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Villalobos v. Smith

Hostage Victim's Claims Against Rikers Island Guards Satisfy State Created Danger Doctrine

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OPINION AND ORDER Plaintiff Jorge Villalobos, a physician assistant at Rikers Island, alleges that he was kidnapped and taken hostage by non-party Peter Rodriguez, an inmate at Rikers Island. According to Villalobos, in the presence of correctional officers, Rodriguez repeatedly threatened Villalobos’s life during an approximately three-hour period. Villalobos alleges that the correctional officers named in this action helped create and prolong the hostage situation, first by failing to properly restrain Rodriguez, and then by failing to call the Emergency Services Unit once he was taken hostage. Villalobos and plaintiff Cindy Martinez, his wife, now bring claims against defendants the City of New York (the “City”), and officers Captain Paul Smith, Captain Oladapo Ologun, Deputy Warden Sharlisa Walker, Officer Durell Small and John and Jane Doe 1-10 of the City’s Department of Corrections (“DOC”).¹ First, Villalobos brings a section 1983 claim against Smith, Ologun, Walker and Small, asserting that their conduct deprived Villalobos of a substantive due process right, specifically, his right protected under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution to be free from state-created dangers. 42 U.S.C. §1983. (Am. Compl.

120-53.) No federal claim is asserted against the defendant City. Second, Villalobos asserts a New York state negligence claim against all defendants, including the City. (Id.

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