On October 23, 2009, plaintiff filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of the District of New Jersey under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against the Hackensack Police Department, Hackensack Municipal Court, Bergen County Jail in the City of Hackensack, Bergen County Municipal Court, and Bergen County Prosecutor. The plaintiff, filing pro se, asked the court for damages and costs. Specifically, the plaintiff claimed that the defendants violated his 2nd and 14th Amendment rights by attempting to break and enter into his home, threatening to imprison him, fabricating stories to have him incarcerated, and asserting false criminal charges, which led to plaintiff spending three months and five days in county jail.

Prior to these events, plaintiffs and officers had a prior relationship that arose out of an automobile accident. At the time of the incident, plaintiff was working on an appeal for the automobile accident case, in which he claimed that officers saw that he was black and as a result claimed that he was faking injuries.

On October 12, 2010, the U.S. District Court (Judge Jose L. Linares) issued an order granting in part and denying in part motions to dismiss plaintiff's complaint. The court granted leave to the plaintiff to allow him to amend his conspiracy to maliciously prosecute and equal protection claims. The court noted that if plaintiff failed to do so, his Second Amended Complaint would remain the operative complaint in this matter and the case would proceed solely as to Plaintiff's malicious prosecution claim as against defendant Sgt. Aiellos. On October 27, 2010, plaintiff submitted an amended complaint, which was dismissed as to all defendants except Janice Behnke and Sgt. Aiellos on December 22, 2010. Janice Behnke's subsequent motion to dismiss was granted on February 26, 2011.

On December 13, 2013, the U.S. District Court (Judge Jose L. Linares) issued an order denying the respective parties' motions for summary judgment. On January 16, 2014, defendant appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit from the potion of Judge Linares' order and opinion that denied defendant's motion for summary judgment on the basis of qualified immunity. On May 7, 2014, the Court issued an order granting defendant's motion to stay the case pending interlocutory appeal. As of November 13, 2014, the appeal was still ongoing.

Julie Singer - 11/13/2014


compress summary