Warney v. Monroe County

• Citation: 587 F.3d 113
• Decision Date: 13 November 2009
• Docket Number: Docket No. 08-0947.
• Parties: Douglas WARNEY, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. MONROE COUNTY, Larry Bernstein, in his individual capacity, Wendy Evans Lehman, in her individual capacity and Michael C. Green, in his individual and official capacities, Defendants-Appellants, City of Rochester, Sandra Adams, in her individual capacity, Evelyn Beaudrault, in her individual capacity, Stephen Edgett, in his individual capacity, Thomas Jones, in his individual capacity, Robert Garland, in his individual capacity, John Gropp, in his individual capacity, John Doe Officers and/or Detectives # 1-10, in their individual capacities and Richard Roe Supervisors # 1-10, in their individual capacities, Defendants.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (2nd Circuit)

587 F.3d 113

Douglas WARNEY, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. MONROE COUNTY, Larry Bernstein, in his individual capacity, Wendy Evans Lehman, in her individual capacity and Michael C. Green, in his individual and official capacities, Defendants-Appellants City of Rochester, Sandra Adams, in her individual capacity, Evelyn Beaudrault, in her individual capacity, Stephen Edgett, in his individual capacity, Thomas Jones, in his individual capacity, Robert Garland, in his individual capacity, John Gropp, in his individual capacity, John Doe Officers and/or Detectives # 1-10, in their individual capacities and Richard Roe Supervisors # 1-10, in their individual capacities, Defendants.

Docket No. 08-0947.

United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.

Argued: June 1, 2009.

Decided: November 13, 2009.

Michael E. Davis, Second Deputy County Attorney, for DANIEL M. De LAUS, JR., Monroe County Attorney, Rochester, NY, for Defendants-Appellants.

Deborah L. Cornwall, (Peter J. Neufeld, Sarah Crowley, on the brief), Cochran Neufeld & Scheck, LLP, New York, NY, for Plaintiff-Appellee.

Steven A. Bender and Anthony J. Servino, for Daniel M. Donovan, President of the District Attorneys Association of New York State, for amicus curiae District Attorneys Association of New York State, in support of Defendants-Appellants.

Before: JACOBS, Chief Judge, NEWMAN and POOLER, Circuit Judges.

DENNIS JACOBS, Chief Judge:

Three prosecutors of Monroe County appeal from denial of their motion for absolute or qualified immunity by the United States District Court for the Western District of New York (Larimer, J.) in a suit alleging that the exculpatory result of post-trial DNA testing, conducted by the district attorney's office while defending habeas and other initiatives, was not timely disclosed to plaintiff, who was in jail for a murder that the DNA testing ultimately showed he did not commit. Because the testing was undertaken in connection with post-trial proceedings and was therefore integral to the advocacy function, we hold that the prosecutors enjoy absolute immunity under Imbler v. Pachtman, 424 U.S. 409, 430-31, 96 S.Ct. 984, 47 L.Ed.2d 128 (1976).

Plaintiff Douglas Warney was wrongfully convicted and jailed for ten years. He sues a number of individuals (and government entities) for violating his constitutional rights. This appeal considers only issues bearing upon the liability and immunity of three Monroe County prosecutors for failing to disclose exculpatory DNA test results promptly.

After Warney's conviction, during the pendency of his federal habeas corpus petition and his appeal from a state-court decision denying him access to DNA evidence, the Monroe County District Attorney's office arranged the DNA testing of crime scene evidence. The results showed that all non-victim blood samples collected at the scene of the crime were from one man, who was not Warney. Using the DNA results, the prosecutors identified the man who actually committed the murder, advised Warney's counsel, interviewed the new suspect to confirm that Warney was not involved, and then achieved Warney's exoneration. Warney alleges that his constitutional rights were violated because at least 72 days elapsed between the date the prosecutors learned of the DNA test results and the date they informed Warney or his counsel.

This appeal requires us to consider the scope of absolute prosecutorial immunity in the post-conviction context.

BACKGROUND

We set out only the facts that bear upon the disposition of this appeal. Since this is an interlocutory appeal from the denial of a motion to dismiss, we accept as true all well-pled factual allegations, and draw all reasonable inferences in the plaintiff's favor. See Ashcroft v. Iqbal, ___ U.S. ___, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 1949, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009) (citing Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007)).

A. The Murder. In January 1996, William Beason was found dead in his ransacked apartment on Chili Avenue in Rochester, New York by officers of the Rochester Police Department ("RPD"). In Beason's bathroom, they found a bloodstained knife, a bloody towel, and a bloody tissue. The RPD lifted several fingerprints from two pornographic videotape boxes found in the bedroom, and one partial print from the knife. The autopsy showed nineteen stab wounds to Beason's neck and chest, all of them consistent with the bloody knife found in the bathroom, and defensive wounds on Beason's left hand. Blood evidence was collected from his fingernails. Thus it appeared that Beason died after a violent struggle, and that the perpetrator was cut and had gone into the bathroom to clean blood off himself with the towel and the tissue.

After Beason's murder was reported in the press, Douglas Warney called the RPD "Crimestoppers hotline" and referenced the murder. Warney had an IQ of 68, an eighth-grade education, and full-blown AIDS. (Complaint ¶ 37.) It is not clear what Warney said, but he alleges that he said that he "knew of" Beason.¹ An RPD officer went to Warney's apartment to speak to him. The complaint alleges that the RPD was aware that Warney had made numerous crank calls to the police (for which he had received psychiatric assistance), and this officer in particular had responded to Warney's complaints about drug activity in his apartment building. (Id. ¶ 39.) Warney told this officer that he was concerned about his name being brought up in connection with the murder of a "William" on Chili Avenue.

Two days later, RPD detectives picked up Warney at his apartment and brought him to the police station. They put him in a small office and interrogated him, using "escalating coercive tactics" including verbal abuse, and physical and other threats, "in order to force him to admit that he committed the murder." (Id. ¶ 47.) After initial denials, Warney eventually "yielded to [the] coercive tactics and provided at least four wildly different versions of events to the police." (Id. ¶¶ 50-51.)²

In an ensuing typewritten "confession," the detectives included numerous non-public facts about the murder known only to the police and the real killer, facts which (it is now known) Warney could not possibly have known. (Id. ¶ 52.)³ According to the complaint, there were "inconsistencies" in Warney's statement that rendered it wholly implausible.⁴

Warney signed the confession and initialed minor changes less than four hours after he had been picked up.⁵ According to the complaint, after Warney's "confession" the police performed no further investigation other than trying to determine whether Warney's cousin could have been an accomplice. Notably, the latent fingerprint collected from a pornographic videotape box was not run through the statewide database.⁶ (Id. ¶ 63.)

B. The Trial. Certain blood evidence at the scene was found to exclude both Warney and Beason; so Warney was charged both as a principal and an accomplice. At trial, however, the prosecution's only theory was that Warney committed the murder alone, and the prosecution's case rested "almost exclusively" on Warney's confession. (Complaint ¶¶ 79-80.)

At trial, a chemist testified that the blood on the murder weapon was consistent with the victim's Type O, but inconsistent with Warney's Type A; and the bloodstains on the towel and tissue belonged neither to Beason nor Warney. (It fit neither of their "enzyme types.") (Complaint ¶ 74.) Of three latent prints from the pornographic videotape boxes, two belonged to Beason, and the third was unidentified, meaning it belonged to neither Beason nor Warney.⁷ A second fingerprint specialist examined a partial print from the murder weapon, and found only "three points of comparison," but concluded that Warney was a possible source of the print. (He also specifically excluded Beason.) (Id. ¶ 78.)

Warney testified to his innocence and about the threats from the police that made him confess.

On February 12, 1997, the jury convicted Warney of two counts of second-degree murder. On February 27, he was sentenced to 25 years to life. The judgment was affirmed on appeal, People v. Warney, 299 A.D.2d 956, 750 N.Y.S.2d 731 (4th Dep't 2002), and became final when the New York Court of Appeals denied leave to appeal on March 4, 2003, 99 N.Y.2d 633, 760 N.Y.S.2d 115, 790 N.E.2d 289 (2003).

C. Post-Conviction Proceedings. In May 2004, Warney filed a federal habeas corpus petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2254 in the United States District Court for the Western District of New York, Warney v. McGinnis, No. 04-cv-6202(L) (filed May 4, 2004), a filing of which we take judicial notice. Warney thereafter began seeking access to biological evidence from the murder scene in order to conduct DNA testing that he believed would exonerate him. Warney's attorney requested access to the evidence so as to perform DNA testing at his own expense, but the Monroe County District Attorney's office refused consent. (Complaint ¶ 91.)

In October 2004, Warney moved under New York State's post-conviction statute, N.Y.Crim. Proc. Law 440.30(1-a) (McKinney 2004) (the "440 motion"), seeking access to the blood evidence found at the crime scene. The 440 motion sought access to, inter alia, blood found on the murder weapon (which had been tested already), and blood found on the victim's fingernails (which had not been tested before).

The Monroe County District Attorney's Office, represented by District Attorney Michael C. Green and Assistant District Attorney Wendy Evans Lehman, opposed the 440 motion, both in writing and at a hearing on November 15, 2004 before New York State Supreme Court Justice Francis A. Affronti. (Complaint ¶ 93.) At the hearing, the District Attorney's office argued that Warney had not established due diligence, and that the reasons underlying his request for access to the blood evidence were speculative. (Id.)

The 440 motion was denied in an order issued December 15, 2004, on the grounds that DNA testing "would not...