Thomas v. City of Troy, 1:17–CV–0626 (GTS/DJS)

• Decision Date: 22 March 2018
• Docket Number: 1:17–CV–0626 (GTS/DJS)
• Citation: 293 F.Supp.3d 282
• Parties: Adrian THOMAS, Plaintiff, v. CITY OF TROY; Adam R. Mason, Police Officer/Detective, Troy Police Department in His Individual Capacity; Ronald Fountain, Police Officer/Detective, Troy Police Department in His Individual Capacity; Tim Colaneri, Police Officer/Detective, Troy Police Department in His Individual Capacity; Rensselaer County; and Michael Sikirica, Medical Doctor for Rensselaer County, in His Individual Capacity, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of New York

293 F.Supp.3d 282

Adrian THOMAS, Plaintiff,

v.CITY OF TROY; Adam R. Mason, Police Officer/Detective, Troy Police Department in His Individual Capacity; Ronald Fountain, Police Officer/Detective, Troy Police Department in His Individual Capacity; Tim Colaneri, Police Officer/Detective, Troy Police Department in His Individual Capacity; Rensselaer County; and Michael Sikirica, Medical Doctor for Rensselaer County, in His Individual Capacity, Defendants.

1:17–CV–0626 (GTS/DJS)

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

Signed March 22, 2018

BRETT H. KLEIN, ESQ., PLLC, Counsel for Plaintiff, 305 Broadway, Suite 600, New York, New York 10007, BRETT H. KLEIN, ESQ.

PATTISON, SAMPSON, GINSBERG & GRIFFIN, P.C., Counsel for City of Troy Defendants, P.O. Box 208, 22 First Street, Troy, New York 12181, DONALD J. SHANLEY, ESQ., MICHAEL E. GINSBERG, ESQ.

BAILEY, JOHNSON, DeLEONARDIS & PECK P.C., Counsel for County of Rensselaer Defendants, 5 Pine West Plaza, Suite 507, Washington Avenue Extension, Albany, New York 12205, CRYSTAL R. PECK, ESQ., JOHN W. BAILEY, ESQ.

DECISION and ORDER

GLENN T. SUDDABY, Chief United States District Judge

Currently pending before the Court, in this civil rights action filed by Adrian Thomas ("Plaintiff") against the City of Troy, Adam R. Mason, Ronald Fountain, and Tim Colaneri (collectively "City Defendants"), and the County of Rensselaer and Michael Sikirica ("Dr. Sikirica") (collectively "County Defendants"), are the following three motions pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6) : County Defendants' motion to dismiss Plaintiff's Amended Complaint; County Defendants' motion to dismiss City Defendants' cross-claims; and City Defendants' motion to dismiss Plaintiff's Amended Complaint. (Dkt. Nos. 12, 29, 40, 41.) For the reasons set forth below, County Defendants' motion to dismiss Plaintiff's Amended Complaint is granted in part and denied in part, County Defendants' motion to dismiss City Defendants' cross-claims is granted, and City Defendants' motion to dismiss Plaintiff's Amended Complaint is granted in part and denied in part.

I. RELEVANT BACKGROUND

A. Plaintiff's Amended Complaint

Generally, liberally construed, Plaintiff's Amended Complaint alleges that, on September 21, 2008, Plaintiff's four-month-old son, Matthew, became ill and was transported by ambulance to Samaritan Hospital in Troy, New York. (See generally Dkt. No. 31.) There, the treating emergency room doctor noted the most likely differential diagnosis to be septic shock

. (Id. ) Later on September 21, 2008, Matthew was transferred to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Albany Medical Center, where he was treated by Dr. Walter Edge. (Id. ) Dr. Edge incorrectly concluded that Matthew had suffered a skull fracture

and was the victim of a physical assault. (Id. )

Based on Dr. Edge's diagnosis, City Defendants took Plaintiff into custody and interrogated him for a total of about nine-and-one-half hours broken into an initial two-hour session and a subsequent seven-and-one-half-hour session. (Id. ) In between those two sessions, Plaintiff expressed suicidal thoughts and was involuntarily hospitalized for approximately fifteen hours in a secure psychiatric unit. (Id. ) Plaintiff was released from the psychiatric unit to Mason and Fountain, who are City of Troy police officers, and the interrogation continued. (Id. )

Throughout the interrogation, City of Troy police officers Mason, Fountain, and Colaneri used numerous tactics to elicit a confession from Plaintiff. (Id. ) Ultimately, they succeeded in their efforts and Plaintiff confessed that on three occasions during the week preceding Matthew's death, he "slammed" Matthew down on to a mattress. (Id. ) In addition, a videotape of Plaintiff's interrogation showed Plaintiff demonstrating the "slamming" motion, which consisted of him holding a clipboard to symbolize Matthew in his hands, raising his hands over his head, quickly lowering them with great force toward the ground, and throwing the clipboard. (Id. )

Based on this confession, on September 23, 2008, Plaintiff was charged with murdering Matthew. On September 25, 2008, Rensselaer County medical examiner, Dr. Sikirica, met with Mason, then performed an autopsy of Matthew in the presence of Mason and Rensselaer County District Attorney Richard R. McNally, Jr., and Assistant District Attorney Christa Book. (Id. ) Notwithstanding the medical evidence that Matthew died of septic shock

caused by a bacterial infection and that Matthew had streptococcus pneumonia bacteria in his bloodstream, Dr. Sikirica failed to document sepsis in his autopsy report. (Id. ) Instead, in furtherance of a conspiracy with City Defendants, Dr. Sikirica falsely recorded the cause of Matthew's death to be severe closed head injuries with cerebral edema due to blunt force trauma, and the manner of death to be homicide. (Id. ) Dr. Sikirica then conveyed his autopsy report to prosecutors for use in the prosecution of Plaintiff. (Id. )

The next day, on September 26, 2008, Plaintiff was indicted by a grand jury for the murder of Matthew. (Id. ) Plaintiff's criminal case proceeded to trial in October 2009. (Id. ) The prosecution presented Plaintiff's confession, the videotaped demonstration of how he threw Matthew onto the mattress, Dr. Sikirica's autopsy report, and testimony of Dr. Sikirica who put forth his diagnosis that Matthew died of head trauma

. (Id. )

The jury found Plaintiff guilty of second degree murder. (Id. ) Plaintiff was sentenced to twenty-five years to life in prison. (Id. ) In February 2014, the New York Court of Appeals found that Plaintiff's confession was not voluntary and thus, reversed his conviction and remanded the case for a new trial. (Id. )

In May 2014, Plaintiff was re-tried on the murder of Matthew. (Id. ) During the re-trial, the prosecution relied on Dr. Sikirica's findings, as outlined in the autopsy report, that Matthew's death was caused by a severe closed head injury

with cerebral edema due to blunt force trauma, and the manner of death was a homicide. (Id. ) However, the defense proved that Matthew suffered no recent acute trauma and instead died of septic shock caused by a bacterial infection. (Id. ) The jury in the re-trial acquitted Plaintiff on June 12, 2014. (Id. )

The City of Troy and County of Rensselaer have unconstitutional policies, customs, or practices that include inadequate screening, hiring, retaining, training, and supervising of their employees. (Id. )

The City of Troy is aware from sources including lawsuits, notices of claim, complaints, news reports, internal investigations, and failed prosecutions that many Troy police officers, including Mason, Fountain, and Colaneri, engage in misconduct and unlawful interrogation techniques pursuant to Troy Police Department policy, custom, or practice. (Id. ) Despite such notice, the City of Troy failed to take corrective action and that failure caused the officers here to violate Plaintiff's civil rights. (Id. )

The County of Rensselaer was also aware from lawsuits, notices of claims, complaints, news reports, and failed prosecutions that Dr. Sikirica was not acting independently, did not adequately investigate prior medical history of decedents, and had similarly ignored obvious medical evidence, which supported the finding that a child had died of natural causes, and provided a cause of death and medical diagnosis consistent with the urging of police officers who were seeking a homicide conviction. (Id. )

In his Amended Complaint, Plaintiff included the citations to web addresses of "URLs" of two news articles. (Id. ) The first news article discussed Joseph McElheny, who was charged in the May 2010 death of his four-month-old daughter. (Id. ) The second news article discussed Michael Davis, who was charged in the February 2015 death of his two-and-one-half-year-old daughter. (Id. )

Generally, based on these factual allegations, the Amended Complaint asserts the following six claims: (1) a claim of malicious prosecution pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against Mason, Fountain, Colaneri, and Dr. Sikirica; (2) a claim of violation of Plaintiff's right to a fair trial pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against Mason, Fountain, Colaneri, and Dr. Sikirica; (3) a claim of failure to intervene pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against Mason, Fountain, Colaneri, and Dr. Sikirica; (4) a claim of conspiracy pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and 42 U.S.C. § 1985 against Mason, Fountain, Colaneri, and Dr. Sikirica; (5) a claim of municipal liability pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against the City of Troy; and (6) a claim of municipal liability pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against the County of Rensselaer. (Id. )

B. Parties' Briefing on County Defendants' Motion to Dismiss the Amended Complaint

Generally, in support of their motion to dismiss Plaintiff's Amended Complaint, County Defendants argue as follows: (1) Plaintiff's causes of action are time-barred; (2) Plaintiff has failed to state a cause of action against Dr. Sikirica for failure to intervene; (3) based on Plaintiff's factual allegations, Dr. Sikirica is protected from liability as a matter of law by the doctrine of absolute immunity or qualified immunity; and (4) Plaintiff has not sufficiently alleged facts giving rise to a claim of municipal liability against the County of Rensselaer. (See generally Dkt. No. 41, Attach. 1 [Cnty. Defs.' Supp. Mem. of Law].)

Generally, in opposition to County Defendants' motion to dismiss, City Defendants argue as follows: (1) dismissal is premature; and (2) City Defendants filed a cross-claim against County Defendants seeking indemnification/contribution from County Defendants as to any damages awarded to Plaintiff against City Defendants. (See generally Dkt. No. 27 [City Defs.' Aff. in Opp'n].)

Generally in opposition to County Defendants' motion, Plaintiff argues as follows: (1) Plaintiff's claims against Dr. Sikirica for malicious prosecution and fabrication of evidence are not time-barred because the statute of...