House of Providence v. Meyers

458 F.Supp.3d 621

HOUSE OF PROVIDENCE, et al., Plaintiffs,

v.Bruce MEYERS, et al., Defendants.

Civil Action No. 19-CV-13424

United States District Court, E.D. Michigan, Southern Division.

Signed May 5, 2020

Nina M. Paolini-Lotarski, Joseph N. Ejbeh, Aloia & Associates, P.C., Mt. Clemens, MI, for Plaintiffs.

Kerry Lynn Rhoads, Segal McCambridge Singer & Mahoney, Novi, MI, for Defendant Bruce Meyers.

Kerry Lynn Rhoads, Segal McCambridge Singer & Mahoney, Novi, MI, Thomas J. McGraw, McGraw Morris P.C., Troy, MI, for Defendant Kallie Roesner-Meyers.

Anissa C. Hudy, Anissa C. Hudy, J.D., PLLC, New Baltimore, MI, for Defendants James Unis, Donna Unis, Cynthia Unis.

Paul M. Kittinger, R. Carl Lanfear, Cardelli, Lanfear and Buikema, P.C., Royal Oak, MI, for Defendants Barbara Blanock, Ginny Benson.

Lisa H. Litton, Michael J. Nolan, Denis J. McCarthy, Kohl, Harris, Nolan, McCarthy, Turkelson & Ogden, P.C., Metamora, MI, for Defendants Paul Warfield, Kathy Warfield.

Jennifer C. Hill, Robert B. Holt, Jr., Secrest, Wardle, Troy, MI, for Defendant Larry Roesner.

OPINION AND ORDER GRANTING IN PART AND DENYING IN PART DEFENDANTS’ MOTIONS TO DISMISS

BERNARD A. FRIEDMAN, SENIOR UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

This matter is presently before the Court on (1) defendant Ginny Benson's motion to dismiss [docket entry 44], (2) defendant Barbara Blanock's motion to dismiss [docket entry 46], (3) the motion of defendants Bruce Meyers and Kallie Roesner-Meyers to dismiss and to strike [docket entry 50], (4) defendant Larry Roesner's motion to dismiss [docket entry 51], and (5) the motion of defendants Paul Warfield and Kathy Warfield to dismiss and to strike [docket entry 61]. Plaintiffs have responded to each of these motions and defendants have replied. Pursuant to E.D. Mich. LR 7.1(f)(2), the Court shall decide these motions without a hearing.

Background

Plaintiffs Jason and Maggie Dunn are the owners and operators of plaintiff House of Providence ("HOP"), "a Michigan licensed Child Care Institution (a ‘CCI’ or ‘foster care home’) that houses, cares for, educates and provides mental and emotional therapy for foster care children, serving primarily African American children who are wards of the State of Michigan." Am. Compl. ¶ 7 (footnote omitted). Plaintiffs CD, GD, DD, LD, and MD are the Dunns’ adopted African-American children, and plaintiff ST is a disabled African-American adult for whom the Dunns are the general guardian. Id. ¶¶ 12-17. Plaintiffs allege that in 2016 HOP purchased a 118-acre parcel of land in Oxford Township, Michigan, in an area known locally as "Horse Country" or "Hunt Country," with the purpose of "split[ting] the Property into 4 parcels, building and/or renovating a residential house on each parcel: one for the Dunns, one for an all-girls foster care home, one for an all-boys foster care home and one for [a] disabled children[’s] foster care home." Id. ¶ 49. The all-girls home, which plaintiffs anticipated opening in January 2018, id. ¶ 50, was opened "nearly two years" later, id. ¶ 361, while "[t]he all-boys and disabled children[’s] homes are planned for the future." Id. ¶ 49 n.5.

The defendants, Bruce Meyers and Kallie Roesner-Meyers, James and Donna Unis, Cynthia Unis, Barbara Blanock, Ginny Benson, Larry Roesner, and Paul and Kathy Warfield, are Oxford Township residents. Id. ¶¶ 18-25. Plaintiffs allege that defendants, individually and collectively, have engaged in a campaign to prevent plaintiffs from using their property to construct and operate a CCI because defendants object to the presence of the Dunns’ African-American children and HOP's African-American foster children. Plaintiffs allege:

1. Defendants initiated a 3 year long campaign to attack Plaintiffs, an interracial family, and to prevent African American children from residing in and participating in a primarily Caucasian community, known as "Horse Country" or "Hunt Country," by harassing the Plaintiffs (including the minor children), by making false allegations and by bombarding municipal, county and state agencies, with phone calls, emails, petitions and fraudulent complaints.

* * *

3. Defendants nefariously interfered with Plaintiffs’ ability to obtain a Child Care Institution license, divide its property, build a private roadway, solicit donors, obtain a grant to clean up its property, operate a foster care group home and enjoy their own home.

4. As part of Defendants’ coordinated campaign, they made knowingly false child abuse reports to the Department of Health and Human Services in an effort to tear apart Plaintiffs’ family, leading to an investigation as to the best interest of the adoptive children of Jason and Maggie Dunn.

5. Defendants, individually and in concert and as members of the "Preservation of Hunt County [sic] Neighbors," used intimidation tactics directed toward the minor children, including but not limited to physically stalking the minor Plaintiff children, referring to the children with racial epithets and slurs, making false child abuse reports and sending Freedom of Information Act ("FOIA") requests to the children's schools and the juvenile/family courts, causing fear for their life, health, safety and for removal from their parents’ custody.

6. Defendants also sought to sway the public[’s] opinion of the Plaintiffs by making false accusations of diversion of charitable funds and about the Plaintiffs’ ministry, values, beliefs and moral character, in furtherance of their conspiracy to interfere with, harass, discriminate and otherwise terrorize the Plaintiffs.

* * *

57. From the moment Plaintiffs purchased the Property until the filing of this First Amendment to the Complaint for Damages and Other Relief [Docket 1], the Defendants have harassed, defamed and instilled fear in the Plaintiffs and the Foster Children for the purposes of keeping African Americans out of "Horse County" [sic].

* * *

59. The Defendants conspired to conduct a telephone, letter, social media and email campaign against the Plaintiffs and Foster Children by making false reports and complaints on social media, public forums, news outlets and to government entities such as Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (formerly known as the Department of Environmental Equality or "DEQ," herein referred to as "EGLE"), Oakland County Equalization ("OCE"), Oxford Township (the "Township"), Oxford Township Planning Commissions ("OTPC"), Oxford Township Zoning Board of Appeals ("ZBA"), Oakland County Health Division ("OCHD"), the Michigan Department for Health and Human Services ("DHHS"), Michigan Senate and Michigan House of Representatives (collectively the "Legislature"), Michigan Attorney General ("AG") and other state and local government entities.

* * *

61. They also rallied at dozens of Township public meetings and petitioned the OTPC, ZBA and Township Board to keep HOP out of Horse Country because the Plaintiffs do not belong in this quiet, white, agricultural neighborhood, which would be foreign to the black, urban children that reside at the HOP.

* * *

67. Upon information and belief, one or more of the Defendants told Linda Tansil from the Child Welfare Licensing Division for DHHS that "black kids don't belong in Horse Country."

* * *

90. In trying to support their prejudicial rhetoric, Defendants have made fraudulent police reports to the Metamora Police Department, Lapeer County Sheriff Department and Oakland County Sheriff Department, falsely accusing the Children and Foster Children of criminal activity.

91. MD and JD have on numerous occasions had to communication [sic] with law enforcement regarding complaints of someone supposedly seeing one of the Foster Children creating a "nuisance" but each were wholly fabricated. Charges had never been brought and citations have never been issued following these false reports.

92. Defendants have actively invaded the Children's and Foster Children's privacy by sending FIOA [sic] requests to their schools and to the juvenile/family court, seeking confidential records that are not subject to public review under FOIA.

* * *

102. Defendants have made an incalculable number of false reports, complaints and allegations against the Plaintiffs, accusing them of being charlatans by using their faith-based entity for greed and sexual abuse.

* * *

106. [James Unis] claimed that HOP is not really operating as a foster home, but rather as a juvenile prison for the Foster Children and "will ultimately lead to a very high perimeter fence to retain the occupants 24/7," which will decrease the land values.

* * *

113. Defendants also accused the Dunns of embezzling state funds and/or donor funds, intended for use of the foster home, for their own benefit.

* * *

117. Defendant [Cynthia Unis] contends that [Jason and Maggie Dunn] are "committing felonies" by embezzling donor money from HOP, a 26 U.S.C. § 501(c)(3) non-profit entity and that "all the people that listen to them are brainwashed into believing their crap!" (Exhibit 14).

118. In early 2018, Defendants went as far as reporting [Jason and Maggie Dunn] to the AG's office alleging that the Dunns illegally diverted charitable assets for their own personal benefit, failed to report their full income to the IRS and filed false IRS forms.

Id. ¶¶ 1, 3-6, 57, 59, 61, 67, 90-92, 102, 106, 113, 117-18 (footnotes omitted).

Defendants allegedly have interfered with plaintiffs’ efforts to split their property, see id. ¶¶ 127-70; gone to extreme lengths to prevent plaintiffs from operating a CCI on the property, see id. ¶¶ 172-87; insisted that state and local agencies strictly enforce environmental rules as to plaintiffs’ property, but not as to adjacent property owned by a Caucasian resident, see id. ¶¶ 189-220; falsely reported to state and local officials that plaintiffs’ property is contaminated with toxic waste (lead), see id. ¶¶ 227-71; opposed plaintiffs’ efforts to obtain a Brownfield Redevelopment Grant to pay for cleaning up the lead waste that defendants contend...