Sanford v. City of Detroit
Sanford v. City of Detroit
Opinion of the Court
Before the Court is Plaintiff's Motion to Compel Production of Documents Relevant to Plaintiff's Monell Claim, as well as the Individual Defendants' Personnel Files, Disciplinary records, Training Records, and Handwritten Notes [Doc. # 39]. For the reasons and under the terms discussed below, the motion is GRANTED IN PART AND DENIED IN PART.
On September 17, 2007, four people were shot to death in a house on Runyon *621Street on the East Side of Detroit. This cases arises out of the arrest, prosecution, and imprisonment of Plaintiff Davontae Sanford for those murders. Mr. Sanford was 14 years old at the time of the homicides, and served approximately nine years in prison before his attorneys and the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office stipulated to set aside his conviction in June of 2016. On July 19, 2016, the trial court dismissed the homicide charges.
Mr. Sanford alleges that the Defendant police officers Russell and Tolbert, who initially investigated the quadruple homicide, fabricated evidence against him, including admissions and a sketch of the crime scene they prepared, but falsely attributed to Mr. Sanford. He also alleges that these Defendants suppressed exculpatory evidence, including the fact that one Vincent Smothers confessed to the Runyon Street homicides, as well as other evidence corroborating Smothers' confession. In Count I of the complaint [Doc. # 1], Mr. Sanford brings a Fourteenth Amendment Due Process claim under
In their Joint List of Unresolved Issues [Doc. # 61] regarding Plaintiff's motion, the parties classify their dispute under three general categories:
(1) Whether Plaintiff's Monell claim arose before the Detroit bankruptcy, and whether it has therefore been discharged.
(2) Whether Plaintiff's discovery requests seeking employment, personnel, and training records of the individual Defendant police officers is overbroad, or is barred by the restrictions on personal information contained in Kallstrom v. City of Columbus ,
(3) Whether records that Plaintiff seeks are protected by attorney-client, work product, of deliberative process privilege.
1. The Monell Claim
On December 4, 2018, the Court granted Defendant City of Detroit's motion to dismiss, holding that Plaintiff's claim against the City is a "prepetition claim" that was discharged when the Detroit bankruptcy plan was confirmed on November 12, 2014, and became effective on December 10, 2014. See In re City of Detroit, Michigan ,
Accordingly, any discovery requests directed at the Plaintiff's Monell claim are irrelevant, and will be DENIED.
2. Employment Records of Individual Defendants
a.
Defendants correctly argue that in Kallstrom , the Sixth Circuit found that police officers have a constitutionally protected privacy interest in certain personal information that under certain circumstances *622outweighs the need for disclosure. Specifically, the Court found that disclosure of the officers' "addresses, phone numbers, and driver's licenses and the officers' families' names, addresses, and phone numbers" would increase the risk of harm to the officers and their families. Id .,
On the other hand, the Plaintiff has a right to discovery of relevant evidence. However, as discussed above, given the dismissal of the City, relevant evidence does not include material bearing on the Plaintiff's Monell claim. Plaintiff stated in the Joint List of Unresolved Issues [Doc. # 61], at 6, Pg. ID 202, "All records pertaining to the individual Defendants' respective employment records and histories within and, as to Defendant Tolbert, departure from, the Detroit Police Department, are directly relevant to Plaintiff's claims against Defendants in this case, and in particular to their Monell claim against Defendant City." The Monell claim is gone, so to a large extent Plaintiff's discovery request for personnel records must be denied.
b. Training Records
In the Joint List, Defendants state that they "are agreeable to producing a list of Defendant Russell's and Defendant Tolbert's City of Detroit training records and copies of those records that are easily obtainable. They would also agree to have a designated City official certify that to the best of that person's knowledge, information, and belief formed after a reasonable inquiry, that the produced training records list and training records were all that could be found." Doc. # 61, at 6, Pg. ID 2020. This issue is resolved, and Defendants will produce what they have agreed to produce.
c. Allegations or Findings of Other Misconduct
In RFP Nos. 5(i)-9m) and (p), Plaintiff seeks records of all allegations and/or findings against Defendants of any misconduct, citizen complaints, or investigations, substantiated or not, and in RFP No. 6, allegations or investigations of Defendants' conduct with regard to bias and/or fabrication of evidence.
As I stated above, Plaintiffs are entitled to discovery of all disciplinary factual findings and disciplinary actions taken against Defendants, regardless of whether or not they relate to the claims in this case. However, as to allegations and unsubstantiated complaints that have not resulted in discipline, the scope of relevance and discovery is narrower. In Frails v. City of New York ,
As to the relevance of Plaintiff's requests to the issue of Defendants' intent, discovery of unsubstantiated complaints or complaints that did not lead to discipline are relevant only if they involve the same type of conduct alleged in the complaint. See Frails , at 117, ("Disciplinary records involving complaints of a similar nature, whether substantiated or unsubstantiated, could lead to evidence that would be admissible at trial and thus, are discoverable"); Williams v. City of Hartford ,
Therefore, the Plaintiff's request for all unsubstantiated complaints or complaints that did not result in discipline is DENIED. However, the motion is granted as to such unsubstantiated complaints involving alleged misconduct of a similar nature to that alleged in the complaint.
Finally, Defendant argues that some of this material may be protected by the deliberative process privilege. In Liuzzo v. United States,
"Whether applied to administrative litigation against the federal government or civil rights litigation against police departments, the central question in the application of the privilege is whether the material sought is factual or evaluative. See McClelland v. Andrus,196 U.S.App.D.C. 371 , 379-381,606 F.2d 1278 (1979).... The purpose of the deliberative-process privilege is to foster freedom of expression among governmental employees involved in decision making and policy formulation. Accordingly, factual material falls outside the scope of the privilege; to be protected, the material must comprise part of the deliberative or evaluative process. McClelland, supra, 196 U.S.App.D.C., p. 380,606 F.2d 1278 ."
See also Lewis v. City of Detroit,
To sum up, Defendants will produce (1) all disciplinary factual findings and actions taken against Defendants, regardless of whether or not they relate to the claims in this case; and (2) unsubstantiated complaints involving alleged misconduct of a similar nature to that alleged in the complaint. If the Defendants claim privilege, including deliberative process privilege, they will submit a privilege log.
d. Tax Records and Indemnification Information
While the tax records of the individual Defendants may be relevant to the issue punitive damages, the Plaintiff's request for those records is premature, pending the City's decision as to whether it intends to indemnify these police officer Defendants. The Plaintiff may obtain that information by way of interrogatories. At this time, the request for the tax records is DENIED WITHOUT PREJUDICE.
3. Records Relating to the Homicide
Central to Plaintiff's case is his claim that the Defendant police officers-Russell and Tolbert-fabricated evidence against him, withheld exculpatory evidence, and coerced a false confession, resulting in the conviction of a 14-year-old boy. The Plaintiff's innocence of the homicide charge is also central to his claim. Material from the homicide file-including any material gathered after Plaintiff's conviction-is relevant for purposes of discovery. In general, the homicide file is discoverable, and subject to the protections described in Flagg ex rel. Bond v. City of Detroit ,
4. Other Lawsuits in which Defendants were Named
Defendants are correct that the pleadings and other filings in these lawsuits would be available to Plaintiff as public records. Therefore, Defendants need not produce the files in these lawsuits. However, Defendants will produce a list of the lawsuits in which Defendants Russell and Tolbert were named, including the court in which they were filed and the case/docket number.
5. Other Investigations Involving Davontae Sanford
Defendants state that the City has already produced this material. Therefore, this request is DENIED AS MOOT.
Under these terms, Plaintiff's Motion to Compel [Doc. # 39] is GRANTED IN PART AND DENIED IN PART.
IT IS SO ORDERED.
Stating that it is a non-exclusive list, ¶¶ 151(a) through (k) describe 11 specific flawed investigative methods that the City allegedly ratified, condoned, tolerated and approved.
This relates to Request for Production ("RFP") Nos. 5(a)-c, (e)-(h), (q)-(s), and 7.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Davontae SANFORD v. CITY OF DETROIT, Michael Russell, and James Tolbert
- Cited By
- 7 cases
- Status
- Published