Negron v. City of New York

976 F. Supp. 2d 360, 2013 WL 5525692, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 144064
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. New York
DecidedOctober 4, 2013
DocketNo. 09-Civ-0944 (SMG)
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 976 F. Supp. 2d 360 (Negron v. City of New York) 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
Negron v. City of New York, 976 F. Supp. 2d 360, 2013 WL 5525692, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 144064 (E.D.N.Y. 2013).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM & ORDER

GOLD, S., United States Magistrate Judge.

Introduction

Plaintiff Olga Negron brings this action individually and as administratrix of the estate of her deceased son, Iman Morales. Plaintiff asserts claims pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and state law against the City of New York (“the City”), Police Officer Nicholas Marchesona, and the estate of Lieutenant Michael Pigott. Complaint (“Compl.”), Docket Entry 1. Plaintiffs lawsuit stems from a series of events that occurred on September 24, 2008 and culminated in Officer Marchesona, pursuant to an order from Lt. Pigott, deploying a taser against Morales. Def. 56.1 ¶¶ 31-32, 36. [363]*363Once struck by the taser, Morales fell from an elevated position, landed on his head, and died. Def. 56.1 ¶¶ 39, 41.

On October 19, 2012, United States District Judge Sandra L. Townes granted defendants’ motion to dismiss plaintiffs § 1983 municipal liability claim against the City, plaintiffs § 1983 substantive due process claim under the Fourteenth Amendment against all defendants, and plaintiffs state law claim for negligent infliction of emotional distress against all defendants. Docket Entry 63. The parties subsequently consented to the assignment of this case to me for all purposes including entry of final judgment. Docket Entry 69.

Plaintiffs remaining claims are brought pursuant to § 1983 for excessive force under the Fourth Amendment against the individual defendants Marchesona and Pigott and pursuant to state law against all defendants for assault and battery, common law negligence, loss of enjoyment of life, wrongful death, and loss of consortium. Defendants now move for summary judgment dismissing each of these remaining claims.1 Docket Entries 74-75. The primary question raised by defendants’ motion is whether Pigott and Marchesona are entitled to qualified immunity. For the reasons outlined below, I conclude that they are not.

Factual Background 2

On September 24, 2008, defendant Marchesona and his partner, members of the Emergency Services Unit (“ESU”) of the New York City Police Department (“NYPD”), received a request to respond to Tompkins Avenue where police were already dealing with an Emotionally Disturbed Person (“EDP”) barricaded in his apartment. Def. 56.1 ¶¶ 1, 2. The EDP was plaintiff Negron’s son, Iman Morales, who suffered from schizoaffective disorder and was having a psychotic episode. Id. ¶¶ 3, 4. Upon arriving at the Tompkins Avenue address, Marchesona observed Morales leaning out the window of his apartment, shirtless, and shouting at people on the street below. Id. ¶ 12. Marchesona was informed by a local precinct officer already on the scene that Morales had stopped taking his medication and had recently been diagnosed with HIV. Id. ¶¶ 8, 11. Marchesona’s partner then notified Lieutenant Pigott, an ESU supervisor, of the “confirmed barricaded EDP.” Id. ¶ 13.

Marchesona and his partner entered the apartment building and ascended to Morales’ third floor apartment, but then heard and responded to a fourth-floor tenant shouting that Morales was attempting to break into her apartment. Id. ¶¶ 14, 15. The officers, now on the fourth floor, observed Morales on the fire escape, naked, attempting to remove the tenant’s air con[364]*364ditioner from her window. Id. ¶ 16. They asked Morales to come inside, but he retreated back down the fire escape instead. Id. ¶¶ 17, 18. Defendants also represent that, while Morales remained on the fire escape, the crowd on the street began encouraging Morales to jump, id. ¶ 22, although this fact is disputed, PI. 56.1 Resp. ¶ 22. It is undisputed that, with Morales now on the fire escape, the police reclassified the situation from a “barricaded EDP job” to a potential “jumper job.” Def. 56.1 ¶ 19.

By this time, additional ESU officers had arrived and were attempting to speak with Morales from the window of his third-floor apartment. Id. ¶¶ 20, 25. Two of the ESU officers climbed out onto the fire escape in an attempt to negotiate with Morales. Id. ¶¶ 26, 27. Meanwhile, Marchesona returned to the ground floor of the building where he overheard Lieutenant Pigott asking other ESU officers whether they had a taser. Id. ¶¶ 29, 30. Marchesona informed Pigott that he had a taser, and Pigott directed him to deploy his taser on Morales. Id. ¶¶ 31, 32.

Morales had by now left the fire escape and was standing on the housing of a roll-down security gate over a store front. Id. ¶ 33. From this position, Morales was approximately ten feet above the ground.3 PI. 56.1(b) ¶ 1. Morales was swinging a five-to-eight-foot-long fluorescent light bulb in the direction of the ESU officers who were on the fire escape. Id. ¶ 34. Marchesona centered the taser on Morales and pulled the trigger once. Def. 56.1 ¶ 36. The taser was deployed in “dart mode.” Tr. of Oral Arg., Docket Entry 89, at 23. As explained in Cockrell v. City of Cincinnati, 468 Fed.Appx. 491, 492 (6th Cir.2012), tasers have two modes: “dart mode” and “drive-stun mode.” In dart mode, a taser discharges metal probes that lodge in the skin of the target and deliver an electrical shock that overrides the target’s central nervous system. In drive-stun mode, electrodes are pressed directly upon the target’s body delivering a shock that, while painful, does not have the same incapacitating impact on the target’s muscles and nervous system. Id.; Mattos v. Agarano, 661 F.3d 433, 443 (9th Cir.2011).

Marchesona did not warn Morales of what was about to happen before deploying his taser, PL 56.1(b) ¶ 2, and it appears that no other officer did either.4 Marchesona did, however, call out to the officers on the fire escape and direct them to grab Morales. Def. 56.1 ¶ 36. When struck with the taser, Morales’ entire body stiffened; still rigid, he fell forward, landed on his head, and died. Def. 56.1 ¶¶ 37, 39, 41. A few days later, Lieutenant Pigott took his own life at an ESU facility. Id. ¶ 47.

[365]*365The undisputed evidence reveals that neither Marchesona nor Pigott anticipated that Morales would fall head first. Def. 56.1 ¶¶ 38, 43. Rather, Marchesona testified at his deposition that Pigott had shared with him that

he never thought that Mr. Morales would have fell [sic] the way he did. He thought that he maybe would have collapsed. I mean, coming straight down and possibly, maybe, breaking a leg, but nothing probably worse than that.

Donadío Deck Ex. A, Marchesona Dep. 27:11-17. Marchesona likewise expected that

once the taser stopped working ... [Morales’] body would release from stiffening up, from being stiff and just crumple, also, crumple down .... [meaning — because he was frozen up from the electricity going through his body .... [then] once the electricity was released ... his legs would maybe give way. That’s what I mean by crumple down.

Donadío Deck Ex. A, Marchesona Dep. 28:12-22.

As this testimony indicates, the police anticipated that Morales would likely sustain a serious injury; indeed, they requested an air bag. PI. 56.1(b) ¶ 3.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
976 F. Supp. 2d 360, 2013 WL 5525692, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 144064, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/negron-v-city-of-new-york-nyed-2013.