Judge Raymond Dearie
New York Police Department officers allegedly indiscriminately arrested people who gathered in Brooklyn on election night in November 2008. Arrestee Osterhoudt was charged with obstructing government administration, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. He was held 17 hours before charges were adjourned in contemplation of dismissal. He sued police officers and New York City under 42 USC §1983, alleging unlawful arrest as part of NYPD’s custom of sweeping up arrestees at demonstrations absent individualized determinations of probable cause. Citing lawsuits against the city for mass arrests at Critical Mass bike rides, the 2004 Republican National Convention, and the World Economic Forum, Osterhoudt further alleged NYPD customarily encourages officers to swear false criminal complaints and discourages honest officers’ reports of misconduct. Distinguishing Simms v. City of New York and Garcia v. Bloomberg, the court denied the City’s dismissal motion, concluding that Osterhoudt’s allegations stated a plausible claim for Monell liability that NYPD’s failure to train officers to determine individual probable cause, instead of sweeping up arrestees en masse, was the same training failure that led to his unlawful arrest.
