Skorupski v. Suffolk County

• Decision Date: 04 February 1987
• Docket Number: Civ. No. 86-0219.
• Citation: 652 F. Supp. 690
• Parties: Joseph A. SKORUPSKI and Angela Skorupski, Plaintiffs, v. COUNTY OF SUFFOLK, Suffolk County Police Department, Dennis Kiernan, Kenneth Watson, George Riker and Raymond Richmond, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of New York

652 F. Supp. 690

Joseph A. SKORUPSKI and Angela Skorupski, Plaintiffs, v. COUNTY OF SUFFOLK, Suffolk County Police Department, Dennis Kiernan, Kenneth Watson, George Riker and Raymond Richmond, Defendants.

Civ. No. 86-0219.

United States District Court, E.D. New York.

February 4, 1987.

Tartamella and Fresolone, Commack, N.Y., for plaintiffs; Joseph A. Bollhofer, of counsel.

Martin Bradley Ashare, Suffolk Co. Atty., Hauppauge, N.Y., for defendants; James M. Catterson, of counsel.

BARTELS, District Judge.

Plaintiff Joseph Skorupski and his mother, Angela Skorupski, bring this action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, against Suffolk County, the Suffolk County Police Department and several Suffolk County Police Officers, charging defendants with violations of Skorupski's civil rights. Plaintiffs also assert pendent claims under the New York Constitution and state common law. Plaintiff's claims arise out of his arrest and an alleged assault upon him on the evening of July 20, 1985, by members of the Suffolk County Police Department who mistook plaintiff for an armed robbery suspect. Defendants now move for summary judgment on plaintiff's federal claims against all defendants, pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56. The relevant facts are as follows.

Facts

At approximately 10 p.m. on July 20, 1985, Joseph Skorupski, then 17 years old, was walking along Roule 112 in Medford, Suffolk County, Long Island. Plaintiff alleges that as he was walking, one of the defendant officers pulled up in an unmarked pickup truck, got out displaying a pistol and, without identifying himself as a police officer, threatened to kill plaintiff, whereupon plaintiff fled. Plaintiff saw several other men holding rifles who gave chase, none of whom, plaintiff claims, was in uniform or identified himself as a police officer. Shortly thereafter the rifle of one of the officers, defendant Riker, discharged and plaintiff collapsed on the ground. Plaintiff alleges that while he was face down on the ground, one or more of the defendant officers kicked him, hit him on the head and back with a hard instrument, placed a gun in his mouth and threatened to kill him, and then handcuffed him. While this was going on plaintiff was screaming for help and asking the officers if they were crazy and what they wanted with him.

After the plaintiff was handcuffed, defendant Detective Densing arrived in a police car and plaintiff was placed in the back seat. In the car, plaintiff's wallet containing identification was examined and Densing determined that they had the wrong man. Densing removed the handcuffs, offered the plaintiff medical attention, took a short statement from the plaintiff, which plaintiff refused to sign, and then took him home to his parents' house. Plaintiff's parents took him to Brookhaven Hospital emergency room where he was treated for bruises, contusions and lacerations, and admitted overnight for observation. Plaintiff was described by the examining doctor, in his affidavit, as "crying and visibly extremely upset." The doctor phoned the police that evening to report the incident. Plaintiff was seen by a psychiatrist the next day and two or three times thereafter for emotional problems related to the incident, and plaintiff currently sees a psychiatric social worker.

In addition to plaintiff's accounts of the incident, plaintiff has submitted the deposition testimony of one Rick Criscuolo, who was working in a garage that evening and witnessed plaintiff's arrest. Criscuolo's testimony corroborates many details of plaintiff's claims, including the officers kicking plaintiff a number of times. According to Criscuolo's testimony, Criscuolo was aware, from previous conversations with police officers and from friends who had been stopped and questioned by the police, that the Suffolk County police were conducting an intensive search for one Wakefield, a suspect in a number of armed robberies and rapes in the area. Criscuolo stated that a few days before Skorupski's arrest, an officer told him that his niece had been raped by Wakefield and that he would give Wakefield "a real good beating" when he caught him. Criscuolo's testimony also indicates that there were a number of other witnesses to the Skorupski arrest and that several police officers admitted to him afterwards that they were aware of Skorupski's beating.

Defendants admit that they mistakenly arrested plaintiff on July 20, 1985, but, not surprisingly, deny any excessive use of force or other violation of plaintiff's civil rights. According to defendants, on that evening the police officers involved were looking for Wakefield who was reported to have attempted an armed robbery of a gas station on Route 112 in Medford a short time earlier that evening. According to police reports, Wakefield's physical appearance was similar to plaintiff's and Wakefield was wearing a shirt similar in color to plaintiff's shirt, although other aspects of plaintiff's dress apparently did not fit Wakefield's description. Because of these similarities between plaintiff and Wakefield, defendants claim they had probable cause to stop plaintiff and further contend that they used only such force as was reasonably necessary to arrest someone believed to be armed and dangerous. All the officers specifically deny kicking or striking the plaintiff at any time.

That same evening following the incident, the Police Department sent an officer to Brookhaven Hospital to interview plaintiff, but the officer got no information from plaintiff or his family, reportedly because they were too upset and angry to discuss the incident. Defendants also investigated the discharge of Riker's weapon, concluding that it had been fired accidentally when Riker tripped while running. Plaintiff subsequently filed a Notice of Claim, as required by New York General Municipal Law § 50-e; however, there is no evidence of any further investigation of the incident by the County or Police Department and no action was taken against any of the officers involved.

In addition to their claims against the individual officers, plaintiff asserts the liability of the County and the Police Department on grounds that those entities had in effect a policy and practice of condoning this type of conduct by failing to investigate, discipline or otherwise supervise officers in order to deter abuses. These circumstances, plaintiff alleges, amounted to a policy of deliberate indifference to the excessive use of force by police officers. In support of this claim, plaintiff relies predominantly upon a document entitled "Report of the Civil Rights Committee on Allegations of Police Brutality in Suffolk County," issued in 1980 by the Suffolk County Bar Association. That Report, prompted by a National Law Journal article on the same subject, documented extensively the rising number of police brutality cases in Suffolk County up to 1980, and the nonexistence or inadequacy of procedures for investigating and deterring such incidents. Plaintiff asserts that this report, several ongoing investigations of the Suffolk County Police Department, and such Department's alleged failure to adequately investigate the Skorupski incident are sufficient to create a triable issue of fact concerning the existence of a policy on the part of the municipal defendants of deliberate indifference to widespread use of excessive force by police officers.

Discussion

In ruling on a motion for summary judgment it is hardly necessary to state that the Court, resolving all ambiguities and inferences in favor of the non-moving party, United States v. One Tintoretto Painting, 691 F.2d 603, 606 (2d Cir.1982), may grant the motion only if "there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and ... the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law." Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c); see Quinn v. Syracuse Model Neighborhood Corp., 613 F.2d 438, 445 (2d Cir.1980). With these principles in mind, the Court addresses plaintiff's various claims.

1. Probable Cause to Arrest

Plaintiff claims that his arrest violated his right, under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments, to be free from unreasonable seizure. Leaving aside for the moment the legality of defendants' conduct in effecting plaintiff's arrest, plaintiff's constitutional rights are not violated by the arrest, even though mistaken, if the police had "probable cause to arrest the person sought, and the arresting officer reasonably believed that the arrestee was that person." United States v. Valez, 796 F.2d 24, 26 (2d Cir.1986); Hill v. California, 401 U.S. 797, 802, 91 S.Ct. 1106, 1110, 28 L.Ed.2d 484 (1971).

Defendants have offered uncontroverted evidence of probable cause to arrest Wakefield, an armed suspect in numerous robberies and rapes who was being sought for an armed robbery attempted that very evening. Whether the arresting officers reasonably mistook plaintiff for Wakefield depends on "the totality of the objective circumstances surrounding the arrest." United States v. Valez, 796 F.2d at 26. According to a police report, prepared after the incident, Wakefield was described as a white male, 24 years, 6 feet, 160 lbs., with dark hair and a mustache, wearing blue jeans, a maroon T-shirt and a black jacket. It is undisputed that plaintiff also is a white male who at the time had dark hair and a mustache and was wearing a light maroon shirt and shorts. Furthermore, plaintiff has not denied that plaintiff appeared to be 6 feet, 160 lbs., or otherwise fit Wakefield's physical description. The only apparent differences between the two were their age and the fact that plaintiff was wearing shorts, not jeans. Finally, plaintiff was seen by the officers a short time after the attempted robbery walking in the area where the attempt had occurred.

Under the circumstances just described, and in the absence of any evidence from the plaintiff to the contrary, the Court finds that there is no genuine issue of fact with respect to the...