PHILADELPHIA – A Bensalem construction company has denied civil rights violation allegations made by an African-American and Muslim contractor who claimed he was first framed for materials theft by a racist employee, then arrested by members of the Philadelphia Police Department despite there being no evidence he had committed any crime.
Kareem Rice of Philadelphia filed suit in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas on April 30, versus the Philadelphia Police Department, Officers Melissa O’Leary, Michael Sowell and Jonathan Dedos, Det. Sharon Murphy, Det. John Frei, Sgt. Steven Vanor, all of Philadelphia, plus A.T. Chadwick Company, Inc., A.T. Chadwick Family Limited Partnership, A.T. Chadwick LLC, Jimmy Kratz, Richard Lipinski, Fran Spause, Thomas Walls and Vincent Fitzgerald, all of Bensalem.
The case was removed to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on May 22.
Rice said he was one of two African-American employees working on a project for A.T. Chadwick Company and since the beginning of the project on Dec. 4, 2017, the plaintiff’s foreman and defendant Kratz had given his employees permission to discard metal that was not being used as it would otherwise be put in the trash.
“Upon information and belief, Kratz, who is white, disliked plaintiff and had told other employees that he wanted to get rid of him. On or around the week of Feb. 12, 2018, Kratz made a phone call to defendant Walls, Project Manager, and advised him that copper was missing from a storage area where copper piping was kept. Kratz advised Walls that he would set up a camera in the storage room where the copper was kept,” the suit stated.
“On or about Feb. 16, 2018, Kratz had cameras set up in the storage room. Kratz told plaintiff and the only other black employee on the project that they could go into the storage area and take any scrap metal from there. Plaintiff and the other employee were then caught on video taking metal from the storage room.”
When he reported for work on Monday, Feb. 19, 2018, Rice was questioned by foreman and defendant Lipinski as to whether he had taken copper piping. Rice said he did, after being given permission to do so by Kratz.
However, Rice and his fellow African-American co-worker then learned they were fired and led off the property, while the supposed theft was reported to the Philadelphia Police Department, the lawsuit said.
In the investigative interview with officers, defendant Lipinski told defendant Murphy that Rice had taken materials from the job site without adding that he had been given permission to do so by Kratz, the lawsuit said.
Rice learned in March 2018 that there was an outstanding warrant for his arrest relating to the supposed theft, so he turned himself into police and was released on bail. On Jan. 23, 2019, Rice was acquitted of all charges against him.
Rice believed he was set up by Kratz because of his race and the police defendants knew there was no probable cause to arrest him and did so regardless, while his career and livelihood has been negatively impacted due to the arrest.
On May 28, the Philadelphia Police Department defendants, through their counsel, filed a motion to dismiss Rice’s complaint for failure to state a claim, via insufficient specificity.
“Plaintiff never identifies a municipal policy or custom much less plead any factual allegations about a municipal policy or custom that caused his rights to be allegedly violated,” the dismissal motion read, in part.
Counsel for the police defendants added the plaintiff failed to show “personal involvement” by any of the police officers identified in the complaint and “failed to state who arrested him or how any of these defendant officers were involved in his arrest and failed to allege any of the defendants’ actions were done with malice or constituted willful misconduct, much less plead facts that would allow the Court to draw such an inference.”
UPDATE
The A.T. Chadwick Company filed its own motion to dismiss the complaint on July 17, for failure to state a claim upon which relief could be granted. Because the company defendants are not state actors, they argued they could not be charged with violating an individual’s rights under the 4th and 14th Amendments.
“Plaintiff alleges in his complaint malicious prosecution, false arrest, false imprisonment, and analogous Pennsylvania state law allegations against moving defendants. Plaintiff’s claims against moving defendants for alleged violations of both state and federal law are legally deficient because they are not state actors,” the motion stated, in part.
“Plaintiff alleges no facts that moving defendants committed any acts to report plaintiff’s alleged theft to police, that they knowingly provided false information in support of plaintiff’s arrest and prosecution and thus, plaintiff’s federal and state law claims for false arrest, imprisonment and prosecution are legally deficient against moving defendants and should be dismissed with prejudice.”
According to counsel for the company, Rice’s allegations against Walls amount to taking a phone call and giving Kratz permission to set up a security camera, which they said was “insufficient to meet the personal involvement requisite for civil rights”, and that Rice failed to show the existence of a conspiracy from the defendants against him based upon racial animus.
For counts of malicious prosecution, false arrest, false imprisonment and civil rights violations under Monell, the plaintiff is seeking damages, individually, jointly and/or severally, in excess of $75,000, plus statutory damages, punitive damages, compensatory damages, attorney’s fees, costs and equitable relief.
The plaintiff is represented by David A. Berlin and Matthew B. Weisberg of Weisberg Law in Morton and Gary Schafkopf of Hopkins Schafkopf, in Bala Cynwyd.
The defendants are represented by Katie Cooper Davis and Anne B. Taylor of the City of Philadelphia Law Department, plus Joseph G. McHale of William J. Ferren & Associates, all in Philadelphia.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania case 2:20-cv-02404
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com