Rogers v. Apicella

606 F. Supp. 2d 272, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 24516, 2009 WL 824721
CourtDistrict Court, D. Connecticut
DecidedMarch 26, 2009
DocketCivil 3:07cv1199 (JBA)
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 606 F. Supp. 2d 272 (Rogers v. Apicella) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Connecticut primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rogers v. Apicella, 606 F. Supp. 2d 272, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 24516, 2009 WL 824721 (D. Conn. 2009).

Opinion

RULING ON PLAINTIFF’S MOTION FOR PARTIAL SUMMARY JUDGMENT [Doc. # 31], DEFENDANTS’ MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT [Doc. #33], AND PLAINTIFF’S MOTION FOR LEAVE TO AMEND COMPLAINT [Doc. #46]

JANET BOND ARTERTON, District Judge.

Plaintiff Tanisha Rogers brought suit against the City of Waterbury (the “City”), Detective Edward Apicella, Detective Timothy Jackson, and Lieutenant Lee Levesque (collectively, “Defendants”) following her acquittal on a criminal charge of possession with intent to sell a half-gram or more of narcotics. She brings claims of conspiracy to violate her civil rights under 42 U.S.C. § 1983; of unlawful warrantless entry, unlawful warrantless seizure, false arrest, and malicious prosecution under the Fourth Amendment and under the Connecticut Constitution, Article First, Sections 7 and 9; and of trespass, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and municipal liability under state law. 1 Following discovery, Plaintiff moved for summary judgment on her claims for warrantless entry, warrantless seizure, false arrest, and malicious prosecution under both the federal and state constitutions, and for trespass, and Defendants moved for summary judgment on all claims. After Defendants submitted the affidavit of then-Detective Gary Angón in connection with their motion for summary judgment — an affidavit in which Angón averred Sergeant Scott Stevenson was the commanding officer under whose direction he entered Plaintiffs home without a warrant — Plaintiff moved for leave to amend her complaint to name Angón and Stevenson as defendants.

I. Factual Background

A. Investigation of Murder of Robert Pagan

The record reveals the following. Late on October 4, 2004, Robert Pagan was shot and killed inside the Northside Café in Waterbury. Officers of the Waterbury Police Department (“WPD”) responding to the call interviewed several eyewitnesses who provided them with descriptions of the shooting and shooter as well as the maroon sedan the shooter drove to and away from the Northside Café. One witnesses, Taliferro Brown, though not an eyewitness to the shooting, stated that a few minutes before the shooting Pagan told him by cell phone while he (Brown) was en route to the Northside Café that he (Pagan) was afraid for his life because he had seen Charles Tucker, also known as Chaz, in the bar. When Brown learned of Pagan’s murder upon arriving at the bar, he immediately suspected that Tucker had killed Pagan, and identified Tucker in a photo array. Multiple eyewitnesses to the shooting who did not previously know Tucker *277 also identified Tucker as the shooter from photo arrays. Brown also stated that he and Pagan were members of the Mill Ridge Boys gang, and that they had been involved over the course of the previous months in a series of violent encounters with Tucker, who was a member of the Beaver Street Boys gang. According to the October 6th search warrant affidavit, Brown also told WPD officers that Tucker had a girlfriend named Tanisha Rogers— the Plaintiff — who worked at the Danbury office of the Connecticut Department of Children and Families (“DCF”). 2

In connection with WPD officers’ arrest on October 5th of Demietre Taft and Jamar Crawford after finding guns and drugs in their car, Apicella found in Taft’s pocket a paper listing an address (100 Mark Lane, Apartment M-2) and a phone number which he later linked by reverselookup to 100 Mark Lane, Apartment K-3 (“Unit K-3”). The affidavit also states that Connecticut Motor Vehicle records indicate Tucker’s address to be Unit K-3. 3

On the afternoon of October 5th, Apicella went to the Danbury DCF office to speak with Rogers “[o]ut of concern that Taft and Crawford were going to [Unit K-3] to shoot Tucker.” According to Apicella, Rogers told him that she and Tucker lived together in Unit K-3, that Tucker “drives a burgundy Infinite]” and drove it that morning, and that “[Tucker] repeatedly called her today while she was at work,” but she refused to provide Apicella with Tucker’s cell phone number and she called Tucker despite Apicella’s advice not to do so. According to Rogers, before Apicella arrived at her desk with two other detectives and told her Tucker was a suspect in Pagan’s murder, she did not know about the shooting. She wanted to speak outside the building, but Apicella continued to speak with her at her desk. Eventually they moved outside the building, and Rogers told Apicella that she did not know Tucker’s whereabouts and that she had argued with Tucker that morning. “[Apicella] finally allowed [her] to leave” after 30-45 minutes. 4

According to Apicella, the Danbury police then patched through to him an anonymous caller who identified herself as a coworker of Rogers and who stated that Tucker called Rogers at work on October 5th multiple times, and that Rogers ordered Tucker to “[g]et the fucking gun out of my house.” Plaintiff disputes Apicella’s description of this call’s content, pointing to Charles Tucker’s averments that he never “ha[d] a conversation with Tanisha Rogers regarding the inoperable handgun or the drugs,” and “[Rogers] never told me to remove a gun from the condominium.” 5

*278 B. Aftemoon/Evening of October 5th at Unit K-3 6

At Plaintiffs criminal trial, 7 Apicella testified that he did not “communicate with anyone, including Lieutenant Levesque, who was waiting at [Unit K-3] after [he] spoke with Tanisha Rogers on [October 5th],” but also testified that he “sen[t] Lieutenant Levesque to secure [Unit K-3]” at “some time after 6:00” after speaking with Rogers at approximately 5:00 p.m. Apicella further testified that he and Stevenson were the co-lead investigators of Pagan’s murder, and that he assigned various officers to a detail at Unit K-3 under Levesque’s command, but did not communicate with Levesque after assigning him to secure Unit K-3 and did not order any WPD officer to conduct a search of Unit K-3 on that date. Levesque testified both that “[t]o the best of [his] recollection it was Sergeant Apicella” who was the investigating officer “actively involved with the investigation” “at the location” of Unit K-3 on October 5th, and that he did not recall seeing Apicella at Unit K-3 on October 5th. 8 Jackson testified that the WPD chain of command in the Pagan murder investigation began with Captain Mark Deal, under whom worked Stevenson, under whom worked Apicella, who was a supervisor in the investigation; that Deal and Stevenson “were the two main people running most of the show back then;” and that Levesque did not direct Jackson at all in the investigation into Pagan’s murder. 9

Levesque testified that he did not remember why he was at Unit K-3 or if Apicella sent him there, or what instructions he was given when dispatched to Unit K-3.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
606 F. Supp. 2d 272, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 24516, 2009 WL 824721, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rogers-v-apicella-ctd-2009.