Klein v. Lakeview Fire Dist.

• Decision Date: 26 September 2022
• Docket Number: 21-cv-1468 (KAM)(JMW)
• Parties: YONATAN KLEIN, Plaintiff, v. LAKEVIEW FIRE DISTRICT, LAKEVIEW FIRE DEPARTMENT, FREDERICK G. SENTI, JR., FREDERICK G. SENTI, III, JAMES GALIA, MICHAEL KOPPEL and HEATHER McNEILL, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of New York

YONATAN KLEIN, Plaintiff,
v.
LAKEVIEW FIRE DISTRICT, LAKEVIEW FIRE DEPARTMENT, FREDERICK G. SENTI, JR., FREDERICK G. SENTI, III, JAMES GALIA, MICHAEL KOPPEL and HEATHER McNEILL, Defendant.

No. 21-cv-1468 (KAM)(JMW)

United States District Court, E.D. New York

September 26, 2022

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

KIYO A. MATSUMOTO, UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

Plaintiff Yonathan Klein (“Plaintiff”) commenced the instant action against Defendants Lakeview Fire District (the “Fire District”) and Lakeview Fire Department (the “Fire Department”) (together, “Lakeview”), and Defendants Fredrick G. Senti, Jr. (“Senti Jr.”), Fredrick G. Senti, III (“Senti III”), James Galia (“Galia”), Michael Koppel (“Koppel”), and Heather McNeill (“McNeill”) (together, the “Individual Defendants” and, collectively with Lakeview, “Defendants”) pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging that Defendants violated his constitutional rights under the First, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments. (See ECF No. 1 (“Compl.”) at 2-3.) Plaintiff also alleges claims for retaliation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and a

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hostile work environment pursuant to New York state law. (See Id. at 3.)

Presently before the Court is Defendants' motion to dismiss the Amended Complaint for failure to state a claim pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) with respect to Plaintiff's constitutional claims. (See ECF No. 27, Defendants' Motion to Dismiss (“Mot. to Dismiss”).) Defendants further request this Court, once it dismisses the constitutional claims, to decline supplemental jurisdiction over Plaintiff's state law claims pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1376(c)(3) and Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1). For the reasons set forth below, Defendants' motion to dismiss is DENIED IN PART and GRANTED IN PART.

BACKGROUND

For the purpose of deciding Defendants' Rule 12(b)(6) motion, the Court accepts as true the well-pleaded factual allegations in the Amended Complaint and exhibits attached thereto (see ECF Nos. 20-21) and draws all reasonable inferences in Plaintiff's favor. See Sabir v. Williams, 37 F.4th 810, 814 (2d Cir. 2022); Biro v. Conde Nast, 807 F.3d 541, 544 (2d Cir. 2015). Generally, “[i]n adjudicating a Rule 12(b)(6) motion, a district court must confine its consideration to facts stated on the face of the complaint, in documents appended to the complaint or incorporated in the complaint by reference, and to matters of which judicial notice may be taken.”

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Leonard F. v. Isr. Disc. Bank of N.Y., 199 F.3d 99, 107 (2d Cir. 1999) (quotation omitted). Based on the foregoing, this Court accepts as true the following allegations.

I. Factual Background

Plaintiff was a volunteer firefighter at Lakeview Fire Department from February 2011 to January 2021 and served as a Second Lieutenant from February 2017 through November 2019. (ECF No. 20, Amended Complaint (“AC”) ¶¶ 10, 61.

Lakeview Fire District is the administrative establishment overseeing operations for the Lakeview Fire Department, a volunteer fire department, and serves West Hempstead, a hamlet in the Town of Hempstead, County of Nassau, State of New York. (Id. ¶ 11.) The Fire District is governed by a Board of Commissioners, which consists of five individuals selected by residents served by the Lakeview Fire District. (Id.)

Three of the Individual Defendants-Koppel, Senti Jr., and McNeill-served as Commissioners during the period relevant to the Plaintiff's allegations. (See id.) In addition to Commissioner, Senti Jr. has also served as Chief of the Fire Department, Records Officer, and Secretary and is paid by the Fire Districts' tax-payers. (Id. ¶ 13.) Defendant Senti III, Senti Jr.'s son, is currently a Lieutenant with the Fire Department and previously served as the Chief of Department. (Id. ¶¶ 12, 14.) Defendant Galia is currently the Chief of the Fire Department,

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(id. ¶ 12), and previously, Defendant Galia served as a Captain and then Assistant Chief. (Id. ¶ 15.) Defendant Koppel, in addition to being a Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer of Record, previously served as Chief of the Fire Department. (Id. ¶ 16.) Defendant McNeill is Senti Jr.'s daughter, and Senti III's sister, and previously served as Chief of the Fire Department and is currently a Lieutenant and Chair of Lakeview's Board of Fire Commissioners. (Id. ¶ 17.) She is also married to non-party Patrick McNeill, who served as Chief of the Fire Department during times relevant to Plaintiff's allegations. (Id. ¶ 31.)

A. The Initial Incident

Plaintiff alleges a “continuous course of unlawful conduct,” (id. at ¶¶ 1,2) by the Defendants, precipitated by a physical altercation on November 26, 2017, when Defendant Senti III assaulted another volunteer member, Jack Ackerman (“Ackerman”) at the Fire Department's firehouse. (Id. ¶ 19.) Plaintiff, who had been nominated and elected as Second Lieutenant in February 2017, and other firefighters, including Salvatore Sinatro (“Sinatro”)-the Chief of the Fire Department at the time-witnessed the physical assault by Senti III. (Id.) Plaintiff separated the two men and took Ackerman into another room. (Id.)

Once separated, Ackerman voiced his desire to report the assault to the Nassau County Police Department. (Id.) Plaintiff replied by telling Ackerman that he had every right to do so.

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(Id.) Ackerman filed a complaint with the Nassau County Police Department, and Senti III was arrested later that day for assault and obstruction of airway and suspended by Lakeview for approximately fifteen days. (Id. ¶ 20.)

B. Harassment at the Firehouse and Initial Reports to Authority

After Senti III's assault of Ackerman and his arrest and suspension, he and his father, Senti Jr., began to harass Plaintiff. (Id. ¶ 21.) After each incident of threatening violence, assaultive behavior, and/or verbal harassment, Plaintiff reported the activities to superior authorities in the Fire District and Fire Department. (Id. ¶¶ 15, 25-28, 31, 36.)

Examples of harassment of Plaintiff by the Senti Defendants include: Senti Jr. (1) calling plaintiff derogatory names (e.g., “cunt,” “a piece of shit”); (2) physically charging at Plaintiff with a broom handle, and threatening Plaintiff with violence; and (3) driving back and forth past Plaintiff's family home in an official vehicle, causing Plaintiff and Plaintiff's wife to feel unsafe. (Id. ¶¶ 21-23.) Senti III “promise[d]” Plaintiff that he would make Plaintiff's life at work difficult. (Id. ¶ 24.)

Senti Jr. also harassed other witnesses to the assault, such as non-party Eli Wein (“Wein”), another firefighter and paramedic. (Id. at ¶ 25.) On or about November 29, 2017, Senti

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Jr. confronted Wein regarding a witness statement Wein signed reporting Senti III's assault of Ackerman. (Id.) Not only did Defendant Senti Jr. say to Wein that he intended to harass Plaintiff and Wein until the day they left Lakeview, but he also told Wein that “people can fall downstairs during fires.” (Id. at ¶ 26.) “[I]t would just seem like an accident because accidents happen during fires.” (Id.)

On November 29 and 30, 2017, respectively, Plaintiff and Wein each sent an email memorandum detailing the disturbing behavior of Senti Jr. to Defendant Galia, then the Captain and Assistant Chief of the Fire Department. (Id. ¶¶ 25-28; see also ECF Nos. 20-1, Exh. 1, Wein Memorandum; 20-2, Exh. 2, Klein Memorandum.) Defendant Galia did not respond to either memorandum. (Id.)

Senti Jr. and Senti III's harassment continued for months. On March 22, 2018, Senti Jr. and Senti III continued to harass Plaintiff, including Senti III threatening to “knock [his] f-cking head off,” and noting that a soft tissue injury was “nothing to what [Plaintiff] would get.” (Id. ¶ 30.) Senti Jr. also threatened to knock Plaintiff's teeth out, made repeated comments about Plaintiff's wife, physically charged at Plaintiff and verbally threatened Plaintiff's family. (Id.)

On March 23, 2018, Plaintiff sent another email to Defendant Galia, non-party Assistant Chief Michael Joyce

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(“Joyce”), and Patrick McNeill, who is the husband of Defendant McNeill and then-Chief of the Fire Department, regarding the conduct and verbal abuse by Defendants Senti Jr. and Senti III, and expressed his fear of “imminent and potentially catastrophic retaliation” from Senti Jr. and Senti III. (Id. ¶ 31; see ECF No. 20-3, Exh. 3, Klein Second Memorandum. Galia failed to respond despite his duty to do so. (Id. ¶ 32.)

On October 27, 2018, Senti III and Plaintiff got into another argument, where Senti III came within inches of Plaintiff's face and once again, made threats of physical violence to Plaintiff. (Id. ¶ 33.)

Senti Jr. continued threatening Plaintiff, specifically noting Plaintiff's involvement with the discipline of Senti III after Senti III's assault on Ackerman and called Plaintiff profane names. (Id. ¶ 34.) Senti Jr. also told Plaintiff that he should “sleep with [his] gun tonight,” just hours after a mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue that day.^[1] (Id.) At a Board of Commissioners meeting later that evening, Senti Jr., in front of Lakeview's Board of Commissioners, also yelled at Plaintiff,

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stating, “[a]s a Commissioner I can throw you out of here and you can suck my fucking dick.” (Id. ¶ 35.)

After Senti Jr. screamed at Plaintiff in front of the Lakeview Board of Commissioners on October 27, 2018, Plaintiff submitted a “Workplace Violence Notification” to then-Chief Sinatro on October 28, 2018. (ECF Nos. 20, AC ¶ 36; 20-4, Exh. 4, Workplace Violence Notification.) Sinatro failed to respond. (Id.)

On December 5, 2018, Plaintiff submitted a complaint to the New York State Department of Labor's Public Employee Safety and Health Bureau (“PESH”), alleging the lack of a workplace violence prevention program.^[2] (ECF Nos. 20, AC ¶ 37; 20-5, Exh. 5, Notice of Alleged Safety or Health Hazards). Plaintiff asserted violations of 12...