Ex-Carilion janitor settles lawsuit against health system police
Roanoke VA July 24 2019
A former Carilion Clinic janitor who claimed he was baselessly arrested, imprisoned and interrogated by Carilion police has settled his civil rights lawsuit against the health system, its police chief and a captain, attorneys said.
The settlement totaled $110,000, according to Carilion spokesman Chris Turnbull. He said Carilion steadfastly maintained that the actions of its officers were legal.
A judge was preparing this week to try the suit by Roger “Stewart” Fuller Jr., who was paid $10.25 an hour for his work at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital before his termination over issues related to a workplace incident.
State law limits the authority of Carilion’s private police force to Carilion property. Fuller was seeking to impose liability for an encounter police initiated at his home in Roanoke County.
U.S. District Judge Frederick Stamp ruled previously that, because Fuller and police gave conflicting accounts of the encounter, it would likely take a jury to resolve the case. A three-day trial had been scheduled to begin in Roanoke federal court Tuesday.
John Loeschen, Fuller’s attorney, said July 10 that Fuller looked forward to putting the matter behind him. Loeschen declined to release the settlement amount, and he could not be reached for comment after Turnbull divulged the figure.
In addition to the payment, the health system agreed to train officers on interacting with people with disabilities, Turnbull said. Fuller, 26, has Asperger’s syndrome, a mild type of autism, court papers said.
The case file does not include a copy of the out-of-court settlement.
According to the suit, Fuller reported finding burned matches and a singed piece of paper in a dental laboratory at Roanoke Memorial in September 2017. After turning the materials over to health system police, he finished his shift and went home.
Carilion told the court that, the next day, two officers in polo shirts and slacks with badges on their belts arrived at Fuller’s house in a white Chevrolet Impala, got Fuller’s attention by knocking on the door and asked him to come to the department to discuss what he had found. They asked him to help them figure out who might have been trying to set fire to the building, Carilion’s filings said.
Fuller’s suit challenged the actions of Capt. Ron Donelson and a second officer, A.D. Janney, who were at his home. Janney was not sued because of his lower rank, Loeschen said.
Janney pushed open the door to Fuller’s house, stepped inside and told Fuller he needed to immediately leave with police or face a felony arson charge, Fuller said in sworn testimony quoted in court filings.
While speaking in a raised voice, Janney touched his holstered gun five times, the testimony said.
When Fuller tried to call his father, a retired police officer, Donelson told him to put his phone away while Janney was talking, Fuller said.
The three left in the Carilion police car.
Carilion police maintained that Fuller was never arrested, handcuffed, taken into custody or intimidated but instead enthusiastically joined officers in their police car for the ride to police headquarters.
Although Fuller claimed that he felt trapped once his interview began and had no alternative but to confess to lighting the materials, police told the court he was free to leave and they told him as much. He was fired for misconduct, Carilion said.
Fuller’s lawsuit said the confession was false and was the result of coercive police tactics, including telling Fuller that his condition made him do stupid things. They said they took his shaking and anxiety, which people with Asperger’s may manifest in stressful situations, as evidence he was lying to officers, the suit said.
Officers “took advantage of Fuller’s disability to terrorize, threaten, intimidate and humiliate Fuller,” the suit said. Fuller came away from the encounter with post-traumatic stress disorder, the suit said.
Carilion received formal approval from the General Assembly in 2015 to operate its own police force. Its officers are required by law to pass the same training as municipal police and must abide by state and federal constitutions. They work armed and have full arrest powers.
State law limits their authority to land owned, leased or controlled by Carilion.
Fuller’s case alleged a violation of the Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures. Stamp said in a pretrial ruling that seizure of a person occurs “when an officer by means of physical force or show of authority has in some way restrained the liberty of a citizen and the person submits.” One test of whether a seizure has occurred is whether a reasonable person would think he or she was free to break off contact, the ruling said.
The judge ruled that Fuller’s evidence, if proved and viewed in the light most favorable to him, could persuade a jury to render a verdict against Donelson for seizure. Since officers did not have an arrest warrant, such a seizure would have been unreasonable and a violation of his Fourth Amendment rights, the judge said.
In addition, Stamp ruled that the health system and its officers could theoretically be held liable for conduct off Carilion premises, a decision that favored Fuller. However, the judge cleared only the allegations against Donelson for the trial.
Fuller did not have a case against the health system itself or against its police chief, Steve Lugar, , the judge ruled.
However, the judge said that Lugar’s “alleged decision” to allow officers off Carilion premises was a potential violation of state law.
The specific authority held by Carilion police and city police could be clearer, Loeschen said.
“Those roles, had they been more clearly defined, probably would have avoided a lot of the issues that came up in this case,” he said in an interview. “And I’m not slamming Roanoke city for that. Hopefully the case will lead to a proactive approach between Carilion and any of its neighboring jurisdictions on how the Carilion police conduct themselves in the future.”
Roanoke Police Chief Tim Jones said he wasn’t aware of the incident over which the suit was fought. However, he said he knew of no instance of Carilion police overstepping their jurisdictional authority. His agency and Carilion police have a good working relationship, the chief said. They cooperate under a memorandum of understanding signed in 2015.
Because Carilion police lack a jail, they use the city jail. They also lack access to the FBI’s database of people in the criminal justice system, stolen property and other law enforcement information, so they obtain information through city police.
City police take the lead on investigating serious felonies and deaths such as suicides or homicides on Carilion property, but anything else that occurs on Carilion property falls to the health care system’s police force, according to Jones and the cooperation agreement between the two agencies.
In Virginia, there are seven other state-authorized police departments operated by private entities. They’re at Aquia Harbor, a gated residential community in Stafford County; Bridgewater Airpark, a private airport near Harrisonburg; BWX Technologies, a Lynchburg nuclear energy products company; Kingsmill Resort in Williamsburg; Lake Monticello, a gated community in Fluvanna County; Massanutten Resort in Rockingham County; and Wintergreen Resort.
Roanoke Times
