Patrick v. Fuelling

Anthony Leroy Patrick, Plaintiff, v. Keith T. Fuelling, et al., Defendants.

No. 14 C 5414

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS EASTERN DIVISION

March 5, 2021

Judge Virginia M. Kendall

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

Plaintiff Anthony Leroy Patrick brings various claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and Illinois state law related to his arrest and ultimate guilty plea for firing a gun from his home on June 15, 2013. In his suit, Patrick names Keith T. Fuelling, Jeremy Sikorski, Anthony J. Martin, David Salazar, Vidal Vasquez, Paul S. Galiardo, Dewilda Gordon, Thomas A. Taglioli, Patrick J. Golden, Kevin M. White, Michael J. O'Connor, Scott E. Reiff, Nichelle R. Harris, Juan Hernandez, Peter Torres, Ronald P. Dybas, Shawn D. McGavock, Richard E. Moravec, Robert Myers, Raymond M. Doherty, Kelvin Williams, Robert Distasio, Robert Arteaga, Jr. (collectively, "Defendant Officers"), and the City of Chicago as defendants. Defendants move to dismiss Patrick's Second Amended Complaint in its entirety pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6). Defendants' motion to dismiss is granted.

BACKGROUND

The following factual allegations are taken from Patrick's Second Amended Complaint (Dkt. 120) and are presumed true for the purposes of this motion. W. Bend Mut. Ins. Co. v. Schumacher, 844 F.3d 670, 675 (7th Cir. 2016).

Patrick was doing some housework at 7159 S. Artesian Ave., Chicago, Illinois on June 15, 2013. (Dkt. 120 ¶¶ 23-24). While Patrick was working, affiliates of the Gangster Disciples began to gather outside 7221 S. Artesian Ave., Chicago, Illinois and shout obscenities at Patrick. (Id. ¶¶ 24-25). Crystal Darling, Patrick's former girlfriend, lived at 7221 S. Artesian and was dating Armond Freeman, a known member of the Gangster Disciples who disliked Patrick. (Id. ¶ 25). As Patrick was finishing up his work and securing his tools in his truck, the men congregating outside of 7221 S. Artesian began to shoot at Patrick. (Id. ¶ 28). Patrick got in his truck and drove to his mother's house, located at 7159 S. Maplewood Ave., Chicago, Illinois. (Dkt. 120 ¶ 29). Upon arrival, Patrick parked his truck across the street and went inside. (Id.).

At the time, several people were in the 7159 S. Maplewood house in addition to Patrick and his mother. Specifically, Dominique Boyd (Patrick's then-girlfriend), Boyd's children, and four of Patrick's five children. (Id. ¶ 10). Patrick spoke with Boyd about getting shot at outside of 7159 S. Artesian before realizing his truck was unlocked. (Id. ¶¶ 30-32). Concerned about the equipment still in his truck, Patrick walked across the street to lock it up. (Dkt. 120 ¶¶ 31-32). While standing next to his truck, a brick crashed through the windshield and Patrick looked up to seeFreeman, the thrower, accompanied by another Gangster Disciple. (Id. ¶¶ 32-33). Freeman and his companion began shooting at Patrick, continuing to advance while Patrick ran across the street back inside his mother's home. (Id. ¶ 34). Once inside his mother's home, Patrick "grabbed a gun that was loaded with buck shots and reached his hand out from a cracked front door and shot the gun twice," hitting Freeman "in the buttocks and behind the ear." (Id. ¶ 34). Freeman and the other Gangster Disciple stopped shooting at Patrick and ran away. (Dkt. 120 ¶ 36).

Patrick then "sat down for a bit to gather himself and then went to take a shower." (Id. ¶ 37). After showering, Patrick spoke with Ms. Boyd. (Id.). Sometime after speaking with Boyd, Patrick heard banging on the front door. (Id.). Patrick looked outside and saw Fuelling, Sikorski, and Martin standing on the porch along with "many other officers [including O'Connor and White]" behind them "creating a circumference around the front of the house." (Dkt. 120 ¶¶ 11-12). The officers outside told Patrick they wanted to speak with him and asked him to open the door. (Id. ¶ 13). When Patrick opened the front door and confirmed his identity, Fuelling and Sikorski "shoved him to the ground inside the entryway to the house and handcuffed him." (Id.).

Sikorski yelled at Patrick, demanded to know where the gun was, and "threatened to tear [Patrick's] mother's home apart if he didn't tell them where the gun was." (Id. ¶ 14). Patrick was afraid to remain quiet, afraid for the safety of Boyd, her children, his children, and his mother, and felt he had no choice but to obey the officers and said there was a gun in the safe downstairs. (Dkt. 120 ¶ 16). Fuellingand Sikorski pulled the handcuffed Patrick off the ground and instructed him to lead them to the safe. (Id. ¶ 17). Once in the basement, Fuelling and Sikorski directed the children to go upstairs and shut the basement door, leaving them alone with Patrick. (Id.). Sikorski failed to open the locked safe and told Patrick to open it, which he did. (Id. ¶ 18). Once the safe was opened, Sikorski took "a number of guns and ammunition" out of the safe and put them into pillowcases. (Dkt. 120 ¶ 19). Vasquez came downstairs and followed as Sikorski and Fuelling led Patrick back upstairs and into a waiting squad car. (Id. ¶ 21). Gordon and Galiardo were upstairs as Patrick returned from the basement and Gordon instructed officers to "treat [Patrick] like Jesus." (Id. ¶ 22).

The officers had neither a search nor an arrest warrant. (Id. ¶ 15). Vasquez spoke to Patrick's mother as Patrick was being placed in the squad car and "put a paper on the [trunk] of the squad car and instructed [Patrick's] mother that she needed to sign the paper because as the owner of the house they needed her to sign the document so they could bring her back the property that had been seized." (Dkt. 120 ¶ 66). Patrick's mother has bad eyesight and didn't read the documents offered by Vasquez but signed them nonetheless. (Id.).

Patrick was arrested and taken to the station at 51st Street and Wentworth Avenue. (Id. ¶¶ 39-40). Patrick was placed in a room where "each of his wrists were separately hand-cuffed to the opposite ends of a low bench" so that he was "forced to be in a squatting position with his arms splayed out along the length of the bench" and "left alone in that position for many hours" (Id. ¶ 39). Between his arrest onJune 15, 2013, and his preliminary hearing on June 26, 2013, the officers "falsified police reports" and "concealed and ignored evidence" that would support Patrick's account of a defensive shooting. (Dkt. 120 ¶¶ 43-46). Patrick was ultimately charged with 18 offenses: 5 counts of attempted first-degree murder, 1 count of aggravated battery, 5 counts of "armed habitual criminal", and 7 counts of unlawful use or possession of a weapon. (Id. ¶ 47). Bail was set at $750,000, which Patrick could not pay, and so he spent five years and five months in detention before pleading guilty to one count of aggravated battery with a firearm on October 31, 2018. (Dkt. 88 at 1).

Patrick filed the present civil action on July 15, 2014, naming the Chicago Police Department, David Salazar, David Montes, and the City of Chicago as defendants. (Dkt. 1 at 2). Patrick alleged in the Complaint defendants violated his constitutional rights by entering his home and arresting him without probable cause, a warrant, or exigent circumstances and failing to afford him a preliminary hearing within 48 hours of his arrest. (Id. at 20-21). This Court dismissed Patrick's initial Complaint without prejudice for failure to include the date of his arrest. (Dkt. 6 at 2).

Patrick filed a First Amended Complaint on October 16, 2014, which named Fuelling, Sikorski, Vasquez, Martin, Gordon, and Galiardo as defendants. (Dkt. 15). In the First Amended Complaint, Patrick alleged defendants violated his constitutional rights by entering his home and arresting him without a warrant, probable cause, or exigent circumstances. (Id. at 23-27). On March 5, 2015, this Court stayed Patrick's case pending the resolution of his underlying criminal case inPeople v. Patrick, No. 13 CR 12650-01 in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois. (Dkt. 37). The case was reinstated on January 7, 2019, upon Patrick's guilty plea and release from custody. (Dkt. 92).

Patrick filed the operative Second Amended Complaint on March 6, 2020. (Dkt. 120).

LEGAL STANDARD

To survive a motion to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6), the complaint "must contain sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face." Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 (2009) (internal quotation marks omitted). A claim is facially plausible "when the plaintiff pleads factual content that allows the court to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged." Id. The Court accepts the complaint's factual allegations as true and draws all permissible inferences in Plaintiff's favor. Schumacher, 844 F.3d at 675 (quoting Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 678). The Court is "not bound to accept as true a legal conclusion couched as a factual allegation." Olson v. Champaign Cty., 784 F.3d 1093, 1099 (7th Cir. 2015) (quoting Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555 (2007)). The Seventh Circuit interprets this plausibility standard to mean that the plaintiff must "give enough details about the subject-matter of the case to present a story that holds together." Vanzant v. Hill's Pet Nutrition, Inc., 934 F.3d 730, 736 (7th Cir. 2019) (quoting Swanson v. Citibank, N.A., 614 F.3d 400, 404 (7th Cir. 2010)). Evaluating whether a plaintiff's claim is sufficiently plausible to survive a motion to dismiss is "a context-specific task thatrequires the reviewing court to draw on its judicial experience and common sense." Schumacher, 844 F.3d 676 (quoting McCauley v. City of Chicago, 671 F.3d 611, 616 (7th Cir. 2011); Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 678)).

DISCUSSION

I. Count I: Section 1983 Unlawful Search and Seizure

In Count I, Patrick alleges the Defendant Officers violated his Fourth Amendment rights by conducting an unreasonable search and seizure of his person and his...