Captain Jack's Crab Shack, Inc. v. Cooke

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CAPTAIN JACK'S CRAB SHACK, INC., d.b.a. Captain Jack's Shack, RONNIE BARTLETT, LEE BARTLETT, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. K. DAVID COOKE, JR., District Attorney of the Macon Judicial Circuit, in his individual capacity, et al., Defendants, MELANIE BICKFORD, Investigator, City of Byron Police Department, Byron, Georgia, in her individual capacity, Defendant-Appellant. CAPTAIN JACKS'S CRAB SHACK, INC., d.b.a. Captain Jack's Shack, Plaintiff, RONNIE BARTLETT, LEE BARTLETT, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. K. DAVID COOKE, JR., District Attorney of the Macon Judicial Circuit, in his individual capacity, MICHAEL G. LAMBROS, Special Assistant District Attorney of the Macon Judicial Circuit, in his individual capacity, MELANIE BICKFORD, Investigator, City of Byron Police Department, Byron, Georgia, in her individual capacity, CHRISTINE WELCH, Police Officer, City of Centerville Police Department, Centerville, Georgia, in her individual capacity, Defendants-Appellees.

CAPTAIN JACKS'S CRAB SHACK, INC., d.b.a. Captain Jack's Shack, RONNIE BARTLETT, LEE BARTLETT, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. K. DAVID COOKE, JR., District Attorney of the Macon Judicial Circuit, in his individual capacity, et al., Defendants, CHRISTINE WELCH, Police Officer, City of Centerville Police Department, Centerville, Georgia, in her individual capacity, Defendant-Appellant.

Nos. 21-11112, 21-11113, 21-11114

United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit

September 22, 2022

DO NOT PUBLISH

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia D.C. Docket No. 1:16-cv-02887-SCJ Before WILLIAM PRYOR, Chief Judge, LUCK, Circuit Judge, and MOORER ^[*] District Judge.

OPINION OF THE COURT

PER CURIAM.

In 2015, the Byron Police Department launched an investigation into Captain Jack's, a seafood restaurant in Georgia. An undercover officer saw Captain Jack's pay thousands of dollars in cash prizes to those who won on the restaurant's video poker machines. These cash payments violated Georgia law. So the officers searched the property seized the restaurant's money, and arrested the owners-Ronnie and Lee Bartlett.

The district attorney's office brought Mr. Bartlett to trial and a jury convicted him of several gambling crimes. The Georgia Court of Appeals later reversed the conviction. The Bartletts, in turn, sued two prosecutors and two officers that they say were responsible for the prosecution, asserting twelve federal and state law claims.

The district court granted the prosecutors' motions to dismiss, denied the officers' motions for judgment on the pleadings, and denied the Bartletts' motion for leave to amend their complaint. After careful review, and with the benefit of oral argument, we conclude that the Bartletts' claims are barred by immunity or otherwise fail. We affirm the dismissal of the Bartletts' claims against the prosecutors and the denial of the Bartletts' motion to amend. We reverse the denial of the officers' motions for judgment on the pleadings.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND^[1]

Ronnie and Lee Bartlett, a married couple in their seventies, owned and operated Captain Jack's Crab Shack, a seafood restaurant in Byron, Georgia. Captain Jack's had a state license to use "coin operated amusement machines" at the restaurant. While gambling is generally illegal in Georgia, the state legislature has created an exception for these closely regulated games. See GA. CODE ANN. § 16-12-35.

A coin operated amusement machine is any "machine . . . used by the public to provide amusement or entertainment whose operation requires the payment of or the insertion of [money or tokens] and the result of whose operation depends in whole or in part upon the skill of the player." GA. CODE ANN. § 50-27-70(b)(2)(A). These games include, for example, pinball machines, video games, and claw machines: games that require at least some skill. Id. Georgia law allows players who win to redeem "noncash" prizes worth up to five dollars for a single play. § 16-12-35(d)(2). It's a "misdemeanor of a high and aggravated nature" for any person owning a coin operated amusement machine to "give[] to any other person money as a reward for the successful play or winning of any such amusement game." § 16-12-35(g).

On May 1, 2015, Officer Melanie Bickford with the Byron Police Department signed an affidavit in support of search and arrest warrants for Captain Jack's and the Bartletts. In her affidavit, Officer Bickford averred that an undercover officer, Christine Welch, went to Captain Jack's five times. While Officer Welch was there, she played the games. And, during those visits, Officer Welch was paid $330 in cash out of Captain Jack's register for winning on "video poker" machines. Officer Welch also saw a woman win $2,500 and watched Mr. Bartlett remove money from the games to gather enough cash to pay the woman.

On May 5, 2015, the Byron Police Department executed the warrants it secured based on Officer Bickford's affidavit. While executing the warrants, the officers "confiscated [Captain Jack's games] and cash and other personal property." They also arrested the Bartletts. On that same day, District Attorney David Cooke and Special Assistant District Attorney Michael Lambros-both with the district attorney's office for the Macon Judicial Circuit- filed a civil case against the Bartletts in state court under Georgia's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. The state court entered a temporary restraining order "freezing [the Bartletts'] accounts and assets."

The Bartletts allege that this "illegal raid" was "secured by . . . fabricated evidence." The search, arrest, and civil racketeering case, they say, hinged on four flawed allegations: that the Bartletts were (1) "making cash payments to players of the illegal gambling machines," (2) "operating illegal gambling machines" by using machines that "allowed a 'win' without any skill or assistance of the player," (3) "falsely report[ing] winnings to the Georgia Department of Revenue," and (4) "engag[ing] in money laundering." The defendants "knew they had no evidence of any of [these] acts," the Bartletts claim. For example, there was no evidence that the Bartletts personally made any cash payments.

According to the Bartletts, Officer Bickford and Officer Welch's "perjured testimony led to the raid on Captain Jack's, the arrests of the Bartletts, and the filing of the civil [racketeering] action." And the officers did "[a]ll of this"-i.e., they conducted the search and arrest based on "fabricated evidence" in the affidavits- "at the insistence of . . . Lambros and Cooke." District Attorney Cooke and Special Assistant District Attorney Lambros also "directed" the "illegal raid" on Captain Jack's.

The Bartletts claim that this wasn't the first time that District Attorney Cooke and Special Assistant District Attorney Lambros pursued unsupported actions against businessowners. The prosecutors allegedly had "a pattern and practice of . . . seiz[ing] all the assets of locations operating bona fide coin operated amusement machines" and then "extort[ing] a resolution with the location owners that allow[ed] [the prosecutors] to keep a portion of the money improperly seized, while threatening location owners with criminal prosecution." And District Attorney Cooke allegedly "create[d] an unaccountable fund with the revenues generated from these improper seizures, minus the monies paid to . . . Lam-bros, and then spen[t] the[] [funds] . . . on items he believe[d] [would] garner him favor with his constituency."

That, the Bartletts say, is what happened here. In August 2016, more than a year after the prosecutors filed the civil racketeering case, they dropped the case. But by that time, the Bartletts had hired two experts who both determined that Captain Jack's games were legal because they required skill. And when the Bartletts sent a notice of their intent to sue, District Attorney Cooke told the Bartletts that "he had not been planning to prosecute" them but that "receiving the [n]otice had caused him to reconsider and prioritize their case for prosecution." Seventeen months after their initial arrests, the Bartletts were indicted for several gambling crimes. They both were arrested and placed in jail overnight before they posted bond.

In February 2018, Mr. Bartlett's criminal case finally went to trial.^[2] Once the government finished presenting its case, Mr. Bartlett moved for a directed verdict, arguing that the games at Captain Jack's fell outside the gambling laws. The government disagreed, contending: (1) "[o]nce you start paying out cash you have turned that [otherwise-exempt game] into a gambling device"; and (2) the games were gambling devices because Officer Welch had testified that there were "times where [she] w[o]n" without giving the games a "nudge" (i.e., she won with no skill). The trial court denied Mr. Bartlett's motion for a directed verdict. And the jury convicted Mr. Bartlett on three counts: commercial gambling, possessing gambling equipment, and keeping a gambling place. The jury acquitted Mr. Bartlett on several criminal racketeering charges.

Mr. Bartlett appealed, and the Georgia Court of Appeals reversed, finding that "the evidence was insufficient as a matter of law to support his convictions." Bartlett v. State, 829 S.E.2d 187, 188 (Ga.Ct.App. 2019).

The state court of appeals explained the government's theory:

The [s]tate's theory at trial was that the [games] in Captain Jack's were effectively converted into illegal gambling devices for two reasons. First, the [s]tate relied upon [Officer] Welch's testimony that she was able to complete a winning spin without having to nudge the wheels, thus removing the element of player skill required of a bona fide [coin operated

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