PHILADELPHIA – For the second time, Pottstown Hospital and Tower Health deny any and all liability for excessive force injuries that a Chester County woman allegedly suffered when she was arrested at the hospital two years ago.
Christine Caporaletti of Spring City first filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on July 23 versus Chief Michael Markovich, Police Officers Peter Yambrick, Matthew Maciejewski, John Does 1-99, Dylan Heckart, Jane Doe, the Borough of Pottstown, Pottstown Hospital and ABC Security Company of Pottstown, plus Tower Health of West Reading.
“At all relevant times, Michael Graeff lived with plaintiff, Caporaletti, in her residence, and plaintiff considered him to be ‘like a son.’ On Thursday, July 25, 2019, Graeff was overwhelmed by a mental health crisis. Concerned for his safety, at approximately 1:22 p.m., plaintiff placed a phone call to 9-1-1 so that Graeff could receive a mental health evaluation,” the suit said.
“Sergeant Edward Ciacik of the Limerick Police Department was the first to respond and arrive at plaintiff’s home. Next, the paramedics arrived to take Graeff to Pottstown Hospital for an initial examination to determine if he should be admitted for involuntarily mental health treatment, as per Pennsylvania law and local laws/policies. Plaintiff and her daughter followed the ambulance to Pottstown Hospital.”
After going to the hospital and inquiring as to Graeff’s whereabouts, defendant Heckart [a hospital security guard] approached plaintiff and claimed, without any basis in fact, that Graeff did not want to see her and demanded that she leave the hospital. Caporaletti said she later found that this remark was false.
When the Pottstown Police defendants arrived to the hospital, the plaintiff said they arrested her in front of her daughter and roughly put her into handcuffs, just three months after she underwent arm surgery.
“Defendants Yambrick, Maciejewski and/or Doe, ignored plaintiff’s cries for help to relieve the pain in her right arm. After transporting the plaintiff to the Pottstown Police Department, an unknown police officer informed defendants Yambrick, Maciejewski and Doe, that they improperly handcuffed plaintiff. Plaintiff was charged with a singular summary count of Disorderly Conduct,” per the suit.
“As a direct and proximate result of the aforementioned acts and failures to act of defendants Markovich, Yambrick, Maciejewski, and/or Does 1-99, plaintiff suffered from the following non- exhaustive list of harms:
• Violation of her clearly established and well-settled constitutional rights under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution to be free from the use of unreasonable or excessive force;
• Full thickness tear of the rotator cuff involving the posterior fibers of the supraspinatus and anterior fibers of the infraspinatus;
• Moderate tendinopathy;
• Tendinopathy in the intra-articular portion of the biceps tendon;
• Bicipital tendinitis;
• Complete tear of right rotator cuff; and
• S/P arthroscopy of right shoulder.”
Pottstown Hospital and Tower Health moved to dismiss the case on Sept. 24, countering that the plaintiff hadn’t adequately pled her case.
UPDATE
That dismissal motion was rendered moot by the filing of an amended complaint on Oct. 15
On Oct. 29, Pottstown Hospital and Tower Health filed a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim upon which relief could be granted.
“While plaintiff’s amended complaint now alleges, for the first time, a mother-son relationship between her and Mr. Graeff, plaintiff continues to fail to plead a legally cognizable claim of negligence as she is unable to establish a causal connection between the alleged acts of Jane Doe and/or Mr. Heckart and her purported injuries,” the dismissal motion said.
“More specifically, the alleged use of excessive force by the officers of the Pottstown Police Department constitutes an intervening act breaking the causal chain of events between moving defendants’ alleged negligence and plaintiff’s injuries. Accordingly, plaintiff’s claims against moving defendants fail as a matter of law. Alternatively, if any of plaintiff’s claims as to moving defendants are deemed legally sufficient, then plaintiff’s claim for punitive damages should be dismissed for failure to plead grounds upon which this requested relief may be granted.”
According to the moving defendants, Caporaletti “failed to establish a causal connection between these allegedly negligent acts and her purported injury.”
“Plaintiff alleges that she was injured as the result of the co-defendant officers of the Pottstown Police Department purportedly engaging in excessive force during plaintiff’s arrest outside of Pottstown Hospital. Neither Jane Doe nor Mr. Heckart attempted to detain plaintiff, attempted to physically remove her from the hospital, or were involved in any manner in plaintiff’s arrest,” the motion stated.
For counts of excessive force, supervisor liability, bystander liability, conspiracy, assault and battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence, joint participation, negligence, reckless endangerment, vicarious liability and a Monell claim, the plaintiff is seeking compensatory and punitive damages as to all defendants, reasonable attorney’s fees and costs as to all defendants, such other relief as may appear just and appropriate and a jury trial as to all claims asserted.
The plaintiff is represented by Alan E. Denenberg and Thomas Bruno II of Abramson & Denenberg, in Philadelphia.
The defendants are represented by Sheryl Lynn Brown of Siana Law in Chester Springs, plus Chilton G. Goebel III and Stephen J. Fleury Jr. of Saxton & Stump, in Malvern.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania case 2:21-cv-03293
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com