Korman v. Pa. State Police Honsedale Barracks

ALLISON KORMAN, Plaintiff, v. PENNSYLVANIA STATE POLICE HONSEDALE BARRACKS, et al., Defendants.

CIVIL No. 3:21-CV-01516

United States District Court, M.D. Pennsylvania

February 24, 2023

MEMORANDUM OPINION

SUSAN E. SCHWAB, UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE

I. Introduction.

Plaintiff Allison Korman claims that a Pennsylvania State Police Trooper violated her rights by, among other things, charging her with harassment for purposely taking down her mask and coughing at a Dollar General store during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently pending is the defendants' motion to dismiss Korman's amended complaint. For the reasons set forth below, we will grant in part and deny in part that motion. We will also grant Korman leave to file a second amended complaint.

II. Background and Procedural History.

Korman, proceeding pro se, began this action by filing a complaint in the Court of Common Pleas of Wayne County, Pennsylvania, naming as defendants the Pennsylvania State Police Honesdale Barracks and Trooper Nicholas Scochin, and broadly asserting claims of libel, slander, and civil rights violations. Doc.1-2. The defendants removed the case to this court, and then filed a motion for a more definite statement. See docs. 1, 5. The parties consented to proceed before a magistrate judge pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 636(c), and the case was referred to the undersigned. Doc. 16.

We granted the defendants' motion for a more definite statement, and we ordered Korman to file an amended complaint that sets forth a more definite statement of her claim or claims. Doc. 19. To assist Korman in filing an amended complaint, we set forth the basic pleading standards of Fed.R.Civ.P. 8. Doc. 18 at 6-9. We also noted that to the extent that Korman is considering suing the Pennsylvania State Police (“PSP”), the PSP would have Eleventh Amendment immunity, and we explained why. Id. at 10-13. We further explained to Korman that liability in a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action is personal in nature, cannot be based on respondeat superior, and to be liable, a defendant must have been personally involved in the wrongful conduct. Id. at 13-15.

A. The Amended Complaint.

On June 21, 2022, Korman filed an amended complaint. See doc. 24. She again names the Pennsylvania State Police Honesdale Barracks and Trooper Scochin as the defendants. Id. at 1. The amended complaint is rambling and difficult to understand in parts, but we have done our best to try to understand and piece together what Korman is alleging. Construing the amended complaint liberally, Korman alleges the following.

1. History in Wayne County.

Although the crux of the amended complaint is based on an event that occurred on October 3, 2020, at a Dollar General store in Hamlin, Pennsylvania, the amended complaint touches on events from 2008 to 2021. Korman mentions numerous incidents that she has had with the police and others in Wayne County since 2008. In particular, she mentions that she was convicted of drug charges in 2008 or 2009, that she has been labeled a crack dealer, that Keith Rynearson “did a mock arrest” on her and took photos of her tattoos, that she submitted a rape report in 2017, and that she has been harassed by various people for various reasons over the years. Doc. 24 ¶¶ 6, 50, 52-54, 57-59. She alleges that she recently found out that she had pleaded guilty to crack cocaine charges, and this has taken a toll on her PTSD and mental and emotional state. Id. ¶ 59. And she alleges that her reputation has been damaged by the libel against her, including being labeled a crack dealer and a harasser who coughs in the faces of those who do not wear masks. Id. ¶ 59. She also asserts that the stress relating to her dealings with Trooper Scochin and others in Wayne County over the years has contributed to her eye disease. Id. ¶ 58.

2. The Incident at the Dollar General.

While Korman was in the check-out line at the Dollar General on October 3, 2020, a woman in front of her coughed on the candy display directly in front of a sign stating that masks were mandatory inside the store due to a state mandate. Doc. 24 ¶¶ 15-16. The woman was not wearing a mask. Id. Korman expressed her concern, and this led to a verbal confrontation between Korman and the woman, who said she doesn't have to wear a mask and who called Korman “a stupid bitch who believes in hoaxes and lies.” Id. ¶¶ 18-19. Other customers chimed in and also called Korman a stupid bitch. Id. ¶ 20. Korman responded by “express[ing] how . . . President Trump just caught the ‘fake virus' and it isn't a hoax or lies.” Id. ¶ 21. Korman was told to ‘“shut the fuck up already' and ‘leave.'” Id. Feeling uncomfortable, Korman decided to leave the store without completing her purchase. Id. ¶¶ 19, 21-22.

But before Korman left, she decided to try to teach the woman and other customers a lesson by lowering her mask and “fake cough[ing] in the air.” Id. ¶ 22. She describes what she did as follows:

. . . Before exiting, I wanted to express my thoughts about how the virus can spread so easily in the air. I decided to stop in front of the front door before I left and teach a lesson. I am sorry I decided to act like the teacher I am. I told those three people (more than six feet away) that all it takes is a cough in the air to get sick. You walk through it and breath [sic] in virus particles. I decided to lower my mask and fake cough in the air. I then explained to them that the cough can linger, and now they have to walk through it to leave the store. That is how it can spread so easily and be inhaled to cause damage. I told them I was not sick though, so they don't have to worry like I was doing.

Id. This evoked a hostile reaction from the others, who again swore at Korman and told her to leave. Id. ¶ 23.

The incident spilled over into the parking lot of the Dollar General. While the woman who had coughed on the candy was standing by her own car, Korman pulled her car up to the woman. Id. ¶ 24 Although Korman's car was behind the other woman's car, according to Korman, she did not block the woman from leaving, and the woman “had space to back out in front of [her] vehicle and make a K turn.” Id. While Korman was in her car speaking to the woman, another customer came out of the Dollar General and starting to yell at the woman about treating Korman cruelly. Id. ¶ 25. The woman then said that she was calling the police and reporting harassment. Id. According to Korman, the woman said, “Watch what happens' because [Korman] blocked her in.” Id. Two additional customers walked by and heard that the woman was calling the police. Id. ¶ 26. They encouraged her to tell the police that Korman had coughed in her face. Id. But, according to Korman, “[t]hat was untrue and never happened.” Id.

The woman told the police that Korman was blocking her in, and she started to take down Korman's license plate number. Id. ¶ 27. Korman then drove away, parked next door, and also called the police. Id. ¶ 22. According to Korman, by then, the woman had given the police her license plate number and had lied about the incident. Id. Korman spoke on the phone with Trooper Scochin. Id. ¶ 29. She started the conversation by asking him if he knew who she was “because of [her] son's father ([her] rape report).” Id. Trooper Scochin said that he did not know who Korman was, but he said that he knew what she had done. Id. According to Korman, Trooper Scochin did not explain what he had been told, and he had not reviewed video evidence of the incident. Id.

Korman then explained her side of the story. Id. ¶ 30. Trooper Scochin told her that she was too sensitive, that she should not have been bothered by being called a stupid bitch, and that he is frequently called an asshole, but it does not bother him. Id. He also told her that she “had no right to express [her] point of view about the virus by coughing into the air, and that in itself was wrong to do because after [she] did it, [she] pulled up to a car and questioned someone about it.” Id. But Trooper Scochin did not tell Korman that she was being charged with harassment or that she “was being accused of coughing directly in someone's face on purpose to intimidate and harass them.” Id. Rather, he only told her that she would get a ticket in the mail with a fine anywhere between $50.00 to $150.00. Id. During this call, with the help of his barrack's database, Trooper Scochin noticed that Korman's registration had expired less than 90 days earlier, but he did tell her that, and she was unaware of that. Id. ¶ 31.

3. The Public Information Release Report.

According to Korman, after her call with Trooper Scochin, he created “a public information release report” that implied that she had coughed in someone's face. Id. ¶ 33. Korman attached a copy of this report to her amended complaint. See doc. 24 at 25. In addition to containing Trooper Scochin's name, listing the nature of the incident as “Harass Physical Contact,” listing Korman as the arrestee, and listing her age, gender, general area of residence as well as such information for the “victim,” the report contains a section titled “INCIDENT DETAILS,” which reads:

On the above date an incident occurred at the Hamlin Dollar General in Salem Township Wayne County. The defendant Allison KORMAN 38 YO/F of Lakeville PA coughed in the victims face due to the victim not having a mask on in the store. The victim related she did have a medical condition with a doctor's note, not requiring her to wear one. KORMAN cited with harassment.

Id. Characterizing the above as libel, Korman states that it was published on numerous websites. Id. ¶ 34.^[1]

4. The Citation/Summons.

According to Korman, after her phone call with Trooper Scochin on October 3, 2020, he created a non-traffic...