Fields v. Cnty. of Nassau

• Docket Number: 2020-05113,Index No. 605032/18
• Decision Date: 30 August 2023
• Parties: Jakiel Fields, respondent, v. County of Nassau, et al., appellants.
• Court: New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division

2023 NY Slip Op 04423

Jakiel Fields, respondent,
v.
County of Nassau, et al., appellants.

No. 2020-05113, Index No. 605032/18

Supreme Court of New York, Second Department

August 30, 2023

Thomas A. Adams, County Attorney, Mineola, NY (Robert F. Van der Waag, Jackie L. Gross, and Samantha A. Goetz of counsel), for appellants.

Kaplan & Kaplan, Brooklyn, NY (Cary H. Kaplan of counsel), for respondent.

BETSY BARROS, J.P., VALERIE BRATHWAITE NELSON, ROBERT J. MILLER, JOSEPH J. MALTESE, JJ.

DECISION & ORDER

In an action, inter alia, to recover damages for false arrest and malicious prosecution, the defendants appeal from an order of the Supreme Court, Nassau County (Randy Sue Marber, J.), entered April 23, 2020. The order, insofar as appealed from, denied those branches of the defendants' motion which were for summary judgment dismissing the first, second, and third causes of action insofar as asserted against the defendant County of Nassau.

ORDERED that the order is affirmed insofar as appealed from, with costs.

On April 21, 2017, the plaintiff was arrested by several plainclothes police officers in West Hempstead. The plaintiff subsequently was charged in a felony complaint with criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree and criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree. The complaint alleged that the plaintiff committed those crimes in Nassau County on March 15, 2017. However, it subsequently was determined that on that date the plaintiff was in the state of Georgia, where he resided at the time. The plaintiff was released from jail on or about July 7, 2017, approximately 77 days after his arrest. In August 2017, a grand jury dismissed the felony complaint against the plaintiff.

The plaintiff subsequently commenced this action against the defendant County of Nassau, among others, asserting causes of action alleging, inter alia, deprivation of certain federal constitutional rights pursuant to 42 USC § 1983 (first cause of action), false arrest (second cause of action), and malicious prosecution (third cause of action). The defendants moved for summary judgment dismissing the complaint, contending, among other things, that there was probable cause to arrest and prosecute the plaintiff. In support of their motion they submitted, inter alia, a transcript of the deposition testimony of one of the arresting officers, the defendant Detective Harold Horch. Detective Horch testified that, on March 15, 2017, he and two other detectives watched from their unmarked vehicle as a confidential informant entered a vehicle that was approximately eight to ten car lengths away. A few minutes later, the confidential informant returned to the detectives' vehicle and told the detectives that "Jay" and another person sold him a controlled substance...