Henderson v. Simms, 4th Cir. (2000)
Henderson v. Simms, 4th Cir. (2000)
Henderson v. Simms, 4th Cir. (2000)
No. 99-1706
warrants for the arrests of Henderson, Rexrode, and Calella. The warrants were each titled "Retake Warrant for Arrest and Detention of
Escaped Prisoner," although Appellees had actual knowledge that
none of Appellants had in fact escaped. In fact, the warrant specifically noted that it was being issued "as a result of a court decision
requiring a recalculation of the offender's term of confinement" and
would expire on the revised date recalculated for that prisoner. (J.A.
at 19.) Appellees, acting under color of state law, ordered that Appellants be arrested pursuant to the 682(d) warrants issued and signed
by Filbert.
Pursuant to these 682(d) warrants, Appellees directed and caused
armed police officers to arrest each Appellant at his home or place of
work on or about May 1, 1998, and then had each incarcerated.
Appellees did not afford Appellants a hearing (either pre-arrest or
post-arrest) to challenge the basis or legitimacy of their arrests or
incarceration. Following his arrest, on May 8, 1998, Henderson filed
a petition for writ of habeas corpus in the Circuit Court for Baltimore
County. On May 14, the court granted the petition, denied Appellees'
motion for a stay, and ordered Henderson released. On May 18, the
Court of Appeals of Maryland granted Appellees' petition for certiorari review of the circuit court's order releasing Henderson and denied
Appellees' motion for a stay. Appellees then released Rexrode and
Calella from incarceration. Following briefing and argument, the
Court of Appeals of Maryland affirmed the circuit court's grant of
habeas relief to Henderson, on the ground that Appellees had misinterpreted the Court of Appeals's prior decision in Wickes. See Secretary, Dep't of Pub. Safety & Correctional Servs. v. Henderson, 718
A.2d 1150, 1157-58 (Md. 1998). As a result of Appellees' actions,
Henderson was incarcerated from on or about May 1, 1998 to May
_________________________________________________________________
(3) Any sheriff or police officer authorized to serve criminal
process, to whom a warrant for the retaking of an escapee shall
be delivered, is authorized and required to execute such warrant
in accordance with the directions contained therein. A sheriff or
police officer making an arrest under this subsection shall
promptly notify the Division of Correction of the arrest.
Md. Ann. Code art. 27, 682(d) (1996).
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14, 1998 and Rexrode and Calella were incarcerated from on or about
May 1, 1998 to May 18, 1998.
On April 6, 1999, Appellants filed suit under 42 U.S.C.A. 1983
(West Supp. 1999) in the United States District Court for the District
of Maryland seeking damages as a result of their arrests and reincarceration. The complaint alleged that Appellees violated Appellants'
clearly established rights under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments by arresting and reincarcerating Appellants without probable
cause and without a hearing following Appellees' determination that
Appellants had been prematurely released from incarceration on mandatory supervision. Appellees filed a motion to dismiss. By memorandum opinion and order dated May 14, 1999, the district court granted
Appellees' motion to dismiss the complaint in its entirety on the
ground that Appellees were entitled to qualified immunity. The district court reasoned that Appellees' actions did not violate Appellants'
clearly established procedural due process rights under the Fourteenth
Amendment because Appellees "reasonably could have believed that
[Appellants] had no protected liberty interest that demanded predeprivation notice and a hearing" and did not violate Appellants'
clearly established rights under the Fourth Amendment because
Appellees "reasonably could have believed that escape from custody
was the closest model for obtaining legal process to effect the retakes
required by Maryland law, there being no statute of Maryland covering this unlikely situation." (J.A. at 117-18.) On May 19, 1999,
Appellants filed a timely notice of appeal.
II.
Before us, Appellants make two arguments why the district court
judgment should be reversed. First, Appellants argue that because
Appellees knew that Appellants had not escaped, the retake warrants
lacked probable cause and were invalid, and, therefore, Appellants'
arrests violated their clearly established rights under the Fourth
Amendment to be secure from unlawful arrest. Second, Appellants
argue that because the Fourteenth Amendment has long required that
a decision to revoke a former inmate's release status be accompanied
by a corresponding opportunity to challenge the revocation, Appellees' denial of a hearing violated Appellants' clearly established
rights under the Fourteenth Amendment. We review de novo a district
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court's grant of a motion to dismiss on the ground of qualified immunity. See S.P. v. City of Takoma Park, 134 F.3d 260, 265 (4th Cir.
1998).
"Qualified immunity is an accommodation by the courts to the conflicting concerns of, on one hand, government officials seeking freedom from personal monetary liability and harassing litigation and, on
the other hand, injured persons seeking redress for the abuse of official power." Hodge v. Jones, 31 F.3d 157, 162 (4th Cir. 1994) (internal quotation marks omitted). To that end, qualified immunity
protects government officials performing discretionary functions from
liability for civil damages "insofar as their conduct does not violate
clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known." Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800,
818 (1982). In determining whether a government official is entitled
to qualified immunity, "we must (1) identify the right allegedly violated, (2) determine whether the constitutional right violated was
clearly established at the time of the incident, and (3) evaluate
whether a reasonable offic[ial] would have understood that the conduct at issue violated the clearly established right." S.P., 134 F.3d at
265. These steps are sequential; we "`must first determine whether the
plaintiff has alleged the deprivation of an actual constitutional right
at all,'" before "`proceed[ing] to determine whether that right was
clearly established at the time of the alleged violation.'" Wilson v.
Layne, 119 S. Ct. 1692, 1697 (1999) (quoting Conn v. Gabbert, 119
S. Ct. 1292, 1295 (1999)). Accordingly, we address Appellants'
claims in turn, focusing first on whether Appellants' complaint has
alleged a deprivation of their constitutional rights.
A.
Appellants' complaint contends that their arrests by Appellees pursuant to "escapee" warrants violated the Fourth Amendment. The
Fourth Amendment, applicable to the States through the Fourteenth
Amendment, see Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643, 654-55 (1961), states
in pertinent part that "[t]he right of the people to be secure in their
persons . . . against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be
violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause," U.S.
Const. amend. IV. Subject to limited exceptions not relevant in this
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case,3 the general rule is that"Fourth Amendment seizures are `reasonable' only if based on probable cause." Dunaway v. New York, 442
U.S. 200, 213 (1979). Probable cause, in turn, is"defined in terms of
facts and circumstances sufficient to warrant a prudent man in believing that the suspect had committed or was committing an offense."
Gerstein v. Pugh, 420 U.S. 103, 111 (1975) (internal quotation marks
omitted). "Whether probable cause exists in a particular situation . . .
always turns on two factors in combination: the suspect's conduct as
known to the officer, and the contours of the offense thought to be
committed by that conduct." Pritchett v. Alford, 973 F.2d 307, 314
(4th Cir. 1992). "Probable cause therefore could be lacking in a given
case, and an arrestee's right violated, either because of an arresting
officer's insufficient factual knowledge, or legal misunderstanding, or
both." Id.
In this case, it is undisputed that Appellants were"seized" within
the meaning of the Fourth Amendment when arrested pursuant to
retake warrants. See Brower v. County of Inyo , 489 U.S. 593, 597
(1989) (holding that Fourth Amendment seizure occurs"only when
there is a governmental termination of freedom of movement through
means intentionally applied"); Dunaway , 442 U.S. at 207 (holding
that petitioner was "seized" when he was taken involuntarily to the
police station). Appellants contend that because they had not escaped,
but rather had been released on mandatory supervision, the plain language of the Maryland retake-warrant statute did not authorize Appellees to issue retake warrants for Appellants' arrests. Appellants assert
that as a consequence, the retake warrants were supported by no
cause, let alone legally sufficient probable cause.
In response, Appellees contend that under Maryland law and law
from other jurisdictions, prisoners erroneously released from incarceration hold the same status as escapees for purposes of their reincarceration. In support of this proposition, Appellees cite Hopkins v.
North, 135 A. 367 (Md. 1926). In Hopkins, an individual who was
sentenced to jail became ill and was released for treatment at a sanato_________________________________________________________________
3 For example, in Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 20-27 (1968), the Supreme
Court held that the police may make a brief, on-the-spot stop on the
street and a frisk for weapons based upon a reasonable suspicion that
criminal activity is afoot.
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rium by the sheriff upon order of a magistrate. See id. at 367-68. After
the prisoner completed his treatment but refused to return to jail, the
state's attorney filed a petition for a mandamus to compel the sheriff
to arrest the prisoner and keep him in jail until he had served the
remainder of his sentence. See id. at 368. In addressing this issue, the
Court of Appeals of Maryland first held that "[t]he decided weight of
authority, and, in our opinion, the better reasoned cases, hold that,
where a prisoner secures his liberty through some illegal or void
order, it is to be treated as an escape, and he can be retaken and compelled to serve out his sentence." Id. After noting that the magistrate's
order and the sheriff's action in releasing the prisoner in the first place
were unauthorized and illegal, and that the prisoner was given his liberty upon the understanding that when he recovered from his illness
he would return to jail and serve the unexpired portion of his sentence, the Court concluded that "under the circumstances of this case
[the prisoner] must be treated as having escaped, and so is subject to
arrest, and that upon his arrest he can be compelled to serve the
remainder of his sentence." Id.
The Maryland Court of Appeals's decision in Hopkins supports
Appellees' position that no violation of Appellants' Fourth Amendment rights occurred in this case. Because Appellants do not challenge Appellees' substantive decision to apply Wickes retroactively,
but only challenge the means by which that decision was carried out,
including, inter alia, the execution and issuance of retake warrants for
Appellants' arrests, it follows that Appellants do not challenge the
reasonableness of Appellees' belief that Appellants were released
"through some illegal or void order." Appellants cite no subsequent
Maryland case, and we could find none, suggesting that Maryland
courts would depart from Hopkins. In light of this dearth of dispositive case law, we believe that the common-law definitions of "escape"
and "escapee" in Hopkins are the best indication of how the terms "escape" and "escapees" in the Maryland retake-warrant statute would be
construed today by a Maryland court. See Lorillard v. Pons, 434 U.S.
575, 583 (1978) ("[W]here words are employed in a statute which had
at the time a well-known meaning at common law . . . they are presumed to have been used in that sense unless the context compels to
the contrary." (alteration in original) (internal quotation marks omitted)). Accordingly, because Hopkins instructs us that a mistakenly
released prisoner is to be treated under Maryland law as an escapee
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released prisoners as well. Second, Appellants cite no judicial opinions, and we can find none, stating that it is unlawful to use an
escapee warrant to arrest and reincarcerate erroneously released prisoners. See id. (relying in part upon lack of judicial opinions on
whether media entrances into a home violated Fourth Amendment to
justify finding that the right to be free from such entrances was not
clearly established). Although Appellants contend that Appellees
could have obtained the warrants "the old-fashioned lawful way," we
decline to impose liability on Appellees based upon their failure successfully to predict the course of the law. Accordingly, even if Appellants' Fourth Amendment rights in this particular context were
cognizable, these rights were not sufficiently clear at the time of
Appellants' arrests to notify reasonable state officials in Appellees'
position that their conduct was unlawful, thus entitling Appellees to
qualified immunity on Appellants' Fourth Amendment claim.
B.
Second, Appellants argue that their reincarceration without a hearing to challenge the basis for the reincarceration violated their rights
not to be deprived of liberty without due process of law under the
Fourteenth Amendment. The Fourteenth Amendment provides in relevant part that "nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty,
or property, without due process of law." U.S. Const. amend. XIV,
1. "We examine procedural due process questions in two steps: the
first asks whether there exists a liberty or property interest which has
been interfered with by the State; the second examines whether the
procedures attendant upon that deprivation were constitutionally sufficient." Kentucky Dep't of Corrections v. Thompson, 490 U.S. 454,
460 (1989) (internal citation omitted). An individual claiming a liberty or property interest protected by the Fourteenth Amendment
"must have a legitimate claim of entitlement to it." Id. "Protected liberty interests `may arise from two sources -- the Due Process Clause
itself and the laws of the States.'" Id. (quoting Hewitt v. Helms, 459
U.S. 460, 466 (1983)).
In Morrissey v. Brewer, 408 U.S. 471 (1972), the Supreme Court
addressed the question of whether the requirements of procedural due
process applied to parole revocations. See id. at 481. In answering that
question in the affirmative, the Court first noted that "the liberty of
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