Branch v. McGeeney

Page 330

123 Md.App. 330

718 A.2d 631

Latrice BRANCH v. Joseph E. McGEENEY, et al.

No. 1844, Sept. Term, 1997.

Court of Special Appeals of Maryland.

Oct. 2, 1998.

Richard S. Gordon, Towson (Law Office of Kieron F. Quinn, Towson, and William J. Carter and Carr, Godson, Lee & Warner, Washington, DC, on the brief), for appellant.

Rignal W. Baldwin, Jr., Jonathan P. Kagan and Brassel & Baldwin, P.A., Annapolis, for appellees McGeeney, Gruver and Koch.

Paul Garvey Goetzke, Annapolis, submitted on the brief for appellees City of Annapolis and Chief of Police, Joseph S. Johnson.

Submitted before WENNER and THIEME, JJ., and MARVIN H. SMITH, Judge (retired), Specially Assigned.

THIEME, Judge.

This action arises out of a nine-year-old girl's unfortunate run-in with Annapolis police officers who were operating under a mistaken understanding of state regulations governing the fingerprinting of juveniles. Appellant Latrice Branch filed the instant eight-count complaint by and through her mother and next friend, Teresa Hurley, in the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County. The complaint sought damages and declaratory relief against three Annapolis police officers, the City of Annapolis, and Chief of Police Joseph Johnson, in his official capacity. Count I was a claim pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for violations of appellant's federal constitutional rights, and Count II asserted tort claims for violations of analogous rights under the state constitution. Counts III though VII asserted common law claims for assault, battery, false arrest and imprisonment, malicious prosecution, and intentional infliction of emotional distress, respectively. Count VIII requested a declaratory judgment based on all the foregoing.

On cross motions for summary judgment, the lower court granted judgment in favor of all appellees and dismissed the complaint with prejudice. On the combined constitutional claims, the court ruled that appellant's rights had not been violated and also that there was no City policy to serve as a predicate to City liability. As to the federal constitutional claims, the court further ruled that the officers enjoyed qualified immunity from suit. The state common law claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress failed due to the lack of any evidence of extreme and outrageous conduct, and the rest of the claims failed due to the presence of probable cause to arrest. The lower court also found that the officers enjoyed immunity from suit on all the state common law claims.

The questions presented on appeal are as follows:

I. Did the lower court err in not granting the appellant's motion for summary and declaratory judgment against the City of Annapolis?

II. Did the lower court err in granting the defendants' motions for summary judgment?

Facts

The State of Maryland amended its regulations pertaining to the collection of both adult and juvenile fingerprints effective 1 October 1994. This amendment contained the following new language:

B. Adults who have been arrested shall be fingerprinted on an arrest fingerprint card approved by the Director of the CJIS [Criminal Justice Information System] Central Repository and on an arrest fingerprint card approved by the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

C. A juvenile who has been arrested shall be fingerprinted on the arrest fingerprint card approved by the Director of the CJIS Central Repository.

COMAR 12.15.01.09-1. Also added was a provision defining "arrest" as "the detention of an individual for the purpose of criminal prosecution, for the filing of delinquency petitions, or pursuant to existing charges or delinquency petitions." COMAR 12.15.01.03.B. (1). The purpose for the entire amendment, according to the Statement of Purpose, was to codify existing practices regarding the fingerprinting of adults and "to require that the fingerprints of a juvenile arrested for the commission of a crime or a delinquent act which would be a crime if committed by an adult shall be submitted to the

[CJIS] CENTRAL REPOSITORY." 21:7 MD. regISTER 558 (aPril 1, 1994).

In mid-August 1994, Mr. Tom Davis of CJIS met with Ms. Patricia Holland of the Annapolis Police Department's Central Records Section. Mr. Davis informed Ms. Holland of the new regulations regarding juvenile fingerprinting, and he gave her a copy of the above amendments from the Maryland Register. The next day, Ms. Holland drafted a Memorandum (hereinafter "the Memorandum") addressed to "All Sworn Officers, Annapolis Police Department" and designated "For Distribution Week of September 19, 1994." The Memorandum stated:

Effective October 1, 1994, Juvenile's [sic ] who are detained for the purpose of criminal prosecution, or for the filing of delinquent petition, or pursuant to existing charges of delinquent petition are to be fingerprinted on CJIS (State/Green) Cards, as well as Annapolis City Cards.

Charges are not to be entered on the cards when they are submitted to the State of Maryland, therefore the FBI does not want to receive cards.

For Your Information: The State is collecting cards for the MAFIS Fingerprint Identification System, so that they can more easily identify Juvenile offenders from fingerprints submitted from crime scenes.

As was normal practice, this Memorandum was approved by Ms. Holland's supervisor, Captain John Wright, prior to dissemination. Captain Wright also communicated orally with Mr. Davis before the Memorandum was released. The Memorandum was posted for all sworn officers to review, and copies were distributed to all officers through their shift commanders. Among the officers informed were appellees, Officer Joseph E. McGeeney, Jr., Corporal Joseph Gruver, and Officer Adam Koch.

This Memorandum somehow became imbued with a meaning that is not apparent from its text and which was not intended by the COMAR amendments. Officer McGeeney, Corporal Gruver, and Officer Koch each testified that he understood the Memorandum to embody a new policy that all juveniles arrested by the police must be transported to the station house for fingerprinting, even if the arresting officer would otherwise have released the particular juvenile into the custody of his or her parents at the scene. All the officers also stated that they had been aurally informed of this alteration in standard procedures by their shift commander concurrent to the dissemination of the Memorandum. Such an interpretation of the Memorandum is in conflict with its actual words, because in the context of juvenile procedure, "detention" is (or should be) commonly understood to refer to the placement of children in "physically restricting facilities," Md.Code Ann., Cts. & Jud. Proc. § 3-801(m), and should not be confused with a mere arrest not involving a detention.

Ms. Holland testified that, at the time she drafted the Memorandum, she too was under the impression that the COMAR amendments embodied a change in police procedures regarding the transporting of juveniles to the station house. She implicated Mr. Davis from CJIS as the source of her misconception. In fact, when at a later date Mr. Davis clarified that the COMAR amendments did not require such a change in procedures, Ms. Holland expressed her surprise in a memorandum to Captain Wright, memorializing the fact that "we were both surprise[d] that [Mr. Davis] had changed his statements, regarding the juvenile fingerprinting." What little can be gleaned from the portions of Captain Wright's deposition included in the record extract indicates that his understanding of the new COMAR amendments was roughly the same as that held by Ms. Holland and the three officers. Mr. Davis was apparently not deposed. It thus appears that an aurally-transmitted, erroneous policy shadowed the State's official, written fingerprinting policy as it worked its way through the chain of command in the Annapolis Police Department. There is no evidence in the record that any other police departments in the state labored under any similar misconception.

The erroneous "shadow policy" also appears to contravene Maryland law. Under Md.Code Ann., Cts. & Jud. Proc. § 3-814(b) (1995 Repl.Vol.), a child must be released to his or her parents "with all reasonable speed," upon the parents' written promise to bring the child to court when requested. The only exception to this rule occurs if the child is in need of shelter care or if further detention "appears required by § 3-815." That section requires detention only if the child needs protection from his or her environment, if the child is likely to flee, or if there is no parent or guardian to whose custody the child may be released.

About a month after the release of Ms. Holland's memorandum, police were called to the Betsy Court Apartments in Annapolis, where appellant had been playing a children's game with three of her friends. The four children were throwing acorns against the side of an apartment building next to a wooded area, trying to see who could hit the highest brick on the wall or land an acorn on the roof. One of the residents on that side of the building, Ms. Patricia Simms, became annoyed by the acorns striking her window. She told the children more than once to stop, but they continued their play. Ms. Simms then had one of her neighbors call the 911 emergency dispatch service.

Corporal Gruver and Officer McGeeney arrived on the scene separately and went to Ms. Simms's apartment to investigate. While in the apartment, both officers heard the sounds of objects striking the exterior of Ms. Simms's window, and Corporal Gruver actually observed appellant throw an object against the window. Ms. Simms told the officers that she wanted to press charges against appellant. The officers testified that they had no discretion to refuse Ms. Simms's demand, and appellant has not contended otherwise. The two officers took down the details of Ms. Simms's complaint. Officer Koch arrived on the scene and met the other two officers...