Smalls v. City of New York

181 F. Supp. 3d 178, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 91339, 2016 WL 3566829
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. New York
DecidedMarch 2, 2016
Docket14-CV-2326 (ENV) (RML)
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 181 F. Supp. 3d 178 (Smalls 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
Smalls v. City of New York, 181 F. Supp. 3d 178, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 91339, 2016 WL 3566829 (E.D.N.Y. 2016).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM & ORDER

VITALIANO, DISTRICT JUDGE.

Plaintiff Andrew Smalls brings this action against the City of New York, Police Officer Richard Collins, Police Officer David Teta, Police Officer Eric Cabera, Police Officer Alvarez, Police Officer Jessica Alvarado, and Sergeant Brian Stamm, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983, for alleged violations of his constitutional rights resulting from the fabrication of evidence and malicious prosecution.1 Defendants move to dismiss the complaint in its entirety under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6). For the reasons stated below, de[182]*182fendants’ motion is granted in part and denied in part.

Background

Plaintiffs allegations in his April 10, 2014 complaint stem from the events surrounding his arrest on May 20, 2006. The facts surrounding this arrest are sharply disputed. Plaintiff submits that during the early morning of May 20, 2006, he was lawfully present outside of 80-105 Rocka-way Beach Boulevard in Queens. Compl. at 16. Defendant Officers Teta, Collins, and Cabrera encountered and confronted Smalls, ultimately arresting him, without any reasonable suspicion for the stop or any probable cause for the arrest. Id. at ¶¶ 9-10. Plaintiff alleges that the officers, in the course of the arrest, violently grabbed him, and struck his head against a wall. Id. at ¶ 11. Though plaintiff was searched at the time of his arrest, no contraband was recovered. Id. at ¶ 12.

Plaintiff was nevertheless transported in handcuffs to a New York Police Department (“NYPD”) station house, where he was detained and processed. Id. at ¶ 13. Defendants completed arrest paperwork which, Smalls claims, falsely asserted that Officer Collins had seen Smalls in possession of an illegal .38 caliber pistol on the roof of 81-05 Rockaway Beach Boulevard, and that the pistol had been recovered in the area. Id. at ¶ 14. The defendants forwarded these allegations knowing them, Smalls says, to be false, to either the Queens County District Attorney’s Office or New York City Criminal Court, after which plaintiff was arraigned, charged, and ultimately indicted on charges of Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Second Degree, Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Third Degree, and Criminal Trespass in the First Degree. Id. At ¶¶ 16-21.

Plaintiff claims further that defendants continued giving false testimony and fabricated inculpatory evidence used at a pretrial suppression hearing, held on February 20, 2008, where the gun and related testimony were deemed admissible. Id. at ¶¶ 22-23. Officers Collins and Teta then testified for the prosecution at trial, relaying the same knowingly fabricated set of facts to the jury. Id. at ¶ 25. On June 4, 2008, Smalls was convicted on all counts, and sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment with 5 years’' post-release supervision. Id. at ¶¶ 26-27.

Following his conviction, Smalls appealed to the Appellate Division, Second Department. Id. at ¶ 28. This time, on April 26, 2011, there was success—his conviction was reversed and the weapons charges were dismissed. People v. Smalls, 83 A.D.3d 1103, 922 N.Y.S.2d 461 (2d Dep’t 2011).2 The Appellate Division found that the lower court improperly denied suppression of the gun, as there was no suspicious behavior warranting reasonable suspicion for a stop or probable cause for an arrest at the outset of the encounter. Id. at 1104, 922 N.Y.S.2d 461. Plaintiff has never admitted any wrongdoing and maintains his innocence of all charges. Compl. at ¶¶ 8, 12. He served four years before his release. Order of J. Módica, dated October 5, 2012, attached as Exhibit D to the Decl. of Asst. Corp. Counsel Patrick Beathe. Smalls commenced the present action on April 10, 2014.

Smalls submits that the defendant officers’ accusatory instrument charging illegal possession of the handgun, as well as their grand jury testimony that he had given an inculpatory statement, were fabrications meant to generate “activity” for [183]*183the arresting officer. Id. at ¶¶ 38-39. The need to generate “activity” and notch arrests through widespread falsification by arresting officers, are, plaintiff alleges, part of a custom or policy that tolerated and fostered a lawless atmosphere. Id. at ¶¶ 38-41. It is upon this “atmosphere” that liability for the City of New York is based. Id. at ¶¶ 47-56.

Defendants tell a different story. They allege that on the night in question, they heard gunshots fired near 84-10 Rockaway Beach Boulevard in Queens. See Def. Br. at 1. Nearby at the time, the officers saw plaintiff, plaintiffs brother, and three others. They followed the group for three blocks to a housing project, at which point the officers approached the youthful group, who then ran. Id. at 2. The officers pursued, and claim that they witnessed the plaintiff handing a gun to his brother, Ronnie Smalls, and observed an ammunition magazine fall from the gun. Id. The officers retrieved the magazine and then followed the Smalls brothers to a rooftop' where the gun was recovered a few feet from the plaintiffs brother. Id. at 2.

Defendants have moved to dismiss on the grounds that the fabrication of evidence claim is time-barred, and that the malicious prosecution claim fails (1) against Officers Teta, Cabrera, Alvarez, Alvarado, and Stamm because they were not involved in the initiation of the prosecution; (2) because the proceeding did not terminate in Plaintiffs favor; and (3) because plaintiff fails to rebut the presumption of probable cause. In addition, defendants argue that Officer Collins is entitled to qualified immunity. The claim for municipal liability fails, the City argues, as a matter of law.

Standard of Review

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 8(a)(2) requires a “short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief.” A litigant need not supply “detailed factual allegations” in support of his claims, Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007), but he must provide more “than an unadorned, the-defendant-unlawfully-harmed-me accusation.” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009). “A pleading that offers ‘labels and conclusions’ .., will not do.” Id. (quoting Twombly, 550 U.S. at 555, 127 S.Ct. 1955). “Nor does a complaint suffice if it tenders ‘naked Assertion[s]’ devoid of ‘further factual enhancement.’ ” Id. at 678, 129 S.Ct. 1937 (quoting Twombly, 550 U.S. at 557, 127 S.Ct. 1955).

To survive a Rule 12(b) motion, the complaint “must contain sufficient fac-tüal matter, accepted as true, to ‘state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.’” Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 678, 129 S.Ct. 1937 (quoting Twombly, 550 U.S. at 570, 127 S.Ct. 1955). This “plausibility standard is not akin to a probability requirement, but it asks for more than a sheer possibility that a defendant has acted unlawfully.” Id.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
181 F. Supp. 3d 178, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 91339, 2016 WL 3566829, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/smalls-v-city-of-new-york-nyed-2016.