Opinion ID: 1059687
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: facts and federal court proceedings

Text: While on duty as a police officer on August 28, 1992, Harris investigated a burglary complaint at an apartment complex in the City. Upon arriving at the apartment complex, Harris spoke with Terry Grey, an occupant of one of the apartments. Grey told Harris that a man claiming to be a maintenance worker used a key to enter her apartment while she was undressed. Harris then contacted the apartment manager to determine whether the alleged intruder was indeed a maintenance worker. In the meantime, Grey's sister, Dierdre Gamble, and Anthony Ortiz, a police officer who was assisting Harris, arrived at the apartment complex. When the apartment manager returned with a work order pertaining to the alleged intruder, who was a maintenance worker, Grey snatched the work order from the apartment manager's hand and refused to return it when ordered to do so by Harris. Harris then grabbed Grey's wrist in an attempt to retrieve the work order from her and to enable him to handcuff her. At that point, Gamble attacked Harris from the rear, and they exchanged punches until Harris subdued her with pepper spray. After placing Gamble in handcuffs, Harris transported her to a hospital, which was standard procedure when a police officer used pepper spray. [2] While en route to the hospital, Harris reported the incident to his supervisor, Lieutenant Gary Van Auken. Meanwhile, Ortiz also contacted Van Au ken and related a version of the events that was different from Harris' version. Ortiz believed that Harris had mishandled the situation, causing it to escalate. Having received conflicting information about the incident, Van Auken consulted his supervisor and an attorney for the City, and decided that, pending the outcome of an investigation of the incident, formal charges should not be placed against Gamble nor should she be incarcerated. After Gamble was treated at the hospital, Harris took her before a magistrate for the purpose of formally placing charges against her. However, during the course of several telephone conversations between Van Auken and Harris, Van Auken advised Harris of the decision regarding Gamble and ordered Harris to not place charges against Gamble, and to release her into the custody of the police department's internal affairs division. Harris complied with that order, but later, after consulting with an attorney, he obtained warrants against both Gamble and Grey. Harris asked another police officer to serve the warrants on Gamble, but he kept the ones for Grey in his possession. When Van Auken discovered that Harris had sworn out the warrants against Grey and Gamble, he instructed Harris to give him the unnerved Grey warrants. After complying with Van Auken's order, Harris observed Van Auken place the warrants in his desk drawer. According to Harris, those warrants were never served on Grey. However, the warrants against Gamble were served. When those charges came to trial, Van Auken presented the general district court with a letter from police Captain M.E. Beane to the City attorney, which requested that the charges against Gamble be nolle prossed because Harris had been ordered to not obtain the warrants until all the facts in the case had been reviewed by the police department. Following that court proceeding, Harris received a letter from his precinct captain, E.E. Rorrer, ordering Harris to take no further action with regard to the incident in his capacity as a police officer, but advising Harris that he was free to act in his capacity as a private citizen. Rorrer also informed Harris that if he had doubts with regard to what actions he could take, Harris should contact Rorrer personally. Harris then filed an administrative complaint against Rorrer and Van Auken, alleging that they had obstructed justice. Harris also complained that Ortiz had failed to assist him during the incident at the apartment complex. An investigation of the complaint by the internal affairs division resulted in a finding that Harris' charges were unfounded. The internal affairs division also received complaints from Grey and Gamble regarding Harris' conduct at the apartment complex. After an investigation of those complaints, Grey's allegations were determined to be founded, while Gamble's were not. Thereafter, a 24-hour suspension of Harris was recommended due to his insubordination and disobedience of an order. He appealed the recommended suspension. On July 30, 1993, while on duty and in uniform, Harris appeared before a magistrate and obtained warrants for Van Auken, charging him with two violations of Code § 18.2-460, obstruction of justice, and a violation of Code § 18.2-469, delay in executing lawful process. After learning about Harris' actions, Police Chief Charles R. Wall met with Major Douglas G. McCloud; Captains Woodrow R. Baker, Beane, and Rorrer; and Van Auken. They agreed that Harris should be terminated for appearing in uniform before the magistrate and swearing out the warrants against Van Auken. According to the August 19, 1993 letter of termination from the chief of police, this action by Harris constituted disobedience of an order and abuse of his position. Harris appealed his termination to the City's personnel board, which upheld his dismissal. [3] Harris subsequently filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia against the City, Van Auken, Beane, Baker, McCloud, Wall and two other City officials, alleging that those defendants had violated his First Amendment rights by terminating him, and further asserting that he had been wrongfully discharged in violation of Virginia law. Harris v. City of Virginia Beach, Virginia, 923 F.Supp. 869 (E.D.Va.1993). A jury returned a verdict for Harris on both counts of his lawsuit. Importantly, with regard to his state law claim, the jury found both the City and the individual defendants liable, awarded compensatory and punitive damages against the City, but assessed only punitive damages against the individual defendants. In post-trial orders, the district court directed the City to pay damages to Harris and to reinstate him to his former position, but the court set aside the award of punitive damages against the City and each of the individual defendants. The City, but not the individual defendants, appealed the district court's judgment to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Harris cross-appealed, assigning as error the district court's judgment to set aside the awards of punitive damages. [4] The court of appeals reversed, holding that Harris had no First Amendment right to seek the warrants against Van Auken since his swearing out of the complaint did not implicate a subject of public concern. Harris v. City of Virginia Beach, Nos. 94-2091 and 94-2122, slip. op. at 14, 1995 WL 634593 (4th Cir. Oct. 30, 1995). The court then remanded Harris' state law claim to the district court to determine whether it should survive dismissal of the federal constitutional claim. Id. at 16. On remand, the district court entered the same judgment that it had previously entered in favor of Harris on his state law claim. The court did so without conducting a new trial. Only the City appealed the district court's second judgment to the court of appeals, which again reversed and remanded the case with instructions to the district court to grant a new trial on the state law claim, or alternatively, to decline to exercise supplemental jurisdiction and dismiss the case without prejudice in light of the prior dismissal of the federal claim. Harris v. City of Virginia Beach, No. 96-1743, slip op. at 8, 1997 WL 144071 (4th Cir. Mar. 31, 1997). The district court dismissed the case without prejudice, and Harris then filed this action in the circuit court against the City, Van Auken, Beane, Baker, McCloud and Wall. During pre-trial proceedings in the present case, Harris non-suited his claim against Van Auken. The case then proceeded to a trial by jury against the remaining defendants. At the close of all the evidence, the circuit court struck the City's evidence and found it liable, as a matter of law, for Harris' discharge. The court reasoned that it is mandatory that police officers arrest people who violate the law, and that no one  including a police supervisor  may lawfully order a police officer to refrain from doing so. Thus, the circuit court held that the order Harris disobeyed was an unlawful order, and that Harris' subsequent termination for violating that order contravened the public policies of the Commonwealth. The court then submitted the case to the jury on the remaining issues. Those issues were whether the individual defendants were also liable for Harris' termination in violation of Virginia's public policy, what amount of damages should be awarded against the City, and what damages should be assessed against the individual defendants if they were found liable. The jury returned a verdict finding all the individual defendants liable; awarding Harris compensatory damages from the City and the individual defendants, jointly and severally; and assessing punitive damages against the individual defendants. In a letter opinion denying the defendants' post-trial motion to set aside the jury's verdict, the court again concluded, as it had at trial, that Harris' dismissal for securing the warrants against Van Auken violated the public policy of Virginia set forth in the Code sections specified by the magistrate as the basis for issuing those warrants. The court stated that [i]t is contrary to the public policy of Virginia to prohibit a police officer from doing his sworn duty as mandated by the Code of Virginia where the officer was justified in fact and in law in attempting to comply with these statutes which deal with the safety of the public. The court also overruled the individual defendants' renewed plea of res judicata [5] and concluded that the jury's verdict was not excessive.