Henderson v. Matthews

570 F.Supp.3d 272

Helen E. HENDERSON

v.Justin MATTHEWS, et al.

CIVIL ACTION NO. 19-3040

United States District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania.

Filed November 4, 2021

J. Michael Considine, Jr., J. Michael Considine Jr., PC, Philadelphia, PA, for Helen E. Henderson.

Helen E. Henderson, Philadelphia, PA, Pro Se.

Aaron Shotland, Andrew Pomager, City of Philadelphia Law Department, Philadelphia, PA, for Justin Matthews, Brandon Pinkston.

MEMORANDUM

Bartle, District Judge

Helen Henderson sued Philadelphia police officers Justin Matthews and Brandon Pinkston under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for use of excessive force when they arrested her. After a five-day trial, a jury returned a verdict in favor of Matthews and Pinkston.¹ Henderson now moves for a new trial under Rule 59 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and for relief from judgment under Rule 60. She argues that newly discovered evidence exists, various rulings at trial constitute reversible error, and the jury's verdict was against the weight of the evidence.

I

The court has discretion to grant or deny a motion for a new trial under Rule 59 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Springer v. Henry, 435 F.3d 268, 274 (3d Cir. 2006). The court may grant a motion for a new trial under this rule "for any reason for which a new trial has heretofore been granted in an action at law in federal court." Fed. R. Civ. P. 59(a)(1)(A). Courts have granted new-trial motions when "there is a significant error of law, to the prejudice of the moving party," "the verdict is against the weight of the evidence," or "counsel engaged in improper conduct that had a prejudicial effect on the jury." Borrell v. Bloomsburg Univ., 207 F. Supp. 3d 454, 470 (M.D. Pa. 2016) (citation omitted). The court need not view the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict winner. See, e.g., Taha v. Bucks Cty., 408 F. Supp. 3d 628, 643 (E.D. Pa. 2019) ; Magee v. Gen. Motors Corp., 213 F.2d 899, 900 (3d Cir. 1954). Still, a new trial should be granted only when "a miscarriage of justice would result if the verdict were to stand." Springer, 435 F.3d at 274 (citation omitted).

Rule 60(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure permits the court to issue relief from a final judgment, order, or proceeding. The Rule provides several reasons for which the court may relieve a party from a final judgment. The present motion advances two: "newly discovered evidence that, with reasonable diligence, could not have been discovered in time to move for a new trial under Rule 59(b)" and "fraud (whether previously called intrinsic or extrinsic), misrepresentation, or misconduct by an opposing party." Fed. R. Civ. P. 60(b)(2), (3). Relief under Rule 60(b) "should be granted only where extraordinary justifying circumstances are present." Bohus v. Beloff, 950 F.2d 919, 930 (3d Cir. 1991) (citation omitted).

II

In the early morning hours of February 10, 2018, police twice visited the 5100 block of Reno Street in Philadelphia. At approximately 3:45 A.M. Matthews and his partner Marcus Baker responded to a call over police radio to Henderson's home at 5138 Reno Street. When they arrived, Henderson was arguing with her son Ramil Hughes and her son's girlfriend Alisha Henderson ("Alisha"), who is not related to plaintiff Henderson. Henderson and Alisha appeared visibly intoxicated. Alisha left the house, and the officers departed.

Matthews and Baker received a radio call about another disturbance at 5138 Reno Street at 4:22 A.M. They responded along with officers Samira Rasheed and Eric Miller. Alisha had returned to Henderson's house and had begun arguing with Henderson again. The altercation turned violent. Alisha, who is significantly younger and heavier than Henderson, pinned Henderson to the ground by lying on top of her. Henderson was unable to breathe. She was able to reach a bottle of wine and smashed it over Alisha's head. At some point during the fight, Henderson cut her finger. When officers first reached the scene, they found Alisha lying motionless on the floor, surrounded by blood. By this time, Henderson had walked to the home of her neighbor, Lanett Parrish, at 5150 Reno Street.

The officers learned of Henderson's whereabouts and proceeded to that address. She confessed to striking Alisha with the bottle and was arrested. Baker and Matthews drove Henderson to the emergency room at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center to receive treatment for her cut finger. At the hospital, she received an x-ray and was diagnosed with a spiral fracture to the fifth metatarsal of her right foot, a bone near the small toe.

The critical dispute at trial was how Henderson's foot was injured. Henderson claimed that defendants Matthews and Pinkston pulled her down the steps of 5150 Reno Street, which caused her to fall and fracture her foot. By contrast, defendants maintained they did not forcibly transport her down the steps. Matthews insisted that Henderson walked down the steps without incident on her own. Pinkston did not recall being at 5150 Reno Street that night at all.

Henderson testified at trial. Her memory of the events of the early morning of February 10, 2018 is sketchy at best. Indeed, she has no memory of what occurred at the steps at 5150 Reno Street when she was allegedly subjected to excessive force. She had been drinking since 9 A.M. the day before and in the process had consumed a half-gallon of rum. The evidence is undisputed that she was very drunk during the relevant events in question.

Henderson testified that after her fight with Alisha, she left her home at 5138 Reno Street and walked a block away to the intersection of 52nd Street and Haverford Avenue. At the time, she experienced no foot pain. When she returned to the 5100 block of Reno Street, the owner of 5150 Reno Street, Lanett Parrish, invited her inside to collect herself. Two officers entered the house at 5150 Reno Street while Henderson was inside and beckoned her to the front porch. She could not remember their identities. They walked her to the top of the front steps with her hands behind her back. She saw an officer walk up the street--the same officer who drove her to the hospital--and yell, "Who did it?" She felt a pull and then lost consciousness. The next thing she remembers is regaining consciousness at the bottom of the steps. She yelled in pain, "Ow." She heard her son Hughes yell, "That's my mom." She had difficulty getting up because she could not place weight on her right foot. Officers lifted her under each arm, handcuffed her, and carried her to the police car. Roughly eight to ten officers were standing in the street nearby. While in the police car, she heard unidentified officers say, "This is the one--this is what we're going to say happened," to which she responded, "No, officer it didn't happen like that." She could not remember the drive to the hospital or much of what happened there.

Henderson's medical records were admitted at trial. After her arrest, she was taken to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center. Her records reflect that when she arrived at the hospital at approximately 5:30 A.M., she reported only the cut on her right index finger, which occurred when the wine bottle broke during her altercation with Alisha. She did not report pain in her right foot until later that morning. At 7 A.M., an emergency room doctor reported an update in her condition: "Patient now mentioning right foot pain." At some point after Henderson reported her foot pain, an emergency room nurse reported she was "ambulatory with a steady gait." Henderson remembered undergoing an x-ray and being told she had fractured her foot. She saw a podiatric specialist at Penn Medicine later that morning. A note from that visit reads, "Per patient, she was in an altercation with her son when she found herself on the ground with severe foot pain and is unable to bear weight." Her records also show that she reported using marijuana that night.

Henderson's son, Ramil Hughes, also testified. He recounted that he was upstairs in the shower during the fight between Alisha and Henderson. He came downstairs and broke up the fight sometime after Henderson smashed the wine bottle over Alisha's head. Henderson got up and walked out the front door. She was walking normally. Hughes tended to Alisha until police arrived. When they did, Hughes was upset that Alisha had returned to 5138 Reno Street and yelled at the officers. Pinkston handcuffed Hughes and placed him in a police car outside 5138 Reno Street. After twenty minutes or so, a police officer placed Hughes on the curb and interviewed him. Hughes heard Parrish, the owner of 5150 Reno Street, call out to the officers on the scene that Henderson was there. He said a supervising officer, then-Sergeant Mustafa Beyah, instructed Pinkston to cuff him again and then ordered Matthews and Pinkston to go to 5150 Reno Street.

It was dark as Hughes watched from down the street. A porch light illuminated the front of the house at 5150 Reno Street. When Henderson exited the house, Matthews was standing on the steps, while Pinkston was at the bottom of the steps of the house next-door. Matthews asked Henderson, "What did you hit her with?" Then Henderson descended the steps. After she took two steps down, Matthews grabbed her left wrist, and Pinkston grabbed her right forearm. Pinkston used "a jerky motion downward," and Matthews "did a twisting motion taking her arm behind her back." Henderson then fell "knees to the ground" at the bottom of the steps. She yelled out in pain, "Ouch," and, "My foot hurts." Matthews and Pinkston hoisted her off the ground. She tried to put weight on her foot but could not, and as a result the officers carried her to the police car. Her feet never touched the ground. Several officers stood in the street in close proximity, including Beyah, Miller, Rasheed, and Andrew Smith. None of the officers was still at Henderson's home.

Henderson elicited testimony from several officers, including defendants. Many of the...