Opinion ID: 773427
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Lee's Identification of the ISP Troopers

Text: 57 As an initial matter, defendants contend that Troopers Lauterbach and Fraher did not stop Lee, and ask for a dismissal based on the threshold unreliability of Lee's eyewitness identifications. Lee was not issued a citation or warning, thus he received no documentation of the stops. To determine the names of the officers who had stopped him, he looked at an array of photographs of Illinois State Police personnel, assembled by the ISP. Lee viewed these photos on two separate occasions, the first was about seventeen months after he was allegedly stopped by Fraher and over twenty-three months after he was allegedly stopped by Lauterbach. On both occasions, Lee identified Lauterbach and Fraher as the ISP troopers who stopped, detained, and searched him in March and August of 1993, respectively. 58 The ISP denies that these stops ever occurred. First, Lauterbach and Fraher claim that they do not recall stopping, detaining, or searching Lee. Second, the ISP states that they have no record of any traffic stop of Lee by Lauterbach or Fraher, and no record of either of these officers issuing Lee a citation or warning. Third, defendants contend that the officers were not patrolling the relevant roads on the dates Lee alleges he was stopped. Finally, the ISP claims that Lee's identifications of Lauterbach and Fraher are inherently unreliable, pointing to allegedly serious deficiencies in Lee's identifications of the pertinent officers. 59 With respect to the first argument, the officers do not claim that they did not stop Lee, only that they do not recall doing so. They have produced no evidence definitively establishing that they were not present when Lee was stopped. Second, the ISP has admitted that records are not generated for all stops; without issuance of a citation or warning a record might not be generated. 5 Third, Fraher testified that he patrolled I-80 at the relevant time. While ISP records indicate that Lauterbach was not working during part of the time period in which he is alleged to have stopped Lee, and that during the remainder of this period he was patrolling other roads, the ISP has admitted that troopers sometimes stop vehicles outside their patrol areas. 60 Finally, we can not conclude that Lee's identifications are so flawed as to be inherently unreliable. The district court concluded that Lee's testimony created a genuine question of material fact and was thus sufficient to withstand summary judgment. See Chavez v. Ill. State Police, 27 F. Supp. 2d 1053, 1079 (N.D. Ill. 1998). We agree. While Lee's descriptions of troopers Lauterbach and Fraher contain certain inaccuracies, 6 we will not resolve credibility disputes on a motion for summary judgment. See Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 255, 106 S. Ct. 2505, 91 L. Ed. 2d 202 (1986); Ritchie v. Glidden Co., 242 F. 3d 713, 723 (7th Cir. 2001). Thus, we proceed to the merits of the plaintiffs' equal protection claims. 61