Medina v. Toledo .

• Decision Date: 09 June 2010
• Docket Number: CIV. No. 09-1491(PG).
• Citation: 718 F.Supp.2d 194
• Parties: Fundador Moreno MEDINA, et al., Plaintiffs v. Pedro TOLEDO, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Puerto Rico

718 F.Supp.2d 194

Fundador Moreno MEDINA, et al., Plaintiffs

v.Pedro TOLEDO, et al., Defendants.

CIV. No. 09-1491(PG).

United States District Court,D. Puerto Rico.

June 9, 2010.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED.

Frank D. Inserni-Milam, Frank D. Inserni Law Office, San Juan, PR, for Plaintiffs.

Angel E. Rotger-Sabat, Ivonne Cruz-Serrano, Maymi, Rivera & Rotger, PSC, San Juan, PR, for Defendants.

OPINION AND ORDER

JUAN M. PÉREZ-GIMÉNEZ, District Judge.

Plaintiff Fundador Moreno Medina and his consensual partner Ivette Banuchi Rodriguez (hereinafter “Plaintiffs”) bring suit for money damages against several on-scene and supervisory officers of the Puerto Rico Police Department (“PRPD”) under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for violations of the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments ¹ to the United States Constitution, stemming from allegedly unreasonable searches and seizures. Plaintiffs also plead supplementary state law claims actionable under P.R. Laws Ann. tit. 31, §§ 5141- 5142. Before the Court is a motion to dismiss (Docket No. 12) under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) filed by defendant officers Wilfredo Morales Rivera and Jose A. Morales Vazquez (hereinafter “Defendants”) ² as well as Plaintiffs' opposition thereto (Docket No. 17). For the reasons that follow, the Court GRANTS the motion to dismiss.

I. Factual Background

The Court draws the following facts from Plaintiffs' complaint (Docket No. 5) and takes them as true for purposes of resolving Defendants' motion to dismiss.

A. Facts Underlying the Searches and Seizures

On November 29, 2006, nearing midnight, Fundador Moreno Medina (“Moreno”) and his consensual partner, Ivette Banuchi Rodriguez (“Banuchi”), were preparing for bed when Moreno heard noises coming from the bushes in front of his house and from the rattling of his front gate. Looking through his bedroom window, Moreno noticed men jumping over the front gate of his residence. Thinking it was a robbery attempt, he opened the backdoor of the house, when various armed men dressed in dark clothing rushed into the house. The armed men began searching the entire house, removing Moreno from the room where he was found. ³ The armed men, it turns out, were police officers executing a search warrant on Moreno's property.

Banuchi was ordered to sit on her bed in her present state, that is, in her underwear and t-shirt. Not allowed to move and guarded by one of the officers, Banuchi was very nervous and upset, thinking that they were robbing her home, and urinated on herself. She requested and was denied permission to change into proper clothing. The officer guarded over her for about a half-hour until Moreno was arrested and escorted away.

Before his arrest and about ten minutes after Banuchi's urination incident, Moreno was taken into the same room where he had been removed from, and was confronted by defendant Miguel Arocho Irizarry (“Arocho”) who alleged to have found bullets in that room, which Arocho had searched out of Moreno's presence. Shortly thereafter, Moreno was handcuffed, while defendant Wilfredo Morales Rivera (“Morales”) searched drawers containing jewelry and cash. During the arrest and subsequent search, the officers were using foul language in a loud voice, continuing to upset Banuchi's nervous condition. Arocho proceeded to search Moreno's pick-up truck, where he said he found $10,000.00. Moreno was then taken to the living room, while the officers continued their search of the house for approximately thirty minutes. At no time during the search of the house did any of the officers show Moreno or Banuchi a search warrant, even when he asked to see one. Arocho only replied that it would be shown to Moreno afterwards. Moreno was not shown a warrant until December 4, 2006, at a hearing in the Puerto Rico Superior Court of Isabela.

After the search of his house and his cars, the officers took Moreno to his mother's home where they performed another search at that house. Moreno's eighty-three year-old mother lived with two handicapped brothers, one deaf-mute and another mentally challenged. The officers sat Moreno in his mother's living room and began searching the house for a firearm which they never found. The officers asked Moreno if he had any keys to the two apartments and garage behind his mother's house that he owned. He was forced to hand over the keys and the officers brought along Moreno's deaf mute brother as a witness, while Moreno was kept watch in his mother's living room. About fifteen minutes later, the officers executing the search of the rented apartments returned to the living room and said they had found a white powdered substance and bullets in the mother's room, but no firearms.

At around dawn on November 30, 2006, the officers provided Moreno with an inventory of the two motor vehicles: a Nissan Frontier pick-up truck and a Mitsubishi Outlander. But at no time during the searches and seizures did the officers provide Moreno with a search warrant or other court order. No inventory was provided for the seized cash, jewelry, camera, dish card, lottery tickets, and other confiscated articles. ⁴ Moreno realized that these articles were seized after he performed his own inventory subsequent to his release on bond when he returned to his house which had been turned upside down by the defendants.

Moreno was taken to the Ramey police precinct, where he was detained for approximately four to five hours, and was booked and subpoenaed to appear in court the following Monday. Moreno was charged with four (4) counts of violating the Puerto Rico Controlled Substances Act: one (1) count under Article 401, one (1) count under Article 404, and two (2) counts under Article 412. Moreno was also charged with two (2) counts of violating the Firearms Law of Puerto Rico under Article 6.01. The charges were submitted on December 4, 2006. The charges were allegedly based on the officers' seizure of $7,040 in cash, 344 small bags of marijuana, 11 transparent plastic bags, and 220.380 caliber bullets. Moreno required the assistance of his family members in order to raise bond money for most of the charges six charges pending against him. The criminal case was set before the Puerto Rico Superior Court of Aguadilla (the “superior court”).

In the criminal case against Moreno, defendant Arocho and other officers testified that the searches and seizures that took place at Moreno's property and at his mother's house were justified by information provided by an informant. During pre-trial proceedings, Moreno's attorney filed a motion to suppress the evidence arguing that the information used by Arocho to obtain the search warrant, which was based on an informant's tip-off, was false. The superior court held evidentiary hearings before Judge Manuel A. Acevedo Hernandez to rule on the motion to suppress. The court listened to the testimony of Arocho and other officers executing the search that night, as well as of defense witness Juan Santo Domingo (“Santo”). Santo was at home the day the officers or informants allegedly saw Moreno conducting illegal drug transactions in front of his house.

On June 3, 2008, the superior court judge ordered the suppression of all the evidence seized by the officers on November 29, 2006. The judge ruled that the contents of the sworn statement used by officer Arocho to obtain the search warrant did not contain information from an informant sufficiently describing Moreno or indicating the time or dates of Moreno's alleged drug sales; neither did it describe Moreno's alleged clients or buyers. The informant also failed to describe the alleged firearms that Moreno possessed. The judge made a finding that Arocho had stated under oath that the informant actually never gave him information regarding any criminal act before charges were filed against Moreno. Moreno stated on the record that he had never spoken with the informant before the suppression hearing.

The superior court judge concluded that the search warrant was obtained based on Arocho's false testimony, even if it was indeed the product of an honest mistake as Arocho submitted at the suppression hearing. The court inferred from the defense attorney's cross-examination that the information provided by the informant to support the search warrant was unsubstantiated boilerplate regularly employed to obtain a warrant based on an informant's tip-off. Moreover, defense witness Santo testified that he did not observe any criminal activity taking place at the time when the informant allegedly reported the drug transactions. The judge found the defense witness credible, as opposed to Arocho's testimony which was found to be false, ambiguous, and imprecise.

The superior court concluded that due to the erroneously issued warrant, based on Arocho's sworn statement substantially omitting details regarding the alleged drug transactions, locations, and descriptions of the buyers and sellers, the search and seizure that took place at Moreno's properties were illegal. The court, therefore, granted the motion to suppress all the evidence seized by Arocho and the other officers. On July 1, 2008, upon request by the district attorney's office in Aguadilla, the superior court dismissed all charges against Moreno pursuant to the Puerto Rico Rules of Criminal Procedure, P.R. Laws Ann. tit. 32, App. IV.

B. Plaintiffs' Legal Claims

Plaintiffs argue that as a consequence of the reckless and callous acts and omissions of the named defendants, they had to endure a criminal prosecution, hire attorneys and pay $33,000.00 in attorneys' fees. Plaintiffs also argue that the illegal seizure resulted in the loss of two (2) motor vehicles that were confiscated and sold without providing Plaintiffs procedural or substantive due process, as well as the sale of real property that had hitherto provided income and for which they now claim past and future profits. Plaintiffs list as items of personal property...