Grega v. Pettengill, 123 F. Supp. 3d 517

Grega, the plaintiff, sues Pettengill, Davis, Cutting, Holden, and the Town of Dover under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and state law for alleged due‑process and related misconduct in Christine Grega’s murder investigation and Christine’s death’s aftermath.
Grega was convicted of aggravated murder in 1995 and imprisoned for about 18 years before DNA testing vacated the conviction in 2012; re‑prosecution followed and ended with a dismissal in 2013.
Grega alleges extensive deficiencies at the crime scene response and investigation, including failure to secure or preserve the scene, contamination, and improper handling of evidence.
Grega alleges the State’s investigators focused on him as the sole suspect, limited fingerprinting to a washing machine, and ignored other leads and potential suspects.
Grega asserts that fabricated evidence (a Long Trail Ale bottle) was created and used at trial, with alleged involvement by Pettengill and Davis; an ongoing re‑prosecution raised issues about DNA testing and evidence handling.
Grega asserts Monell liability against Dover for training and supervision failures, but the court ultimately finds no underlying constitutional violation by Dover to support Monell liability.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Failure to investigate and destruction of exculpatory evidence	Grega alleges reckless, improper investigation violated due process.	Defendants contend failure‑to‑investigate is not a cognizable due‑process claim; destruction claims lack bad faith and exculpatory value.	Count 1 and 1‑destruction claims dismissed to the extent based on failure to investigate or destroyed evidence.
Fabrication of evidence and conspiracy to fabricate	Grega asserts Pettengill fabricated evidence and Davis aided; false beer‑bottle evidence affected trial.	Photograph and evidence were not fabricated or were mere miscontextualized; no underlying constitutional violation shown.	Fabrication claim survives against Pettengill; conspiracy claim survives against Pettengill and Davis.
Malicious prosecution	Grega alleges lack of probable cause and improper re‑prosecution.	Probable cause presumed from state court determinations; collateral estoppel and favorable termination issues apply.	Malicious prosecution claims against Pettengill and Holden dismissed due to lack of viable lack of lack of lack; Holden’s collateral estoppel and favorable termination analyses favored dismissal.
False imprisonment	Dover’s training/supervision failures caused constitutional violations.	No underlying constitutional violation established; Monell fails.	Monell claim against Dover dismissed.

Zahrey v. Coffey, 221 F.3d 342 (2d Cir. 2000) (due process and fabrication of evidence principles apply to police misconduct)
United States v. Coppa, 267 F.3d 132 (2d Cir. 2001) (due process and Brady material principles; disclosure obligations)
Wilson v. Lawrence County, 260 F.3d 946 (8th Cir. 2001) (reckless failure to investigate may implicate due process in some circuits)
Youngblood v. Gore, 488 U.S. 51 (1988) (necessity to show bad faith in destruction of potentially exculpatory evidence)
California v. Trombetta, 467 U.S. 479 (1984) (duty to preserve only exculpatory evidence with apparent value)