Case Name: Tony PACHERILLE, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. John MUEHL, individually and as District Attorney of Otsego County, and Sr. Inv. Michael Ten Eyck, individually and as a member of the Otsego County Sheriffs Department, Defendants-Appellees
Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
Jurisdiction: United States
Decision Date: 2015-10-13
Citations: 619 F. App'x 18
Docket Number: No. 14-4666-cv
Parties: Tony PACHERILLE, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. John MUEHL, individually and as District Attorney of Otsego County, and Sr. Inv. Michael Ten Eyck, individually and as a member of the Otsego County Sheriffs Department, Defendants-Appellees.
Judges: PRESENT: B.D. PARKER, RAYMOND J. LOHIER, JR. and SUSAN L. CARNEY, Circuit Judges.
Reporter: West's Federal Appendix
Volume: 619
Pages: 18–19

Head Matter:
Tony PACHERILLE, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. John MUEHL, individually and as District Attorney of Otsego County, and Sr. Inv. Michael Ten Eyck, individually and as a member of the Otsego County Sheriffs Department, Defendants-Appellees.
No. 14-4666-cv.
United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.
Oct. 13, 2015.
Frank Policelli, Law Office of Frank Policelli, Utica, NY, for Plaintiff-Appellant.
Gregg T. Johnson, Lemire, Johnson & Higgins, LLC, Malta, NY, for Defendants-Appellees.
PRESENT: B.D. PARKER, RAYMOND J. LOHIER, JR. and SUSAN L. CARNEY, Circuit Judges.
The Clerk of Court is directed to amend the case caption as set forth above.

Opinion:
SUMMARY ORDER
Tony Pacherille appeals from an order of the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York (McAvoy, J.) granting the defendants' motions to dismiss. We assume the parties' familiarity with the facts and record of the prior proceedings, to which we refer only as necessary to explain our decision to affirm.
In 2012 Pacherille was arrested and charged with aggravated harassment in the second degree in violation of New York Penal Law § 240.30(l)(a). After the charge against him was dismissed, Pache-rille filed suit asserting § 1988 'Claims against Otsego County District Attorney John Muehl, Senior Investigator Michael Ten Eyck of the Otsego County Sheriffs Department, and other defendants no longer part of this appeal. The defendants filed motions to dismiss under Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) and 12(c).
Based on our de novo review of the allegations in the complaint, we agree with the District Court that Muehl and Ten Eyck are entitled to qualified immunity for their actions. Law enforcement officers are protected by qualified immunity if (1) their "conduct [did] not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known," Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 818, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982), or (2) it was "objectively reasonable for [them] to believe that [their] actions were lawful at the time of the challenged act," Lennon v. Miller, 66 F.3d 416, 420 (2d Cir.1995) (quotation marks omitted). Muehl is further "entitled to absolute immunity for all acts intimately associated with the judicial phase of the criminal process," Simon v. City of New York, 727 F.3d 167, 171 (2d Cir.2013) (quotation marks omitted), including the filing of a criminal information, see Flagler v. Trainor, 663 F.3d 543, 547 (2d Cir.2011).
In this case, Muehl and Ten Eyck are entitled to qualified immunity for Pache-rille's claims arising from the search and arrest warrants. The warrants were issued by a neutral magistrate and supported by probable cause to believe Pache-rille violated New York Penal Law § 240.30(l)(a) as it existed in 2011 and 2012. See Messerschmidt v. Millender, — U.S. -, 132 S.Ct. 1235, 1245, 182 L.Ed.2d 47 (2012). It is true that the statute was subsequently struck down as unconstitutional under the First Amendment. See People v. Golb, 23 N.Y.3d 455, 468, 991 N.Y.S.2d 792, 15 N.E.3d 805 (N.Y. 2014). But at the time Muehl and Ten Eyck obtained the search and arrest warrants in this case, it was objectively reasonable for them to conclude that they could rely on written communications — in this case, the posting of a website — to establish probable cause for the warrants.
We have considered all of Pacherille's remaining arguments and conclude that they are without merit. For the foregoing reasons,. the judgment of the District Court is AFFIRMED.