Spencer v. Connecticut

560 F. Supp. 2d 153, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 47312, 2008 WL 2444551
CourtDistrict Court, D. Connecticut
DecidedJune 18, 2008
Docket3.06CV01209 (DJS)
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 560 F. Supp. 2d 153 (Spencer v. Connecticut) 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
Spencer v. Connecticut, 560 F. Supp. 2d 153, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 47312, 2008 WL 2444551 (D. Conn. 2008).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OF DECISION AND ORDER

DOMINIC J. SQUATRITO, District Judge.

The plaintiff, Michael Spencer (“the Plaintiff’) brought this action against the defendants, the State of Connecticut, the City of Stamford, the Stamford Police Department, Thomas Snyder, Frederick Caruso, Eugene Dohmann, Larry Eisenstein, Douglas Robinson, and Wayne Scutari alleging violations of his right to be secure against unreasonable searches as guaranteed by the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article I, § 7 of the Constitution of the State of Connecticut. The Plaintiff also alleged state law claims for the damage done to his home by the Defendants, and for the emotional distress Spencer suffered as a result of the Defendants’ actions. Moreover, the Plaintiff has raised the issues of malicious prosecution, planting evidence, and false arrest.

This case was initially assigned to the Honorable Janet C. Hall. On December 19, 2006, the State of Connecticut and Thomas Snyder moved to dismiss all the claims against them. (See dkt. # 17.) On April 19, 2007, Judge Hall granted that motion. See Spencer v. City of Stamford, Civil Action No. 3:06-cv-1209 (JCH), 2007 WL 1186042 (D.Conn. April 19, 2007). The case was subsequently transferred to the undersigned. Now pending before the court is a motion for summary judgment (dkt. #47) by the remaining defendants, namely, the City of Stamford, the Stamford Police Department, Frederick Caruso, Eugene Dohmann, Larry Eisenstein, Douglas Robinson, and Wayne Scutari (collectively, “the Defendants”). For the reasons that hereafter follow, the Defendants’ motion for summary judgment (dkt. # 47) is GRANTED.

I. FACTS

This federal civil case concerns the Plaintiffs involvement in a state criminal case that was heard in the Connecticut court system. The Supreme Court of Connecticut has detailed the underlying facts *156 of this case in Connecticut v. Spencer, 268 Conn. 575, 578-81, 848 A.2d 1183 (2004), which the Plaintiff has incorporated by reference in his complaint. These underlying facts are not in dispute.

On April 12, 2000, the sheriffs office of Shelby County, Tennessee notified the Stamford Police Department that it had intercepted a Federal Express parcel containing approximately twenty-seven pounds of marijuana. The parcel was addressed to a “Sylvia Sloan” at 16 Lipton Place, Stamford, Connecticut. On the basis of this information, the Stamford police surveilled the designated residence and observed that it appeared to be a multifamily house. Stamford Police Department records revealed that in February, 2000, officers had responded to a call at that address concerning a domestic disturbance involving the Plaintiff and his wife.

On the morning of April 13, 2000, the Stamford police took possession of the parcel from the Stamford Federal Express office and conducted a field test, which revealed that the parcel’s contents were, in fact, marijuana. The Stamford police then replaced approximately five pounds of the marijuana in the box and resealed it for delivery. Later that morning, the Stamford police, working with the statewide narcotics task force, conducted a “controlled delivery” of the parcel to 16 Lipton Place. Police officers surveilled the residence from vantage points approximately fifty to sixty feet away while one of the Defendants, Frederick Caruso (“Caruso”), delivered the parcel. Caruso, dressed in a Federal Express coat and carrying the parcel and a pad of delivery invoices, rang the doorbell for the first floor apartment and knocked on the front door. The Plaintiff opened the door. In response to Caruso’s questions, the Plaintiff verified the address, told him that his name was Michael Spencer, and that he lived on the second floor. When Caruso told him that the delivery was for a “Sylvia Sloan,” the Plaintiff repeated the name to himself, and then told Caruso that he would accept the parcel. The Plaintiff signed the delivery invoice, took possession of the parcel, went inside and closed the front door. As Caruso walked away, the Plaintiff came back outside, without the parcel, and looked up and down the street.

At this point, four of the other Defendants, Eugene Dohmann (“Dohmann”), Larry Eisenstein (“Eisenstein”), Douglas Robinson (“Robinson”), and Wayne Scutari (“Scutari”), approached the residence and encountered the Plaintiff in the front doorway. They identified themselves as police officers and brought the Plaintiff into the first floor common hallway, where they observed that the Federal Express parcel had been placed on a shelf. They then read the Plaintiff his Miranda 1 rights and placed him under arrest. The Plaintiff denied knowledge of the contents of the parcel or of anybody named Sylvia Sloan, and he claimed that he innocently had accepted the parcel.

From the bottom of a stairway of approximately twelve to fourteen steps leading up to the second floor, Dohmann, Eisenstein, Robinson, and Scutari could see that the door to the Plaintiffs apartment was ajar. Eisenstein asked the Plaintiff if anybody else was inside the apartment, and received no response. Eisenstein and Robinson subsequently ascended the stairs and entered the Plaintiffs apartment. In the Plaintiffs bedroom, they observed, in plain view on top of the Plaintiffs bed, a homemade “crack” pipe and a dinner plate containing crack cocaine residue, as well as a rolled up $1 bill containing crack cocaine.

The Plaintiff subsequently was charged with possession of one kilogram or more of *157 a cannabis-type substance with intent to sell in violation of Conn. Gen.Stat. § 21a-278(b), and possession of narcotics in violation of Conn. Gen.Stat. § 21a-279(a). At trial, the Plaintiff filed a motion to suppress the evidence of any crack cocaine seized from his apartment on the ground that the evidence had been obtained illegally as the result of an unconstitutional warrantless search. The trial court conducted a full evidentiary hearing on the motion to suppress, during which Doh-mann, Eisenstein, Robinson and Scutari testified. After conducting this hearing, the trial court denied the Plaintiffs motion to suppress. The trial' concluded, and the jury returned a verdict finding the Plaintiff not guilty of possession with intent to sell of one kilogram or more of a cannabis-type substance, and guilty of possession of narcotics.

The Plaintiff appealed his conviction. On April 27, 2004, the Connecticut Supreme Court reversed the Plaintiffs conviction with directions to the trial court to grant the motion to suppress. Spencer, 268 Conn. at 600, 848 A.2d 1183. The Plaintiff filed the instant suit on July 28, 2006.

II. DISCUSSION

The Defendants now move for summary judgment, arguing that the Plaintiffs claims are barred for a number of reasons, including applicable statute of limitations, and that they are entitled to summary judgment as a matter of law. The Plaintiff refutes all of the Defendants’ arguments. The court shall discuss the parties’ arguments seriatim.

A.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
560 F. Supp. 2d 153, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 47312, 2008 WL 2444551, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/spencer-v-connecticut-ctd-2008.