Ligon v. City of New York

925 F. Supp. 2d 478, 2013 WL 628534, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 22383
District Court, S.D. New York·Decided February 14, 2013·No. No. 12 Civ. 2274 (SAS)·Published·Cited by 54 cases

Opinion

OPINION & ORDER

SHIRA A. SCHEINDLIN, District Judge.

I. INTRODUCTION.......................................................483

II. LEGAL STANDARD FOR PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION..................486

III. APPLICABLE LAW.....................................................487

A. Sources of Liability...................................................487

B. The Fourth Amendment, Stops, and Reasonable Suspicion.................488

C. Criminal Trespass under New York State Law...........................490

D. DeBour............................................................491

IV. FINDINGS OF FACT....................................................492

A. Evidence of an Unconstitutional Practice or Custom of the NYPD..........492

1. Findings of Fact Regarding Testimony of ADA Rucker and Decline to Prosecute Forms.............................................492

2. Findings of Fact Regarding Plaintiffs’ Stops .........................496

a. Charles Bradley’s Stop........................................497

b. Abdullah Turner’s Stops.......................................499

c. J.G.’s Stop...................................................503

d. Jerome Grant’s Stop ..........................................504

e. Roshea Johnson’s Stop ........................................505

f. Letitia Ledan’s Stops..........................................506

g. Fernando Moronta’s Stop......................................507

h. Kieron Johnson’s Stop.........................................508

i. Jovan Jefferson’s Stop.........................................509

3. Expert Testimony Regarding UF-250 Forms ........................510

B. Steps Taken by the NYPD in 2012......................................517

1. NYPD Recognition of a Problem in TAP.............................517

2. Interim Orders 22 and 23 of 2012...................................518

3. Absence of Steps Meaningfully Addressing Outdoor TAP Stops.........520

V. DISCUSSION...........................................................522

A. Standing............................................................522

B. Preliminary Injunctive Relief..........................................523

[483]*4831. Clear or Substantial Likelihood of Success on the Merits...............523

a. Deliberate Indifference........................................523

i. ADA Rucker’s Testimony................................524

ii. Plaintiffs’ Stops ........................................524

in. Decline to Prosecute Forms..............................526

iv. Dr. Fagan’s Analysis....................................527

v. Notice to Defendants....................................531

vi. Legal Analysis.........................................532

b. Failure to Rebut Deliberate Indifference Claim Based on Steps Taken by NYPD in 2012 ..................................... 533

2. Irreparable Harm ................................................539

3. Balance of Equities....................... 539

4. Public Interest...................................................541

C. Appropriate Scope of Injunctive Relief..................................541

1. Immediate Relief.................................................542

2. Proposed Additional Relief.........................................543

a. Policies and Procedures........................................544

b. Supervision..................................................544

c. Training.....................................................544

d. Attorneys’ Fees...............................................545

VI. CONCLUSION..........................................................545

APPENDIX A..................................................................545

APPENDIX B..................................................................550

I. INTRODUCTION

This case, filed in 2012, is one of three cases currently before this Court challenging aspects of the New York City Police Department’s “stop and frisk” practices.1 Of the three cases, this case is the most narrow. It deals only with stops made by the police on suspicion of trespass outside of certain privately-owned buildings in the Bronx. But the legal issues raised by this ease have roots that stretch back decades.

In 1964, New York adopted the first version of its stop and frisk law, which has since been amended several times. The essence of the law is that a police officer may stop a person in a public place when he reasonably suspects that such person is committing, has committed, or is about to commit a crime, and the officer may demand of him his name, his address, and an explanation of his conduct. Upon stopping a person, if the police officer reasonably suspects that he is in danger of physical injury, he may search the person for a deadly weapon.2

[484]*484This law and the policing practices associated with it have raised a host of difficult questions, including: (1) what is reasonable suspicion; (2) what constitutes a stop; (3) what is a public place; (4) when is a stopped person free to walk away from the police; and (5) when does an officer have grounds to reasonably suspect that he is danger of physical injury. None of these questions are easily answered.

In 1968, the United States Supreme Court heard a challenge to New York’s stop and frisk statute in the context of two criminal convictions, and made some important points that bear repeating today.3 First, the Court held that although states may develop their own laws on stop and frisk, they may not “authorize police conduct which trenches upon Fourth Amendment rights, regardless of the labels which it attaches to such conduct.”4 The Court stated, in no uncertain terms, that the question is not whether a particular search was authorized by state law but “ ‘whether the search was reasonable under the Fourth Amendment.’ ”5 Second, the Court held that it would not judge the constitutionality of the New York statute on its face, but rather as applied to the particular facts of the two cases it was reviewing.6 Third,

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Ligon v. City of New York, 925 F. Supp. 2d 478, 2013 WL 628534, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 22383 (S.D.N.Y. 2013).

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