Gonzalez v. City of Schenectady, 1:09-cv-01434

Gonzalez was arrested on May 16, 2006, during a City of Schenectady buy-bust operation after a confidential informant interaction.
Detective Cowell relayed information to the vice squad; Det. Maloney and Det. Daley observed Gonzalez, and Peters and Dashnow effected the arrest for attempted sale of a controlled substance.
Gonzalez was pat-searched, handcuffed, and transported to police headquarters, where a strip search and a visual cavity search were conducted under a City policy.
A plastic bag containing crack cocaine was found; Gonzalez was charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance in state court.
Gonzalez moved to suppress the evidence as the fruit of an unlawful cavity search; the trial court denied the motion, and a jury convicted him, which was later reversed by the NYS Appellate Division in 2008.
Gonzalez later filed this § 1983 action alleging unlawful arrest and unlawful cavity search; he withdrew state-law claims and official-capacity claims against the individual defendants.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Probable cause and qualified immunity for arrest	Gonzalez argues lack of probable cause, so arrest violates rights.	Officers had arguable probable cause based on CI report and area drug activity.	Arrest had arguable probable cause; qualified immunity applies.
Unlawful visual cavity search and qualified immunity	Visual cavity search required heightened suspicion; unlawful absence of such basis.	Heightened standard not clearly established until 2008; search reasonable.	Qualified immunity applied; search did not violate clearly established law as of 2006.
Monell claim against City and discovery	Policy or custom caused constitutional violations; discovery needed to plead Monell.	No Monell policy shown; official-capacity claims withdrawn; amendment would be futile and prejudicial.	City dismissal granted; limited discovery and Monell claim denied.

Golino v. City of New Haven, 950 F.2d 864 (2d Cir. 1991) (probable cause and qualified immunity standard for arrests)
Escalera v. Lunn, 361 F.3d 737 (2d Cir. 2004) (arguable probable cause supports qualified immunity)
Broughton v. State, 37 N.Y.2d 451 (N.Y. 1975) (false arrest and imprisonment standards under state law)
People v. Hall, 10 N.Y.3d 303 (N.Y. 2008) (heightened suspicion standard for visual cavity searches)
Scott v. Fischer, 616 F.3d 100 (2d Cir. 2010) (qualified immunity when law not clearly established)
Monell v. Dep't of Social Servs., 436 U.S. 658 (U.S. 1978) (municipal liability requires policy or custom)
Kentucky v. Graham, 473 U.S. 159 (U.S. 1985) (official-capacity claims expose entity policy involvement)
Eng v. Coughlin, 858 F.2d 889 (2d Cir. 1988) (qualified immunity standard for government officials)
Horne v. Coughlin, No. 2:99-cv-1234 (2d Cir. 1999) (qualified immunity framework and sequencing of inquiry)
Martinez v. Simonetti, 202 F.3d 625 (2d Cir. 2000) (reasonable belief in absence of clearly established rights)