Moroughan v. County of Suffolk

99 F. Supp. 3d 317, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 47078, 2015 WL 1611299
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. New York
DecidedApril 10, 2015
DocketNo. 12-CV-512 (JFB)(AKT)
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 99 F. Supp. 3d 317 (Moroughan v. County of Suffolk) 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
Moroughan v. County of Suffolk, 99 F. Supp. 3d 317, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 47078, 2015 WL 1611299 (E.D.N.Y. 2015).

Opinion

memorandum and order

JOSEPH F. BIANCO, District Judge:

Thomas M. Moroughan (“plaintiff’) brings this civil rights action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (“Section 1983”) and New [319]*319York law against: the County of Suffolk; the Suffolk County Police Department (“SCPD”); SCPD Detectives Ronald Ta-vares, Charles Leser, Eugene Geissinger, Nicholas Favatta, and Alfred Ciccotto; SCPD Detective/Sergeant William J. Lamb; SCPD Sergeant Jack Smithers; SCPD Officers William Meaney, Enid Nieves, Channon Rocchio, and Jesus Faya; and Suffolk John Does 1-10 (collectively, the “Suffolk defendants”); the County of Nassau; Nassau County Police Department (“NCPD”); NCPD Sergeant Timothy Marinad; NCPD Inspector Edmund Horace; NCPD Commanding Officer Daniel Flanagan; NCPD Detective/Sergeant John DeMartinis’ NCPD Officer Edward Bienz; and Nassau John Does 1-10 (collectively, the “Nassau defendants”); NCPD Chief of Patrol John Hunter; and NCPD Officer Anthony D. DiLeonardo (collectively, with the Suffolk defendants, the Nassau defendants, and Hunter, “defendants”). Plaintiffs action arises from an incident during which plaintiff alleges DiLeonardo, while off-duty and intoxicated, unlawfully shot and beat plaintiff, subsequent to which defendants allegedly conspired to violate plaintiffs constitutional rights by falsely arresting, prosecuting, and imprisoning plaintiff while shielding DiLeonardo and Bienz (who was also present at the scene of the shooting) from investigation or prosecution for their alleged criminal acts.

Plaintiff presently moves to amend his complaint, pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 15(a)(2), to: (a) assert a Monell claim against the County of Nassau for an unlawful policy and custom of falsifying reports regarding the use of deadly force by NCPD employees; (b) allege plaintiffs compliance with the notice of claim requirements of New York General Municipal Law § 50-e; (c) limit and specify which defendants are subject to each respective cause of action; and (d) allege a cause of action against the Nassau and Suffolk defendants for violating his right to counsel under New York law.

The Nassau defendants oppose the aspects of the motion concerning the addition of the Monell claim and right to counsel claims, and the amendment of the existing claims to limit and specify the defendants against whom they are asserted. The bulk of the Nassau defendants’ argument focuses, however, on the addition of the Monell claim. They argue that the motion to amend should be denied because: (a) plaintiff has failed to demonstrate good cause for the delay in bringing his motion to amend; (b) plaintiff has failed to demonstrate that the Nassau defendants will not be unduly prejudiced by the addition of the Monell claim; and (c) plaintiff has failed to demonstrate the proposed Monell claim is not futile, because he failed to plead any causal connection between the “policy and custom” .alleged in the Monell claim and plaintiffs constitutional injuries. The other defendants did not file oppositions to the motion.

For the following reasons, the Court grants plaintiffs motion to amend. As a threshold matter, plaintiff has demonstrated “good cause” in failing to assert a Mo-nell claim earlier — namely, plaintiff was not aware of the allegations relating to other Deadly Force Emergency Response Team (“DFRT”) reports on officer-involved shootings until a Newsday article was published in November 2013. Moreover, it was not unreasonable for plaintiff to investigate those allegations for nine months before seeking to amend the pleading to add a Monell claim. For the same reasons, the Court finds that there was no undue delay in bringing the motion. In addition, given the stage of this litigation (with substantial discovery outstanding), the Nassau defendants have not demonstrated prejudice that would warrant deni[320]*320al of the motion. Finally, although the Nassau defendants argue that the amendment would be futile, the Court disagrees; rather, the Court concludes that the allegations in the proposed amended complaint set forth a plausible Monell claim arising from an alleged policy and custom of the DFRT to cover up misconduct by NCPD personnel by intentionally failing to investigate incidents properly, and falsifying reports to the NCPD commissioner by omitting damaging evidence to support conclusions in favor of NCPD personnel.

I. Background

A. Factual Allegations

1. The February 26, 2011 Incident

The Court summarizes the following relevant facts taken from the proposed second amended complaint (“SAC”) for the purposes of this opinion. These are not findings of fact by the Court; instead, the Court assumes these facts to be true for purposes of deciding the pending' motion.

Plaintiff alleges that, while working as a cab driver during the early morning hours of February 26, 2011, he was driving near Huntington Village, NY, when he was tailgated and then cut off by two civilian vehicles being driven erratically by NCPD officers DiLeonardo and Bienz, accompanied by their respective significant others.1 (SAC ¶¶ 36-46.) Plaintiffs girlfriend was also accompanying him as a passenger at the time. {Id. ¶ 40.) Plaintiff later observed the two vehicles parked on the side of the road, and stopped to initiate a verbal confrontation with DiLeonardo and Bienz over their erratic driving. (Id. ¶¶ 48-50.) Plaintiff alleges that, during the verbal confrontation, DiLeonardo and Bienz exited their vehicles, causing plaintiff to decide to drive away in fear of his physical safety. (Id. ¶¶ 50-52.) Plaintiff alleges that, at some point during the verbal confrontation, DiLeonardo unholstered a revolver loaded with five rounds from an ankle holster, possibly concealing it from view by holding it at his side. (Id. ¶¶ 55-56.)

As plaintiff drove his car in reverse about thirty to forty-five feet and initiated a U-turn, DiLeonardo and Bienz allegedly continued to advance on his vehicle, with DiLeonardo positioning himself between the officers’ two vehicles. (Id. ¶¶ 52-56.) DiLeonardo then allegedly fired all five rounds from his revolver at plaintiff, three of which struck the car, and two of which hit plaintiff in his chest and left arm. (Id. ¶ 57.) After plaintiff stopped the car because of the shooting, DiLeonardo then allegedly broke the cab’s driver side window and struck plaintiff with the butt of his revolver, breaking his nose, and then opened the driver’s side door of plaintiffs cab and struck plaintiff several times on his head. (Id. ¶¶ 60-61.) Plaintiff then allegedly put the car in reverse and fled the scene, driving directly to the hospital for treatment from the attack while his girlfriend called 911. (Id. ¶¶ 64-69.) Plaintiff alleges that he thought he heard DiLeonardo yell that he was a police officer while plaintiff drove away after the shooting, but did not believe that his attacker could be a police officer. (Id. ¶ 65.)

2. Questioning by Police at the Hospital

Shortly after arriving at the hospital that morning, plaintiff was questioned by [321]*321unknown NCPD detectives. (Id.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
99 F. Supp. 3d 317, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 47078, 2015 WL 1611299, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/moroughan-v-county-of-suffolk-nyed-2015.