Hopkins v. Rhode Island

491 F.Supp.2d 266

Ricardo HOPKINS, Individually and as Parent and Next of Kin to Dionne Nails and Erica Hopkins, Plaintiffs, v. The State of RHODE ISLAND and Providence Plantations; Department of Children, Youth & Family; Jay G. Lindgren, Jr., Individually and in his capacity as Director of DCYF; Thomas M. Bohan, Esq., Individually and in his capacity as Executive Director Administration; Thomas Dwyer, Individually and in his capacity as Associate Director Child Welfare Services; Kevin Aucoin, Individually and in his capacity as Chief Legal Services; Suzan Morris, Individually and in her capacity as Senior Legal Counsel; Patricia Petrella, Individually and in her capacity as Legal Counsel to DCYF; Ellen Balasco, Individually and in her capacity as Legal Counsel to CASA; Karen Degenova, Individually and in her capacity as DCYF Investigator, Defendants.

C.A. No. 04-373L.

United States District Court, D. Rhode Island.

June 21, 2007.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Joseph R. Daigle, Esq., Gelfuso & Lachut, Inc., Maureen D. Gemma, Esq., Cranston, RI, for Plaintiffs

Richard B. Woolley, Esq. Attorney General's Office, Providence, RI, for Defendants.

DECISION AND ORDER

LAGUEUX, Senior District Judge.

This case is before the Court on Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment. Plaintiffs' claims stem from actions taken by employees of the Rhode Island Department of Children, Youth and Families ("DCYF") in 2001, when Plaintiff Ricardo Hopkins, an African-American, was the subject of a child abuse investigation by the state agency. Plaintiffs Dionne Nalls and Erica Hopkins, the minor children of Ricardo Hopkins, are the children on whose behalf the investigation was conducted. Plaintiffs have brought a six-count complaint, which includes federal constitutional claims and state common law tort claims, as well as a request that this Court enjoin DCYF and order permanent changes in the way the agency operates. Defendants have moved for summary judgment on all counts in the Complaint. For the reasons explained below, the Court grants Defendants' Motion.

Standard of review

Pursuant to Rule 56(c) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the Court must look to the record and view all the facts and inferences therefrom in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party. Continental Casualty Co. v. Canadian Universal Ins. Co., 924 F.2d 370, 373 (1st Cir. 1991). In this case, as the Defendants have moved for summary judgment, the Court has accepted the version of the facts as presented by the Plaintiffs. The Court has relied on the account supplied by the Defendants only to fill in gaps when the Plaintiffs have omitted events that were necessary to sketch out a coherent chronology.

The law is clear that summary judgment must be granted if there are no disputed issues of material fact, and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 325, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986). The United States Supreme Court has observed that Rule 56(c) mandates an entry of summary judgment against a party who fails to make a sufficient showing to establish an element essential to that party's case, and on which that party bears the burden of proof at trial. Id., 477 U.S. at 322, 106 S.Ct. 2548. The test is whether or not, as to each essential element, there is sufficient evidence favoring the nonmoving party for a jury to return a verdict for that party. DeNovellis v. Shalala, 124 F.3d 298, 306 (1st Cir.1997)(citing Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 249-50, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986)).

Factual and procedural background

On February 12, 2001, DCYF was notified by Butler Hospital, a private psychiatric hospital in Providence, Rhode Island, that Crystal Jones, a 19-year old patient at the facility, had accused Ricardo Hopkins of sexually abusing her from 1988 to 1996. During that time period, Jones was between the ages of six and fourteen years old and a foster child at the home of Nina Hopkins. At age fourteen, Jones ran away from the foster home. Ricardo, who is ten years older than Crystal, had been adopted by Nina Hopkins several years before the alleged abuse was said to have occurred. According to Ricardo, Jones had had a history of sexual abuse, substance abuse and emotional problems, both before and after her time as a foster child at the Hopkins home. At the time of her hospitalization, Jones was still in DCYF custody.

DCYF assigned the Jones sexual abuse case to Defendant Karen DeGenova, an agency caseworker, who, on February 13, 2001, visited the Foster, Rhode Island, home of Nina Hopkins, where Ricardo lived with his girlfriend, Stephanie Morgan, and their daughter, Plaintiff Erica Hopkins. DeGenova confronted Ricardo with Jones' claims of sexual abuse, which were adamantly denied by Ricardo, his girlfriend, and his mother, Nina.

On discovering that Ricardo had children of his own, DeGenova next turned her inquiry to his parenting. He admitted to using a switch once to punish Erica by tapping her across her open hands. De-Genova then questioned Erica privately for approximately five minutes. According to Ricardo's account, Erica confirmed that she had been hit with a switch, but denied that she and her father had had any contact of a sexual nature.

After spending no more than fifteen minutes at the Hopkins home, DeGenova left and called her supervisor from her car. She soon returned to the house with two Foster police officers. She informed Ricardo that he would be reported for using excessive force with Erica, and indicated that she would remove Erica from the home unless Ricardo agreed to leave. Faced with these options, Ricardo chose to leave his mother's house and went to stay with a friend.

Over the next several days, DeGenova continued her investigation, interviewing Ricardo's other children who did not live with him full time, including a three-year old son, Plaintiff Dionne Nalls, a five-year old daughter, Tyasia, and Dionne's half brother, Douglas.¹ According to Defendants, these children told DeGenova that they had all been spanked and hit with a switch by Ricardo, and that he had also bound their hands and feet. Douglas also said that, while his hands and feet were tied, Ricardo had put a dirty sock in his mouth and put him in the shower.

According to Ricardo's affidavit, DeGenova also interviewed Dionne Nails' grandmother, Izola Ricketts. Ricketts initially told DeGenova that Ricardo was a good father, but subsequently called back and said she had just remembered that Douglas Nalls complained of being sexually molested by Ricardo. Douglas later denied that he had made this accusation, and Ricardo states that Ricketts was just attempting to take sides in a custody dispute already underway between Ricardo and Dionne's mother, Mary Nalls, over Dionne's placement.²

Crystal Jones told DeGenova that Ricardo had been investigated in the past for sexually molesting another foster child, as well as his niece, Sarah Hopkins. According to Ricardo, DeGenova made no effort to corroborate these allegations. Later, while under oath in Family Court, Sarah Hopkins denied that she had been molested by Ricardo. Moreover, a subsequent investigation failed to turn up any record of prior criminal complaints or DCYF investigations involving Ricardo.

Nonetheless, DeGenova ultimately concluded that Erica and Dionne were in danger of sexual abuse and other neglect, based upon Jones' allegations and the other allegations, and DCYF filed a petition against Ricardo in Family Court on February 22, 2001.

At the time of the investigation, Ricardo was employed as a counselor at two state-operated residential facilities for adolescents under DCYF care, Whitmarsh House and Communities for People. The day after Ricardo was ordered out of his house, his employers were notified, possibly by Defendants Thomas Dwyer and/or Kevin Aucoin, of the investigation into Jones' sexual abuse allegations. Despite his excellent work history, Ricardo's employment at both group homes was immediately terminated.

On March 1, 2001, Hopkins was arraigned in Rhode Island Family Court on charges of child abuse. DCYF was represented in court by Defendant Patricia Petrella, Senior Legal Counsel to the agency. Ricardo requested a probable cause hearing, which took place on March 7 and was continued in order for Ricardo to depose Jones. Jones was deposed on March 29, but, according to Ricardo, the deposition was not fruitful because her DCYF-appointed counsel (actually a court-appointed special advocate), Defendant Ellen Balasco counseled Jones to refrain from answering pertinent questions.

On March 30, 2001, Ricardo filed a Motion to Dismiss DCYF's petition. In support of the Motion, Ricardo argued that DCYF had exceeded its legal authority by conducting the initial investigation, because Crystal Jones, at age nineteen, was not a "child" as defined by the Abused and Neglected Children Statute, Rhode Island Gen. Law § 40-11-2(2), and that, moreover, there was no present or imminent risk of harm to her, as required by DCYF Policy 500.0010, because the alleged abuse had taken place over five years before, and Ricardo was not her parent, foster parent nor had he ever been in any way responsible for her welfare.³ Consequently, his argument continued, any information that resulted from the investigation of Jones' allegations was tainted ("fruit of the poisonous tree"), should be expunged, and could not provide a predicate for a petition against Ricardo. The Family Court proceedings, he concluded, lacked legal basis and therefore violated his constitutional rights to procedural and substantive due process.

On April 27, 2001, Judge Paul Suttell of the Family Court (now a member of the Rhode Island Supreme Court) denied Ricardo's Motion to Dismiss, ruling that the investigation was "legitimately instituted." In his decree, Judge Suttell explained that, once notified by Butler Hospital of Jones'...