Deanna Copeland v. Lucas WicksDeanna Copeland v. Lucas Wicks
Deanna Copeland (“Mother“) appeals from the trial court‘s grant of summary judgment in favor of Lucas Wicks (“Detective“) on her malicious prosecution and
Factual Background
Detective, a deputy sheriff in Lincoln County, was asked by the division of family services to investigate the possible abuse of a child who was approximately two years old. DFS informed him that a children‘s hospital determined that the child had suffered injuries that were non-accidental.
Detective reviewed photographs of the child that showed she sustained bruises to her eye and lip and conducted a custodial interview of Mother. During this interview, she stated that, on the night the child sustained the injuries, she came home from work at 4:30 a.m. to find the child alone in the bathroom with the door shut and ripped-up toilet paper on the floor. Her boyfriend was asleep in another room, and she relayed that this situation made her angry.
Mother told Detective that she opened the door to the bathroom with “a little more force” than just “nice and gentle,” and she picked up the child “a little rough.” She agreed that the bruise on the child‘s eye was consistent with the bathroom door knob and that it was possible the child hit her eye on the door when she picked her up.
Specifically, Detective asked, “[t]hen she hit her eye on the door knob?” and Mother responded, “It could have, possibly, because I just picked her up. I was so frustrated, I picked her up, and just took her straight [into another bathroom].”
Mother further explained that she decided to give the child a bath after finding her in the bathroom. To get the child into the tub, she stated that she “grabbed her underneath her arms ... and heaved her” into the tub. The child was not “sturdy enough” when she let her go, and she stated that the child slipped and fell, bruising her lip on the tub.
Based on the interview and photographs, Detective wrote a probable cause statement outlining the reasons he believed Mother had “committed criminal offenses.” In this statement, Detective wrote that DFS received a complaint of child abuse from the child‘s biological father, who noticed the injuries after the child was in Mother‘s care. He further stated that she came home at 4:30 a.m. to find the child in the bathroom and picked the child up in “an angry and hurried manner.” He then wrote that she “stated she slammed [the child‘s] head into the doorknob due to anger.” He also included that she “stated she threw [the child] into the bathtub causing severe bruising and swelling to [the child‘s] lip.”
The Lincoln County prosecutor charged Mother with felony child abuse under
Mother then brought a two-count suit against Detective for malicious prosecution and violating
Standard of Review
An appellate court‘s review of a motion for summary judgment is de novo. ITT Commercial Fin. Corp. v. Mid-Am. Marine Supply Corp., 854 S.W.2d 371, 376 (Mo. banc 1993);
State Malicious Prosecution Claim
To prevail on a malicious prosecution claim, a party must prove six elements: (1) commencement of an earlier suit against the party; (2) instigation of that suit by the adverse party; (3) termination of the suit in the party‘s favor; (4) lack of probable cause for filing the suit; (5) malice by the adverse party in initiating the suit; and (6) damage sustained by the party as a result of the suit. State ex rel. O‘Basuyi v. Vincent, 434 S.W.3d 517, 519 (Mo. banc 2014). Malicious prosecution actions are not favored in the law as public policy supports uncovering and prosecuting crime. Sanders v. Daniel Int‘l Corp., 682 S.W.2d 803, 806 (Mo. banc 1984). As such, courts require strict compliance with the requisite elements. Edwards v. Gerstein, 237 S.W.3d 580, 583 (Mo. banc 2007).
Mother‘s claims center around two statements that Detective made in the probable cause affidavit he provided the prosecutor. The first alleged misstatement is that Detective stated that, when he interviewed Mother, she admitted that she “slammed” the child‘s head into the door knob due to anger. However, the transcript of the interview reveals that she did not use the word “slam.” Instead, Mother
Mother claims that these alleged misstatements were either intentionally false or made with reckless disregard for their truth. In regard to the second alleged misstatement, Mother says that she said that she “heaved” her child into the tub, not that she threw her child in the tub. The primary definition of “heave” is “to cause to move upward or onward by a lifting effort ... to lift with exertion.” WEBSTER‘S THIRD NEW INTERNATIONAL DICTIONARY 1046 (1993). But another meaning of “heave” is “to throw, cast, toss, hurl.” Mother failed to present any evidence that, considered in context, Detective‘s statement describing Mother as having admitted to “throwing” the child into the tub was an intentional falsehood or a reckless disregard for the truth.
As to the first alleged misstatement, the description of events by Mother and Detective is substantially the same; the key difference is in Detective‘s characterization of Mother‘s intent. In the transcript, Mother says that the child‘s eye injury “could have, possibly,” been from the doorknob “because I just picked her up. I was so frustrated, I picked her up, and just took her straight [into another bathroom]” and admittedly her eye had been injured in a way that could have been caused by the doorknob. Although Detective may have believed from this statement that Mother knocked the child‘s eye intentionally against the doorknob, it was inaccurate to state that she admitted this intent. But this Court need not address whether such intent was implicit in her statements, despite her acquittal of child abuse, because Mother has not shown that Detective‘s attribution of motive to Mother was motivated by malice.
When the underlying prosecution is a criminal proceeding, “malice” means that “the proceedings must have been initiated primarily for a purpose other than that of bringing an offender to justice.” Sanders, 682 S.W.2d at 814. There was no evidence before the trial court that Detective bore an actual hatred or malice toward Mother. Interrogating suspects and securing arrests and convictions are central features of a detective‘s job. There was nothing in the record to indicate that Detective acted for any purpose other than to perform his duties of investigating a child abuse claim.
Because Mother cannot show that Detective was motivated by malice, Detective was entitled to judgment on Mother‘s malicious prosecution claim.
§ 1983 Claim
Mother next argues that Detective was not entitled to qualified immunity from the
Government officials may be entitled to qualified immunity from
A warrant issued upon an affidavit containing deliberate falsehoods or statements made with reckless disregard for the truth violates the Fourth Amendment and could precipitate a
To analyze whether the false statements were material to finding probable cause, courts reconstruct the supporting affidavit without the false statements and determine if a corrected affidavit would still support probable cause for an arrest. See, e.g., Small v. McCrystal, 708 F.3d 997, 1007-08 (8th Cir.2013); Bagby v. Brondhaver, 98 F.3d 1096, 1099 (8th Cir. 1996). It is enough for the officer to show there was “merely arguable probable cause,” which is a mistaken, but objectively reasonable belief, that the suspect committed a criminal offense. Dowell v. Lincoln Cnty., Mo., 762 F.3d 770, 777 (8th Cir. 2014).
Here, even if Detective‘s statements had been false or made with a reckless disregard for their truth, a corrected affidavit would have established that: (1) DFS received a complaint of child abuse; (2) the report was filed by the child‘s biological father, who noticed the injuries after the child was in Mother‘s care; (3) Mother stated that she came home from work at 4:30 a.m. to find the child in the bathroom; (4) Mother admitted that she was angry and picked child up in a hurried manner; (5) Mother stated that she had picked the child up “a little rough” and that the bruise on child‘s eye was consistent with the door knob; and (6) Mother stated she was still angry when she “heaved” the child into the bathtub, causing the child to slip and fall and sustain severe bruising and swelling to her lip. The photographs also provided support that the child had been abused.
Although a corrected statement may not have provided probable cause that Mother “knowingly” inflicted the injuries on the child as required by
Under the facts here, as there was no Fourth Amendment violation, Detective was entitled to qualified immunity on Mother‘s
The trial court‘s judgment is affirmed.
All concur.