Opinion ID: 1907232
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Heading: Prosecutorial Immunity In General

Text: The question of whether a prosecutor enjoys absolute immunity from civil liability was raised in Gersh v. Ambrose, 291 Md. 188, 434 A.2d 547 (1981). We observed then that we had never considered the extent to which a prosecutor may be entitled to such immunity outside of a judicial proceeding, and we found it unnecessary to do so in that case. We deal with the issue now. Although prosecutorial immunity has been recognized for over a century in the United States, it is a relative latecomer. [3] It arose initially as an adjunct to the doctrine of judicial immunity but has been clothed as well with the mantle of executive official immunity; indeed, it is the distinction between those two forms of immunity that has marked much of the development of prosecutorial immunity. Judicial immunity has the more ancient lineage. As Judge Eldridge pointed out in Parker v. State, 337 Md. 271, 277, 653 A.2d 436, 439 (1995), [t]he principle that judicial officers should be immune from all civil liability for their judicial acts has been part of the common law since very early days. It was firmly established in England by the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and began to be recognized by American courts in the early years of the nineteenth century. Id. at 279-80, 653 A.2d at 440. The public policy basis of the doctrine was enunciated by the Supreme Court in Bradley v. Fisher, 13 Wall. 335, 347, 80 U.S. 335, 347, 20 L.Ed. 646, 649 (1871): [I]t is a general principle of the highest importance to the proper administration of justice that a judicial officer, in exercising the authority vested in him, shall be free to act upon his own convictions, without apprehension of personal consequence to himself. Liability to answer to every one who might feel himself aggrieved by the action of the judge, would be inconsistent with the possession of this freedom, and would destroy that independence without which no judiciary can be either respectable or useful. [4] We concurred with that view in Parker, pointing out that, with the important issues at stake in an adversarial context, absolute immunity is needed to forestall endless collateral attacks on judgments through civil actions against the judges themselves. Parker v. State, supra, 337 Md. at 287, 653 A.2d at 443. The immunity given to judges is not entirely unlimited, but, as confirmed in Mireles v. Waco, 502 U.S. 9, 11-12, 112 S.Ct. 286, 116 L.Ed.2d 9 (1991), it may be overcome in only two sets of circumstanceswhen the conduct is non-judicial,  i.e., actions not taken in the judge's judicial capacity, and when the conduct though judicial in nature, [is] taken in the complete absence of all jurisdiction. See also Forrester v. White, 484 U.S. 219, 108 S.Ct. 538, 98 L.Ed.2d 555 (1988); Antoine v. Byers & Anderson, Inc., 508 U.S. 429, 113 S.Ct. 2167, 124 L.Ed.2d 391 (1993); Mandel v. O'Hara, 320 Md. 103, 576 A.2d 766 (1990); Parker v. State, supra, 337 Md. 271, 653 A.2d 436. The doctrine of judicial immunity, first applied with respect to judges, eventually was expanded to include others involved with the judicial processto justices of the peace, to military officials exercising authority to order courts-martial, to grand and petit jurors, and to witnesses, parties, and attorneys, at least with respect to defamatory statements uttered in the course of a trial or contained in pleadings, affidavits, depositions, and other documents directly related to the case. Di Blasio v. Kolodner, 233 Md. 512, 522, 197 A.2d 245, 250 (1964). See Yaselli v. Goff, 12 F.2d 396 (2d Cir.1926), aff'd, 275 U.S. 503, 48 S.Ct. 155, 72 L.Ed. 395 (1927); Munster v. Lamb, 11 Q.B.D. 588 (1883); Hayslip v. Wellford, 195 Tenn. 621, 263 S.W.2d 136, cert. denied, 346 U.S. 911, 74 S.Ct. 243, 98 L.Ed. 408 (1953); Griffith v. Slinkard, 146 Ind. 117, 44 N.E. 1001 (1896); Engelke v. Chouteau, 98 Mo. 629, 12 S.W. 358 (1889); Turpen v. Booth, 56 Cal. 65 (1880); Hunter v. Mathis, 40 Ind. 356 (1872); T. COOLEY, LAW OF TORTS 408-09 (1880). We have expressly recognized a limited, but absolute privilege for witnesses, Hunckel v. Voneiff, 69 Md. 179, 14 A. 500 (1888); Rosenberg v. Helinski, 328 Md. 664, 676, 616 A.2d 866, 872 (1992), cert. denied, 509 U.S. 924, 113 S.Ct. 3041, 125 L.Ed.2d 727 (1993), for parties to litigation, Bartlett v. Christhilf, 69 Md. 219, 14 A. 518 (1888), and for attorneys, at least as to communications with the client, the examination of witnesses, statements made to the court or jury, and statements made in pleadings, Maulsby v. Reifsnider, 69 Md. 143, 14 A. 505 (1888); Di Blasio v. Kolodner, supra, 233 Md. 512, 197 A.2d 245; Kennedy v. Cannon, 229 Md. 92, 182 A.2d 54 (1962). These extensions all rest on principles of imperative public policy. Judicial immunity was extended to officials other than judges because their judgments are `functional[ly] comparab[le]' to those of judgesthat is, because they, too, `exercise a discretionary judgment' as a part of their function. Antoine v. Byers & Anderson, supra, 508 U.S. at 436, 113 S.Ct. at 2171, 124 L.Ed.2d at 399, quoting from Imbler v. Pachtman, 424 U.S. 409, 423, 96 S.Ct. 984, 991, 47 L.Ed.2d 128, 139 n. 20 (1976). The public policy notions articulated in Bradley v. Fisher with regard to judges thus justified an immunity for the judicial acts or omissions of those officials as well. The extension to witnesses, attorneys, and parties also was regarded by us as necessary to the proper administration of justice. Subject, of course, to prosecution for perjury, witnesses, who testify under compulsion, must be free to testify according to their belief of the truth, free from apprehension of civil liability for what they may say. Hunckel v. Voneiff, supra, 69 Md. at 187, 14 A. at 501. Attorneys, obliged in the discharge of a professional duty to prosecute and defend the most important rights and interests of their clients should be allowed the widest latitude in commenting on the character, the conduct and motives of parties and witnesses and other persons directly or remotely connected with the subject-matter in litigation. Maulsby v. Reifsnider, supra, 69 Md. at 151, 14 A. at 505. A second form of immunity, protecting legislators and civil and military officers, also originated in English law. An absolute immunity for legislators, with respect to conduct and statements made in the course of legislative proceedings, is as venerable as judicial immunity, having been traced back to 1399. Barr v. Matteo, 360 U.S. 564, 579, 79 S.Ct. 1335, 1343, 3 L.Ed.2d 1434, 1446 (1959) (Warren, C.J., dissenting). It has been recognized both through Speech and Debate Clauses in the Federal and State Constitutions and, more anciently, as a matter of common law. See Tenney v. Brandhove, 341 U.S. 367, 71 S.Ct. 783, 95 L.Ed. 1019, reh. denied, 342 U.S. 843, 72 S.Ct. 20, 96 L.Ed. 637 (1951); Mandel v. O'Hara, 320 Md. 103, 576 A.2d 766 (1990); Montgomery County v. Schooley, 97 Md.App. 107, 627 A.2d 69 (1993). Immunity for executive officials arose later and has been modified over time. Initially, it too was cast as absolute in nature, at least with respect to claims of defamation. See Dawkins v. Paulet, L.R.5 Q.B. 94 (1869); Dawkins v. Rokeby, L.R. 8 Q.B. 255 (1873), aff'd, L.R. 7 H.L. 744; Spalding v. Vilas, 161 U.S. 483, 16 S.Ct. 631, 40 L.Ed. 780 (1896). That view has since been clarified and modified, however, both by the Supreme Court and by this Court. See Butz v. Economou, 438 U.S. 478, 493-94, 98 S.Ct. 2894, 57 L.Ed.2d 895 (1978); Mandel v. O'Hara, supra, 320 Md. 103, 576 A.2d 766. As a general rule, Federal, State, and local executive officials, when exercising executive functions, currently enjoy either a qualified immunity of one kind or another or no immunity at all. Butz, supra; Parker v. State, supra, 337 Md. 271, 653 A.2d 436. Depending to some extent on the nature of the claim, they may be subject to civil liability for common law torts if they exceed their lawful authority or, in some instances, if they commit an intentional tort or act with malice, and they remain subject to liability under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 if their conduct violates clearly established statutory or constitutional rights which a reasonable person would have known. Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 818, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 2738, 73 L.Ed.2d 396, 410 (1982). Because the office of public prosecutor was largely unknown in England, we did not inherit any separate doctrine of prosecutorial immunity from English common law. That doctrine developed largely in the American courts, Burns v. Reed, 500 U.S. 478, 493, 111 S.Ct. 1934, 114 L.Ed.2d 547 (1991), mostly in the context of malicious prosecution, false arrest, and defamation claims. The case generally thought to be the progenitor of the doctrine was Griffith v. Slinkard, 146 Ind. 117, 44 N.E. 1001 (Ind.1896). A prosecutor was charged with malicious prosecution and defamation based on his insertion of the plaintiff's name, as a co-defendant, in an indictment, after the grand jury had concluded that there was insufficient evidence against the plaintiff and voted not to indict him. As a result of the wrongful indictment, the plaintiff was arrested, detained, and put to some expense. The Indiana court regarded the prosecutor as a judicial officer, exercising duties of a judicial nature. It therefore applied the rule that [n]o public officer is responsible in a civil suit for a judicial determination, however erroneous it may be, and however malicious the motive which produced it, and concluded that there was no more liability against the prosecuting attorney than there is against the grand jury for the return of an indictment maliciously and without probable cause. Id. at 1002. That view was rejected in Leong Yau v. Carden, 23 Haw. 362 (1916). The defendant prosecutor was charged with having procured the plaintiff's arrest by signing and presenting to a judge a false and malicious affidavit, upon which the judge issued a warrant. In sustaining exceptions to the defendant's demurrer, the court characterized public prosecutors as executive, rather than judicial, officials, although it acknowledged that, as with other executive officials, they sometimes perform quasi-judicial duties. It accorded them a qualified, but not an absolute, immunity, concluding that [p]ublic prosecuting officers are entitled to protection against claims growing out of the discharge of their duties done in good faith though with erroneous judgment, but private individuals are entitled to the protection of the law against any conduct of such officers which is at once reckless, malicious and damaging. Id. at 369. Thus, it held that, although a prosecutor is not liable in damages for an honest mistake or error in judgment, he is liable if he prosecutes without probable cause and with malice.... Id. In Smith v. Parman, 101 Kan. 115, 165 P. 663 (Kan.1917), another malicious prosecution case, the Kansas court also questioned whether the prosecutor really was a judicial officer, but it concluded that, in determining which prosecutions to bring, he acts at least in a quasi judicial capacity. Id. at 663. Noting the immunity that protected judges and grand jurors, the court found that, in deciding whether a particular prosecution should be instituted or pursued, prosecutors perform much the same function as the grand jury, and that the same public policy basis for the immunity enjoyed by judges and grand jurors applied as well to prosecutors. It expressed concern that if, in deciding whether to proceed, the prosecutor is charged with notice that he may have to defend an action for malicious prosecution in case of a failure to convict, his course may be influenced by that consideration, to the disadvantage of the public. Id. Immunity from civil liability, the court concluded, was not likely to foster an abuse of power, as the prosecutor could be called to account criminally or removed from office for official misconduct. Succeeding cases found the views of the Indiana and Kansas courts more persuasive than those of Hawaii, and absolute immunity became the prevailing common law doctrine. See Semmes v. Collins, 120 Miss. 265, 82 So. 145 (Miss.1919); Watts v. Gerking, 111 Or. 641, 228 P. 135 (Or.1924); Yaselli v. Goff, supra, 12 F.2d 396; Kittler v. Kelsch, 56 N.D. 227, 216 N.W. 898 (N.D.1927); Pearson v. Reed, 6 Cal.App.2d 277, 44 P.2d 592 (Cal.App.1935). See also Imbler v. Pachtman, supra, 424 U.S. 409, 422, 96 S.Ct. at 991,47 L.Ed.2d at 138, noting that [t]he Griffith view on prosecutorial immunity became the clear majority rule on the issue. The Supreme Court first addressed the issue, albeit cursorily, in an appeal from the decision of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Yaselli v. Goff, supra, 12 F.2d 396. In an exhaustive opinion, the court of appeals determined that prosecutors required the same freedom and discretion to carry out their quasi-judicial duties as judges and grand jurors and, on that basis, extended absolute prosecutorial immunity to a special assistant attorney general appointed by the Attorney General of the United States to investigate and prosecute a particular case. In a per curiam memorandum decision, the Supreme Court affirmed on the authority of Bradley v. Fisher, 13 Wall. 335, 347, 20 L.Ed. 646; Alzua v. Johnson, 231 U.S. 106, 111, 34 S.Ct. 27, 58 L.Ed. 142. Yaselli v. Goff, 275 U.S. 503, 48 S.Ct. 155, 72 L.Ed. 395 (1927). The citation to Bradley and to Alzua, in which the Court applied the absolute judicial immunity established in Bradley to a judge of the Supreme Court of the Philippine Islands, indicates a conclusion that prosecutors were entitled to the same immunity possessed by judges. The question of prosecutorial immunity came before the Court again, in the context of an action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, in Imbler v. Pachtman, supra, 424 U.S. 409, 96 S.Ct. 984, 47 L.Ed.2d 128. The plaintiff, who had been prosecuted by the defendant, convicted, sentenced to death, and later released on Federal habeas corpus, averred that the prosecutor had, in effect, suborned perjury and suppressed favorable evidence. The Supreme Court began its analysis by drawing from Tenney v. Brandhove, supra, 341 U.S. 367, 71 S.Ct. 783, 95 L.Ed. 1019the case establishing absolute immunity for legislators as to claims under § 1983the principle that § 1983 was to be read in harmony with general principles of tort immunities and defenses rather than in derogation of them. Id. at 418, 96 S.Ct. at 989, 47 L.Ed.2d at 136. After determining that, at common law, prosecutors enjoyed an absolute immunity from civil liability with respect to their prosecutorial conduct, the Court observed that [t]he common-law immunity of a prosecutor is based upon the same considerations that underlie the common-law immunities of judges and grand jurors acting within the scope of their duties, including concern that harassment by unfounded litigation would cause a deflection of the prosecutor's energies from his public duties, and the possibility that he would shade his decisions instead of exercising the independence of judgment required by his public trust. Id. at 422-23, 96 S.Ct. at 991, 47 L.Ed.2d at 139. Those same concerns, the Court held, applied as well to liability under § 1983. Focusing on the kinds of suits most often brought against prosecutorsmalicious prosecution actions by erstwhile defendantsthe Court concluded that, if prosecutors had only a qualified immunity, the threat of § 1983 suits would undermine performance of his duties no less than would the threat of common-law suits for malicious prosecution. Id. at 424, 96 S.Ct. at 992, 47 L.Ed.2d at 140. Independence of judgment was required both in deciding which cases to prosecute and in the manner of prosecution. In balancing those considerations against the effect of absolute immunity on persons truly wronged by prosecutorial misconduct, the Court noted that the public would not be entirely without remedythat prosecutors were not only subject to professional discipline as lawyers but may be subject to criminal prosecution under 18 U.S.C. § 242 for wilful deprivations of Constitutional rights. In defining the contour of its decision, the Court approved the functional approach taken by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in the case, applying absolute immunity to conduct associated with the judicial process. Id. at 430, 96 S.Ct. at 995, 47 L.Ed.2d at 143. The Court left open whether that immunity would apply as well to investigative and administrative functions performed by prosecutors. The Supreme Court addressed the open question and clarified and applied the functional approach in two subsequent cases Burns v. Reed, supra, 500 U.S. 478, 111 S.Ct. 1934, 114 L.Ed.2d 547 (1991), and Buckley v. Fitzsimmons, 509 U.S. 259, 113 S.Ct. 2606, 125 L.Ed.2d 209 (1993). In Burns, the prosecutor was sued under § 1983 for having (1) advised investigating police officers that it was permissible to interview the plaintiff, a suspect in a multiple shooting, under hypnosis, (2) advised the police that, in light of statements made by the plaintiff while under hypnosis, probable cause existed to arrest the plaintiff, and (3) appeared at a probable cause hearing seeking a search warrant and failed to inform the judge that the plaintiff's confession was obtained while she was under hypnosis. A warrant was obtained and charges were brought against the plaintiff, but they were dismissed after the court suppressed the hypnotically-induced statements. Borrowing heavily from Imbler, the Court noted that it had applied absolute immunity from liability under § 1983 for conduct in initiating a prosecution and in presenting the State's case, insofar as that conduct is intimately associated with the judicial phase of the criminal process but had reserved with respect to investigative and administrative conduct. Burns, supra, 500 U.S. at 486, 111 S.Ct. at 1935, 114 L.Ed.2d at 558. It observed as well that, ordinarily, qualified immunity is sufficient to protect government officials in the exercise of their duties and that officials seeking absolute immunity had the burden of showing that absolute immunity is justified for the function in question. Id. Parsing out the conduct at issue, the Court held that the defendant was absolutely immune with respect to his participation as a lawyer at the probable cause hearing. It applied the common law immunity applicable to witnesses and lawyers for statements made in and related to judicial proceedings, including the elicitation of false and defamatory testimony. A different conclusion was reached with respect to the advice given to the police, however. The Court noted that there was no historical or common law support for extending absolute immunity to that kind of conduct, and it determined that advising the police in the investigative phase of a criminal case was not so intimately involved with the judicial phase of the criminal process to justify an absolute immunity: Absolute immunity is designed to free the judicial process from the harassment and intimidation associated with litigation [citation omitted]. That concern therefore justifies absolute prosecutorial immunity only for actions that are concerned with the prosecutor's role in judicial proceedings, not for every litigation-inducing conduct. Id. at 494, 111 S.Ct. at 1943, 114 L.Ed.2d at 563-64 (emphasis in original). In Buckley v. Fitzsimmons , prosecutors were charged under § 1983 with having fabricated false evidence used to indict the plaintiff and for having made false and defamatory statements concerning the plaintiff at a press conference announcing his arrest. In analyzing the fabrication claim, the Court rejected the plaintiff's view that absolute immunity does not apply until the criminal case is actually filed, confirming instead that acts undertaken by a prosecutor in preparing for the initiation of judicial proceedings or for trial, and which occur in the course of his role as an advocate for the State, are entitled to the protections of absolute immunity. 509 U.S. at 273, 113 S.Ct. at 2615, 125 L.Ed.2d at 226. It also confirmed, however, that qualified immunity was the norm and that, [w]hen a prosecutor performs the investigative functions normally performed by a detective or police officer, the lesser immunity available to those officials would also apply to the prosecutor. Upon the facts alleged in the complaint, it was clear that the prosecutors' mission at the time they fabricated the false evidence was entirely investigative in character, there being no probable cause then to arrest anyone. Only qualified immunity applied. The prosecutors fared no better with respect to their press conference statements. The conduct of a press conference, the Court held, may be an integral part of a prosecutor's job and may serve a vital public function, but it does not involve the initiation of a prosecution, the presentation of the State's case in court, or actions preparatory for these functions, and in these respects a prosecutor is in no different position than other executive officials who deal with the press.... Id. at 278, 113 S.Ct. at 2618, 125 L.Ed.2d at 229. Although, as noted, we have not dealt specifically with prosecutorial immunity, we have, in defining and applying judicial immunity, from which prosecutorial immunity arose and with which it maintains some affinity, adopted the functional approach taken by the Supreme Court, holding that absolute immunity protects judges so long as their acts are `judicial' ... in nature and within the very general scope of their jurisdiction. Parker v. State, supra, 337 Md. at 284, 653 A.2d at 442, quoting in part from Mandel v. O'Hara, supra, 320 Md. at 107, 576 A.2d at 768. There is no reason to depart from that approach with respect to prosecutorial immunity. We conclude, therefore, as a matter of Maryland common law, that prosecutors enjoy absolute immunity with respect to claims arising from their role in the judicial processevaluating whether to commence a prosecution by criminal information, presenting evidence to a grand jury in the quest for an indictment, filing charges, and preparing and presenting the State's case in court. [5] Unquestionably, Mr. Cassilly and Ms. Ripley, as prosecutors, would be entitled to whatever immunity applies with respect to the challenged conduct, a matter we shall consider shortly. The question, not discussed at any length by either party, is whether that immunity would apply as well to Ms. Greene, a clerical employee. Her alleged misconduct was in (1) telling Joyce that she was precluded from pursuing a paternity action against Hectorin effect giving legal advice that Joyce claims was inaccurate, and (2) not allowing Joyce to speak with Ms. Ripley or other attorneys. We have found no cases, and none have been cited, dealing with the extent to which a clerical employee in a prosecutor's office partakes of the immunity enjoyed by the prosecutor. There have, however, been a number of cases dealing with the extension of judicial immunity to law clerks employed by a judge and to court clerks who act under the direction of a judge or who implement judicial orders of one kind or another. The general rule is that those individuals, when performing tasks that are integral to the judicial process, enjoy the same immunity that is applicable to the judges. Particularly in the more recent cases, the courts have applied the same kind of functional analysis that has been applied to judges. With respect to court clerks, some courts have accorded judicial immunity only in connection with discretionary, as opposed to ministerial, acts, Lowe v. Letsinger, 772 F.2d 308 (7th Cir.1985), or when the act is required by court order or taken at a judge's direction, Williams v. Wood, 612 F.2d 982 (5th Cir.1980). See also Tarter v. Hury, 646 F.2d 1010, 1013 (5th Cir.1981); Denman v. Leedy, 479 F.2d 1097, 1098 (6th Cir.1973); Scott v. Dixon, 720 F.2d 1542, 1546 (11th Cir.1983), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 832, 105 S.Ct. 122, 83 L.Ed.2d 64 (1984); Andrea G. Nadel, Applicability of Judicial Immunity to Acts of Clerk of Court under State Law, 34 A.L.R.4th 1186 (1984). Other courts have looked more at whether the conduct was an integral part of the judicial process, rather than whether it was discretionary or ministerial in nature. Sindram v. Suda, 986 F.2d 1459 (D.C.Cir.1993); Mullis v. U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Dist. of Nevada, 828 F.2d 1385 (9th Cir.1987), cert. denied, 486 U.S. 1040, 108 S.Ct. 2031, 100 L.Ed.2d 616 (1988); Foster v. Walsh, 864 F.2d 416 (6th Cir.1988). Even under the more restrictive approach, judicial immunity has been applied to court clerks with respect to discretionary acts that implement judicial decisions or that are performed at the direction or under the supervision of a judge. Judicial immunity has likewise been extended to law clerks employed by judges. In Oliva v. Heller, 839 F.2d 37 (2d Cir.1988), the plaintiff, who had been convicted of a criminal offense, filed a motion to vacate his sentence. The judge assigned the matter to the defendant, one of his law clerks. The clerk had recently accepted a position with the U.S. Attorney's office, to commence upon the completion of her clerkship, and her practice was not to work on any matter in which the U.S. Attorney appeared unless all parties consented; such matters were routinely assigned to the judge's other law clerk. In this instance, through an oversight, she neglected to obtain the plaintiff's consent and assisted the judge in his consideration of the motion. The plaintiff learned of the clerk's potential conflict after the motion was denied, whereupon he filed a motion to reconsider the denial and to recuse the judge. The judge did recuse, to avoid even an appearance of impropriety, and the motion was heard by another judge, who granted the motion to reconsider but denied relief on the merits. The plaintiff then sued the law clerk for damages for violating his Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights. Noting both the functional approach taken by the Supreme Court with respect to judicial immunityunder which such immunity flows not from rank or title or `location within the Government,' but from the nature of the responsibilities of the individual officialand the decisions applying judicial immunity to court clerks exercising discretionary acts of a judicial nature, the court concluded that the same immunity should be enjoyed by law clerks. Id. at 39-40, quoting in part from Cleavinger v. Saxner, 474 U.S. 193, 201, 106 S.Ct. 496, 501, 88 L.Ed.2d 507, 514 (1985). Their work, it held, is entirely judicial in nature and is supervised, approved, and adopted by the judges who initially authorized it. Id. at 40, quoting from the District Court opinion in Oliva v. Heller, 670 F.Supp. 523, 526 (S.D.N.Y.1987). See also Moore v. Brewster, 96 F.3d 1240 (9th Cir.1996), cert. denied, 519 U.S. 1118, 117 S.Ct. 963, 136 L.Ed.2d 848 (1997); Mitchell v. McBryde, 944 F.2d 229 (5th Cir.1991); Fariello v. Campbell, 860 F.Supp. 54 (E.D.N.Y.1994). The allegations laid against Ms. Greene, and the reasonable inferences to be drawn therefrom, are that she was an employee of the Bureau of Support Enforcement, located within the State's Attorney's office, that she informed Joyce that her case against Hector was over and forever precluded, that, along with Ms. Ripley, she refused to follow the express instructions of [Joyce] with regard to reopening the case and pursuing child support, that, whenever Joyce appeared at the State's Attorney's office, Ms. Greene refused to allow her to meet with an attorney in the State's Attorney's office about reopening the proceeding, and that at all relevant times, Ms. Greene was acting within the scope of her employment. It is evident from these allegations and inferences that Ms. Greene was acting under the direction of the State's Attorney and that her conduct was directly and intimately involved with the prosecution, or non-prosecution, of Joyce's paternity action. We can find no principled basis upon which to distinguish her role from that of law clerks or court clerks who act under the control and supervision of judges and who perform functions that are integral to the judicial process. Whatever immunity inheres to the prosecutors in this case is enjoyed by her as well.