This column reports on several significant, representative decisions handed down recently in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Judge Thomas C. Platt dealt with plaintiffs’ claims of municipal liability pursuant to 42 U.S.C. §1983 in connection with fatal injuries to a Latino male at the hands of police officers. Judge Arthur D. Spatt rejected a variety of claims by defendants in a civil suit following their federal conviction for holding workers in servitude. Judge Spatt also upheld a RICO complaint against a Rule 9(b) challenge. And Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis dismissed RICO claims as “extraterritorial.”

Municipal Liability—§1983

In Gonzalez v. County of Suffolk, 09 CV 1023 (EDNY, March 14, 2011), Judge Platt denied defendants’ motion for judgment on the pleadings as to plaintiffs’ municipal liability claims under §1983, while granting defendants’ motion for judgment on the pleadings as to some of plaintiffs’ related claims. The case arose from the fatal injury to a Latino man after a vehicle stop and beating by Suffolk County Police.