had moved a plant from the windowsill before entering and then replaced the plant on the sill and closed the window, spilling dirt and trapping a portion of the plant in the window in the process. Investigators determined that neither the storm nor the interior window were locked, although they appeared to be fully closed. Dogs tracked to the nearby home of Eric Land, a white male. Poe considered both Land and his brother Mark to be possible suspects but dismissed Mark, who was 6'3" to 6'4" tall and very thin, because he did not meet the victim’s physical description of the assailant. Eric Land remained a suspect in the case.

An initial statewide broadcast of the offense on January 25, 1992 advised that the suspect was believed to be a white male of average height and build and approximately 25 to 35 years old.

On January 27, 1992, a national broadcast advised that the. assailant was of average height and build and unknown race. On that same day, Poe called defendant Larry E. McCann, a Special Agent with the Virginia State Police, to consult with him about the case. Poe related the circumstances of the rape to McCann and the evidence uncovered. Poe also gave McCann the victim’s description of her attacker and indicated that the victim was unable to identify her attacker’s race. McCann never visited the crime scene and did not personally review any of the evidence developed by Powhatan County investigators. Instead, all the information McCann considered was provided secondhand by Poe.

Analyzing the information given to him by Poe, McCann told Poe that the attacker probably had the following characteristics:1

[886]*8861) young black male (16 to early 20s);
2) lives with older female and possibly sisters;
3) lives close to the victim;
4) selects victims by peeping;
5) possibly in minor trouble with police previously;
6) walks or rides a bike;
7) is meek, quiet, shy, retiring;
8) is out at night;
9) is someone who has had prior contact with the victim, such as a laborer, etc.
10) may rape another victim within two weeks

After conferring with McCann, Poe talked to neighbors and family of the victim, trying to identify “anyone that had contact with her out of the normal personal scope of contact____” (Poe Dep. at 17.) In addition, the sheriffs department issued requests to the public for information concerning the rape, including information about people who may have been seen in the area before the rape. As a result of this inquiry, the sheriffs office received a call from someone who stated that the plaintiff, James E. Simmons, had recently washed windows at the victim’s residence. Attempts were made by the sheriffs office to contact Simmons for questioning. On January 30, 1992, Simmons’ aunt and his mother came to the sheriffs department to speak to Poe. They told Poe that Simmons and his mother had cleaned the windows and gutters at the victim’s residence on two days at the end of October 1991.

In addition, based on information obtained from his inquiries, Poe developed a list of 15 to 20 names of potential suspects to interview. The list was compiled by looking primarily for men who had had some contact with the victim, had medium height and build, had a northern accent and lived in the general area. Of the potential suspects on the list whose race Poe knew, the racial makeup of the group was equally divided between white and black.

Poe investigated people on the list in no particular order. As the investigation progressed, three or four suspects consented to blood samples, which eliminated them from consideration. One person on the list, John Burruss, committed suicide shortly after the investigation began. Burruss, a white male who lived with his mother near the victim, had a history of drug abuse and erratic behavior. He was a loner with no known girlfriend and was employed in menial jobs. Burruss also fit the general physical description of the assailant. At the request of Burruss’ family, a blood sample was taken post mortem, which ruled him out as a suspect.

In the course of his investigation, Poe consulted with McCann several times. On February 6, 1992, Poe asked McCann to contact authorities at the F.B.I. and consult with them about McCann’s analysis. Specifically, Poe asked McCann to ask the F.B.I. whether the analysis would be different if the suspect were a white male.

Accordingly, McCann contacted Steve Mardigian at the F.B.I. Academy at Quantico, Virginia. Mardigian told McCann that the F.B.I. did not handle single sexual assault cases unless there was significant behavior demonstrated by the rapist or unless violence was involved. Mardigian went on to state that if the analyst did want to profile the case, the profile would have to be “highly qualified.” (McCann Dep. II at 10.) By highly qualified, McCann understood Mardigian to mean that, in the interest of helping the investigators, a profile could be given as an investigative tool, but it should be made clear that the profile was based only on the available information and that more information would be desirable. Specifically, Mardigian would not commit himself to the inclusion of the race identification factor in the profile.

On February 10, 1992, McCann relayed to Poe the substance of his conversation with Mardigian. In addition, McCann again provided Poe with a number of characteristics to aid in the identification of the perpetrator, most of which were the same or substantially the same as the earlier characteristics he had given to Poe but which excluded a race char[887]*887acteristie.2 After telling Poe that the F.B.I.

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Bluebook (online)
842 F. Supp. 883, 1994 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1133, 1994 WL 33873, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/simmons-v-baker-vaed-1994.