Roman v. City of Mount Vernon

Background

Israel Roman sued the City of Mount Vernon, the Mount Vernon Police Department, and several Mount Vernon police officers under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and New York law. He alleged that officers arrested him after a dispute involving his partner and a neighbor, searched him, ordered him to undergo a strip search and visual body-cavity search without privacy or protective screening, and prosecuted him despite knowing he had not committed a crime. He also alleged that Mount Vernon had a pattern of illegal searches and other misconduct and failed to train or supervise its officers adequately.

Defendants filed a partial motion to dismiss under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6), which tests whether a complaint states a legally sufficient claim. The court held that it could not consider the incident report or felony complaint to establish the truth of their contents because Roman had not relied on those documents in drafting the Second Amended Complaint. The court also declined to import allegations from earlier complaints because the Second Amended Complaint did not directly contradict them and Rule 12(b)(6) required the court to accept its well-pleaded allegations as true at this stage.

Rulings on the Claims

Malicious prosecution. The court granted defendants’ motion with respect to the state and federal malicious-prosecution claims against Hylton, Cerqua, Karoo, Mastrogiorgio, and McKennie because Roman voluntarily dismissed those claims. The court denied the motion without prejudice as to Burnett, Mitchell, and Lloyd. It held that Roman plausibly alleged that these three officers helped initiate or continue the prosecution, that probable cause was lacking based on the allegations before the court, and that malice could be inferred from the alleged lack of probable cause. The court declined to decide qualified immunity before discovery, and stated that defendants could raise probable-cause and qualified-immunity defenses later.

Failure to intervene. The court granted defendants’ motion on Roman’s § 1983 failure-to-intervene claim. Roman alleged collectively that officers failed to intervene but did not identify which officers observed which violations, which officers could have intervened, or when and how they could have done so. The court found those allegations too general to state a plausible claim.

Personal involvement and wrongful arrest. The court denied the motion concerning the wrongful-arrest claim against McKennie and Mastrogiorgio because Roman alleged that they arrested him and approved his arrest and charges. The court granted the motion concerning the wrongful-arrest claims against Burnett and Mitchell because Roman did not allege that they were present at or participated in the arrest. The court denied the motion based on insufficient personal involvement as to Burnett and Mitchell’s alleged involvement in the prosecution and the strip and body-cavity searches.

Municipal liability. The court granted the motion as to Mount Vernon’s claim under Monell v. Department of Social Services, which permits municipal liability when an official policy or custom causes a constitutional violation. The court found that the lawsuits, civilian complaints, and requests for investigations described in the complaint did not provide enough specific facts to plausibly establish a widespread custom. It also found that Roman did not identify a specific training or supervision deficiency or facts showing deliberate indifference. The Monell claim was dismissed.

Remaining state-law claims. Roman voluntarily dismissed the state-law claims for negligent screening, hiring, and retention and for negligent training and supervision. The court granted defendants’ motion as to those claims without prejudice. The court denied the motion as to the state-law respondeat-superior claim because defendants did not adequately brief the issue and, under New York law, a municipality may be vicariously liable for common-law torts committed by its employees. The court stated that the respondeat-superior claim remained viable.

Disposition

The court denied in part and granted in part defendants’ partial motion to dismiss. The malicious-prosecution claims against Burnett, Mitchell, and Lloyd remained pending, subject to possible defenses after discovery. The failure-to-intervene claim, the Monell claim, and the wrongful-arrest claims against Burnett and Mitchell were dismissed as stated above. The Clerk was directed to terminate the motion, and the court scheduled a status conference for August 3, 2022.