James Stanley was a correctional sergeant in Macomb County, Michigan, serving under Sheriff Anthony Wickersham and Undersheriff Elizabeth Darga. Wickersham was elected in 2012, and Stanley had supported Wickersham’s opponent. In 2016, Wickersham ordered Stanley’s demotion from sergeant to correctional officer, which was reversed by an arbitrator. Stanley then sued the County, alleging that his demotion was retaliation for supporting Wickersham’s political opponent in 2012.
In 2018, while that lawsuit was pending, Stanley was involved in two use-of-force incidents at the County jail. He was not disciplined at the time of either incident. In November 2018, Stanley won his retaliation lawsuit on summary judgment. About one month later, Darga issued Stanley a reprimand for one of the use-of-force incidents and ordered him to undergo remedial training. Several months later, Stanley was suspended with pay pursuant to an internal investigation over the second use-of-force incident. Captain David Kennedy ordered Lieutenant Melissa Stevens to conduct the investigation, which did not target any of the other officers involved in the two incidents. All the other officers told Stevens that they believed that Stanley did not use excessive force, yet Stevens referred both cases to the County prosecutor, who filed assault charges against Stanley. The County did not clear the booking area for Stanley’s privacy after his arrest, although it consistently did so whenever other correctional officers were arrested.
Both assault charges went to trial. The judge issued a directed verdict in Stanley’s favor in the first case. Before the second case was resolved, Kennedy asked the County’s use-of-force expert to review the video underlying the second assault charge. The expert told Wickersham, Darga, and others at a meeting that he believed Stanley’s conduct was appropriate. Wickersham disagreed, and Kennedy ordered the expert not to prepare a written report. The expert would later testify that Wickersham had never before disagreed with his assessment of a use-of-force incident, nor had he previously been asked not to prepare a written report after finding a use of force to be appropriate. Stanley was acquitted in the second assault case by a jury.
Stanley sued the County under Section 1983, alleging that it unconstitutionally retaliated against him for suing the County by implementing policies intended to specifically target him. He won at trial, and the County appealed, arguing that Stanley failed to prove that the County implemented such a policy.
The Sixth Circuit rejected the County’s argument, finding that Stanley presented sufficient evidence of an official policy designed to target him. The timing of the County’s adverse actions was suspicious; Stanley was suspended and investigated for the two use-of-force incidents shortly after his retaliation lawsuit succeeded. The Department only investigated Stanley and not the other officers involved, it referred the use of force incidents to the prosecutor’s office although no other officers believed that Stanley used excessive force, and the use-of-force expert was directed not to prepare a written report. Stanley was treated differently from other employees when the booking area was not cleared after his arrest, and the Department did not inform the prosecutor’s office that its own expert concluded that Stanley did not use excessive force in one of the two assault cases. Taken together, the Court found that Stanley presented adequate proof that the County implemented a policy – imposed by Wickersham and implemented by his subordinates – to target Stanley and violate his constitutional rights.
Stanley v. Macomb County, No. 23-1842, 2024 WL 3861459 (6th Cir., 2024).