Opinion ID: 200002
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Trial and Its Prequel

Text: 23 To understand how the issue of Carchedi's liability came to be framed as it is on appeal, it is necessary to visit the rulings on the subject made by the Magistrate Judge as the trial progressed, and then to explore the background against which the case was tried. 24 The trial began in a state of confusion as to exactly who and what were to be tried: 25 THE COURT: Now, Mr. Hrones [Wilson's counsel], my understanding is the individuals that are left in this case are: James Crosby, Dennis Grady, Philip Dunlavey, the Boldys are out, Steven Sweet, and Eugene Costanza? 26 Hrones replied that the Town of Mendon remained in the case on the ch. 258 negligence claims, but confessed uncertainty regarding the individual defendants. Hrones stated that his co-counsel, Ms. Lipede, who had yet to arrive, would make the ultimate decision. The court then asked: THE COURT: Have you — let me put it this way: Have you eliminated any of the causes of action? 27 MR. HRONES: Yes.... Do you want to know what's in the case? 28 THE COURT: Yeah. Can you give me a list, do you think? 29 MR. HRONES: I don't know. 30 ... 31 MR. HRONES: I'll tell you what's in. The Federal 1983 Claim is in. 32 MR. KESTEN [Chief Grady's counsel]: For what? 33 Mr. HRONES: For everything. I mean, what do you mean for what? I mean, it's just in there. I mean, for illegal arrest, for excessive use of force, for malicious prosecution. Those are all in there. We also have the separate common law offense of malicious prosecution. That's still in there. 34 ... 35 THE COURT: [H]ere's how we're going to do it. I'm not going to press you right now. What you're going to do is you make an opening and you make an opening on whatever you feel is in the case, okay, and then, obviously, there's going to be motions to dismiss those which are not in the case or which you don't even mention. 36 Lipede then appeared and stated that the claims against Chief Costanza and Sergeant Dunlavey would not be dropped. She also stated that Wilson had decided to dismiss the invasion of privacy and defamation counts, but intended to proceed on all of his other common law claims. Accordingly, Chief Costanza and Sergeant Dunlavey were introduced to the venire as defendants. 18 Then, after a lunch break, Hrones announced that Wilson was dismissing all claims against Costanza and Dunlavey, along with most of the common law claims against the remaining defendants. 19 37 At the conclusion of her opening statement, Lipede framed the issues for the jury as follows: 38 Ladies and gentlemen, I would ask that you keep an open eye — an open mind when you review the evidence. After you review the evidence of the video-tape, along with Mr. Wilson's testimony and even after you hear the testimony of the defendants, you will find that defendant James Crosby, who used pepper spray unnecessarily, should be liable to Richard Wilson for the use of excessive force; you will also find that Steven Sweet from the Town of Hopedale is liable to Richard Wilson for the use of excessive force; and you will find that defendant Dennis Grady, who is the chief of the Mendon Police Department, is liable for failing to properly train defendant James Crosby; and you will also find that the town of Hopedale was negligent in failing to train its officer Steven Sweet for negligence. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. 39 While Lipede alluded to the second pepper spray incident involving Carchedi in her narrative of the facts, she did not suggest to the jury that Wilson was pressing any claim against Carchedi directly, or by extension, against Crosby based on anything Carchedi had done. 40 On the third day of trial, however, Hrones attempted to elicit an opinion from Melvin Tucker, a use-of-force expert called by Wilson, as to whether Carchedi's use of pepper spray during the scuffle in the vestibule was justified. 20 The question drew an immediate objection, precipitating a lengthy discussion at sidebar. Crosby's lawyer (Pfaff) argued that Carchedi 41 is not a defendant in this case, and you are not going to nail the Town on a [section 1983] claim or you are not going to try to get the jury to nail Crosby because Carchedi did something wrong. Secondly, your theory of negligence in this case does not stem from anything that Kristen Carchedi did, and your 258 letter ... does not indicate at all that Kristen Carchedi was negligent.... So you are precluded from getting that claim. 42 After further discussion, the court sustained the objection. 21 The reasons for the judge's ruling were not initially clear, but it soon became apparent that he agreed with Pfaff's argument that the failure to assert a claim against Carchedi in the ch. 258 presentment letter also precluded the prosecution of a claim against her under section 1983. The ruling clearly confused the prerequisites of an action under ch. 258 with those of federal section 1983. Section 1983, unlike ch. 258, has no presentment requirement. A section 1983 complaint need only comply with the liberal notice pleading standards of the Federal Rules. 22 See Leatherman v. Tarrant County Narcotics Intelligence & Coordination Unit, 507 U.S. 163, 168, 113 S.Ct. 1160, 122 L.Ed.2d 517 (1993); cf. Judge v. City of Lowell, 160 F.3d 67, 75 & n. 10 (1st Cir.1998). The allegation in Wilson's complaint, that Carchedi had maced him in the face, was sufficient to satisfy this liberal pleading standard. 23 43 The issue resurfaced in an identical context on the seventh day of trial, when during the cross-examination of Chief Grady's use-of-force expert, Lt. Daniel Wicks, Hrones again raised the issue of the appropriateness of Carchedi's use of pepper spray. This drew an immediate objection. At sidebar, Kesten pressed the notice issue: 44 MR. KESTEN: Judge, we went through this. We went through the presentment letter. Mr. Pfaff gave [you] the cases. They had every opportunity to put the Town on notice.... The law is clear on this. They never said for a moment that Officer Carchedi [had done something wrong] until Mr. Hrones actually called me this summer and said he might amend the complaint, and I said, Go ahead and try it. He didn't do it. To this, Hrones responded: 45 MR. HRONES: Let's not confuse two points. We're dealing with 1983, and so I am going to put presentment aside.... I don't know why people are hung up on the fact that [Carchedi] was not charged as a defendant. You simply don't have to do that, your Honor. You can [choose] whoever you want to charge. 24 46 ... 47 THE COURT: I've made a ruling on this before, and I'm going to be consistent. I'm going to sustain the objection. 48 At a charging conference the following day, Pfaff asked the court for an instruction that the jury is not to consider the actions of Miss Carchedi for any purposes of liability against any of the defendants.... [A]s I have pointed out before, Carchedi has not been named as a defendant here for 1983 purposes, and I think Mr. Hrones is still trying to push that point. The court declined to give the requested instruction, but cautioned Hrones against making any argument about Carchedi with respect to recovery in this case. When Hrones objected to the restriction, arguing that Crosby and Carchedi might be found by the jury to have acted as co-venturers during the second spraying incident, the court responded, That is my ruling. That's been my ruling. I've been consistent all the way through on that issue. 25 49 Finally, on the ninth and closing day of trial, the issue arose as to the extent counsel would be permitted to refer to Carchedi in closing argument. When the court indicated that it was inclined to exclude all mention of her, both sides objected, reminding the judge that the jury had heard a substantial amount of testimony about Carchedi and had seen repeated showings of the videotape. The court relented, stating: 50 I'm not going to go through each one of the alleged excessive force [incidents] because it's not for me to find exactly what occurred. It's for the jury to determine what exactly occurred. So consistent with that, my ruling is[,] is that obviously anything that's on the tape is in evidence and can be commented on. There will be no argument to the jury that actions by Officers Tagliaferri and Carchedi were in any way, in any way part of the liability of any of the defendants left in this case. And that's how I'm going to do it. 51 What makes this case unusual is that Carchedi was not, contrary to expectation, named as a defendant by Wilson. The reason Carchedi was not named becomes apparent only on a close reading of the trial transcript and the pleadings filed in a related and previously tried case. 52 Without delving into unnecessary detail, Richard Wilson's encounter with Crosby and Carchedi on the night of May 18, 1996, played itself out against a backdrop of parochial police politics. The Mendon Police Department, small as it was, was riven by a factional struggle over appointments to its few full-time positions. As it happened, at the time of Wilson's arrest, Carchedi and Crosby were pitted against one another as finalists for one of those positions. The selectmen eventually awarded the appointment to Crosby. Tagliaferri, who had unsuccessfully vied for another open position, filed a complaint, later joined by Carchedi, with the EEOC and the MCAD alleging disparate treatment in the Town's consideration of their candidacies. In August of 1997, the two women officers, together with Tagliaferri's step-father, Martin Auty, a Mendon selectman and police lieutenant, brought a lawsuit (the Auty case) against the Town, the police union, and most of their departmental colleagues (Chief Grady and Crosby among them) alleging, inter alia, espionage, defamation, gender discrimination, retaliation and invasion of privacy. 26 Among the allegations in the complaint was a claim that Carchedi and Tagliaferri had been unfairly disciplined for suggesting that the videotape of the altercation with Wilson had been tampered with as part of a cover-up. 53 In April of 1997, Wilson's criminal case came to trial. Carchedi and Tagliaferri testified favorably for Wilson, leading to his acquittal on all charges. After Wilson brought the instant complaint, the Auty case went to trial before Magistrate Judge Swartwood. The trial went badly for the plaintiffs. 54 Two weeks before the jury was seated, Chief Grady, Crosby and the Town of Mendon were permitted to amend their answer to the complaint by asserting a counterclaim alleging, inter alia, a civil conspiracy on the part of Auty, Carchedi and Tagliaferri. In essence, the defendants maintained that the three plaintiffs had conspired to perjure themselves at Wilson's criminal trial by testifying that Wilson had not appeared intoxicated at the time of his arrest and that Crosby had used unnecessary force during the confrontation in the cellblock. 27 The defendants claimed that the goal of the conspiracy was to assist Wilson in his civil case as a means of punishing the Town for its failure to give Carchedi a permanent position and to retaliate against Crosby for having taken the appointment in her stead. 55 On March 16, 1999, after a twenty-five day trial, the jury ruled against plaintiffs on all claims and found for the Town of Mendon and Crosby on the civil conspiracy counterclaim. The jury awarded $25,000 in damages to the Town of Mendon and $5,000 in damages to Crosby, which were apportioned among the three plaintiffs. 28 56 Given the jury's finding in the Auty case, Carchedi (and Tagliaferri) were, to put it mildly, damaged goods, a fact of which all involved in the instant trial, including Magistrate Judge Swartwood, were keenly aware. On the first day of trial, prior to the empanelment, the subject of the prior jury verdict arose obliquely during a discussion of the viability of Wilson's claim of malicious prosecution. 57 MR. KESTEN: He has a malicious prosecution claim. To do that he needs to show he was acquitted. There's a first larger question. If he wants to press it, if he wants to, the defense is that he wasn't acquitted because the prosecution wasn't malicious. He was acquitted because there was a conspiracy from these people to lie for him ... which was proven. It goes in for that. That's issue preclusion [sic]. That's been proven that the three officers, J. Martin Auty, Kristen [Carchedi], and Sherri Tagliaferri, conspired to lie in the Wilson case. That was the finding of the jury. 58 After some further discussion, the court ruled that if the malicious prosecution claim is around and the defendants say that the reason why he was acquitted [was] because everybody was in the tank with him, then I'm going to allow them to explore that. In response to this ruling Hrones announced, prior to opening statements, that the claims of malicious prosecution and false arrest were being dropped. 59 Under the circumstances, the decision not to name Carchedi as a defendant, or to call her as a witness at trial, despite the goading of the defendants to do so, was a predictable choice given the near certainty that her presence would have opened the door to evidence of the jury's finding in the Auty case. Wilson's alternate strategy was to concentrate his fire on Crosby and Chief Grady, a choice that the defendants had clearly anticipated, and one to which Wilson, after some initial first-day confusion, clearly committed himself. Only after the trial was well underway did Wilson seek to reinject Carchedi into the case. 60 We find Wilson's mid-trial switch in strategy troubling and ultimately unfair. What Wilson, through counsel, was seeking to accomplish was to wield Carchedi as a blunt instrument against the Town of Mendon without having the jury exposed to the taint of the verdict against her in the Auty case. Hence, Wilson decided to omit Carchedi from the case as a defendant and to drop all claims that would have permitted the defendants to present evidence, as they were prepared to do, that Wilson's criminal acquittal had been obtained through Carchedi's perjured testimony. 61 As a practical matter, the contours of a trial are often defined by the litigating positions taken by the parties' lawyers. At times counsel will, for tactical advantage, seek to try the case on the broadest grounds possible. Or there may be, as was the case here, sound reasons for drawing the issues to be tried as circumspectly as possible. For Wilson, Carchedi was potentially the quintessential elephant in the jury box. She was no great bargain for the defendants either, given the finding of their own expert that her use of force had been inappropriate. Both sides went into the trial with every reason to exile Carchedi to the periphery of the litigation. 62 In recognition of the realities of the give-and-take of trial, appellate courts are reluctant to second-guess the tactical decisions of trial counsel for fear of opening a floodgate of buyer's remorse. Thus, it is the rule that a litigant will be held to the strategic choices made by counsel in all but the most egregious instances. See, e.g., United States v. LaVallee, 448 F.2d 671, 679 (2d Cir.1971); Leblanc v. I.N.S., 715 F.2d 685, 694 (1st Cir.1983); see also United States v. One Lot of $25,721.00 in Currency, 938 F.2d 1417, 1422 (1st Cir. 1991). Here, the Magistrate Judge invited Wilson's co-counsel in her opening statement to state the specific claims that would be tried. She did so, conspicuously omitting any claim against Carchedi. Wilson thus having committed himself to that course, we cannot fault the Magistrate Judge for enforcing the bargain, even though we may disagree with his stated reasons for having done so. 63 In sum, in principle we agree with Wilson's argument that the failure to name Carchedi was not fatal to his section 1983 case against the Town of Mendon; however, in the circumstances of this case, Wilson — having chosen a strategy intended to keep the full truth about Carchedi and his own criminal trial from the jury — cannot now complain of being hoisted on a petard of his own contrivance.