Sims v. City of Madisonville

Sims v. City of Madisonville

Opinion

 [*636]  PER CURIAM:

David Sims, a former officer with the Madisonville Police Department (MPD), sued the City of Madisonville, Texas (the City),¹ and his former supervisor, Sergeant Jeffrey Covington, under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging that he was terminated after reporting acts of misconduct by Covington in violation of his First and Fourteenth Amendment rights. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of the City on the grounds of res judicata, and later granted summary judgment in favor of Covington based on qualified immunity. Sims appeals those judgments as well as several of the court's preliminary rulings.

David Sims was a police officer with the MPD from 2004 until 2012, when he was terminated. Prior to his termination, Sims had reported up [**2]  the chain of command that his supervisor, Sergeant Jeffrey Covington, solicited help from other officers in planting drugs on Covington's wife during a custody battle over their two children. Sims had previously attempted to report Covington's misconduct to Police Chief Claude May in October 2011, but Chief May dismissed the allegations at the time. In June 2012, Sims discovered audio recordings on Covington's computer in which Covington could be heard asking another officer to help him plant the drugs. Sims accessed the recordings a second time, saved the files to a CD, and gave the CD to a Texas Ranger investigating Covington on other matters. In July 2012, Sims, having learned from another officer that Covington was investigating him, searched the network computer and found Covington's investigative file, which contained "notes on Sims, unauthorized GPS tracking data and camera video" pertaining to Sims.

On July 24, Sims overslept and missed an appearance in Municipal Court. The next day, Sims met with Chief May and  [*637]  Covington and was placed on probation for allegedly failing to appear in Municipal Court on several occasions. At that meeting, Sims possessed typed notes rebutting the [**3]  allegations he found in Covington's investigative file. Covington and Chief May noticed the notes and contacted City Manager Danny Singletary. At some point following that meeting, Chief May and Singletary contacted AgniTEK Technology Solutions to investigate whether Sims had accessed Covington's files without authorization. AgniTEK ultimately concluded that there had been a computer breach and that it originated from Sims's computer. On July 27, Sims was called into Chief May's office and terminated for violating the MPD's Computer Use Agreement. After Sims was terminated, Ranger Stephen Jeter investigated whether Sims accessed confidential files on Covington's computer, and Sims was eventually indicted for computer security breach, a felony under Texas law. The charges were later dismissed "in the interest of justice." Covington was ultimately indicted and convicted of charges related to framing his wife, and he voluntarily resigned from the MPD.

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