A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit in which Mountain Pure bottling company workers claimed that federal agents violated their civil rights in executing a search warrant at the business in 2012. The ruling cancels a trial scheduled to begin Monday.
In a 25-page order, U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker granted motions for summary judgment -- a ruling made solely on the law, without a need for testimony -- filed on behalf of the 22 defendants. The defendants were Cynthia Roberts, an agent with the Office of Inspector General of the U.S. Small Business Administration; Bobbi Spradlin, a special agent with the Internal Revenue Service; and 20 other agents who participated in the raid but whose identities weren't known. The lawsuit referred to them as "John Does 1-20."
The 10 plaintiffs -- the company and nine employees -- accused the women of planning and directing a "SWAT-team style raid" that violated the Fourth Amendment rights of the employees at the plant on Interstate 30 in Little Rock. The agents, armed with a search warrant, gathered thousands of documents during the Jan. 18, 2012, search that led to the indictment of John Stacks, the company's primary owner, on accusations that he submitted false claims of tornado damage to obtain a Small Business Administration loan in 2009.
Stacks, 60, was tried by a federal jury in October, and he was convicted of a single count of submitting a false claim, three counts of making a false statement and three counts of wire fraud. The jury deadlocked on three money laundering charges.
U.S. District Judge Leon Holmes, who presided over the criminal trial, later threw out two of the false-statement convictions, saying the jury relied on insufficient evidence, and granted Stacks' request for a new trial on the remaining convictions.
Stacks is facing a retrial on the five convictions that Holmes set aside and the three charges on which the jury deadlocked. However, a trial date hasn't been set because the government's appeal of Holmes' post-trial findings is pending before the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis.
Meanwhile, a jury trial in the civil case that Mountain Pure employees filed on March 6, 2013, before Stacks was indicted, was scheduled to begin Monday in Baker's Little Rock courtroom. On June 13, Baker denied the government's request to dismiss the case, citing court rules that apply in early stages of a lawsuit.
The order she issued Thursday throwing out the case cited more information that has developed as the case has moved forward and said the lawsuit didn't raise any genuine issues for trial.
The judge's order noted production at the plant restarted about two hours after authorities arrived -- despite them showing up in a convoy of 15-20 vehicles, having about 35 federal and state law enforcement officers block the plant's entrances and exits, and confiscating cellphones. It also said the plaintiffs were told they could leave, but if they did, they couldn't return.
"No Mountain Pure property was damaged, no one was handcuffed or arrested, and no one sustained a physical injury," Baker wrote.
She said agents returned confiscated cellphones and other property when owners of the property left the building.
Baker also found that the government officials, Roberts and Spradlin, were entitled to qualified immunity -- the doctrine that protects them individually from liability for civil damages -- as long as their conduct doesn't violate a clearly established right.
"Because the Fourth Amendment protects citizens against only unreasonable searches, officers do not violate the Fourth Amendment when they execute a valid warrant in an objectively reasonable manner," she said.
Looking at the circumstances to determine whether the search was conducted in a reasonable manner, Baker said that Mountain Pure and the employees cannot establish excessive force was used or that the use of weapons and gear was unreasonable. She said the plaintiffs provided "no evidence that SWAT-type tactics, weapons or gear were used here," adding that the evidence before her "suggests they were not."
She said evidence shows that the agents were armed with "standard law enforcement weapons and gear that is typically carried and required on any law enforcement operation," and that the number of officers participating in the raid was based on the number of people expected to be at the plant, the size of the plant, and the need to control access and ensure officer safety. She also said there was no evidence that Roberts or Spradlin drew their weapons or ordered other agents to do so.
Baker noted that agents executing a search warrant may detain the occupants of the premises while the search is conducted. She also noted that even if all the items seized weren't necessary to the investigation, a "reasonable officer" could have believed that the seizure of the items was authorized by the warrant.
Last week, a Little Rock businessman and his wife -- Stephen and Anna Parks -- filed a similar lawsuit against IRS agents who executed search warrants at their home and businesses in 2012. An attorney who filed the suit on the couple's behalf said he was encouraged by Baker's earlier refusal to dismiss the Mountain Pure suit. The Parks' lawsuit is pending before Chief U.S. District Judge Brian Miller.
Metro on 03/24/2015