Taxi driver's civil rights lawsuit headed for trial after judge's decision

A federal judge has ruled most claims can go forward in a civil rights lawsuit a cabbie filed alleging a drunk, off-duty Nassau cop shot him without justification in Suffolk in 2011 before authorities arrested him to try to cover up the crime.

Claims from plaintiff Thomas Moroughan that include excessive force, false arrest, malicious prosecution, conspiracy and due process violations "shall proceed to trial," U.S. Circuit Judge Joseph Bianco wrote in his decision.

Bianco ruled against most attempts by defendants that include Suffolk and Nassau counties and their police departments to get claims dismissed at a stage in the litigation in which the judge considers the facts in a way most favorable to the plaintiff.

Court records show Anthony DiLeonardo, the ex-Nassau police officer at the heart of the case whom the department fired in 2014, didn’t challenge the plaintiff’s claims himself with a motion for summary judgment as other defendants did. His attorney, Bruce Barket, declined to comment on Bianco’s decision.

"A rational jury could find that a highly-intoxicated DiLeonardo shot at plaintiff multiple times without justification during an off-duty verbal dispute and that plaintiff was falsely arrested and prosecuted, as part of an effort to cover-up DiLeonardo’s criminal conduct," Bianco wrote in his ruling.

The judge also said a jury could find individual defendants played a role in part of the alleged false arrest and prosecution or in the concealment of the alleged unconstitutional conduct during the probe, including the alleged fabrication of a false confession from Moroughan.

Attorney Anthony Grandinette, one of the plaintiff’s lawyers, heralded the decision as a victory for his client. His lawsuit seeks financial damages.

"He’s going to get his day in court and I should be able to establish that both the Nassau and Suffolk County police departments trampled his constitutional rights," Grandinette said. "This is a case where cops went out, got drunk, violated the rules and regulations of the police department, got into an unnecessary fight and then one of the officers attempted to murder Moroughan … over a minor verbal dispute."

A Suffolk County spokesman, a Nassau County spokeswoman and a Nassau police spokesman all declined to comment Thursday on the judge’s decision, citing the pending litigation.

The judge dismissed Moroughan’s claims against the Nassau police department’s Deadly Force Response Team members and a claim against the county that there was a "policy and custom" of using the team to conceal police personnel's unconstitutional use of deadly force.

The judge also dismissed a claim against a Nassau sergeant who checked on DiLeonardo and Edward Bienz at the hospital after the shooting.

Bienz, another off-duty Nassau officer, was out drinking with DiLeonardo and present when he shot Moroughan during the roadside dispute on Feb. 27, 2011, in Huntington Station after DiLeonardo allegedly cut off the cabdriver.

DiLeonardo contends he opened fire to protect himself while fearing for his life after Moroughan tried to run him over. But Moroughan contends DiLeonardo fired five bullets at him while walking toward the cab before smashing one of its windows with his gun and assaulting him.

"It is highly contested as to whether plaintiff drove his car forward at DiLeonardo before the shots were fired," the judge wrote in his ruling.

Bianco unsealed his Jan. 20 decision on Sunday.

The parties submitted many documents under seal during the case’s discovery phase, but Bianco said the counties failed to identify anything "that would overcome the strong presumption of public access" to his entire decision.

The ruling included a reference to a Bienz statement to internal affairs in which he recalled he had 8 beers and DiLeonardo had at least 7 mixed drinks while out that night with Bienz’s wife and DiLeonardo’s girlfriend.

The decision said a plaintiff’s expert estimated DiLeonardo would have had a blood alcohol content of between 0.76% to 0.113% — above the 0.08% legal intoxication threshold — at the time of the 1:16 a.m. dispute.

The ruling also said a Suffolk detective’s notes from Huntington Hospital, where both Moroughan and the off-duty officers went later, noted an emergency room physician made a remark about what she saw as DiLeonardo’s apparent intoxication.

"Great you can get drunk ... shoot someone and walk out the same day," Dr. Beverly Kraszewski reportedly said.

The detective’s notes also indicated that an unidentified doctor said she wanted a blood sample from DiLeonardo. But he ultimately refused blood work.

"I don’t want any blood," DiLeonardo said, according to a deposition from Kraszewski cited in the judge’s ruling.

The ruling also said DiLeonardo’s medical records included notations that his judgment and memory were impaired, he was "hostile," and suffered a bruised shoulder, a small puncture and a superficial cut.

Kraszewski also said in her deposition that DiLeonardo reported he'd been shot and run over by a car and that he was slurring his speech and had alcohol on his breath, according to the ruling.

Moroughan had a bullet wound to his chest and another to an arm, along with a broken nose.

Two Suffolk homicide detectives interviewed him at the hospital while he was being treated with morphine. He signed a statement one of them drafted, then Suffolk police booked him on charges of assault and reckless endangerment after his hospital discharge.

Later Moroughan claimed the statement was falsified and contradicted what he told detectives.

The Suffolk district attorney’s office dropped its prosecution against Moroughan in June 2011. A Nassau police internal affairs probe later found key portions of the statement Suffolk detectives had Moroughan sign couldn’t have happened.

A Newsday reporter in 2013 found the Internal Affairs Unit’s report, accidentally left unsealed in the court file of Moroughan’s lawsuit. It concluded Moroughan had been backing away in fear — with his pregnant girlfriend in his Toyota Prius cab — when DiLeonardo shot the retreating, unarmed taxi driver after a night of drinking.

The probe also found both DiLeonardo and Bienz broke department rules and committed "unlawful acts" before the police department fired DiLeonardo in May 2014, citing "egregious conduct and breach of public trust."

Bienz lost several weeks of pay for involvement in the encounter, a source previously told Newsday. Salary records indicate Bienz later became a sergeant.

A special grand jury that convened in Suffolk to investigate the case expired in 2014 with no charges brought, with a district attorney’s office spokesman blaming the panel’s inactivity in part on Moroughan’s unwillingness to testify.