Opinion ID: 795895
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Litigation Resulting from the May 18 Arrests

Text: 12 The demonstrators who were arrested were charged with various state law crimes, and in a September 9, 1997 decision, Justice Philip Miller of the Town of Onondaga Justice Court dismissed all charges against plaintiffs except for a disorderly conduct charge against medicine woman Marie Peters, finding the informations legally insufficient to establish the charged offenses and raising serious questions about the troopers' hearsay testimony that several plaintiffs refused to move from the roadway, were intentionally or recklessly creating a risk of public inconvenience or disregarded a lawful order of the police to disperse. Justice Miller subsequently dismissed the remaining claim against Peters on the merits. 13 Similarly, on March 5, 1998, Onondaga County Court Judge William Burke dismissed all of the State's initial charges against plaintiff Kenneth Kappelmeier, rejecting defendants' allegation that Kappelmeier was acting with intent to cause public disruption or interfere with the troopers; finding that no evidence supported defendants' allegation that Kappelmeier was on the roadway; and holding that the evidence showed that the confrontation between Kappelmeier and the troopers occurred not on the roadway but on Jones's property, which Jones's invitees had a right to use. The State thereafter produced new facts and new charges against Kappelmeier, largely supported by testimony from a NYSP trooper who testified for the first time before a second grand jury that Kappelmeier was running back and forth in a provocative manner. The jury subsequently acquitted Kappelmeier of all charges. 14 The case now before us originated in the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York. The plaintiffs alleged that the defendants, inter alia, violated their rights to freedom of speech, religion and assembly, used excessive force, engaged in a conspiracy to violate their rights, violated their right to equal protection, were deliberately indifferent to plaintiffs' medical needs and inflicted severe emotional distress. They also filed claims against NYSP Superintendent James W. McMahon, Onondaga County Sheriff Kevin Walsh, the County of Onondaga and the Sheriff's Department. 15 After several years of litigation, the district court denied the defendants' motions for summary judgment on the basis of qualified immunity on plaintiffs' First Amendment and excessive force claims, finding that disputed factual issues remained to be resolved before the court could rule on the qualified immunity issue. Jones, 2005 WL 928667, at -. The court granted Walsh and McMahon's respective motions for summary judgment. Id. at . The court also granted summary judgment sua sponte in favor of Onondaga County and its Sheriff's Department, dismissed several of plaintiffs' other claims and dismissed several defendants from the lawsuit. Id. at -. The defendants timely appeal from the district court's denial of their motions for summary judgment based on qualified immunity and its decision not to apply the qualified immunity defense to dismiss plaintiffs' state-law claims. 16 The plaintiffs timely cross-appeal from the district court's grant of summary judgment to Walsh and McMahon, the court's dismissal of their equal protection, conspiracy, indifference to medical needs and infliction of emotional distress claims, and the court's sua sponte dismissal of several defendants and other legal claims.