Opinion ID: 2995587
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Newsome and Ienco’s Malicious

Text: Prosecution Claim The standards for a successful Section 1983 action against local police officers or a municipality are well known. To prove the officers’ liability, Ienco must show that (1) he was deprived of a federal right and (2) that the deprivation was imposed upon him by one or more persons acting under color of state law. See Gomez v. Toledo, 446 U.S. 635, 640 (1980). To establish liability for the City of Chicago, Ienco must prove that: (1) he suffered a deprivation of a federal right; (2) as a result of either an express municipal policy, widespread custom, or deliberate act of a decision- maker with final policy-making authority for the City; which (3) was the proximate cause of his injury. See Monell v. New York City Department of Social Services, 436 U.S. 658, 690-91 (1978); Frake v. City of Chicago, 210 F.3d 779, 781 (7th Cir. 2000). At the outset, there is much agreement about Ienco’s claims before us. First, all parties agree that the state law claims were properly decided by the district court. This is clear, because Ienco cannot meet his burden of proving under Illinois law that the criminal proceedings terminated in a manner indicative of his innocence. Likewise, the parties agree that our intervening decision in Newsome v. McCabe, 256 F.3d 747 (7th Cir. 2001), discussed below, ef fectively bars Ienco’s malicious prosecution claim as presented to the district court on summary judgment. Therefore, the principal question remaining is whether Ienco’s allegations, coupled with our intervening decision in Newsome, provide Ienco with opportunity to pursue a constitutional remedy sufficient to defeat summary judgment. As we explain below, we conclude that such a remedy exists. We must also address whether, at this stage, the officers are entitled to absolute or qualified immunity. As we also explain below, we find that they are not. The unique procedural posture of this case requires some elaboration. As the law existed at the time this case was filed, the district court’s disposition of the state law malicious prosecution claim would have ended the analysis, and summary judgment would have been properly awarded to the defendants. However, after the district court granted summary judgment in favor of the officers, we decided Newsome./3 In Newsome, we withdrew dicta in four of our previous opinions/4--which had each been understood to permit Section 1983 malicious prosecution claims but bar similar claims asserting that defendants’ actions violated due process rights. Newsome clarified the proper analysis, by holding that Section 1983 provides a remedy for certain forms of trial-based government misconduct based on violations of due process--not claims of malicious prosecution. Specifically, we held that claims of malicious prosecution should be analyzed not under the substantive due process approach [embodied by the malicious prosecution formula], but under the language of the Constitution itself. Newsome, 256 F.3d at 751. Newsome teaches that, under these circumstances, the plaintiff must allege that the officers withheld information or evidence necessary for the fair and impartial trial guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. Ultimately, we held that Newsome’s constitutional claim of malicious prosecution failed as a matter of law. Nonetheless, we recognized that Newsome did have a federal due process claim--that taking the facts as alleged he did not receive a fair trial if the prosecutors withheld material exculpatory details. Newsome, 256 F.3d at 752. Because our decisions prior to Newsome had been reasonably read to foreclose a due process action under facts similar to those in this case, we did not penalize Newsome for failing to convincingly argue such a cause of action at summary judgment. Similarly, under the facts of this case and the law at the time, Ienco had only one valid constitutional claim to pursue--malicious prosecution./5 After Newsome, Ienco still has only one timely constitutional claim to pursue-- but it is for a violation of his due process rights under the 14th Amendment. Because Newsome was an intervening change in the law that benefits Ienco, he is entitled to take advantage of it on remand. See, e.g., Molnar v. Booth, 229 F.3d 593, 599 (7th Cir. 2000). On remand, Ienco should be permitted to amend his complaint to include allegations relevant to a viable due process claim under Newsome.