Opinion ID: 548692
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Complaint and RICO Case Order.

Text: 14 On June 29, 1989, the Town commenced the present action against the named defendants. In addition to asserting a RICO claim pursuant to 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1962 (1988) based upon predicate acts of extortion in contravention of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1951 (1988), the complaint alleged a conspiracy to deprive civil rights in violation of 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1985(3) (1982), and various pendent state claims, including public nuisance. The jurisdictional statement of the Town's complaint read as follows: 15 This Court has subject matter jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. Section 1331, 28 U.S.C. Sections 1343 and 2201, 18 U.S.C. Section 1964, 15 U.S.C. Sections 21 and 26, 42 U.S.C. Section 194, and the principles of pendent jurisdiction. 16 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1331 (1988) confers original jurisdiction upon federal district courts as to all civil actions arising under the Constitution, laws, or treaties of the United States. 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1343 (1988) confers such jurisdiction as to certain civil actions regarding civil rights and the elective franchise. 28 U.S.C. Sec. 2201 (1988) authorizes any federal court to render declaratory judgments in any case of actual controversy within its jurisdiction. 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1964 (1988) vests jurisdiction in the district courts to grant civil remedies for violations of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1962 (1988). 15 U.S.C. Secs. 21 and 26 (1988) deal with enforcement of the federal antitrust laws. 42 U.S.C. Sec. 194 (1982) requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services to furnish sufficient quarters for the work of the Children's Bureau, a component of the Department of Health and Human Services, at an annual rental not to exceed $2,000. 17 In its opinion, the district court stated that the Town's announced intention to withdraw its Sec. 1985 claim ... leaves the RICO claim as the sole basis for federal jurisdiction over this action. 726 F.Supp. at 376. The announcement occurred in a document filed by the Town on August 25, 1989, in response to a series of inquiries in a RICO Case Order entered by the district court. The Town's brief on appeal confirms that [b]y amended complaint dated December 6, 1989, the Town abandoned its state and federal civil rights claims. 18 In addition, we note that a motion by the Center to intervene in this case was granted August 28, 1989, after the preliminary injunction hearing, but the decision from which this appeal is taken addressed preliminary relief only as a question of entitlement of the [Town]. 726 F.Supp. at 373 n. 1. The Town's amended complaint did drop its claim under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1985 (1988), but made no substantial change to its RICO claim. In addition, the Center was added as a plaintiff suing under RICO on its own behalf and on behalf of a class of similarly situated abortion facilities nationwide. Like the Town's claim, the Center's RICO claim was grounded on predicate Hobbs Act violations, but the Center's theory of extortion significantly differed from that of the Town. We do not address whether the Center has adequately invoked federal jurisdiction, because it is fundamental that an intervening claim cannot confer subject matter jurisdiction over the action it seeks to join. See Pressroom Unions-Printers league Income Sec. Fund v. Continental Assurance Co., 700 F.2d 889, 893 (2d Cir.) (The longstanding and clear rule is that 'if jurisdiction is lacking at the commencement of [a] suit, it cannot be aided by the intervention of a plaintiff with a sufficient claim.' ) (quoting Pianta v. H.M. Reich Co., 77 F.2d 888, 890 (2d Cir.1935)), cert. dismissed, 463 U.S. 1233, 104 S.Ct. 26, 77 L.Ed.2d 1449, cert. denied, 464 U.S. 845, 104 S.Ct. 148, 78 L.Ed.2d 138 (1983); see also 7C C. Wright, A. Miller, & M. Kane, Federal Practice and Procedure Sec. 1917, at 457 (2d ed. 1986) (Intervention cannot cure any jurisdictional defect that would have barred the federal court from hearing the original action.). 19 The upshot of all the foregoing is that we address the question of subject matter jurisdiction in terms exclusively of the Town's RICO claim. That claim, set forth as the first count of the Town's complaint, incorporates by reference the preceding jurisdictional and factual allegations, and then states in full: 20 82. The defendants have participated in and have conducted a series of activities, as alleged, that include predicate offenses in violation of 18 U.S.C. Section 1951 (the Hobbs Act) that constitute a pattern of racketeering activities under 18 U.S.C. Section 1961(1), in that their acts and conduct involve threats, extortion, interference with business and property interests, obstructions of justice, obstruction of local law enforcement and acts that are indictable under 18 U.S.C. Section 1951 (the Hobbs Act), and 18 U.S.C. Section 1961. 21 83. The defendants have conspired to commit and engaged in a pattern of extortionate acts, as defined under the Hobbs Act, in West Hartford and elsewhere, and those acts have caused injury to the governmental functions and property of the plaintiff, including, without limiting the foregoing, the creation of a severe restriction of [sic] upon the ability of the West Hartford Police Department to provide police protection for its citizens, the deprivation of medical services from clients of the Summit Women's Center, the deprivation of individuals' freedom to operate and/or patronize other businesses on the premises, extraordinary overtime costs and injury to one police officer employed by plaintiff, for which injury the plaintiff has been forced to expend sums as injury pay, medical costs and expenses and other benefits for which the plaintiff is responsible under Connecticut General Statutes Sec. 31-293 and under which statute the plaintiff is given a statutory right of recovery. 22 84. The actions of the defendants, aforesaid, imperiled public safety, peace and order. 23 85. The defendants, aforesaid, both as enterprises under 18 U.S.C. Section 1961(4) and as individuals, engaged in a pattern of racketeering activity, have crossed state lines through travel to organize, train, conspire and take action in furtherance of an illegal conspiracy, through the use of interstate telephone lines and U.S. mail services, through the interference with interstate commerce, and such actions were intended and designed to cause fear and threat of violence, to imperil public safety, peace and good order in West Hartford through the use and threat of fear and threat of violence, against both citizens and residents of West Hartford and citizens and residents of other states and communities in the United States of America visiting West Hartford. 24 86. The actions of the defendants, aforesaid, have resulted in direct economic injury, both tangible and intangible, to the plaintiff. 25 The complaint earlier details the alleged activities deemed to constitute the predicate acts underlying the RICO claim. The allegations portray an expansive, well organized network spurring abortion protests in various parts of the United States, and recount specific instances of organized protest. The complaint also describes the alleged activities at the Center on the dates in question, and identifies those actions of the defendants that the Town characterizes as extortionate. As to the events of April 1, it states: 26 59. [At the Center] the defendants, or some of them, acting in concert with others, deliberately and maliciously employed techniques designed to slow the West Hartford Police Department in its efforts to remove them from [the Center and the surrounding property], including resisting arrest by passive and active methods such as going limp or struggling to avoid being handcuffed, locking themselves together with Kryptonite bicycle/motorcycle locks and refusing to walk from the Summit Women's Center to waiting police vehicles or to identify themselves. 27 60. At [the Center and the surrounding property] the defendants, or some of them, acting in concert with others through the defendant John Kladde, who was identified by the protesters' negotiator as their leader, deliberately and maliciously sought to extort concessions from the West Hartford Police Department regarding the type and number of charges to be filed against those arrested, as well as the punishment to be sought in connection with those charges in exchange for cooperation in providing keys for the Kryptonite locks by which five protesters were bound together within the premises of [the] Center.... 28 61. [At the Center] the defendants, including John Charles Grant, acting in concert with others, deliberately and maliciously determined further to harass and extort [the Town] by refusing to identify themselves such that they could not be released pending arraignment unless charges against them were reduced or dropped, with the result that extraordinary manpower was needed to control arrestees in a courtroom from Saturday, April 1, through Monday morning, April 3, 1989. 29 It is further alleged that (1) several defendants deliberately and maliciously sought to extort a less diligent response to future protests by falsely indicating to newspaper reporters that the West Hartford Police Department had beaten protesters with clubs; (2) several defendants, acting in concert with others, deliberately and maliciously commenced and encouraged a campaign of telephone and mail harassment against the Town in deliberate efforts to extort a less diligent police response to future protests at the [Center] and elsewhere in the [Town]; (3) defendant Spear Printing Co., Inc., through its editor, the defendant John M. Spear, deliberately and maliciously published an incorrect, defamatory account of the April 1, 1989 protest ... in furtherance of the efforts of the defendants and others to harass, intimidate and extort a less diligent or softened response from the West Hartford Police to future protest activities at the Center and elsewhere within the Town; (4) the activities described forced the Town to divert a large number of its on-duty police officers to [the Center] and subsequently to monitor arrestees and assist in their arraignment, resulting in reduced police protection for the residents of the Town, and incurred expenses in excess of $11,000 in personnel and other costs; and (5) defendant Jean Pollock, speaking for defendant Connecticut Pro-Life Action Network, held a press conference outside the headquarters of the West Hartford Police Department in which she deliberately and maliciously sought to intimidate the West Hartford Police Department into softening its response to future protests by publicizing a false and distorted view of the police response to [the April 1 protest]. 30 The complaint also details the events surrounding the protest that took place June 17, 1989, at which defendants allegedly attempted to prevent [the Center] from performing abortions on that day and in the future by extortionate means. It states that several defendants, acting in concert with others[,] deliberately and maliciously employed, and/or directed others to employ, techniques designed to slow the West Hartford Police Department in its efforts to remove them from the property ..., including resisting arrest by passive and active means such as going limp or struggling to prevent being handcuffed. It also states that defendant William Calvin deliberately threatened the Town by indicating that there could be even larger protests in the future unless the police approach changed. It is further alleged that: 31 defendants, or some of them, acting in concert with others, deliberately and maliciously determined further to harass and extort the West Hartford Police Department by refusing to identify themselves unless charges against them were reduced or dropped such that police were forced to house them in two courtrooms from Saturday, June 17, 1989, through Monday, June 19, 1989, and to expend extraordinary efforts to handle them, estimated to have cost the Town between $20,000 and $30,000. 32 The Complaint goes on to describe another telephone and mail campaign of harassment and intimidation to complain about police conduct during the June 17, 1989 protest based upon inaccurate information regarding the incident in a deliberate and malicious effort to obtain a softened response to future protests in furtherance of their cause. Finally, after alleging that the arraignment of the uncooperative June 17 arrestees took almost twelve hours to accomplish and required the assistance of large numbers of police and State of Connecticut Department of Corrections personnel, the Complaint states: 33 On or about Saturday, June 24, 1989, the defendant Faithful and True Roman Catholics published a paid advertisement in The Hartford Courant which deliberately, maliciously and falsely stated that [o]ne priest was badly beaten and that police officers were violent at the protest of June 17, 1989, and which advertisement exhorted readers to demand investigations into the conduct of West Hartford police by the Governor, State's Attorney and state legislators in an effort to perpetuate the extortionate efforts of the defendants to elicit a reduced response from police to future criminal acts of the defendants and others acting with them. 34 On July 5, 1989, the district court issued a RICO Case Order consisting of a series of inquiries to which the Town was required to respond in detail and with specificity. The Town submitted its response on August 25, 1989. The order and response included the following exchanges: 35 5. Describe in detail the pattern of racketeering activity or collection of unlawful debts alleged for each RICO claim. A description of the pattern of racketeering shall include the following information: 36
37 [Response: ] The predicate acts upon which the plaintiff's RICO claim are based consist primarily of incidents of extortion in violation of 18 U.S.C. Section 1951(a), commonly known as the Hobbs Act. 38 b. Provide the dates of the predicate acts, the participants in the predicate acts, and a description of the facts surrounding the predicate acts.... 39 [Response: ] The acts of the defendants have occurred on numerous dates commencing prior to 1986 and continuing through the present. Several dates upon which the actions of the defendants and/or some of them have occurred in West Hartford are April 1 through April 3, 1989, April 4, 1989, April 17, 1989, June 17 through 19, 1989 and June 24, 1989. These dates correlate to the dates of the April 1, 1989 and June 17, 1989 rescues at the Summit Women's Center, the continuing incarceration of the protesters arrested at those protests by the West Hartford Police Department and the subsequent press statements/news conferences held by the protesters regarding their past and threatened future actions. 40 f. Describe how the predicate acts form a pattern of racketeering activity.... 41 [Response: ] The definition of racketeering activity contained in 18 U.S.C. Section 1961(1) specifically includes violations of 18 U.S.C. Section 1951 (the Hobbs Act). Operation Rescue, as well as the other named defendants acting in conjunction with others, have repeatedly extorted or attempted to extort from providers of abortion services a closure of their facilities. In addition, the defendants have attempted to extort, on repeated occasions, softened police response to their criminal actions in furtherance of their goal of closing abortion facilities. These extortionate activities are a part of the defendants' well-organized efforts to prevent abortions from taking place anywhere in this country. 42 15. Describe the alleged injury to business or property. 43 [Response: ] The primary injuries caused to the plaintiff by the enterprise is the hinderance [sic] of normal routine police activities within the Town of West Hartford as well as the cost of increased manpower and equipment needed to respond to the illegal activities conducted by the enterprise within the Town of West Hartford. In addition, the enterprise has resulted in injury to at least one police officer, albeit minor, within the Town of West Hartford for which the plaintiff may be liable. 44 16. Describe the direct casual [sic] relationship between the alleged injury and the violation of the RICO statute. 45 [Response: ] The plaintiff Town of West Hartford is, in effect, an innocent bystander which has been injured as a direct result of the Operation Rescue efforts to shut down the Summit Women's Center in West Hartford. The goal of Operation Rescue is, in part, to prevent police response to Operation Rescue activities from being effective. As a result, increased manpower is needed to deal with Operation Rescue-sponsored protests as is a correlative reduction in police protection for the balance of the Town. 46