An FBI cooperating witness who claims federal agents had him arrested on a bogus murder-for-hire charge and “engineered” his placement in solitary confinement for 15 months can proceed with his suit against the agents and the United States.
Southern District Judge Lewis Kaplan upheld a majority of claims brought by Joseph Barone in Barone v. United States, 12-cv-04103, alleging FBI agents charged him and then leaked his status as a cooperator against mobsters, forcing officials at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn to place him in its special housing unit while pending trial.
