Benitez v. Lopez

372 F. Supp. 3d 84
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. New York
DecidedOctober 16, 2018
Docket17-CV-3827-SJ-SJB
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 372 F. Supp. 3d 84 (Benitez v. Lopez) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Benitez v. Lopez, 372 F. Supp. 3d 84 (E.D.N.Y. 2018).

Opinion

BULSARA, United States Magistrate Judge:

Plaintiff has moved to compel five categories of documents. The Court resolves the motion as follows:

1. Benitez first seeks the underlying files related to a 2003 arrest of Bernadette Johnson, the sole eyewitness in Benitez's criminal case, and copies of four complaints she filed with the NYPD. As to the 2003 arrest, Defendants first contend that the documents are not relevant to Benitez's claim of prosecutorial misconduct because the arrest is not Brady material. To do so, Defendants cite a number of cases they contend demonstrate that a single minor arrest would not have changed the outcome of Benitez's trial. Defendants do not articulate the correct standard. A Brady violation requires a showing of materiality-that the failure to disclose deprived the defendant of a fair trial-not whether the "information is unlikely to change the original verdict." (Defs.' Ltr. at 2). "[A] defendant's right to pre-trial disclosure under Brady is not conditioned on his ability to demonstrate that he would or even probably would prevail at trial if the evidence were disclosed, much less that he is in fact innocent." Poventud v. City of New York , 750 F.3d 121, 133 (2d Cir. 2014) (quotations omitted). And "[s]uppressed impeachment evidence is necessarily material where the witness at issue supplied the only evidence linking the defendant(s) to the crime." Graves v. Smith , 811 F.Supp.2d 601, 616 (E.D.N.Y. 2011) (quotations omitted), aff'd sub nom. Graves v. Phillips , 531 F. App'x 27 (2d Cir. 2013).

In this case, Benitez has argued that Johnson's 2003 arrest would have impeached and called into question the credibility of the sole eyewitness in the case, whom the prosecution bolstered with character evidence. These are facts and characterizations that Defendants do not dispute. Defendants also do not argue that Johnson's testimony was corroborated by other witnesses or that Johnson was already a weak witness who was impeached on other grounds. Rather, they identify a series of cases where a court has not found a Brady violation. But this is not a case where "the suppressed impeachment evidence merely furnishes an additional basis on which to impeach a witness whose credibility has already been shown to be questionable." Quinones v. Portuondo , No. 00-CV-8126, 2005 WL 2812234, at *5 (S.D.N.Y. Oct. 21, 2005). It is instead a case "where the likely *87impact on the witness's credibility would have undermined a critical element of the prosecution's case," United States v. Payne , 63 F.3d 1200, 1210 (2d Cir. 1995), and therefore the 2003 arrest is Brady material. (See Am. Compl. ¶ 70 ("During the trial, Johnson (but no other witness) identified Plaintiff as the perpetrator. There was no other evidence that linked Plaintiff to the crime.") ). In his § 1983 case alleging malicious prosecution, Benitez "has the right to argue to the jury that, with the main State witness impeached, he would have been acquitted based on reasonable doubt or convicted on a lesser charge." Poventud , 750 F.3d at 135. That argument could be the crux of his malicious prosecution claim-and he is also basing his Monell claim on Brady violations (Am. Compl. ¶¶ 114(a)(iv), 121-22)-and as a result, he is entitled to discovery about the Brady violation, including files about the 2003 arrest of the only eyewitness.

As to the copy of the complaints made by Johnson to the police, Benitez has not established the necessary factual nexus between Johnson's complaints and his case. See Rule 26(b)(1). Benitez has not proffered any other evidence adduced in discovery (or even an allegation in the Amended Complaint) that Johnson had a preexisting relationship with police officers or that something about the complaints could have undermined Johnson's credibility. The motion to compel the other police complaints is denied.

2. As for the second request, the parties are sadly, to use a hackneyed phrase, two ships passing in the night. The submissions reflect different versions of what remains at issue and what the parties have agreed to produce or defer. Plaintiff seeks the disciplinary records of the individual defendants, including the underlying investigatory files, for both substantiated and unsubstantiated allegations. Defendants state that the request is too broad because it includes both substantiated and unsubstantiated allegations. But Plaintiff apparently offers to postpone production of files from unsubstantiated allegations, provided closing reports are provided. Defendants do not respond to this offer. Left to its own devices, the Court rules as follows:

With respect to the substantiated allegations, the motion to compel the complete investigatory files is granted. Defendants' conclusory and unsupported allegations of burden and hardship do not defeat Benitez's clear entitlement to the underlying files as relevant material. (Defendants could have outlined the quantity of documents, the number of files, or some relevant information that speaks to the burden of compliance. They did not.) There is a legion of authority suggesting that Defendants must turn over substantiated investigatory files for individual defendants in a § 1983 lawsuit. "It is now commonplace in the courts of this Circuit to require the production of CCRB and IAB files relating to both substantiated and unsubstantiated allegations of similar conduct." Young v. City of New York , No. 10-CV-1701, 2010 WL 3938372, at *1 (S.D.N.Y. Oct. 7, 2010). "In most ... cases the entire CCRB or IAB file was required to be produced[.]" Id. (collecting cases). "[E]xcept for reasonable redactions of names and addresses to protect privacy or informer sources, plaintiffs in federal civil rights actions are presumptively entitled to ... documents on prior complaints and police history." King v. Conde , 121 F.R.D. 180, 198 (E.D.N.Y. 1988) (emphasis added).

Defendants contend that the files should be limited to those allegations that are similar to the ones in the Complaint, and that there should be a limitation to those incidents which only constitute impeachment *88material (since the Monell claim is not against the NYPD, but the Queens District Attorney's Office).

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

White v. County of Suffolk
E.D. New York, 2022

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
372 F. Supp. 3d 84, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/benitez-v-lopez-nyed-2018.