Lopez v. City of New York

186 F. Supp. 3d 304, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 63561, 2016 WL 2858890
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedMay 13, 2016
Docket15 Civ. 7020 (NRB)
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 186 F. Supp. 3d 304 (Lopez v. City of New York) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lopez v. City of New York, 186 F. Supp. 3d 304, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 63561, 2016 WL 2858890 (S.D.N.Y. 2016).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

NAOMI REICE BUCHWALD, UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

Plaintiff Jennifer Louise Lopez (“plaintiff’) moves.for a preliminary injunction in this action brought pursuant to, inter alia, 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (“§ 1983”), New York State Civil Rights Law § 79-n (“§ 79-n”), and the New York City Human Rights Law (“NYCHRL”), N.Y.C. Admin. Code § 8-101 et seq. Plaintiff principally seeks an order directing defendant City of New York (the “City”) to record and investigate in a non-discriminatory 'manner her criminal complaints against fellow tenants in her supportive housing project for formerly homeless adults whom she alleges have harassed and threatened her, and enjoining defendants Cecil Housing Development Fund Corporation (“CHDFC”) and Housing and Services, Inc. (“HSI,” and together with defendant Ralph Garcia, the “Cecil Defendants”), from discriminating on the basis of her expression of her gender identity. While .the alleged behavior of certain of ■ plaintiffs neighbors is reprehensible and in some circumstances possibly unlawful, she has not adequately shown that the City or Cecil Defendants are the appropriate parties against whom to impose liability.. We deny the motion.

BACKGROUND

I. Facts

Except where noted, the following facts, drawn' from the complaint filed September 12, 2015 (the “Complaint” or “Compl.”), the Declaration of Jennifer Louise Lopez (“Lopez Decl.”) and the exhibits attached thereto, the Declaration of HSI Director of Programs Kristi Kimmerle (“Kimmerle [308]*308Decl”) and the exhibits attached thereto, and the briefs submitted in connection with the instant motion, are not in dispute for purposes of this motion. Plaintiff, a woman of trans experience, is a community activist who advocates for acceptance and integration of persons of trans experience. In March 2013, she was offered a subsidized room in the Cecil Hotel (the “Cecil”), a single-room occupancy building operated by not-for-profit corporations HSI and CHDFC comprising 89 units and serving a population of the chronically homeless, in addition to the formerly incarcerated and individuals living with severe and persistent mental illness, HIV/AIDS, addiction, and developmental or physical disabilities. Kimmerle Decl. ¶¶4-5. According to its website, HSI provides access to “wide-ranging on-site services that are elective and customized” to target “root causes of homelessness.” Compl. ¶ 58. Before committing to her lease, plaintiff was reassured by HSI’s managerial agent that the Cecil would be a supportive environment where she could freely express her gender identity.

Plaintiff moved into the Cecil in April 2013, and within a few months, five of her neighbors began to subject her to harassment, intimidation, and other vulgar behavior. Specifically, in addition to referring to her as “he,” “man,” and “bastard,” they yell and play loud music to wake her up before turning it down when Cecil security arrives; loudly accuse her of fouling the shared bathrooms, with explicit references to her genitalia and appearance; shout vulgar epithets at her; and threaten her with violence. Id. ¶¶ 48-51.

Plaintiffs submissions detail instances of her calling the police in response to these neighbors’ conduct:

• In July 2013, a neighbor who had previously threatened to kill plaintiff propositioned her for sex. On both occasions the NYPD had responded to plaintiffs calls, but the on-site security guard Garcia1 told responding officers that the issue would be addressed with the “Program Coordinator” the following day. The officers then told plaintiff that all complaints must be addressed to Cecil management. When plaintiff informed them that the neighbor had said he would kill her, one officer responded “that’s not a crime.” Compl. ¶ 60.
• In January 2014, after her previous noise complaints had been ignored by Garcia, plaintiff took her concerns to an NYPD supervisor, who said he would send two officers to talk with two tenants she was complaining about. As described by her as part of a contemporaneous “grievance” letter to Cecil management, when the officers, one male and one female, arrived, Garcia told the female officer that plaintiff was “always complaining” and that the complained-of “music is not loud.” Lopez Decl., Ex. 8 at 2. Garcia “continued to take sides between the tenant ... and the [male officer] as he was letting the tenant know that the tenant could not be yelling from his room out into the hall and he could not have his music up really loud.” Id When Garcia attempted to say that the tenant could yell from his room, the male officer corrected Garcia, telling the tenant that he could not, “repeatfing] himself several times.” Id. Plaintiff mentioned that her second complaint concerned another tenant playing loud music with his door open, but Garcia told the offi[309]*309cers that, tenants were permitted to keep their doors open because certain “patients” required security to check on them, and that it was “a building management issue [and] not a police issue.” Id. at 2-3. Turning to plaintiff, Garcia said she would need to learn to get along with her neighbors; the male officer said that plaintiff had to listen to Garcia. Id. at 3. Plaintiff wrote that Garcia had “represented herself to the police as an authoritative figure in the building,” resulting in the officers discrediting plaintiffs statements and not talking to the second tenant, in addition to creating “credibility problems with the officers that had come and also possibly the supervisors” with whom she had “developed a positive interactive relationship.” Id.
• In December 2014, plaintiff went to the 28th Precinct and spoke to Officer Victor Pena, who, after listening to the details of her complaints against her neighbors and Cecil security guards, told her that police would be sent to speak to them. Plaintiff thereafter recounted her conversation with Pena to Cecil’s security chief Ralph Garcia, who told’ her that he was a retired NYPD lieutenant and “communicated that he would _ ‘make a few calls’ to assure that the NYPD did not respond” to her complaints. Compl. ¶ 74. According to plaintiff, Pena’s promises of assistance did not materialize.
• In February 2015, plaintiff wrote a letter to Cecil management about security guard Garcia’s “inappropriate behavior,” noting that she had “submitted grievances about her in the past” and referring to an incident with the NYPD that day. Lopez Deck, Ex. 11. In addition to complaining about Garcia waking her up by “walking] in the halls loudly, whistling, singing and talking loudly to the residents,” plaintiff wrote that Garcia “once again interfered as a referee attempting to side with the police[,] [t]hen further refereed [sic] to me as Ms. Jennifer Lopez, causing the police to laugh and not take me seriously.” Id. Plaintiff requested that Garcia’s harassment and interference stop, and that Garcia be suspended or terminated.
• In April 2015, a neighbor yelled through plaintiffs door that he was ■ going to be “very sorry” that he did not kill “him [plaintiff],” and that if 'She came out of her room “they going to take my ass to jail today.” Compl. ¶ 61. While NYPD officers responded to plaintiff’s call, they left once Garcia told them that the “program” would take care of the issue, and they refused to take a complaint from plaintiff.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
186 F. Supp. 3d 304, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 63561, 2016 WL 2858890, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lopez-v-city-of-new-york-nysd-2016.