Weichman v. Clarke

434 F. App'x 545
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedAugust 4, 2011
DocketNo. 11-1463
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 434 F. App'x 545 (Weichman v. Clarke) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Weichman v. Clarke, 434 F. App'x 545 (7th Cir. 2011).

Opinion

ORDER

Police in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, arrested John Weichman after he failed to appear [547]*547for a court hearing. Weichman was held at Milwaukee County Jail for several days and then released on bail. He sues under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, claiming that officers falsely arrested him, unlawfully detained him, and denied him medical care. The district court granted summary judgment for the defendants, and Weichman appeals. We affirm the judgment.

We begin with the factual record. Because Weichman did not properly respond to the defendants’ proposed findings of fact, the district court accepted their facts as undisputed. Weichman’s complaint and the affidavit he submitted in response to the defendants’ motion for summary judgment were both sworn, however, and therefore may contain admissible evidence. See Ford v. Wilson, 90 F.3d 245, 246 (7th Cir.1996). We incorporate these documents in our analysis and note where the facts are disputed.

According to the defendants, Weichman received a ticket from a Milwaukee police officer on July 18, 2008, for driving while under the influence of a controlled substance, his third offense of this kind. The officer issued the citation based on observations that Weichman had a strong odor of alcohol on his breath and Weichman’s admission that he had been drinking; Weichman also submitted to a blood test. The citation required that Weichman appear in Milwaukee Circuit Court on February 11, 2009. He was also served by mail with a complaint and summons one month before the required court appearance. The complaint stated that the results of the blood test showed that there had been cocaine in Weichman’s system on July 18, 2008. Weichman admits that he was involved in a traffic accident on July 18, 2008, but denies that he ever received a citation or notice of the hearing.

Weichman did not attend the hearing, and the court issued a warrant for his arrest. Shortly after midnight on Thursday, March 5, 2009, Weichman was arrested and booked at Milwaukee County Jail. During his health screening Weichman reported that he was taking medications for chronic lung disease, anxiety, and pain from a recent shoulder surgery. Weich-man showed signs of alcohol dependence, alcohol withdrawal, and opiate dependence. Because of the interactions between alcohol and these other drugs, Dr. Grebner, the jail’s medical director, determined that Weichman should not receive his opiate-based pain medication or anxiety medication. Weichman accepted ibuprofen for his shoulder pain, and he did not complain of any breathing trouble while at the jail. Weichman says that under jail policy he was denied access to any medical care and was prohibited from taking his prescription drugs.

On Thursday, the same day as his arrest, the court set Weichman’s bond at $750 and ordered him turned over, upon release, to Wisconsin Community Services (WCS) to participate in its Repeat Intoxicated Driver Program. Weichman posted bond at about 9:00 pm on Thursday. Staff at WCS check the jail logs each weekday morning for inmates that must report to the program, and then fax to the jail a list of the people that WCS will transport on that day. Weichman was not listed on the fax from WCS for the next weekday, Friday, so he was not released to WCS until Monday morning, when he was listed.

In this suit containing various federal and pendent state-law claims, Weichman has named as defendants David Clarke (Milwaukee County Sheriff), Milwaukee County, and other “John Does.” Weichman filed two motions for recruitment of counsel and a motion to compel discovery, all of which the district court denied. The defendants moved for summary judgment, and three weeks later, Weichman filed [548]*548what he titled a motion for summary judgment and response to the defendants’ motion. Since the deadline for dispositive motions had passed, the district court treated Weichman’s filing as a response rather than an independent motion. In the response Weichman clarified that “there are no state law claims anywhere in this action.” Also, although he had obtained the actual names of the “John Doe” defendants, he never amended his complaint to name them.

The district court granted the defendants’ motion for summary judgment for the federal claims of false arrest, unlawful detention, and denial of medical care. Having accepted the defendants’ proposed facts, it found undisputed that Weichman was cited for driving under the influence of a controlled substance. It therefore concluded that probable cause existed to arrest Weichman, defeating his false-arrest claim. The court next reasoned that because the state had an interest in placing conditions on Weichman’s release, his claim that he was unlawfully detained until police turned him over to WCS failed. Finally, the court found that the defendants had submitted unrebutted evidence that Weichman received an adequate level of care. The remaining allegations of federal violations were unsubstantiated, and any state-law claims were abandoned.

Weichman has failed to respond to any of the district court’s reasoning on appeal. Instead, he contends that he can now produce ample evidence to support his factual allegations and submits additional evidence along with his appellate brief. But we may only consider evidence properly presented to the district court. See Hernandez v. HCH Miller Park Joint Venture, 418 F.3d 732, 736 (7th Cir.2005); United States v. Elizalde-Adame, 262 F.3d 637, 640 (7th Cir.2001). Weichman continues to argue that he was not issued a citation and that the citation the defendants produced is fabricated. He also challenges the district court’s refusal to recruit counsel and to compel discovery.

There are numerous problems with Weichman’s case. First, the parties that Weichman has named in this litigation limit his ability to recover. Because he declined to use their actual names after discovering them, Weichman’s “John Doe” defendants cannot survive summary judgment. See Williams v. Rodriguez, 509 F.3d 392, 402 (7th Cir.2007); Alejo v. Heller, 328 F.3d 930, 936 (7th Cir.2003). Also, the named parties are limited to municipal liability only. Specifically, Milwaukee County may be liable for monetary damages under § 1983 only if Weichman presents evidence that a county policy, widespread practice, or custom caused his injuries. Monell v. Dep’t of Soc. Svcs., 436 U.S. 658, 690-91, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 56 L.Ed.2d 611 (1978); Waters v. City of Chicago, 580 F.3d 575, 580-81 (7th Cir.2009). The same is true for any claims against Sheriff Clarke, see Grieve-son v. Anderson, 538 F.3d 763, 771 (7th Cir.2008); Pourghoraishi v. Flying J, Inc., 449 F.3d 751, 765 (7th Cir.2006), because Weichman has not alleged Clarke’s personal involvement in any of the events at issue.

With these principles in mind, we turn first to Weichman’s claim that he was unconstitutionally denied medical treatment in the jail.

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Bluebook (online)
434 F. App'x 545, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/weichman-v-clarke-ca7-2011.