Morales v. City of N.Y.

59 F.Supp.3d 573

Cynthia MORALES, Plaintiff

v.CITY OF NEW YORK et al., Defendants.

No. 14–CV–2896 JMF.

United States District Court, S.D. New York.

Signed Oct. 6, 2014.

David Mark Harrison, David I. Pankin, Pankin & Harrison PLLC, Brooklyn, NY, for Plaintiff.

Curt Peter Beck, NYC Law Department, Office of the Corporation Counsel, Eric Howard West, NYC Law Department, New York, NY, for Defendants.

OPINION AND ORDER

JESSE M. FURMAN, District Judge:

This case is one of seven civil rights suits pending before this Court arising out of prosecutions in the 1990s for a pair of murders in the Bronx. Six people were convicted in New York State court of one or both of the murders, but all of their convictions have since been overturned, in part as a result of evidence that points to others as the perpetrators of at least one of the murders. All six of those criminal defendants have since brought suit against members of the New York City Police Department (“NYPD”) and other Defendants, alleging various violations of their constitutional rights. In one case, initially brought by Israel Vasquez, the Court recently denied summary judgment to the defendants, see Vazquez v. City of New York, No. 10–CV–6277 (JMF), 2014 WL 4388497 (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 5, 2014), and the parties are all but ready for trial. The remaining cases, brought by Eric Glisson (now known as Eric Field), Michael Cosme, Cathy Watkins, Carlos Perez, and Devon Ayers, were filed earlier this year and are now in discovery. See Watkins v. City of New York, 14–CV–887 (JMF); Field v. City of New York, 14–CV–1378 (JMF); Cosme v. City of New York, 14–CV–1653 (JMF); Perez v. City of New York, 14–CV–1654 (JMF); Ayers v. City of New York, 14–CV–1655 (JMF).

The instant case differs from the others in that it is not brought by one of the people who were prosecuted and convicted for the murders. Instead, the plaintiff is Cynthia Morales, the daughter of Eric Field. Morales was born only one week before the murder for which her father was convicted and incarcerated for nearly eighteen years. She sues members of the NYPD (together, the “NYPD Officers”), prosecutors from the Bronx District Attorney's Office (together, the “Prosecutors,” and, together with the NYPD Officers, the “Individual Defendants”), and New York City (the “City,” and, together with the Individual Defendants, “Defendants”), alleging federal civil rights and state tort claims on her own behalf. (Am. Compl. ¶¶ 8–25, 72–97 (Docket No. 19)). Specifically, she alleges (1) pursuant to Title 42, United States Code, Section 1983, violation of her constitutional right to intimate association; (2) violations of Title 42, United States Code, Sections 1981, 1985, and 1986 ; (3) negligent infliction of emotional distress; (4) intentional infliction of emotional distress; and (5) malicious prosecution.

Pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Defendants now move to dismiss the Amended Complaint. (Docket No. 24). For the reasons stated below, Defendants' motion is GRANTED.

BACKGROUND

The facts relevant to this motion, taken from the Amended Complaint and assumed to be true, can be summarized briefly. See, e.g., Kalnit v. Eichler, 264 F.3d 131, 135 (2d Cir.2001).¹ Plaintiff was born on January 12, 1995. (Am. Compl. ¶ 52). Five days later, on January 17, 1995, a woman named Denise Raymond was murdered. (Am. Compl. ¶ 35). Two days after that, on January 19, 1995, a livery cab driver named Baithe Diop was shot and killed in his taxi nearby. (Am. Compl. ¶ 27). Detectives Michael Donnelly, the lead investigator in the Diop case, and Thomas Aiello, both Defendants here, came to believe that the murders were connected. (Am. Compl. ¶¶ 14–15, 32, 45). In the months that followed, they arrested Plaintiff's father and six other people (the five who have brought civil rights suits in this Court and another, Charles McKinnon, who was later acquitted) for one or both murders. The state's case against the criminal defendants was based, in large part, on the testimony of a homeless drug addict, Miriam Tavares, who claimed to have witnessed the Diop murder through her bathroom window, and the testimony of Cathy Gomez, who was sixteen years old at the time. (Am. Compl. ¶¶ 33–34, 39, 45, 49). Gomez has since recanted her testimony, and claimed that Defendants fed her details of the crimes. (Am. Compl. ¶ 35). More generally, Plaintiff (like the plaintiffs in the other cases) alleges that Defendants induced or coerced Tavares and Gomez to provide false testimony. (Am. Compl. ¶¶ 33–39). Plaintiff's father was convicted in 1997, when Plaintiff was two years old, and sentenced to twenty-five years to life in prison. (Am. Compl. ¶¶ 51–52).

Field filed a direct appeal, a pro se motion for new trial, and a federal habeas petition, all of which were unsuccessful. (Am. Compl. ¶ 54). While he was incarcerated, Field nonetheless continued his efforts to prove his innocence. (Am. Compl. ¶ 55). In May 2012, an investigator with the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, John O'Malley, received a letter that Field had written. (Am. Compl. ¶ 56). O'Malley matched the murder's description to a 2003 confession made by two men, Jose Rodriguez and Gilbert Vega, in connection with a cooperation and plea agreement. (Am. Compl. ¶¶ 27, 56–57). Armed with an affidavit from O'Malley, Field sought an order vacating the judgment of conviction and dismissing the indictment. (Am. Compl. ¶ 58). In October 2012, after the Bronx District Attorney's Office “reinvestigated” the murder in preparation for an evidentiary hearing on Field's motion, the District Attorney's office consented to an order conditionally vacating the conviction, at which point Field was released from jail. (Am. Compl. ¶¶ 59–60). In December 2012, Glisson's conviction was vacated and the indictment dismissed. (Am. Compl. ¶ 61).

On January 10, 2014, Plaintiff filed this lawsuit in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Bronx County. (Notice of Removal (Docket No. 2) ¶ 1). On April 23, 2014, Defendants removed the case to this Court. (Docket No. 2). Thereafter, Plaintiff filed an Amended Complaint (Docket.No.19), which Defendants now move to dismiss. (Docket No. 24).

DISCUSSION

A motion pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6) challenges the sufficiency of the allegations in the complaint. See ATSI Commc'ns, Inc. v. Shaar Fund, Ltd., 493 F.3d 87, 98 (2d Cir.2007). To survive such a motion, the plaintiff's complaint must, as a general matter, “state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.” Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 570, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007). A claim is facially plausible “when the plaintiff pleads factual content that allows the court to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged.” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009) (citing Twombly, 550 U.S. at 556, 127 S.Ct. 1955 ). More specifically, the plaintiff must allege sufficient facts to show “more than a sheer possibility that a defendant has acted unlawfully.” Id. If the plaintiff has not “nudged [his or her] claims across the line from conceivable to plausible, [the] complaint must be dismissed.” Twombly, 550 U.S. at 570, 127 S.Ct. 1955.

A. Claims Against the Prosecutors for Damages

As an initial matter, all of Plaintiff's claims against the Prosecutors for money damages must be dismissed. To the extent that she is suing them for damages in their official capacities, her suit is plainly barred by the Eleventh Amendment. See, e.g., Rodriguez v. Weprin, 116 F.3d 62, 66 (2d Cir.1997). And to the extent she is suing them in their personal capacities, her suit is barred by absolute prosecutorial immunity. The law is clear that “ ‘a state prosecuting attorney who acted within the scope of his duties in initiating and pursuing a criminal prosecution ... is immune from a civil suit for damages' ” under both federal and state law. Shmueli v. City of N.Y., 424 F.3d 231, 236, 238 (2d Cir.2005) (quoting Imbler v. Pachtman, 424 U.S. 409, 410, 431, 96 S.Ct. 984, 47 L.Ed.2d 128 (1976) ). Absolute immunity extends to acts such as “initiating a prosecution and presenting the case at trial” or at other court proceedings. Hill v. City of N.Y., 45 F.3d 653, 661 (2d Cir.1995). It also applies to “the professional evaluation of the evidence assembled by the police and appropriate preparation for its presentation at trial or before a grand jury after a decision to seek an indictment has been made.” Buckley v. Fitzsimmons, 509 U.S. 259, 273, 113 S.Ct. 2606, 125 L.Ed.2d 209 (1993) ; see also, e.g., Watson v. Grady, No. 09–CV–3055 (KMK), 2010 WL 3835047, at *16 (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 30, 2010) (holding that defendant prosecutors were entitled to “absolute immunity for their professional evaluation of the evidence and subsequent decision to indict Plaintiff”). By contrast, “when a prosecutor ... performs the investigative functions normally performed by a detective or police officer, he is eligible only for qualified immunity.” Watson, 2010 WL 3835047, at *15 (internal quotation marks omitted); see also, e.g., Giraldo v. Kessler, 694 F.3d 161, 166 (2d Cir.2012).

Here, to the extent that Plaintiff even alleges the personal involvement of the Prosecutors at all, she complains only about actions that each Prosecutor took in his or her “role as an advocate.” Hill, 45 F.3d at 662. Most of Plaintiff's allegations relate to the Prosecutors' alleged failure to investigate evidence that contradicted Tavares's account. (See, e.g., Am. Compl. ¶¶ 49, 50). Such allegations, however, are nothing more than a challenge to the Prosecutors' “professional evaluation of the evidence assembled by the police and appropriate preparation for its presentation at trial,” acts for which they are absolutely immune. Buckley, 509 U.S. at 273, 113 S.Ct. 2606 ; see also Dory v. Ryan, 25 F.3d 81, 83 (2d Cir.1994) (holding that absolute immunity protects prosecutors who...