By: Derek Hawkins//December 9, 2019//
7th Circuit Court of Appeals
Case Name: Jade V. Green v. Jack Howser, et al.
Case No.: 18-2757
Officials: RIPPLE, ROVNER, and BARRETT, Circuit Judges.
Focus: Due Process Violation
Tolstoy said that every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way, and that observation rings true here. When Jack and Angela Howser decided that Angela’s estranged daughter, Jade Green, was failing to provide a suitable home for Jade’s daughter, E.W., they enlisted the local police, the sheriff’s office, the county prosecutor, and a private investigator to help them wrest custody of E.W. from Jade. Together, the group agreed that they would arrest Jade while Jade’s husband was out of the house so that the Howsers could take the child. So, after midnight one Sunday night, a caravan that included the sheriff, a sheriff’s deputy, the Howsers, and the Howsers’ private investigator set out for Jade’s home to arrest her for writing Angela a $200 check that had bounced. Once Jade was in handcuffs, an officer gave Jack the all-clear to come inside. The sheriff did not allow Jade to designate a custodian for E.W. or obtain her consent to giving E.W. to the Howsers. Instead, over Jade’s protests, the sheriff let Jack carry her daughter away.
Jade sued the Howsers under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for conspiring with state officials to violate her due process right to make decisions regarding the care, custody, and control of her child. A jury returned a verdict in her favor, and the Howsers ask us to overturn it. They contend that there is insufficient evidence to support the verdict and that it is contaminated by an evidentiary error in any event. They also find fault with several aspects of the damages award. We reject all of the Howsers’ arguments.
Affirmed