2010 Decisions

Opinions of the United

States Court of Appeals

for the Third Circuit

11-22-2010

Drew Whitley v. County of Allegheny

Precedential or Non-Precedential: Non-Precedential

Docket No. 10-1723

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Recommended Citation

"Drew Whitley v. County of Allegheny" (2010). 2010 Decisions. Paper 219.

http://digitalcommons.law.villanova.edu/thirdcircuit_2010/219
NOT PRECEDENTIAL

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS 

FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT 

________________ 

No. 10-1723 

________________ 

DREW WHITLEY, 

 Appellant 

v. 

ALLEGHENY COUNTY; THOMAS M. FITZGERALD, individually and as detective 

for ALLEGHENY COUNTY; ROBERT LAZARRO, individually and as detective for 

ALLEGHENY COUNTY; HERB FOOTE, individually and as detective of 

ALLEGHENY COUNTY; LEE TORBIN, individually and as detective of 

ALLEGHENY COUNTY; JOHN MARKLE, individually and as detective of 

ALLEGHENY COUNTY; ROBERT PAYNE, individually and as detective of 

ALLEGHENY COUNTY; SANFORD A. MIDDLEMAN, Esquire 

________________ 

On Appeal from the United States District Court 

for the Western District of Pennsylvania 

(D.C. Civil No. 2-07-cv-00403) 

District Judge: The Honorable Joy Flowers Conti 

_______________ 

Submitted Under Third Circuit LAR 34.1(a) 

October 22, 2010 

BEFORE: HARDIMAN, GREENAWAY, JR., and NYGAARD, Circuit Judges. 

(Filed : November 22, 2010) 

_______________ 

OPINION OF THE COURT 

_______________ 
NYGAARD, Circuit Judge. 

 Because this opinion is wholly without precedential value we write briefly for the 

benefit of the parties, presuming their familiarity with the facts and procedural history of 

this case. Whitley appeals the grant of summary judgment in favor of the Defendants. 

We will affirm. 

 Whitley was arrested and convicted in 1989 for a 1988 murder, and he 

subsequently served seventeen years in prison. A DNA test in 2006 established 

Whitley’s innocence. As a result, Whitley filed this suit against certain police officers 

and Allegheny County alleging, both, state law claims for malicious prosecution and 

constitutional violations under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. 

 Whitley appeals three of the District Court’s rulings. First, he challenges the 

District Court’s decision applying the doctrine of collateral estoppel to Whitley’s 

malicious prosecution claims. Whitley also takes issue with the District Court’s ruling 

that the individual Defendants were entitled to qualified immunity. The District Court 

reasoned that, in 1989, there was not a clearly established right arising from the 

relationship between the constitutional entitlement to a fair trial and the level of care 

taken in criminal investigations. Finally, Whitley appeals the District Court’s dismissals 

of the section 1983 claims against Allegheny County, which were based upon the District 

2 
3 

 

Court’s related finding that the individual Defendants did not violate a clearly established 

right. 1

 

 We exercise plenary review of the District Court’s grant of summary judgment. 

Webb v. City of Philadelphia, 562 F.3d 256, 259 (3d Cir. 2009). After our careful, 

independent review of the record in this case and the arguments raised by both parties, we 

will affirm the order for essentially the same reasons set forth by the District Court. 

1

 Whitley incorrectly characterizes the District Court’s decision as impermissibly 

extending the qualified immunity defense to Allegheny County. The District Court found 

that Allegheny County could not be held liable on a section 1983 claim of failure to train 

where it determined that the individual employees, whose training was at issue, did not 

violate a clearly established constitutional right. City of Los Angeles v. Heller, 475 U.S. 

796, 798-99 (1986). 
HARDIMAN, Circuit Judge, concurring. 

 I concur with the result reached by the majority. Unlike my colleagues, however, 

I disagree with the District Court’s holding that Whitley’s malicious prosecution claims 

are barred by the doctrine of collateral estoppel. 

 In denying Whitley’s motion to suppress, the state court ruled that the August 18, 

1988 affidavit in support of a warrant to search Whitley’s home was supported by 

probable cause. This holding collaterally estops Whitley from claiming in federal court 

that there was no cause to search his home. But Whitley’s malicious prosecution claims 

were based on the alleged absence of probable cause underlying his eventual arrest. 

Whitley claimed the February 20, 1989 affidavit in support of the arrest warrant 

contained inaccuracies and omissions, some of which also allegedly plagued the search 

warrant affidavit, but some of which only became known to the police in the intervening 

months. Because the state court never adjudicated Whitley’s challenge to the February 

20, 1989 affidavit, the District Court erred in applying collateral estoppel. 

 Nevertheless, my review of the record leads to the conclusion that, even though it 

was later determined that Whitley was innocent of the crime with which he was charged 

and convicted, there was probable cause for his arrest. See Wilson v. Russo, 212 F.3d 

781, 789 (3d Cir. 2000) (excising any inaccuracies and inserting any facts recklessly 

omitted to determine whether or not a “corrected” affidavit would establish probable 

cause). Accordingly, his malicious prosecution claims must fail.