ROBERT W. GETTLEMAN, District Judge.
Plaintiff Mark Maxson has brought a nine count complaint against Chicago Police Department Officers James Dwyer, John Duffy, William Marley, and Angelo Pesavento (the "individual defendants"), and their employer, the City of Chicago, claiming that he spent 24 years in prison as a result of a wrongful conviction based on a coerced confession. Count I, brought against the individual defendants under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleges deprivation of plaintiff's right to a fair trial, and wrongful conviction; Count II, again brought against the individual defendants, alleges a claim for coercive interrogation; Count III, brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1985 and § 1986, asserts a claim against the individual defendants for conspiring amongst themselves and other unnamed and unsued police personnel, state's attorneys, and mayors, to violate plaintiff's rights to equal protection under the laws; Count IV is a claim against the City brought pursuant to
Defendants have moved under Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6) to dismiss Counts I (wrongful conviction), III (federal conspiracy), VI (state civil conspiracy), and VII (IIED) for failure to state a claim. For the reasons described below, the motion is granted in part and denied in part.
In August 1992 six year-old Lindsey Murdock was murdered, sexually assaulted, and left in an abandoned garage at 10730 S. State Street in Chicago. The body was discovered on August 30, 1992. Later that evening, defendant Pesavento learned that plaintiff was being interviewed by local televison and stating that he had seen the young boy earlier in the day. Pesavento asked plaintiff if he had any information about the boy and whether plaintiff would be willing to help the police. Plaintiff was eager and willing to help and was brought to the Area 2 police station. Plaintiff willingly gave blood and hair samples.
At the station, Pesavento and Marley interrogated plaintiff numerous times, leaving him in a locked room. Defendants Duffy and Dwyer interviewed plaintiff four or five times. Duffy threatened that he would "kick your ass" if plaintiff did not cooperate. Duffy and Dwyer ignored plaintiff's request for an attorney and proceeded with their coercive interrogation. Dwyer repeatedly threatened plaintiff, slapped him, kicked the wind out of him, and ultimately coerced plaintiff into confessing to the crime by pointing his handgun at plaintiff. All of the other individual defendants were in close proximity to plaintiff during the interrogations, but did nothing to prevent the abuse.
Prior to trial, plaintiff moved to suppress his confession. He testified about the abusive interrogation that led to his confession. He also testified that he spent three days locked in an interview room with only a steel bench and was told by both Duffy and Dwyer that he could not leave. Duffy falsely testified that plaintiff was never threatened with physical beatings, and that plaintiff had never been kicked, slapped, or threatened with a handgun. Pesavento also testified that plaintiff was never threatened or struck before implicating himself in the murder. Dwyer testified similarly, and also falsely stated that plaintiff never requested to leave the station. Duffy stated that plaintiff willingly spent three nights in the interview room. None of the individual defendants told the assistant state's attorneys for the Felony Review Unit of the abuse they inflicted on plaintiff. The motion to dismiss was denied.
At trial, the only evidence linking plaintiff to the murder was his coerced confession. The serologist witness testified that none of the blood evidence found at the scene, including blood that did not belong to the victim, matched plaintiff's blood. Similarly, the state criminologist witness testified that head and pubic hair samples taken from the victim's clothing did not match either the victim or plaintiff. Nonetheless, plaintiff was convicted and spent 24 years in prison.
Recent DNA testing has revealed that the DNA of convicted murderer Osborne Wade matched the DNA found on the victim's shirt. On September 27, 2016, the Cook County State's Attorney's Office moved to vacate plaintiff's conviction and plaintiff was released. Wade has been indicted for and confessed to murdering Lindsey Murdock.
Plaintiff's complaint alleges that his case in not an isolated occurrence, but rather that his interrogation and torture was a part of a long-standing pattern and practice of racially motivated torture at Area 2 Headquarters in Chicago, including the use of electric shock, baggings, mock executions, Russian roulette and beatings, dating back to the early 1980s when Jon Burge was the commanding officer at Area 2 and began what plaintiff calls the "Burge Reign of Terror." According to the complaint, Burge engaged in a pattern and practice of torture and brutality himself and also supervised, encouraged, sanctioned, condoned, and ratified brutality by other detectives and supervisors in Area 2, including the individual defendants. In 2010 Burge was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice for falsely denying that he participated in and was aware of and supervised police torture.
Plaintiff's complaint contains very detailed allegations about how several high ranking personnel in the Chicago Police Department, including successive Superintendents, and at least one former mayor and Cook County State's Attorney, concealed their knowledge of the ongoing systemic torture at Area 2.
Defendants have moved to dismiss Counts I, III, VI and VII, for failure to state a claim. A motion under Rule 12(b)(6) challenges the sufficiency of the complaint, not its merits.
As an initial matter, defendants argue that Count I should be dismissed for failure to comply with Fed. R. Civ. P. 8(a)(2), which requires that a pleading that states a claim for relief must contain "a short and plain statement of the claim . . . ."
It is true, as defendants argue, that the complaint is anything but short and plain. It starts with a two and a half page introduction that reads more like a press release than a claim for relief. The complaint itself is over forty pages long, with 148 numbered paragraphs, few of which contain details about what the individual defendants did to plaintiff. Most of the complaint details the history of Burge's "Reign of Terror" at Area 2, and how the systemic torture of African Americans by other unsued Area 2 officers, which can no longer be questioned, came to light. The complaint details the abuse found to have occurred in other cases, starting with the arrest and torture of Andrew and Jackie Wilson for the murder of two Chicago police officers in 1982. Indeed, much, if not most of the complaint, appears to have been "cut and pasted" or copied directly from complaints in other pending cases in this district against other Area 2 officers, most notably the complaint in
Nevertheless, despite the prolixity of the complaint, any argument by defendants that they cannot discern what Count I charges is pure sophistry. Count I alleges that defendants beat and tortured plaintiff into confessing to a crime that they knew he did not commit, falsely testifying at the motion to suppress hearing, and then using the confession to obtain plaintiff's conviction. To the extent that defendants argue that the complaint fails to identify the specific constitutional provisions that they are charged with violating, the court notes that "(a) complaint need not identify legal theories, and specifying an incorrect legal theory is not a fatal error."
Defendants' more substantive attacks on the complaint fare no better. With respect to Count I, defendants argue that the complaint fails to allege a violation of
Defendants read Count I as alleging two separate
The first claim is, as defendants argue, foreclosed by Seventh Circuit case law. For example, in
Numerous courts in this district have, however, distinguished between events that happened in the interrogation room, of which the plaintiff had actual knowledge, and events that transpired outside the interrogation room. Those cases have held that suppressing the instruments of torture (not present in the instant case) and, more importantly, the suppression of evidence of the systemic torture and abuse in Area 2, and the obstruction of any investigation of the systemic torture, were sufficient to support a
Defendants counter that in each of these cases "actual evidence" of the underlying crime was suppressed and, perhaps more importantly according to defendants, each predated
Plaintiff relies predominately on Judge St. Eve's opinion in
Defendants argue that Smith is wrongly decided and, in any event, distinguishable. In particular they argue that the court in
Defendants are correct that the complaint contains allegations that would suggest that knowledge of the systemic abuse at Area 2 was leaking out to the public by 1994. Plaintiff also alleges, however, that it is only within the last few years that the extent of the torture and identities of many of the offending offers have been revealed. Indeed, there is nothing in the complaint that would suggest that plaintiff's defense attorneys could have or should have known that these particular police officers were involved in the systemic torture. Consequently, the court agrees with Judge St. Eve's opinion in
In any event, whether plaintiff's complaint states a claim under
Next, defendants argue that to the extent that Count I alleges a "false testimony" claim against defendants, they are protected by absolute immunity.
Defendants next argue that Count I fails to allege a failure to intervene because it fails to identify the conduct that required intervention, whether defendants had knowledge of the conduct, and had a realistic opportunity to intervene.
Defendants argue that these counts contain mere general allegations of a conspiracy which do not state a claim. To plead a conspiracy, plaintiff need only allege that defendants: (1) reached an agreement to deprive him of his constitutional rights; and (2) overt acts taken in furtherance of the conspiracy that actually deprived him of those rights.
Finally, defendants argue that plaintiff's IIED claim is barred by the one year statute of limitations. 745 ILCS 10/8-1.
In
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For the reasons described above, defendants' motion to dismiss (Doc. 27) is granted as to plaintiff's "false testimony" claim, and denied in all other respects. Defendants are directed to answer the complaint on or before May 26, 2017. The parties are directed to prepare and file a joint status report using the court's form on or before May 31, 2017. This matter is set for a report on status on June 13, 2017, at 9:00 a.m..