Judge David Hurd
Off-duty police officer Short called the Ulster Police Department after his wife realized she had left her purse in a shopping cart in a store’s parking lot. Officer Sutton was sent to retrieve the purse. The Shorts returned to the store. Video footage showed that an elderly woman exited her car, removed the purse from a cart, and returned to her car’s front seat for several minutes before locking the purse in her car’s trunk and entering the store. Sutton and the Shorts located the woman—plaintiff LaLumia—who explained the circumstances of her taking the purse and returned it to Mrs. Short. Although nothing was missing, Mrs. Short told Sutton that she wanted LaLumia arrested. Charges of fifth-degree criminal possession of stolen property against LaLumia were dismissed. Finding that LaLumia’s amended complaint stated a claim for 42 USC §1983 liability against Mrs. Short, the court denied her lawsuit’s dismissal. It could be inferred that Mrs. Short, through her position of the wife of an off-duty police officer investigating on scene, influenced Sutton in her choice of procedure. Mrs. Short’s unequivocal request that LaLumia be arrested, coupled with her influential position, placed her above the role of a mere supplier of information to law enforcement.
