Colon-Andino v. Toledo-Davila

634 F. Supp. 2d 220, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 59929, 2009 WL 2033038
District Court, D. Puerto Rico·Decided July 13, 2009·No. Civil 08-1234 (FAB)·Published·Cited by 13 cases

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

BESOSA, District Judge.

On February 22, 2008 Wilfredo ColonAndino, along with his wife, Carmen Nieves-Baez, and their conjugal partnership, his father, Wilfredo Colon-Velez, and his mother, Margarita Andino-Moreno (collectively referred to as “plaintiffs”), filed a complaint against defendants both in their personal and official capacities (the latter for injunctive relief only), as members of the Puerto Rico Police Department (“PRPD”). 1 (Docket No. 1) Pursuant to 42 United States Code § 1983, the plaintiffs contend that defendants subjected them to violations of the Fourth, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution. Plaintiffs also claim violations pursuant to local law and the Constitution of Puerto Rico.

On May 7, 2008, defendants Toledo-Davila and Donate moved to dismiss the complaint for, among other things, failure to state a claim pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6). (Docket No. 8) On June 4, 2008, plaintiffs opposed the motion to dismiss. (Docket No. 17) On July 14, 2008, defendants Gonzalez-Nieves, Ojeda, Rivera-Miranda, Bermudez^Ortiz, and Velazquez-Gonzalez moved to join the motion to dismiss (Docket No. 31) which this Court granted on July 15, 2008. (Docket No. 32) 2 For the *225 reasons discussed below, the Court GRANTS in part and DENIES in part defendants’ motion to dismiss.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

The Court draws the following facts from the plaintiffs’ complaint (Docket No. 1) and takes them as true for the purpose of resolving defendants’ motion.

Plaintiff Wilfredo Colon-Andino (“Colon-Andino”) owned a barber shop and tattoo parlor called “Ink and Pleasure” 3 in Levittown, Puerto Rico. Next door to “Ink and Pleasure” is another business, “La Cava de los Dominicos,” which is owned by Gilberto Ramirez-Rosado (“Ramirez-Rosado”). The two business owners apparently enjoyed an amicable relationship until they disagreed about the use of parking spaces, presumably near both places of business.

Problems between Colon-Andino and Ramirez-Rosado escalated to such a point that Ramirez-Rosado threatened to kill Colon-Andino, warned Colon-Andino that he had influence with high-ranking police officials in the' PRPD, and initiated a “smear campaign” against Colon-Andino within the community alleging that ColonAndino was involved in illegal actions. As a result of Ramirez-Rosado’s smear campaign Colon-Andino filed a criminal complaint against Ramirez-Rosado on February 26, 2007. 4

On May 1, 2007, police officer Jose M. Donate (“Donate”) issued a citation to Colon-Andino requiring Colon-Andino’s appearance on May 7, 2007 at the Criminal Investigations Bureau (“CIC” for the Spanish language acronym). At the CIC on May 7, 2007, Donate informed ColonAndino of an anonymous phone call received by the PRPD stating that a white individual with a golden Pathfinder vehicle was threatening people by alleging he was a police officer. Donate told Colon-Andino that the alleged complaint “came from upstairs,” which Colon-Andino took to mean that the order for his citation came from higher ranking officers within the police department. Colon-Andino told Donate that he could not be the individual mentioned in the complaint because he (Colon-Andino) is not white and does not own a golden Pathfinder. Donate never showed Colon-Andino the complaint allegedly filed against him, yet he nevertheless questioned Colon-Andino regarding personal information such as his address, description of his car, and place of business. After obtaining that information from Colon-Andino, Donate informed Colon-Andino that the complaint against Colon-Andino was closed.

On May 8, 2007, Wilfredo Colon-Velez (“Colon-Velez”), also a plaintiff in this case and the father of Wilfredo Colon-Andino, 5 called Donate to discuss what he viewed as the inappropriate and illegal meeting between Donate and Colon-Andino on May 7th at the CIC. Colon-Velez requested a copy of the alleged complaint against his son, and warned Donate that he would file an administrative complaint against Donate for illegal questioning. Donate refused to provide a copy of the alleged complaint against Colon-Andino and then abruptly hung up the phone.

The following day, May 9, 2007, police officers Karina Ojeda (“Ojeda”) and Braulio Gonzalez-Nieves (“Gonzalez-Nieves”), both defendants in this case, along with *226 several other unknown officers, executed an illegal search warrant and proceeded to search Colon-Andino’s place of business, “Ink and Pleasure.” Although the officers possessed a search warrant, the warrant contained false Information referring to alleged illegal transactions occurring in front of “Ink and Pleasure” involving an individual that had exited “Ink and Pleasure.” The warrant was based on the sworn testimony of defendant police officer Gonzalez-Nieves who allegedly saw movement in “Ink and Pleasure” on dates when the business was closed because Colon-Andino was out of the country. Furthermore, Gonzalez-Nieves also gave testimony identifying a car involved in the illegal transaction. That car is not owned by ColonAndino; it is owned by a former employee of “Ink and Pleasure” who, on the date the car was identified, did not go into or drive by the “Ink and Pleasure” business. That ex-employee had also experienced problems with the owner of the neighboring business, Ramirez-Rosado, related to the use of certain parking spaces. The plaintiffs contend that all of this information was fabricated in order to execute the search warrant used to gain entry into Colon-Andino’s place of business.

Following the execution of the illegal search warrant based on false information, officer Ojeda and another unidentified police officer entered “Ink and Pleasure.” While Ojeda interacted with a customer, the unknown officer twice entered the bathroom facilities and planted marijuana there, after which that officer left the premises and another officer entered 6 with a drug-detecting canine which subsequently marked the existence of a controlled substance, marijuana, in the bathroom where it had been planted. No other controlled substance was found. Immediately thereafter, Colon-Andino was arrested.

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Colon-Andino v. Toledo-Davila, 634 F. Supp. 2d 220, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 59929, 2009 WL 2033038 (prd 2009).

634 F. Supp. 2d 220 (Colon-Andino v. Toledo-Davila) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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