Students Sue Newburgh Over 2013 Rape Arrests

BROOKLYN (CN) - Police maliciously prosecuted two students of Mount Saint Mary College in Newburgh, N.Y., on bogus rape charges, they claim in court.

Michael Curatola and Glendon Glashen filed their lawsuit Tuesday in Kings County Supreme Court. They said they were arrested in September 2013 but that a Newburgh city judge dismissed the charges against them in December after a grand jury failed to indict.

They say Newburgh has failed to settle a claim they served upon the city in February and have thus brought their malicious prosecution, negligence and other claims to court.

It was late February when New York tabloids reported that the charges against Curatola and Glashen were dropped.

Curatola and Glashen say they met a female student on Sept. 1, 2013, but that neither "committed any acts that constituted a violation of law inasmuch as all actions between these individuals were consensual."

The female student nevertheless allegedly made false claims against the men, and Newburgh police "failed and neglected to perform a proper investigation into the false allegations," according to the complaint.

Curatola and Glashen say they were wrongly accused of rape, and "wickedly and maliciously" detained for three days in the Newburgh City Jail.

Though the complaint gives the name of their accuser, she is not named as a defendant.

Curatola and Glashen's attorney, Jeffrey Falk with Falk & Klebanoff, has not returned a call for comment. The city's police department also did not return a voice message.

The men say the city and its police department are liable for arresting them despite knowing they were "wholly innocent" of any wrongdoing.

Newburgh is a city of Orange County, about 60 miles north of Manhattan.

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