Davenport v. City of N.Y.
| Decision Date | 28 September 2017 |
| Docket Number | 15-CV-5890 (MKB) |
| Parties | WALLACE DAVENPORT, Plaintiff, v. THE CITY OF NEW YORK and DETECTIVE ADAM SAGER, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of New York |
Plaintiff Wallace Davenport commenced the above-captioned action on October 15, 2015, against Defendants the City of New York and Detective Adam Sager of the New York City Police Department ("NYPD"). (Compl., Docket Entry No. 1.) Plaintiff's claims arise from his arrest on October 24, 2014, for allegedly pickpocketing a pedestrian in Times Square. (Id. ¶¶ 9, 15.) Plaintiff brings claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for false arrest, denial of his right to a fair trial, deprivation of due process and malicious prosecution, and also brings claims under New York state law for denial of his right to a fair trial, deprivation of due process, malicious prosecution and vicarious liability. (Id. ¶¶ 26-37.) Defendants move for summary judgment pursuant to Rule 56 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. (Defs. Mot. for Summ. J. ("Defs. Mot."), Docket Entry No. 22; Defs. Mem. in Supp. of Defs. Mot. ("Defs. Mem."), Docket Entry No. 24.) For the reasons discussed below, the Court grants Defendants' motion.1
This case arises from Plaintiff's arrest and the initiation of a prosecution against Plaintiff following an investigation by Detective Sager, which led a complainant to identify Plaintiff as the perpetrator of a pickpocketing in Times Square. (Compl. ¶¶ 9, 15.)
On May 13, 2014, at 6:40 PM, a complainant walked into an NYPD substation at the intersection of West 43rd Street and Seventh Avenue in Manhattan, New York (the "NYPD Substation") and filed a complaint with NYPD Officer Mark Mitchell. 2 Officer Mitchell prepared a complaint based on the information provided by the complainant. According to the complainant, approximately two hours earlier, between 4:30 and 4:45 PM, while walking south near 46th Street in Times Square with an unzipped purse over her shoulder, someone "brushed against" her and "upon further investigation," she realized that she did not have her wallet. (NYPD Compl. at 2.) Thecomplainant's wallet contained her debit card and her credit card, her driver's license and her passport.3 (Id. at 4.)
The NYPD Substation where Officer Mitchell worked is part of the Midtown South Precinct. (Officer Mitchell Dep. Submission A 13:21-14:21, 19:11-14.) Because the complainant last recalled being in possession of her wallet at the intersection of 46th Street and Broadway, which is within the jurisdiction of the NYPD's Midtown North Precinct, Officer Mitchell identified that location as the scene of the crime and his supervisor forwarded the complaint to the Midtown North Crime Analysis unit. (Detective Sager Deposition Submission A 27:22-28:2, annexed to First Garman Decl. as Ex. E; Officer Mitchell Dep. Submission A 59:5-17; Officer Mitchell Dep. Submission B 33:4-34:23, 39:23-24, annexed to Lumer Decl. as Ex. 1.)4
Sometime after Officer Mitchell completed his report, an unidentified investigator from the Midtown North Crime Analysis unit re-interviewed the complainant about the incident. (Detective Sager Dep. Submission A 48:21-49:25; Officer Mitchell Dep. Submission A 48:15-24.) The investigator added to the complaint initially prepared by Officer Mitchell. (Officer Mitchell Dep. Submission B 46:1-25, 49:1-50:11.) In explaining the circumstances of the incident, the complainant told the investigator that she had been in Times Square to purchasetickets at 48th Street and Broadway and, after purchasing the tickets, she began to proceed south on Broadway. (NYPD Compl. at 2.) When she reached 46th Street and Broadway, she felt a male "reach into her [unzipped] purse" and remove her wallet. (Id.) She confronted the alleged perpetrator and requested that he return her wallet but he told her that he had not taken her wallet and that the man who had taken it had fled. (Id.) The complainant described the alleged perpetrator as a white thirty year-old Hispanic man with short brown hair, who was approximately six feet tall, weighed 180 pounds and was wearing "beige" "outerwear-Tshirt or Tank Top." (Id. at 2-3; Detective Sager Dep. Submission A 53:14-53:25.)
Detective Sager was assigned to investigate the complaint. (Detective Sager Dep. Submission A 32:21-33:21; Detective Sager NYPD Follow-Up Forms ("Detective Sager DD5s"), Docket Entry No. 25-8.) After reviewing the complaint, Detective Sager met with the complainant twice, visited the scene of the incident with the complainant and obtained video surveillance of the complainant's interaction with the alleged perpetrator after the pickpocketing.
On May 17, 2014, between 1:00 and 1:30 PM, Detective Sager arranged a meeting with the complainant at the Midtown North Stationhouse. (Detective Sager Dep. Submission A 32:5-32:20, 59:9-59:16, 87:10-88:9; Detective Sager DD5s at 2.) In recounting the incident, the complainant told Detective Sager that on May 13, 2014, she had been walking southbound on Broadway in the Times Square area and was in the vicinity of 46th Street and Broadway when she felt someone "digging around in her bag." (Detective Sager DD5s at 2.) The complainant turned around and there was a man standing beside her. (Detective Sager Dep. Submission A 77:12-17, 78:10-23, 93:5-18; Detective Sager DD5s at 2.) As she turned around, she alsorealized that her wallet that she had placed in her purse a few blocks before was no longer in her purse.5 (Detective Sager Dep. Submission A 77:14-17; Detective Sager DD5s at 2.) The complainant confronted the alleged perpetrator and he responded, "the other guy did it, the guy in black over there" as he pointed behind the complainant. (Detective Sager Dep. Submission A 77:18-21; Detective Sager DD5s at 2.) The complainant turned around but did not see anyone "in black" and when she turned back around to speak to the alleged perpetrator he was no longer there. (Detective Sager Dep. Submission A 77:22-78:3; Detective Sager DD5s at 2.)
The complainant described the alleged perpetrator as a skinny white or white Hispanic man in his mid-to-late thirties, approximately six feet tall, and possibly wearing a khaki shirt. (Detective Sager Dep. Submission A 79:13-80:5, 80:14-17; Detective Sager DD5s at 2.) She did not identify any other distinctive features.6 (Detective Sager Dep. Submission A 79:16-19, 79:23-80:2; Detective Sager DD5s at 2.) According to Detective Sager, after the interaction with the alleged perpetrator, the complainant reported the incident to NYPD officers on the street, and the officers directed her to the NYPD Substation where she filed the complaint with Officer Mitchell. (Detective Sager Dep. Submission B 224:10-18.)
After the interview and based on the complainant's description of the alleged perpetrator, Detective Sager showed her approximately 198 photographs generated by the NYPD's Photo Manager Program, but she did not identify the alleged perpetrator in any of the photographs.(Detective Sager Dep. Submission A 36:2-37:10, 94:8-12, 97:21-9; Detective Sager DD5s at 3; Mugshot Viewing Report and Witness Summary, Docket Entry No. 25-9.) Detective Sager generated the 198 photographs using the following physical attributes: white Hispanic male, between thirty-two and forty-two years old, between five feet nine inches and six feet two inches tall and weighing between 130 and 220 pounds.7 (Mugshot Viewing Report and Witness Summary; Detective Sager Dep. Submission A 99:11-25.)
On May 20, 2014, three days after Detective Sager's initial interview, Detective Sager went with the complainant to the area where the incident occurred to have the complainant identify the exact location where she encountered the alleged perpetrator. (Detective Sager Dep. Submission A 78:20-79:4, 106:10-23.) After the complainant identified the location of the incident as Broadway between 45th Street and 46th Street, Detective Sager and the complainant entered an American Eagle store located at 1555 Broadway in search of surveillance video of the incident. (Detective Sager Dep. Submission A 108:2-109:11.) Although the American Eagle surveillance camera did not capture the pickpocketing, it captured video of the complainant speaking with the alleged perpetrator on the southwest corner of 45th Street and Broadway.8 (Detective Sager DD5s at 4-5.) Detective Sager and the complainant watched the video at the American Eagle store. (Detective Sager Dep. Submission A 110:16-24.) According to Detective Sager's report memorializing the content of the video, "it appears that the [alleged]perpetrator has [the complainant's] wallet in his hand after he disengages from [her]," (Detective Sager Dep. Submission A 127:17-128:14; Detective Sager DD5s at 4-5), and the alleged perpetrator "appears to be a male black or Hispanic with a light complexion," (Detective Sager Dep. Submission A 128:15-129:2; Detective Sager DD5s at 5).9 Detective Sager obtained a copy of the video. (Detective Sager DD5s at 4-5.)
The approximately one-minute-long color video captures the complainant interacting with the alleged perpetrator on the sidewalk on the west side of Broadway from 4:49:45 PM until 4:50:28 PM. (Video dated May 13, 2014 ("Video"), Docket Entry No. 25-10; Detective Sager Dep. Submission C 203:2-204:19, annexed to Second Garman Decl. as Ex. P.) The complainant and the alleged perpetrator are engaged in conversation when they first appear in the video, heading southbound from 46th Street toward 45th Street, and...
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