Opinion ID: 2978315
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Collins’s February 1, 2006 attack on Jamika

Text: At approximately 7:30 p.m. on February 1, 2006, Collins confronted Jamika at the Zion Hope Missionary Baptist Church (“Zion Church”) where Jamika regularly attended bible study. According to Jamika, Collins grabbed her while she was holding Anijah and said, “You not going to come back with me, you not going to be with me.” (Record on Appeal (“ROA”) 368.) Their argument escalated, and Collins led Jamika into Zion Church where other congregants witnessed him throw Jamika and Anijah to the ground. Two security guards pulled Collins away from Jamika and attempted to restrain him, but Collins was able to break their hold and escape. After Collins fled the scene, Jamika’s aunt, Leeyang, and other witnesses escorted Jamika to the pastor’s office. There, someone contacted law enforcement authorities. 08-1931, Culp, et al v. Rutledge, et al. Officers Shantell Rutledge and Derrick Mason responded to the call, and interviewed severl people who witnessed the attack. The officers were unable to arrest Collins for the misdemeanor offense of domestic assault because Collins had fled the scene before they arrived, and the officers were not authorized to engage in any further efforts to arrest Collins given the minor nature of the injuries sustained by Jamika. The officers did escort Jamika to Leeyang’s house, and Leeyang drove Jamika home shortly thereafter. Officer Rutledge testified that on returning to the police station, she contacted the Domestic Violence Unit, where she spoke to Sergeant Cooper and advised her of the incident. Rutledge than completed and electronically filed her Crisnet1 report of the incident, which was “verified”—typed and reviewed—and forwarded to the Northeastern District Investigation Operations Division (“IOD”) by Officer Rocco Corsetti on February 2, 2006 at 9.25 p.m. On February 1, 2006, the evening of the attack, Jamika, accompanied by her parents, drove to the Eleventh Precinct to file a formal complaint against Collins for assault and battery. Culp and Jamika entered the police station, while Rosetta remained in the car. Jamika made a detailed oral report about the assault to two unidentified officers. The officers told Jamika and Culp that given the nature of the attack, Jamika should file her report at the Fifth Precinct Domestic Violence Unit, which was located in another building. Jamika and her parents then traveled to the Domestic Violence Unit, and Rosetta again remained in the car while Jamika and Culp entered the police station and met with an officer—an unidentified female they described as an “African[-]American woman of medium build.” (ROA 378.) Jamika provided the officer with a detailed written report on a preprinted form, and the officer 1 Crisnet, Inc. refers to the privately held software firm that develops record-keeping systems for law enforcement, justice, and public safety agencies. 08-1931, Culp, et al v. Rutledge, et al. took Polaroid photographs of Jamika’s injuries. Jamika testified that the interaction, which lasted until approximately 2:30 a.m. on February 2, occurred in an open area, where another unidentified female officer was working and an unidentified man was mopping the floor. Sergeant Cooper was a sergeant in the Domestic Violence Unit of the Detroit Police Department from 1994 through June 2006, when she was briefly transferred to two other units, before being reassigned to Domestic Violence in June 2007. At the time of Collins’s February 1, 2006 attack, Sergeant Cooper was the Domestic Violence Unit supervisor on the midnight shift. Sergeant Cooper recalled receiving a telephone call from Officers Rutledge and Mason on the evening of February 1, 2006, notifying her of Jamika’s domestic violence complaint and informing her that the officers would email her the Crisnet report when it was complete. Sergeant Cooper also testified that Jamika and Culp never came to the Domestic Violence Unit to make a formal complaint against Collins during Sergeant Cooper’s February 1 and February 2, 2006 shift, and that she never took a written witness statement from Jamika setting forth the details of Collins’s February 1 attack. However, the district court noted that the signature on Jamika’s witness statement appears to be that of Sergeant Cooper, stating: “Taking the evidence in the light most favorable to the [P]laintiffs, the signature is sufficient to establish that Cooper took Jamika Williams’s statement.” (ROA 795, n.3.) Jamika and Culp assert that the female officer explicitly told them that Collins would be arrested either at his apartment or his place of employment. They also claim that they did not see Collins around the neighborhood after they made the report, so they assumed that he was in jail. Though Sergeant Cooper denies taking Jamika’s statement, she testified in her deposition as to the common practices and procedures used in dealing with “not-in-custody” domestic violence cases—cases where the abuser has left the scene—such as Jamika’s: 08-1931, Culp, et al v. Rutledge, et al. After the police respond to a “not-in-custody” domestic violence case, they contact the Domestic Violence Unit by phone to notify the Unit of the incident. They then electronically file a Crisnet report, which is forwarded to the Unit once it is verified and processed. Each morning, an officer in the Domestic Violence Unit gathers the Crisnet reports that were electronically filed the night before and randomly assigns them to the investigators on duty. In “not-in-custody” domestic violence cases, a victim who wants to press charges has to come into the Domestic Violence Unit to make a written statement and fill out a two-page questionnaire. If the victim does not visit the Unit on her own accord within eight hours of the Crisnet report being filed, the investigator that was assigned her case will attempt to contact her by phone (or, if the victim has no telephone, by certified mail) to ask her to visit the Unit. If the victim elects to visit the Domestic Violence Unit and wants to press charges, one of the officers on duty will help her to complete a written statement and ask her to fill out a two-page questionnaire. If the victim is visibly injured, the officer will also take Polaroid photographs of her injuries. The officer will then type up a “notin-custody” warrant. The warrant, written statement, questionnaire, and photographs are attached and left for the state prosecutor’s review. Officers also typically tell the victim that she can file a personal protection order (“PPO”) against the abuser, and that she has the option of talking to social workers at the Unit if she needs shelter or some other form of assistance while the warrant is being processed. The prosecutor’s signature is required to finalize the warrant, but the prosecutor must meet with the victim in person to decide whether there is sufficient evidence to support an arrest. The prosecutors typically do not work nights, so if a victim were to file a report during a night-shift, she would have to arrange a mutually convenient time to meet with the prosecutor in the following few days. Once the prosecutor meets with the victim and elects to sign a warrant, it can take anywhere from one to two weeks to get the warrant back, at which point, the investigator assigned to the case contacts the victim to notify them that the warrant is complete and tell them the “warrant number.” The Domestic Violence Unit’s “arrest team” then attempts to locate and arrest the abuser. Sergeant Cooper testified that, as was standard procedure, once the Crisnet report was filed, Jamika’s case was randomly assigned to the Domestic Violence Investigator, Alexis Lewis, who was 08-1931, Culp, et al v. Rutledge, et al. tasked with contacting Jamika to discuss pressing formal charges against Collins. Sergeant Cooper explained that Lewis later informed her that Jamika never visited the Domestic Violence Unit, and that Lewis was unable to contact her by phone. Sergeant Cooper testified that because Jamika never followed up on the Crisnet report, Collins was not arrested.