Benitez v. Lopez
Opinion of the Court
Plaintiff has moved to compel five categories of documents. The Court resolves the motion as follows:
1. Benitez first seeks the underlying files related to a 2003 arrest of Bernadette Johnson, the sole eyewitness in Benitez's criminal case, and copies of four complaints she filed with the NYPD. As to the 2003 arrest, Defendants first contend that the documents are not relevant to Benitez's claim of prosecutorial misconduct because the arrest is not Brady material. To do so, Defendants cite a number of cases they contend demonstrate that a single minor arrest would not have changed the outcome of Benitez's trial. Defendants do not articulate the correct standard. A Brady violation requires a showing of materiality-that the failure to disclose deprived the defendant of a fair trial-not whether the "information is unlikely to change the original verdict." (Defs.' Ltr. at 2). "[A] defendant's right to pre-trial disclosure under Brady is not conditioned on his ability to demonstrate that he would or even probably would prevail at trial if the evidence were disclosed, much less that he is in fact innocent." Poventud v. City of New York ,
In this case, Benitez has argued that Johnson's 2003 arrest would have impeached and called into question the credibility of the sole eyewitness in the case, whom the prosecution bolstered with character evidence. These are facts and characterizations that Defendants do not dispute. Defendants also do not argue that Johnson's testimony was corroborated by other witnesses or that Johnson was already a weak witness who was impeached on other grounds. Rather, they identify a series of cases where a court has not found a Brady violation. But this is not a case where "the suppressed impeachment evidence merely furnishes an additional basis on which to impeach a witness whose credibility has already been shown to be questionable." Quinones v. Portuondo , No. 00-CV-8126,
As to the copy of the complaints made by Johnson to the police, Benitez has not established the necessary factual nexus between Johnson's complaints and his case. See Rule 26(b)(1). Benitez has not proffered any other evidence adduced in discovery (or even an allegation in the Amended Complaint) that Johnson had a preexisting relationship with police officers or that something about the complaints could have undermined Johnson's credibility. The motion to compel the other police complaints is denied.
2. As for the second request, the parties are sadly, to use a hackneyed phrase, two ships passing in the night. The submissions reflect different versions of what remains at issue and what the parties have agreed to produce or defer. Plaintiff seeks the disciplinary records of the individual defendants, including the underlying investigatory files, for both substantiated and unsubstantiated allegations. Defendants state that the request is too broad because it includes both substantiated and unsubstantiated allegations. But Plaintiff apparently offers to postpone production of files from unsubstantiated allegations, provided closing reports are provided. Defendants do not respond to this offer. Left to its own devices, the Court rules as follows:
With respect to the substantiated allegations, the motion to compel the complete investigatory files is granted. Defendants' conclusory and unsupported allegations of burden and hardship do not defeat Benitez's clear entitlement to the underlying files as relevant material. (Defendants could have outlined the quantity of documents, the number of files, or some relevant information that speaks to the burden of compliance. They did not.) There is a legion of authority suggesting that Defendants must turn over substantiated investigatory files for individual defendants in a § 1983 lawsuit. "It is now commonplace in the courts of this Circuit to require the production of CCRB and IAB files relating to both substantiated and unsubstantiated allegations of similar conduct." Young v. City of New York , No. 10-CV-1701,
Defendants contend that the files should be limited to those allegations that are similar to the ones in the Complaint, and that there should be a limitation to those incidents which only constitute impeachment *88material (since the Monell claim is not against the NYPD, but the Queens District Attorney's Office). Even if the cases supported such a limitation, Defendants have offered no facts that allow the Court to apply it. C.f. Barrett v. City of New York ,
Defendants argue that a temporal ten-year limitation should be placed on the disciplinary files, and no files from post-Complaint incidents should be discoverable. "Contrary to the defendants' contention, the age of CCRB complaints does not render the records less likely to lead to relevant or admissible evidence." Barrett ,
As to the files for unsubstantiated allegations, Defendants do not make any different arguments. In light of Plaintiff's request only for the closing reports for such allegations, that is all Defendants must produce.
3. There is an evident failure to meet and confer about the requests for personnel files from the Queens County District Attorney's Office. Plaintiff submitted a list of cases for which he is seeking files. Defendants state that the list has inaccuracies and they have agreed to produce documents for several of the cases on the list. The parties can discuss between themselves whether documents have or have not been produced.
*89As to whether documents from all the cases should be produced, Defendants seek to impose a ten-year time limitation on the records. Defendants cite to a single case in support of their time limitation: Phillips v. City of New York ,
Defendants then argue that the cases should be limited to those cases where the misconduct is similar to that experienced by Benitez. They then reiterate the claims about burden. The arguments ignore the context of the case. Plaintiff has proffered a specific list of cases, and agreed to use the files from a prior litigation; it is not a general speculative inquiry into Defendants' files, but a directed and focused list of 26 cases that can be identified and retrieved. More importantly, the limitation proffered by Defendants is premised on the fact that several cases on the list involve Brady violations and that Benitez did not suffer a Brady violation. Given that there is a limited identified universe of documents sought, this is really an objection to admissibility, not relevance. And Benitez has demonstrated relevance. As noted above, he has identified at least one piece of potential Brady material withheld, and has alleged Brady violations in his Complaint.
As to the remaining two items in the motion to compel, Defendants have agreed to produce the documents sought, and the motion is denied as moot.
* * *
Therefore:
1. Defendants are ordered to produce the records associated with the 2003 arrest of Bernadette Johnson;
2. Defendants are ordered to produce the complete investigatory files of substantiated allegations against individual defendants and the closing reports of investigatory files of unsubstantiated allegations against individual defendants; and
3. Defendants are ordered to produce the personnel files from the Queens County District Attorney's Office associated with the 26 cases listed in Exhibit E of Plaintiff's motion.
These documents shall be produced within 45 days of this order.
SO ORDERED.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Ricardo BENITEZ v. Raul LOPEZ, Frank Libretto, Sergeant Stamm, Tina Grillo
- Cited By
- 4 cases
- Status
- Published