Spadaro v. City of Miramar

• Decision Date: 29 February 2012
• Docket Number: Case No. 11–61607–CIV.
• Citation: 855 F.Supp.2d 1317
• Parties: Donald R. SPADARO, as Limited Guardian for Anthony Caravella, Plaintiff, v. CITY OF MIRAMAR, etc., et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Florida

855 F.Supp.2d 1317

Donald R. SPADARO, as Limited Guardian for Anthony Caravella, Plaintiff,

v.CITY OF MIRAMAR, etc., et al., Defendants.

Case No. 11–61607–CIV.

United States District Court, S.D. Florida.

Feb. 29, 2012.

Barbara A. Heyer, Heyer & Associates, Fort Lauderdale, FL, for Plaintiff.

Jamie Alan Cole, Matthew Harris Mandel, Weiss Serota Helfman Pastoriza et al., Fort Lauderdale, FL, Gregg Alan Toomey, Bunnell & Woulfe, P.A., Fort Myers, FL, for Defendants.

ORDER GRANTING IN PART AND DENYING IN PART DEFENDANTS' MOTIONS TO DISMISS

JAMES I. COHN, District Judge.

THIS CAUSE is before the Court upon Defendants City of Miramar, George Pierson (“Pierson”), William Mantesta (“Mantesta”), and William Guess' (“Guess”) (collectively “City Defendants”) Motion to Dismiss Amended Complaint [DE 38] (“City Motion”) and Defendants Broward County Sheriff's Office (“BSO”), Al Lamberti (“Lamberti”) ¹, Kenneth C. Jenne, II (“Jenne”), and Anthony Fantigrassi's (“Fantigrassi”) (collectively “BSO Defendants”) Motion to Dismiss Plaintiff's Amended Complaint [DE 41] (“BSO Motion”) (collectively “Motions to Dismiss”). The Court has carefully reviewed the Motions to Dismiss, Plaintiff's Response to the City Defendants' Motion to Dismiss [DE 46] (“City Response”), Plaintiff's Response to the BSO Defendants' Motion to Dismiss [DE 50] (“BSO Response”), and the City Defendants' Reply [DE 54] ² (“City Reply”), the record in the case, and is otherwise fully advised in the premises.³

I. BACKGROUND

This case stems from the November 1983 rape and murder of Ada Jankowski and the subsequent arrest and conviction of Plaintiff Anthony Caravella (“Caravella”) for this crime. On the morning of November 5, 1983, Ms. Jankowski's body was found on the grounds of the Miramar Elementary School. See Amended Complaint [DE 34] (“Am. Compl.”) ¶ 27. She had been raped, strangled, and stabbed. Id. ¶¶ 28, 30. Defendants Guess, Mantesta, and Pierson participated in the investigation of the crime scene. Id. ¶ 33.

At the time of the Jankowski murder, Caravella was fifteen years old and lived with his mother and siblings in Miramar. Id. ¶ 43. He had previously served as an informant for Defendants Guess and Pierson regarding criminal activities in his Miramar neighborhood. Id. ¶ 44. His I.Q. score was only 67, placing him in the mildly mentally challenged range. Id. ¶ 51. On December 28, 1983, Defendant Mantesta obtained a warrant from juvenile court to arrest Caravella for failure to appear in court on a bicycle theft charge. Id. ¶ 49. That evening, Defendants Pierson and Mantesta went to the home of Caravella's friend, Dawn Simone, to arrest him. Id. ¶ 50. The officers were extremely aggressive with Caravella and also arrested his friend, Ms. Simone, for attempting to hide him. Id. ¶¶ 52–53. At the police station, Caravella was immediately taken into an interrogation room and questioned about the Jankowski murder. Id. ¶ 55. He was not read his Miranda rights, the interrogation was not recorded, and his mother was neither called nor present. Id. ¶ 56. Defendants Pierson and Mantesta encouraged Caravella to give them a statement about the Jankowski murder by promising him that they would let his friend Ms. Simone go home in exchange for his statement. Id. ¶ 57. Before eliciting his statement, however, they prompted him with numerous details about the victim and crime. Id. ¶ 61.

On December 30, 1983, Defendants obtained a court order which allowed Defendant Fantigrassi of the BSO to perform a polygraph examination on Caravella. Id. ¶¶ 63–64. Despite Caravella's repeated denial of any involvement in the crime, after over four hours of questioning Caravella alone, Fantigrassi informed Caravella's mother that he had confessed to participating in the murder and that the results of the polygraph confirmed that he was being truthful. Id. ¶¶ 67–68. After the polygraph, Defendants Pierson, Mantesta, and Guess brought Caravella to the crime scene and prompted him with additional details about the crime before taking a second, taped statement from him. Id. ¶¶ 70–71. Despite Defendants' prompting, many of Caravella's statements about the victim and crime were inaccurate. Id. ¶ 72. On January 3, 1984, Defendants Mantesta and Pierson had Plaintiff sign a rights waiver form, and after interrogating him throughout the day, obtained a third taped statement from him regarding the murder. Id. ¶ 78. The next day, Caravella was taken back to the crime scene and persuaded to change his story to say he acted alone. Id. ¶ 80. That same day, Caravella gave a fourth taped statement regarding the murder. Id. ¶ 81. Shortly after, however, Caravella made an additional taped statement with his mother present where he denied committing the murder. Id. ¶ 83.

Hair and fiber evidence collected from the crime scene linked Cyril Cozier, an individual observed near the crime scene wearing a bloody shirt, to the murder victim. Id. ¶¶ 33, 85–86. Caravella alleges Defendants Pierson, Mantesta, Guess, and Fantigrassi “all conspired in fabricating and falsifying evidence in the form of false police reports, false taped statements ... and by giving false testimony under oath in order to knowingly frame CARAVELLA, an innocent boy, for this crime.” Id. ¶ 84. He also alleges that Defendants Pierson, Mantesta, Guess, and Fantigrassi “[w]ithheld and/or concealed other evidence from the criminal courts, the prosecutors, Plaintiff's counsel and the public, that would have negated the fabricated evidence” they created. Id. ¶ 94(b). As a result of their actions, Caravella was convicted on August 2, 1984, of the rape and murder of Ada Jankowski and sentenced to life in prison. Id. ¶ 102. He was only 16 years old at the time. Id. ¶ 103.

Caravella alleges that Defendant Jenne, BSO Sheriff from January 1998 to September 2007, failed to provide proper oversight of the BSO. Id. ¶¶ 113, 140. He also alleges that Defendant Jenne concealed criminal conduct of his sheriffs, including Defendant Fantigrassi, despite evidence that would exonerate Caravella. Id. ¶¶ 130, 132. Likewise, Defendant Lamberti, BSO Sheriff from September 2007 through the present, is accused of overseeing a pattern or practice of misconduct within the BSO. Id. ¶¶ 140–41. According to Caravella, Defendant City of Miramar has overseen a pattern and practice of misconduct amongst members of the Miramar Police Department. Id. ¶ 146.

In April 2001, Assistant Public Defendant Diane Cuddihy contacted the State Attorney's Office to request DNA testing of evidence collected in Caravella's case. Id. ¶ 106. DNA testing conducted over eight years later, in August 27, 2009, conclusively established that Caravella was not the donor of sperm found on the victim's body. Id. ¶ 109. These test results were later confirmed by another laboratory. Id. ¶ 111. Thereafter, on March 25, 2010, the state court vacated and set aside Caravella's judgment and sentence. Id. ¶ 112.

On June 28, 2011, Donald R. Spadaro, Esq., as limited guardian for Caravella, filed suit against Defendants City of Miramar, Pierson, Mantesta, Guess, BSO, Lamberti, Jenne, and Fantigrassi in the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit Court in and for Broward County, alleging that the acts or practices of the Defendants had violated Caravella's constitutional rights. Complaint [DE 1–3] ¶ 3. The City Defendants removed to this Court on July 19, 2011. Notice of Removal [DE 1]. On August 26, 2011, Caravella filed his Amended Complaint. The Amended Complaint brings claims against the various Defendants for intentional infliction of emotional distress (Counts I–III, VIII), violations of 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Counts IV, VII, IX, X, XII), conspiracy (Count V), negligent hiring and supervision (Counts VI, XI), and violations of both the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1962 (“RICO”), and the equivalent Florida statute, Fla. Stat. § 772.103 (Counts XIII–XV). Defendants have now filed motions to dismiss.

II. DISCUSSION

A. Legal Standard.

Under Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6), a court shall grant a motion to dismiss where, based upon a dispositive issue of law, the factual allegations of the complaint cannot support the asserted cause of action. Glover v. Liggett Grp., Inc., 459 F.3d 1304, 1308 (11th Cir.2006). Indeed, “[f]actual allegations must be enough to raise a right to relief above the speculative level.” Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007). Thus, a complaint must contain “sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to ‘state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.’ ” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 1949, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009) (quoting Twombly, 550 U.S. at 570, 127 S.Ct. 1955).

Nonetheless, a complaint must be liberally construed, assuming the facts alleged therein as true and drawing all reasonable inferences from those facts in the plaintiff's favor. Twombly, 550 U.S. at 555, 127 S.Ct. 1955. A complaint should not be dismissed simply because the court is doubtful that the plaintiff will be able to prove all of the necessary factual allegations. Id. Accordingly, a well pleaded complaint will survive a motion to dismiss “ ‘even if it appears that a recovery is very remote and unlikely.’ ” Id. at 556, 127 S.Ct. 1955.

B. Statute of Limitations.

Both the City and BSO Defendants contend that Caravella's claims are barred by the applicable statute of limitations. City Motion at 7–14; BSO Motion at 5–7. The City Defendants argue that Caravella's claims are time barred because the last act alleged by Caravella occurred in 1984 and Caravella has not plead any facts that warrant equitable tolling. City Motion at 7, 13. In his Amended Complaint, Caravella alleges that the applicable statute of limitations on each of his claims has been tolled because the Defendants fraudulently concealed their misconduct. Am. Compl. ¶ 153. Caravella also disputes Defendants' claims that the statute of limitations has expired...