Garcia v. Hudak

156 F. Supp. 3d 907, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2662, 2016 WL 81275
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Illinois
DecidedJanuary 5, 2016
DocketCivil Action No. 15 CV 1393
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 156 F. Supp. 3d 907 (Garcia v. Hudak) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Garcia v. Hudak, 156 F. Supp. 3d 907, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2662, 2016 WL 81275 (N.D. Ill. 2016).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND OPINION

CHARLES R. NORGLE, United States District Court Judge

Plaintiff Sergio Garcia (“Plaintiff’) brings his First Amended Complaint against Officers Matthew Hudak (“Hu-dak”), Terrance O’Brien (“O’Brien”), Pa-mon Mir (“Mir”) (collectively the “Individual Defendants”), and the Village of Schaumburg (collectively, “Defendants”), alleging that the Individual Defendants violated Plaintiffs due process rights under the Fourth, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution.1 Before the Court is Defendants’ motion to dismiss Plaintiffs complaint pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6). For the following reasons, Defendants’ motion is granted in part and denied in part.

I. BACKGROUND

A. Allegations Underlying the State Criminal Case

The following facts are taken from Plaintiffs complaint. On November 17, 2011, at approximately 8:15 p.m., Plaintiff was sitting in a car owned by Craddock, a third-party, in a parking lot at Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg, Illinois. Around this time, the Individual Defendants approached Plaintiff and arrested him. Plaintiff alleges that when he was arrested, he was not in possession of any controlled substances and had not engaged in any drug transactions. Moreover, Plaintiff alleges that the Individual Defendants did not find any drugs when they searched him; instead, he alleges that they planted cocaine and marijuana on him during his arrest.

Plaintiff alleges that after his arrest, the Individual Defendants furthered this fabrication by falsely stating in the resulting police report that a confidential informant (“Cl”) had told them that Plaintiff was going to buy cocaine from Craddock. Plaintiff alleges further that the report also related the following chain of events, which Plaintiff claims are false.

The report said that the Cl received a phone call from Craddock, who told the Cl that he was in the parking lot at Woodfield Mall. The report went on to say that once the Individual Defendants discovered Plaintiff in Craddock’s car, they found a digital scale and cocaine in a bag on his lap, which he subsequently threw on the ground. The report also states that Plaintiff told the Individual Defendants that he had marijuana in his pocket, which they found after a search. In addition, the report states that Plaintiff told the officers that he bought cocaine in Melrose Park to give to Craddock to sell to someone else, and that Plaintiff took a small amount of the cocaine for his personal use. Plaintiff states that he never made these inculpato-ry remarks to the Individual Defendants.

Plaintiff was eventually charged with possession of cocaine with intent to deliver. At his pretrial, hearings, the Individual Defendants testified in a manner consistent with their police report. Plaintiff alleges that the Individual Defendants never disclosed to the state’s attorney that they had fabricated the incriminating evidence. With the “knowledge” that the fabricated evidence would not be inadmissible at trial, and lacking evidence of the actual fabrication, Plaintiff alleges that he pleaded guilty to the charged offense on September 24, [911]*9112012. First Am. Compl. ¶ 24. He was sentenced that same day to eleven years in prison.

B. Events Leading to the Vacatur of Plaintiffs Criminal Conviction

On January 13, 2013, in conjunction with a joint investigation between the United States Drug Enforcement Agency (“DEA”) and the DuPage County State’s Attorney Office:

Hudak and O’Brien were charged with multiple counts of unlawful delivery of controlled substances, armed violence, unlawful drug conspiracy, official misconduct, theft, and burglary. The charges alleged, among other acts, that Defendants Hudak and O’Brien illegally search and seized individuals’ homes, vehicles, and persons to extort narcotics and/or money to operate a drug ring. Hudak and O’Brien used a confidential informant to sell narcotics that the officers confiscated while working and split the proceeds with another officer who was also charged with felony drug crimes.

First Am. Compl. ¶ 27. O’Brien and Hudak pleaded guilty on March 21, 2014 and April 29, 2014, and were sentenced to twenty-four and twenty-six years in prison, respectively. The complaint does not state the name of the other officer, nor discuss whether Mir was charged with a criminal offense.

In light of these convictions, Plaintiffs criminal defense attorney moved the state court to vacate his conviction. Athough the state court reinstated criminal proceedings, the prosecutor moved the court to nolle prosequi the case on August 19, 2014. Plaintiff was immediately released from prison.

C. Procedural History

Plaintiff was arrested on November 17, 2011. Subsequently, Plaintiff filed his original complaint on February 13, 2015, alleging violations of his constitutional rights under the Fourth, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Due to the insufficiency of its allegations, the Court dismissed Plaintiffs complaint; Plaintiff subsequently filed his First Amended Complaint on June 26, 2015. On July 17, 2015, Defendants filed the instant motion to dismiss, which has been fully briefed and is now before the Court.

II. DISCUSSION

A. Standard of Decision

In order to survive a motion to dismiss under Rule -12(b)(6), a plaintiffs complaint “must actually suggest that the plaintiff has a right to relief, by providing allegations that raise a right to relief above the speculative level.” Indep. Trust Corp. v. Stewart Info. Servs. Corp., 665 F.3d 930, 935 (7th Cir.2012) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted); see also Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 570, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007) (stating that a complaint must allege “enough facts to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face”). The Court accepts “all well-pleaded allegations of the complaint as true and view[s] them in the light most favorable to the plaintiff.” Indep. Trust Corp., 665 F.3d at 934 (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). “A claim for relief must be plausible rather than merely conceivable or speculative. But all that means is that the plaintiff must ’include enough details about the subject matter of the case to present a story that holds together.’” Runnion ex rel. Runnion v. Girl Scouts of Greater Chi. & Nw. Ind., 786 F.3d 510, 526 (7th Cir.2015) (quoting Carlson v. CSX Transp., Inc., 758 F.3d 819, 826 (7th Cir.2014)).

[912]*912B. The Sufficiency of the Allegations

Plaintiffs First Amended Complaint lists four claims for relief. Count I seeks relief for the Individual Defendants’ alleged violation of Plaintiffs due process rights flowing from their evidence fabrication. Count II seeks relief for Defendants’ alleged violation of Plaintiffs due process rights for the Individual Defendants’ withholding and concealing material exculpatory evidence.

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156 F. Supp. 3d 907, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2662, 2016 WL 81275, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/garcia-v-hudak-ilnd-2016.