Shane Gates v. Rodney Strain
Opinion
*878
Shane Gates was arrested by the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office in 2006. In 2007, he filed this action under
I.
On November 16, 2006, plaintiff-appellant Shane Gates was pulled over and arrested by deputies of the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office. According to the police report, Deputy Nathan Miller signaled to Gates to pull over after observing Gates's vehicle swerve repeatedly while driving on Interstate 12. The report indicates that Gates then accelerated to 104 miles-per-hour in an attempt to flee before finally pulling over. Gates then opened his car door and fell to the ground. Deputy Miller attempted to move Gates away from the shoulder of the interstate, but, according to the police report, Gates began to wrestle with Miller. Miller then held Gates down on the hood of his patrol car while waiting for backup. A few minutes later, Deputies Gottardi and Williams arrived. Gottardi advised Gates that he was under arrest and attempted to place him in handcuffs. The report indicates that Gates then began flailing his arms, and that Deputy Miller administered a one-second burst of pepper spray to stun Gates and enable the deputies to handcuff him, which they did. While Gottardi attempted to place Gates in the back of Williams's patrol car, the report states that Gates threw his head and body back against Gottardi. Gottardi took Gates down to the ground, causing Gates's face to strike the asphalt and resulting in a one-half inch laceration near his left eye. Gates was transported to the emergency room for treatment. According to the police report, medical records from the emergency room indicate that Gates's blood-alcohol *879 level was .273 at the time he was admitted.
Gates's arrest report cites the following offenses: driving while intoxicated, reckless operation of a motor vehicle, open container in a motor vehicle, aggravated obstruction of a highway of commerce, and resisting an officer. He was later also charged with aggravated flight from a police officer. In 2007, Gates filed in federal district court a § 1983 suit alleging that the deputies used excessive force in arresting him and that he was being prosecuted in bad faith in state court. He sought damages and an injunction preventing his prosecution in state court. 1 That action was stayed in 2008, pending resolution of the underlying criminal charges against Gates. The action was reopened in 2012 after a state-court jury found Gates not guilty of aggravated flight, but then stayed again after the district court became aware of still-pending misdemeanor charges including driving while intoxicated and resisting an officer. The misdemeanor charges were originally set for trial on August 31, 2012, but the trial was continued due to Hurricane Isaac. Gates was then ordered to appear on November 22, 2013, to be served with a new trial date. When he failed to appear, an attachment was issued for his arrest. He has failed to appear before the state court since, and his whereabouts are unknown, even to his counsel.
On October 20, 2016, defendants filed a motion in the district court requesting that the stay be lifted for the limited purpose of allowing Gates to appear for service for his misdemeanor trial and that, should he fail to appear, his § 1983 action should be dismissed under Fed. R. Civ. P. 41(b) for failure to prosecute. On December 14, 2016, the district court denied the motion, but ordered Gates to file, no later than January 23, 2017, a motion explaining why the Anti-Injunction Act,
II.
Gates first contends that the district court erred by not enjoining the state from prosecuting him for the pending misdemeanor charges. We review both the denial of a motion for a permanent injunction and an abstention ruling for abuse of discretion.
Tex. Ass'n of Bus. v. Earle
,
*880
The Anti-Injunction Act provides that "[a] court of the United States may not grant an injunction to stay proceedings in a State court except as expressly authorized by Act of Congress, or where necessary in aid of its jurisdiction, or to protect or effectuate its judgments."
Where those three criteria are satisfied, a federal court may enjoin a pending state-court criminal proceeding only if: (1) the state-court proceeding was brought in bad faith or to harass the federal plaintiff; (2) the federal plaintiff seeks to challenge a state statute that is "flagrantly and patently violative of express constitutional prohibitions in every clause, sentence, and paragraph, and in whatever manner and against whomever an effort might be made to apply it," or (3) where other "extraordinary circumstances" threaten "irreparable loss [that] is both great and immediate."
Younger
,
Here, the district court correctly determined that the three criteria that generally require
Younger
abstention are satisfied. First, Gates requested that the district court enjoin his pending state-court criminal proceeding. The federal proceeding would therefore clearly interfere with an ongoing state judicial proceeding. Second, the underlying state proceeding concerns the enforcement of state criminal laws, something in which the state has a strong interest. Third, Gates can raise his challenges to the state criminal proceedings in state court. To the extent that Gates argues that he has been unsuccessful or is likely to be unsuccessful in raising his constitutional claims in state court that is irrelevant. The relevant question is whether the would-be federal plaintiff has the
opportunity
to raise his federal claims in state court.
See
Moore
,
Gates contends that the state prosecution has been taken in bad faith or that other extraordinary circumstances warrant enjoining the state criminal proceedings. Specifically, he argues that: (1) his prosecution for resisting an officer was instigated by the parish's insurer, St. Paul-Travelers (whom former district attorney Walter Reed privately represented and from whom he derived personal financial benefits, which Gates argues amounted to a Hobbs Act violation), in order to preclude § 1983 liability for excessive force; (2) prosecution for the pending misdemeanor offenses would constitute double jeopardy; and (3) prosecution would violate state and federal speedy-trial laws. We agree with the district court that Gates's asserted grounds for an injunction neither fit within the narrow bad-faith exception nor present the kind of extraordinary circumstances that justify departure from the general rule of non-interference.
To the first point, there is no evidence of bad faith. A prosecution is taken in bad faith if state officials proceed "without hope of obtaining a valid conviction."
Perez v. Ledesma
,
Gates next contends that his prosecution for the misdemeanor offenses
*882
of driving while intoxicated and resisting an officer would constitute double jeopardy. Double-jeopardy claims can constitute the kind of extraordinary circumstances that justify an exception from
Younger
,
see
Nivens v. Gilchrist
,
Finally, Gates argues that an injunction is warranted because his prosecution for the pending misdemeanors would violate state and federal speedy-trial laws. However, the alleged denial of a speedy trial is not itself a legitimate basis on which to enjoin a state criminal proceeding.
See
Brown v. Ahern
,
III.
Gates also appeals the district court's dismissal, with prejudice, of his claims pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 41(b) for failure to *883 prosecute. He contends that dismissal was inappropriate because any inaction was attributable to the district court's stay of the proceedings, at the state's request, rather than to his lack of effort in prosecuting his claims. The state responds that the stay of Gates's federal suit was due to his failure to appear before the state for a trial on his pending misdemeanor charges.
District courts have the authority, pursuant to both their own " 'inherent power' ... to manage their own affairs" and Rule 41(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, to dismiss cases with prejudice for failure to prosecute.
Link v. Wabash R.R. Co.
,
Dismissal with prejudice is appropriate only where there is "a showing of (a) a clear record of delay or contumacious conduct by the plaintiff, and (b) where lesser sanctions would not serve the best interests of justice."
Id.
at 252. Furthermore, we affirm dismissals with prejudice generally only where those prerequisites are accompanied by "certain 'aggravating factors,' such as (1) the extent to which the plaintiff, as distinguished from his counsel, was personally responsible for the delay, (2) the degree of actual prejudice to the defendant, and (3) whether the delay was the result of intentional conduct."
Id.
(quoting
Rogers v. Kroger Co.
,
Here, there is a clear record of delay and contumacious conduct attributable to Gates himself. This matter was stayed in the district court for nearly ten years pending the resolution of Gates's underlying criminal charges. For over five years, that stay has been the result of Gates's failure to appear before the state to stand trial for his pending misdemeanor charges. We have previously instructed that, following
Heck v. Humphrey
,
IV.
Gates also argues that the district erred by denying his request for an evidentiary hearing and by making factual findings not supported by the record. Where the application of
Younger
does not turn on disputed facts, no evidentiary
*884
hearing is required.
See
Boyd v. Farrin
,
Gates also contends that the district court made "numerous" erroneous factual findings. The only alleged error he actually identifies, however, is an allegedly unsupported statement regarding a blood-alcohol test performed at the hospital shortly after Gates's arrest. He argues that there is no competent evidence of that blood test that would be admissible at trial. However, whether the evidence of the blood-alcohol test would be admissible at trial is irrelevant here. The district court did not rely on that evidence in concluding that Younger abstention applied and that dismissal with prejudice was warranted.
V.
Finally, Gates appears to contend that the district court erred by denying his Rule 60(b) motion for reconsideration. While not explicitly challenging the denial of the motion, he argues that the district court erred by finding his motion untimely. But the district court did not deny the motion as untimely. Rather, the district court analyzed the motion under the rubric of Fed. R. Civ. P. 60(b) rather than 59(e) based on its determination that the motion had been filed more than 28 days after the court's judgment.
See
Fed. R. Civ. P. 59(e) ("A motion to alter or amend a judgment must be filed no later than 28 days after the entry of the judgment.");
Benson v. St. Joseph Reg'l Health Ctr.
,
VI.
For the foregoing reasons, we AFFIRM.
The 2007 action was later consolidated with a substantially similar related case Gates filed in 2013.
We have recognized that application of the
Younger
abstention doctrine can also be waived,
Tex. Ass'n of Bus.
,
The only evidence that Gates cites that supports his allegation that the Miller letter was forged is the affidavit of his former attorney, Daniel Abel, in which Abel states that, in the course of representing Gates, he "acquired personal knowledge" of numerous crimes committed by the District Attorney's office, including the "forged 'victim letter' purporting to have been written by former Deputy Sheriff Nathan Miller." However, he does not establish any basis for his asserted personal knowledge. He does not assert, for example, that he was present when the allegedly forged letter was written, that he is familiar with Miller's signature and knows that the signature on the letter is not Miller's, or that anyone told him that the letter was forged. Accordingly, the statement in the affidavit that the Miller letter was forged would likely not be admissible as evidence at trial.
See
United States v. $92,203.00 in U.S. Currency
,
As the district court noted, driving while intoxicated and resisting an officer are not among the essential elements of aggravated flight. Compare La. Rev. Stat. § 14:108.1 (aggravated flight) with La. Rev. Stat. § 14:98 (driving while intoxicated) and La. Rev. Stat. § 40:1390 (resisting an officer).
As noted above, the only disputed evidence arguably relevant to the
Younger
issue is the Abel affidavit in which Gates's former attorney states that the Miller letter was forged. But, given the above-noted weaknesses in that affidavit,
see supra
note 3, it did not create a dispute of fact necessitating an evidentiary hearing.
See
Ty, Inc. v. GMA Accessories, Inc.
,
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Shane M. GATES, Plaintiff-Appellant v. Rodney Jack STRAIN, Sheriff, in His Official and Individual Capacity; Walter P. Reed, District Attorney, in His Official Capacity; Charles M. Hughes, Jr., Attorney; Nathan Miller, Sheriff Deputy; Roger Gottardi, Sheriff Deputy; Brian Williams, Sheriff Deputy; Philip Duiett, Lacombe Nurse, Defendants-Appellees Shane M. Gates, Plaintiff-Appellant v. Richard Swartz, Judge; Nicholas F. Noriea, Jr., Assistant District Attorney; Marie-Elise Prieto, Clerk of Court-St. Tammany; Jeff Landry, Louisiana Attorney General ; Ronald Gracianette, Assistant District Attorney; Kathy Sherwood, Captain; Kathryn Landry ; Rodney Strain, St. Tammany Parish Sheriff Office Sheriff, Also Known as Jack Strain ; St. Paul Fire & Marine Insurance Company; Walter P. Reed, Defendants-Appellees
- Cited By
- 92 cases
- Status
- Published