Opinion ID: 2522805
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Other Elements of Malicious Prosecution

Text: Agostini also contends that he was entitled to judgment as a matter of law on the basis that Manganiello failed to establish that Agostini had caused the initiation or the continuation of the criminal proceeding and failed to establish that Agostini had acted with actual malice. Again, we disagree. To initiate a prosecution, a defendant must do more than report the crime or give testimony. He must play[] an active role in the prosecution, such as giving advice and encouragement or importuning the authorities to act. Rohman v. New York City Transit Authority, 215 F.3d at 217 (internal quotation marks omitted). A jury may permissibly find that a defendant initiated a prosecution where he fil[ed] the charges or prepar[ed an] alleged false confession and forward[ed] it to prosecutors. Ricciuti, 124 F.3d at 130. Here, there was sufficient evidence from which the jury could infer that Agostini, inter alia, actively elicited inculpatory statements from witnesses such as Alston and Booth, whose veracity in making such statements was circumstantially suspect; that Agostini forwarded those statements to the ADA; that Agostini was in touch with the ADA at least once a week; and that Agostini signed the felony complaint on which Manganiello was ultimately rearrested. This sufficed to satisfy the initiation-or-continuation element. Finally, we also agree with the district court that the evidence was ample to permit an inference that Agostini proceeded against Manganiello with malice. First, [a] lack of probable cause generally creates an inference of malice. Boyd v. City of New York, 336 F.3d at 78; see, e.g., Ricciuti, 124 F.3d at 131; Lowth v. Town of Cheektowaga, 82 F.3d 563, 573 (2d Cir. 1996). Further, malice may be shown by proving that the prosecution complained of was undertaken from improper or wrongful motives, or in reckless disregard of the rights of the plaintiff. Pinsky v. Duncan, 79 F.3d 306, 313 (2d Cir.1996) (internal quotation marks omitted); see also Lowth v. Town of Cheektowaga, 82 F.3d at 573 (malice may be proven by showing that the prosecutor had a wrong or improper motive, something other than a desire to see the ends of justice served (internal quotation marks omitted)). Malice on the part of Agostini could easily be inferred in light of the evidence in the present case of, inter alia, Agostini's apparently myopic focus on Manganiello, to the exclusion of all other suspects; Agostini's otherwise seemingly inexplicable false statements about Manganiello's conduct that were contrary to the reported first-hand knowledge of others; Agostini's willingness to coerce an inculpatory statement from one unwilling person in exchange for not reporting that person's known criminal activities; and his willingness to have Manganiello indicted on the basis of testimony of another person who was known to have lied to Agostini at least once in this very matter and who was evidently willing to intimidate others into falsely providing the evidence Agostini sought. The jury was entitled to find that Agostini's adherence to the view that Alston, in producing Damon, had given Agostini the right information (Tr. 248), while Agostini admitted that Alston had asked Damon to lie about Anthony Manganiello ( id. at 330), was reflective of, in the words of Lowth, something other than a desire to see the ends of justice served. It was also understandably difficult for the jury to fathom an appropriate explanation for Agostini's misrepresentation, in the course of the criminal proceeding, of the contents of the note he had found in Manganiello's locker. To testify that Manganiello's note stating I pray every day I will never have to kill someone instead said I feel like killing somebody (Tr. 266-67) cannot be viewed as better than a reckless disregard of Manganiello's rights. Although that statement was made after the initiation of the criminal proceeding, the jury was entitled, especially in light of the other evidence as to Agostini's conduct of the investigation, to view that misrepresentation as indicative of Agostini's state of mind all along.