Shmueli v. City of New York
Decision Date | 14 September 2005 |
Docket Number | Docket No. 03-0287-PR. |
Citation | 424 F.3d 231 |
Parties | Sarit SHMUELI, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. THE CITY OF NEW YORK, New York City Police Department, Martin Lieberman, and John Does 1-10, the names being fictitious, Defendants, Linda Fairstein and Stacey Mitchell, Defendants-Appellants. |
Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit |
Sarit Shmueli, New York, New York, Plaintiff-Appellee pro se.
Michael S. Morgan, Assistant District Attorney, New York, New York (Robert M. Morgenthau, District Attorney for New York County as Special Assistant Corporation Counsel, New York, New York, on the brief), for Defendants-Appellants.
Before: KEARSE, JACOBS, and STRAUB, Circuit Judges.
Defendants Linda Fairstein and Stacey Mitchell, former Assistant District Attorneys for New York County (collectively the "ADAs"), appeal from so much of an order of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Sidney H. Stein, Judge, as denied their motions pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6) to dismiss, on the ground of absolute prosecutorial immunity, the claims of plaintiff Sarit Shmueli against them for malicious prosecution. To the extent pertinent to this appeal, the amended complaint alleges that appellants, while in office, prosecuted Shmueli on charges that she harassed her former domestic partner, defendant Martin Lieberman, despite the ADAs' knowledge that she was innocent of those charges, and that the prosecution was motivated by Fairstein's friendship with Lieberman. The district court denied the ADAs' absolute-immunity-based motions, ruling that, if the allegations of Shmueli's amended complaint were true, the ADAs had acted without jurisdiction, which would make the defense of absolute immunity unavailable. On appeal, the ADAs contend that the defense of absolute immunity spares an official from any scrutiny of her motives and that the district court thus erred in equating an allegedly improper prosecutorial state of mind with a lack of prosecutorial jurisdiction. For the reasons that follow, we agree; and to the extent that the district court denied appellants' absolute-immunity-based motions to dismiss claims for damages, we reverse.
The New York State ("State") prosecution of Shmueli is a matter of public record, of which we take judicial notice. In determining whether the ADAs are entitled to absolute immunity with respect to that prosecution, we accept the allegations of Shmueli's amended complaint as true. See, e.g., Kalina v. Fletcher, 522 U.S. 118, 122, 118 S.Ct. 502, 139 L.Ed.2d 471 (1997); Buckley v. Fitzsimmons, 509 U.S. 259, 261, 113 S.Ct. 2606, 125 L.Ed.2d 209 (1993).
In May 1998, the State filed a 93-count complaint (the "criminal complaint") against Shmueli in the Criminal Court of the City of New York, County of New York ("Criminal Court"). See People v. Shmueli, Crim. Compl. No. 98N042120 . The criminal complaint was sworn to by a police detective based on information the detective had received from, inter alios, Lieberman, his friends, family members, and business associates, as well as friends and business associates of Lieberman's relatives, and officials at Lieberman's daughter's school. The criminal complaint alleged that Shmueli had subjected Lieberman and his ex-wife, children, friends, and associates to numerous acts of harassment, including repeated letters to third persons disclosing private information about Lieberman or private information that Lieberman had shared with Shmueli about other persons while Lieberman and Shmueli were living together as domestic partners; an act of vandalism on a car belonging to Lieberman's ex-wife and being used by his son; the placement of shattered glass covered with a red substance at Lieberman's door; and the posting, at Lieberman's minor daughter's school, of flyers making libelous and scandalous statements about the relationship between Lieberman and his daughter. The criminal complaint also alleged that Shmueli had made numerous harassing "hang up" telephone calls. In support of that allegation, the detective stated that he had reviewed records for the telephone at Shmueli's Manhattan apartment for the period in question and had found approximately 59 calls from that telephone to Lieberman's home or work number, with each connection lasting less than one minute. The criminal complaint charged Shmueli with one count of Harassment in the Second Degree, one count of Menacing in the Second Degree, and 91 counts of Aggravated Harassment in the Second Degree.
The case against Shmueli was never tried. In March 2002, all charges were dismissed on statutory speedy trial grounds, without State opposition.
Shmueli commenced the present action in February 2003; represented by counsel, she filed an amended complaint in May 2003. The amended complaint, asserting claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and state law, alleges that Fairstein, Mitchell, Lieberman, the City of New York (the "City"), and others conspired to prosecute her for crimes of which they knew she was innocent, subjecting her to, inter alia, false arrest, false imprisonment, assault and battery, and malicious prosecution. Shmueli alleges that the motivation for her arrest and prosecution was a personal relationship between Fairstein and Lieberman. The allegations of the amended complaint include the following.
Shmueli and Lieberman had lived together in Shmueli's apartment for some two years until May 1997, when Shmueli asked Lieberman to move out. (See Amended Complaint ¶¶ 14-15.) The amended complaint alleges that after Lieberman moved, he threatened Shmueli that "he and his `friend ADA Fairstein'" (id. ¶¶ 15, 16) would "make her life miserable if Plaintiff did not continue the relationship" (id. ¶ 15) and would "`destroy her life'" if Shmueli did not reimburse Lieberman for contributions he had made towards rent while they lived together (id. ¶ 16).
The amended complaint alleges that in November 1997, Shmueli received numerous telephone calls from Fairstein and Mitchell, threatening to arrest Shmueli if she did not come to the District Attorney's office for a meeting (see id. ¶ 22); that in mid-November Shmueli, accompanied by counsel, attended a meeting with the ADAs, during which Shmueli was falsely accused of sending letters and making telephone calls to Lieberman (see id. ¶ 23); and that on or about May 5, 1998, on the instruction of the ADAs, City police officers falsely arrested and falsely imprisoned Shmueli (see id. ¶ 25).
The amended complaint alleges that Lieberman had bragged to Shmueli that Fairstein "had instructed him as to what types of harassment would fall under her personal jurisdiction as an assistant district attorney" (id. ¶ 24), and that "all of the defendants acted in conspiracy to maliciously prosecute Plaintiff SHMUELI for crimes that they knew she was innocent of" (id. ¶ 19):
In spite of knowing that the charges against Plaintiff SHMUELI were false, in consideration of her personal relationship with Defendant LIEBERMAN, Defendant FAIRSTEIN, along with Defendant MITCHELL, wrongfully, knowingly and maliciously prosecuted Plaintiff SHMUELI for various crimes, all of which they knew she was innocent of committing.
(Id. ¶ 31.) The amended complaint alleges that, following Shmueli's arrest, Fairstein, Mitchell, and others contrived to prolong the period during which Shmueli would remain in custody without being able to post bail and to prolong the criminal proceedings with the intent of harassing Shmueli and increasing the cost of defending herself against the false criminal allegations. The criminal charges against Shmueli were dismissed on March 22, 2002.
The amended complaint requested $100,000,000 in compensatory damages and $100,000,000 in punitive damages, as well as unspecified injunctive and declaratory relief.
The ADAs moved pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6) to dismiss the claims against them on various grounds, including failure to state a claim on which relief can be granted and absolute immunity. In an Order of Partial Dismissal dated October 3, 2003, the court, inter alia, granted the ADAs' motions to dismiss (1) all claims against them in their official capacities, (2) all state-law claims except certain claims for malicious prosecution, and (3) all claims for malicious prosecution—whether under § 1983 or state law—that were based on events that occurred prior to Shmueli's arraignment. In sum, the court denied the ADAs' motions only to the extent that they sought dismissal of the § 1983 and state-law claims against them in their individual capacities for malicious prosecution in connection with the events following Shmueli's arraignment (the "postarraignment malicious prosecution claims").
To the extent pertinent to the present appeal, the court rejected the ADAs' defense of absolute immunity on the postarraignment malicious prosecution claims, stating its reasons on the record as follows:
Absolute immunity does confer broad protection upon prosecutors from civil liability for their official duties. Yet, "where the prosecutor acts without clear jurisdiction and without any colorable claim of authority the prosecutor loses the absolute immunity he would otherwise enjoy." Rodrigue[s] v. City of New York, 193 A.D.2d 79, 86, 602 N.Y.S.2d 337 (1st Dept.1993). Plaintiff specifically alleges that the ADAs knew the charges against her were false and knew that Shmueli was innocent of the alleged offenses, but the ADAs prosecuted it [sic] nonetheless. Thus, plaintiff has sufficiently alleged acts by the ADA defendants that, if true, would be "in clear absence of all jurisdiction." So,. . . at least on a 12(b)(6) motion, there is enough here for me to...
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