Opinion ID: 579479
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Defendant Nancy Aldridge

Text: 36 In order to state a claim under section 1983, a plaintiff must demonstrate that the party charged with the [constitutional] deprivation must be a person who may fairly be said to be a state actor. This may be because [she] is a state official, because [she] has acted together with or has obtained significant aid from state officials, or because [her conduct] is otherwise chargeable to the State. Lugar v. Edmondson Oil Co., 457 U.S. 922, 937, 102 S.Ct. 2744, 2753-54, 73 L.Ed.2d 482 (1982). When the defendant is an actual official of the state, such as a police officer or a government official, the inquiry is straightforward. In this case, however, the plaintiffs allege that the actions of Nancy Aldridge, a licensed therapist in private practice who has no official ties to Cobb County, its police department or its Department of Social Services, are fairly attributable to the State. 37 As we said most recently in Harvey v. Harvey, [o]nly in rare circumstances can a private party be viewed as a 'state actor' for Section 1983 purposes. 949 F.2d 1127, 1130 (11th Cir.1992). There are three primary tests for determining whether a private party can be considered a state actor: the public function test, the state compulsion test, and the nexus/joint action test. NBC v. Communications Workers of America, AFL-CIO, 860 F.2d 1022, 1026 (11th Cir.1988). 38 The public function test covers only private actors performing functions 'traditionally the exclusive prerogative of the State,'  id., quoting Jackson v. Metropolitan Edison Company, 419 U.S. 345, 353, 95 S.Ct. 449, 454-55, 42 L.Ed.2d 477 (1974), and is inapplicable to this case. 39 The state compulsion test describes instances in which the government has coerced or at least significantly encouraged the action alleged to violate the Constitution. NBC, 860 F.2d at 1026. In this case, however, the plaintiffs allege that Aldridge was a willing, if not leading, party in the events that led up to the alleged constitutional deprivation. Thus, the state compulsion test is also inapposite here. 40 The plaintiffs make vague allegations of a conspiracy between Aldridge on one hand, and Davis and Moody--who are obviously state actors for this purpose--on the other, thereby suggesting the type of symbiotic relationship between the government and a private party addressed by the nexus/joint action test. Id., 419 U.S. at 357, 95 S.Ct. at 456-57. The question here is whether the State has so far insinuated itself into a position of interdependence with the [private party] that it was a joint participant in the enterprise. Jackson, 419 U.S. at 357-58, 95 S.Ct. at 456-57. 41 The facts presented by the plaintiffs, taken as true, do not support any allegation that Nancy Aldridge was anything except a private therapist hired by Victoria Lowe to treat the Lowe children. Aldridge previously had worked with abused children and testified in custody cases and cases involving child sexual abuse, but had no formal arrangement with the Cobb County Prosecutor's Office or any other governmental agency. Aldridge made a report of her suspicions of child abuse to the Division of Family and Child Services (DFACS), as required by law, but she was not required to contact the police department, and did not do so. In fact, it was Detective Davis who contacted Aldridge on April 27, 1987, at the suggestion of Victoria Lowe; during their conversation Aldridge simply reported the statements made to her by the Lowe children. Aldridge was also present during the videotaped interview of Alicia Lowe by Detective Davis, but careful review of the tapes makes clear that Aldridge played an insignificant role in the interviews. After these two interactions with Detective Davis, Aldridge devoted her time to treatment of the Lowe children. Her only other involvements with the court system were testifying at the divorce trial between Allan and Victoria Lowe, and at the probable cause hearing in Alpharetta, at which the criminal charges against Allan Lowe were dropped for lack of jurisdiction. 42 Plaintiffs allege that even if Aldridge were not a state actor herself, she acted in concert with state officials to deprive the plaintiffs of their rights. See Lugar v. Edmondson Oil Co., 457 U.S. 922, 102 S.Ct. 2744, 73 L.Ed.2d 482 (1982); Bendiburg v. Dempsey, 909 F.2d 463 (11th Cir.1990). As we stated in Bendiburg, supra, and NAACP v. Hunt, 891 F.2d 1555, 1563 (11th Cir.1990), in order to prove such a conspiracy, a plaintiff must show that the parties reached an understanding to deny the plaintiff his or her rights. And, as discussed above, the constitutional right alleged to have been violated was the procurement of a warrant based on false statements made by Detective Davis. Thus, plaintiffs must provide some evidence of an understanding and willful participation between the private and state defendants toward the goal of procuring the warrant for the search of the Smith and Oakes homes. See Lugar v. Edmondson Oil, supra. Aldridge, however, played no role in the preparation of the affidavit in support of the search warrants by Detective Davis. It is also undisputed that Aldridge never knew of the existence of William or Anne Oakes prior to the search and thus could not have conspired to deprive them of their rights. For all of the foregoing reasons, Aldridge was not a state actor for section 1983 purposes, nor can she be considered to have acted in concert with state actors. 43 Even if Aldridge acted under color of state law, she would be entitled to qualified immunity along with Davis and Moody. As discussed above, plaintiffs would have to demonstrate that her actions violated clearly established constitutional law and a lack of good faith on Aldridge's part. The essence of plaintiffs' allegation is that Aldridge coached the children into creating increasingly fantastic tales of ritualistic and satanic sexual abuse and that she should have known that the abuse could not have taken place. Although it is unclear what exactly happened to these children, the fact that those stories detailed unremitting horror cannot be held as evidence of their untruth. 44 We cannot judge the truth or falsity of the allegations of sexual abuse of the Lowe children or the method of their therapist in eliciting their stories. We deal here only with whether the constitutional rights of the plaintiffs were violated by the actions of Aldridge in taking seriously the Lowe children's accounts, and the actions of Davis and Moody in procuring a warrant to search for evidence that would corroborate their claims. 45 Aldridge has presented substantial evidence that there exists no definitive standard for treating child sexual abuse, or establishing a rapport with young patients, or eliciting their stories. We have no way of judging such behavior, and, more important, such a claim has no part in this federal suit alleging violations of constitutional rights. 46 A careful review of the record shows that there is no evidence that Aldridge was either a state actor or a private party working in concert with the police, or indeed that she was not entitled to qualified immunity if she was a state actor. 10 It was thus error to deny her motion for summary judgment.