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Supreme Court No. 2010-111-Appeal. (NC 06-42)

Duane Horton v. Portsmouth Police Department et al.

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Present: Suttell, C.J., Goldberg, Flaherty, Robinson, and Indeglia, JJ. OPINION Justice Indeglia, for the Court. Duane Horton (plaintiff or Horton) appeals from a Superior Court grant of summary judgment in favor of the defendants, the Portsmouth Police Department (department) and various Town of Portsmouth officials (collectively, defendants), dismissing the plaintiff's thirteen-count amended complaint alleging malicious prosecution, false arrest, false imprisonment, tortious denial of access to public records, violations of civil rights stemming from these allegations and also from a failure to properly train and supervise the police officers, failure to destroy records after exoneration, and illegal retention of records of identification. The plaintiff argues that the motion justice erroneously determined as a matter of law that the officers of the department had probable cause for each of the prosecutions against Horton and that he inappropriately granted their motion for summary judgment. The case came before this Court for oral argument on May 5, 2011, pursuant to an order directing the parties to show cause why the issues raised in this appeal should not be decided summarily. After an examination of the written and oral submissions of the parties, we are of the opinion that cause

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has not been shown and the appeal may be resolved without further briefing or argument. For the reasons set forth in this opinion, we affirm the judgment of the Superior Court. I Facts and Travel On January 17, 2006, Horton filed an eleven-count complaint in Newport County Superior Court naming the department, and nine department officials, 1 the Portsmouth Town Administrator, Robert Driscoll, and plaintiff's wife, Josephine Horton (Ms. Horton), as defendants. 2 The plaintiff alleged single counts of false arrest, false imprisonment, tortious denial of access to public records, malicious attempt to frame, false reporting, malicious prosecution, abuse of process, failure to properly destroy records after exoneration, and illegal retention of records of identification. The remaining two counts alleged civil-rights violations. The department and the ten officials named in the complaint filed an answer on March 13, 2006. The defendants denied all the allegations contained in the counts directed toward them. They admitted that Ms. Horton contacted the department, but denied that she provided false information.

The original complaint named Michael Arnold, Alberto Bucci, Anthony Cambrola, Garrett Coyne, Jeffrey Furtado, Lance Hebert, Steven Hoetzel, Harry Leonard, and Dennis Seale as defendants. In a later-filed amended complaint, plaintiff removed Michael Arnold and Garrett Coyne from the named defendants. He added as named defendants Brett Bucholz, Stephen Burns, John Cahoon, Mark Daniels, John Huppee, and Stephen Sullivan. John Huppee's motion to dismiss in lieu of an answer for insufficient service of process was granted by a justice of the Superior Court on June 19, 2007, and a judgment to that effect was entered that same day. 2 The complaint described Josephine Horton (Ms. Horton) as plaintiff's "estranged wife" and alleged that plaintiff and Ms. Horton had been married since 1993 and were in the process of divorcing when the facts giving rise to the complaint occurred. In his later-filed amended complaint, Horton stated that their marriage ended in October 2006. In her answer to the original complaint, Ms. Horton asserted four counterclaims against defendant. In a stipulation between plaintiff and Ms. Horton filed on June 6, 2006, plaintiff agreed to dismiss all claims against Ms. Horton, and she agreed to dismiss her counterclaims against Horton. Accordingly, his amended complaint omitted all claims originally asserted against Ms. Horton. -2-

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The plaintiff filed an amended complaint on February 22, 2007, alleging thirteen counts. He alleged five counts of malicious prosecution relating to his arrests on or about July 24, 2004 (count 1); January 23, 2006 (count 2); February 6, 2006 (count 3); February 9, 2006 (count 4); and July 17, 2006 (count 8). The plaintiff also raised one count of malicious prosecution for his incarceration from February 9, 2006, until February 14, 2006 (count 5), and one count of false arrest for his arrest on February 9, 2006 (count 6). The remaining counts alleged one count of false imprisonment for his incarceration from February 9, 2006, until February 14, 2006 (count 7), one count of tortious denial of access to public records (count 9), civil-rights violations (counts 10 and 11), failure to properly destroy records after exoneration (count 12), and illegal retention of records of identification (count 13). 3 Horton sought "appropriate compensatory, punitive, injunctive, and exemplary relief and fines, as well as reasonable attorney fees." On March 2, 2007, defendants filed an answer to plaintiff's first amended complaint. They denied all allegations set forth against them. On September 22, 2009, defendants filed a motion for summary judgment. They argued in support of the motion that "they had probable cause to prosecute, arrest and/or imprison the plaintiff on each occasion of arrest and/or imprisonment" and therefore counts 1-8 must fail as a matter of law. As for count 9, alleging tortious denial of access to public records, defendants argued that they were entitled to summary judgment because the requested records "were records exempted from the Rhode Island Access to Public Records Act" codified at G.L. 1956 chapter 2 of title 38. As to counts 10 and 11, defendants contended that "none of plaintiff's claims [were] covered under the Rhode Island Civil Rights Act of 1990" codified at G.L. 1956 chapter 112 of title 42 and thus their motion for summary judgment should be granted. Finally, defendants
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The plaintiff sought class-action certification for counts 12 and 13. After a hearing before a justice of the Superior Court on January 7, 2008, his request for class certification was denied. -3-

argued that they were entitled to summary judgment on counts 12 and 13, alleging failure to properly destroy records after exoneration and illegal retention of records of identification, respectively, because the statute under which these claims were raised, G.L. 1956

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