Keith v. City of N.Y.
| Decision Date | 01 December 2014 |
| Docket Number | 11 Civ. 3577 (KPF) |
| Parties | RICHARD KEITH, Plaintiff, v. CITY OF NEW YORK, et al., Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Southern District of New York |
On June 23, 2010, a woman was brutally raped in Brooklyn.1 Several weeks later, on July 9, 2010, the woman saw Plaintiff Richard Keith on a public street and identified him as the perpetrator of the rape. Detectives from the New York City Police Department (the "NYPD") questioned Plaintiff at his home on July 12, 2010, and invited him to participate in a lineup later that day; when the victim again identified Plaintiff as her attacker during the lineup, he was arrested. The next day, Plaintiff was arraigned on felony and misdemeanor sexual offense and robbery charges. A few days later, on July 16, 2010, Plaintiff was released from custody after a DNA test exonerated him.
Plaintiff brought suit against the City of New York and NYPD Detective Jarret Brown; he later named additional NYPD personnel, Lieutenant Francis Morrissey and Detectives Evelyn Gutierrez, Elizabeth Murray, and Sarah Mathers. Plaintiff alleged deprivation of his civil rights under 42 U.S.C. § 1983,as well as false arrest, malicious prosecution, failure to intervene, and respondeat superior under New York State law.
Defendants now move for summary judgment as to all of Plaintiff's claims. The Court grants the motion as to Plaintiff's federal and state false arrest and malicious prosecution claims, as well as his federal denial of fair trial claim, for the reasons discussed in this Opinion. Because Plaintiff has raised an issue of material fact as to the foreseeability of his assault while in custody, the Court denies the motion as to the state law failure to intervene and respondeat superior claims against the City of New York. However, because the Court declines to exercise supplemental jurisdiction, these state law claims are likewise dismissed.
Early in the morning of June 23, 2010, a 61-year-old woman (the "Victim") was raped in an alleyway near her home in Brooklyn, New York. (Pl.56.1 Opp. ¶ 7; Pl. Br. 2). The Victim did not know her attacker before the assault (Pl. 56.1 Opp. ¶ 8), and she did not get a good look at his facial features while being raped (id. at ¶ 9).
After the rape, the attacker took the Victim from the alleyway into her nearby apartment building and to the door of her apartment, demanding money. (Pl. 56.1 Opp. ¶¶ 10-12; Pl. Br. 2).3 At some point during this sequence of events, the Victim did get a good look at her attacker. (Def. 56.1 Reply ¶ 8; Victim Dep. 9). Once at her front door, the Victim was able to escape into her apartment and close the door behind her. (Pl. 56.1 Opp. ¶ 10). The Victim called out to her son for help, and her daughter called 911. (Pl. Br. 2). The attacker fled.
Police responded to the scene, and the Victim provided a description of her attacker that was included in the NYPD "Unusual Occurrence Report": "Male, Black, 6'2", 200 lbs, bald, dark skin . . . , big muscular, blue jeans, red/blk jacket, blk tee shirt, 30's." (Zelman Aff. Ex. A at NYC 92). The Victim was taken to the hospital where the medical examiner used a sexual assault kit to collect evidence, from which the examiner was able to obtain a DNA profile of the attacker. (Id. at NYC 29).
Defendant Francis Morrissey, a sergeant in the Brooklyn Special Victims Squad (the "BSVS") with 19 years' experience, assigned the rape investigation to Defendant Jarret Brown, a detective in the BSVS with 16 years' experience. (Pl. 56.1 Opp. ¶¶ 1, 2, 14).4 On the day of the rape, Det. Brown conducted a follow-up interview of the Victim. (Myrvold Decl. Ex. N at DEF 673-74). The interview paperwork indicates that the Victim described the attacker as a 30-year-old black male, wearing jeans and a multi-colored jacket. (Id.). The Victim met later that day with an NYPD sketch artist, who prepared a sketch that described the attacker below the image as " (Myrvold Decl. Ex. O at NYC 106).5
Thereafter, Det. Brown took the Victim to the BSVS offices at the 77th Precinct in Prospect Heights, where she viewed photographs that were selected based on her description of her attacker. (Pl. 56.1 Opp. ¶ 19). In his contemporaneous notes regarding the display of these photographs, Det. Brown wrote that the Victim "seemed to pay particular attention to an individual who is identified as Buster Singleton," and that she "state[d] thatthis individual looks just like the one who attacked her." (Pl. 56.1 Opp. ¶ 20; Myrvold Decl. Ex. N at DEF 680). The Victim did not identify Buster Singleton as the attacker, but she said he "looks a lot like" the attacker. (Pl. 56.1 Opp. ¶ 21; Brown Dep. 34).6 At this point, Det. Brown designated Singleton, who had a criminal history and a previous arrest in the neighborhood of the rape, as a "person of interest" and filled out an NYPD Investigation Card (or "I-Card") indicating as much. (Pl. 56.1 Opp. ¶ 22).7
Singleton was not arrested based on the Victim's statement, but, when he was picked up later that month on an unrelated incident, Det. Brown was notified that Singleton was in custody. (Pl. 56.1 Opp. ¶ 23; Brown Dep. 34-36). Det. Brown interviewed Singleton and obtained a DNA sample from him with his consent. (Brown Dep. 35-36). A variety of factors, including Singleton's alibi, Singleton's reactions to questions, and Singleton's mannerisms, led Det. Brown to eliminate Singleton as a suspect in the rape. (Pl. 56.1 Opp. ¶ 23). Ultimately, the DNA test results would confirm this elimination. (Myrvold Decl. Ex. N at DEF 732).
On June 24, 2010, Det. Brown interviewed an eyewitness to the rape, Paul Thomas. (Pl. 56.1 Opp. ¶ 24).8 At the time Thomas witnessed the rape,he believed he was seeing "two people having consensual sex," noting that "[t]here was no screaming or crying out." (Thomas Decl. ¶ 2). Thomas told Det. Brown that he "did briefly see" the attacker and described him as "in shape but slim in physical appearance ... possibly 6 to 6 ft 3 inches in height with a slim face, and dark skinned." (Myrvold Decl. Ex. N at DEF 717). Det. Brown took Thomas to the BSVS offices, where Thomas viewed a photograph array that had been assembled based on both his own and the Victim's descriptions of the attacker. (Pl. 56.1 Opp. ¶ 26). Thomas could not identify any individual pictured as the rapist. (Id.).
On the morning of July 10, 2010, the Victim called Det. Brown, and told him either that she had seen her attacker, or that she had seen someone who "looked like" her attacker, walking in her neighborhood on the evening of July 9, 2010. (Pl. 56.1 Opp. ¶ 27).9 The Victim told Det. Brown that she had seen this individual in the company of a woman whom the Victim recognized from the neighborhood, but whose name she did not know. (Myrvold Decl. Ex. N atDEF 725). The Victim also told Det. Brown that she saw the individual enter a grocery store. (Id.). Det. Brown conducted further investigation, which included following up with the grocery store owner and obtaining surveillance video, and determined that the woman accompanying the individual the Victim saw was Kim Gorman. (Id. at DEF 725-26).
At this point, Sgt. Morrissey asked Steven Litwin, another BSVS detective with 30 years' experience (Pl. 56.1 Opp. ¶ 6), to get involved with the investigation (Litwin Dep. 7-9).10 Sgt. Morrissey related to Det. Litwin that the Victim had seen a man — a man whom she claimed had recently raped her — in the company of a woman, Kim Gorman; Det. Litwin was tasked with locating and interviewing Gorman to determine who the man was. (Id. at 7).
On July 12, 2010, BSVS detectives, including Det. Litwin, canvassed the Victim's neighborhood, found Gorman, interviewed her, and determined that Plaintiff Richard Keith was the man whom the Victim had seen on the evening of July 9, 2010. (Myrvold Decl. Ex. N at DEF 729; Pl. 56.1 Opp. ¶¶ 31-32). Later that afternoon, Det. Litwin and two other detectives went to Plaintiff's home, asked him questions, and went with him to the grocery store where he had been seen a few days prior. (Pl. Opp. 56.1 ¶ 33). Afterwards, Plaintiff went home and the detectives returned to the BSVS offices. (Id.). Det. Litwin testified that when he first met Plaintiff, he believed he had probable cause to arrest him based on the Victim's spontaneous identification; however, after speaking to Plaintiff, Det. Litwin did not think that Plaintiff was the rapist and so left without taking him into custody at that time. (Id. at ¶ 59).
After leaving Plaintiff's home, Det. Litwin spoke with the Victim on the phone. (Litwin Dep. 11). The purpose of the call was to hear the specifics of the identification from the Victim, and to let her know that the police had identified the man she had seen with Gorman. (Id.). Det. Litwin summarized the phone call, in part, as follows:
I asked her about the identification first and I asked her [] if she was sure that that was the person that had raped her. And she said that she was. I then asked her if there was any possibility that perhaps she had recognized him just from the neighborhood, that he may have been familiar to her from the neighborhood and may, in fact, not be the rapist. And she said, "No, I [] recognized him as the person that attacked me," or whatever term she used. ... I explained to her that we had identified the person and that he was her neighbor, and it appeared that possibly she could be confused and maybe she just recognized him from the neighborhoodand not from the crime. ... I asked her specifically at that point, [...]...
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