Opinion ID: 2998624
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Concealment of Exculpatory Evidence

Text: The Sornbergers’ complaint further alleged that the defendants violated the Sornbergers’ rights to due pro- 16 (...continued) obstruction of justice for making a false confession. Mangieri threatened to try Teresa on the bank robbery charge unless she pleaded guilty to obstruction. Teresa complied and was sentenced to time served; she had already spent 118 days in jail awaiting trial for bank robbery. Although this plea and sentence were later vacated, the proceeding in which Teresa entered her guilty plea certainly qualifies as a use of her allegedly coerced confession in a criminal case. Accordingly, this alternative use of Teresa’s confession supports a claim for damages under the Fifth Amendment. No. 04-3614 39 cess by generating a police report that falsely described the circumstances surrounding Teresa’s confession, by lying to the state prosecutor about the confession, and by perjuring themselves at the suppression hearing. The complaint also alleged that the officers violated Scott’s right to due process by withholding facts from the state’s attorney that cast doubt on the probability that Scott committed the robbery. The district court held that this claim failed because (1) Teresa’s confession was deemed voluntary by the Knox County Court; and (2) the facts supporting Scott’s innocence, even if disclosed, would not have disturbed the finding of probable cause. Thus, in the district court’s view, the alleged violations lacked any causal relationship to the Sornbergers’ prolonged detention. We shall now examine this claim in more detail. The Sornbergers’ complaint alleged that Officers Sheppard and Riley failed to disclose the coercive circumstances surrounding Teresa’s confession, both in the police report filed by the officers and in their testimony at the suppression hearing. Considering itself bound by the facts established by the Knox County suppression proceeding, the district court determined that the officers’ police report and testimony could not be false. Accordingly, in the district court’s view, the evidence did not establish the causation element necessary to proving the constitutional torts alleged by Teresa. As we already have concluded, the findings of the Knox County court are not entitled to preclusive effect, and the circumstances surrounding Teresa’s confession may indeed have violated her Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment rights. We must address, therefore, whether Teresa has stated an otherwise valid claim of unconstitutional concealment. Because the allegations involve active concealment and failure to disclose on the part of Officers Sheppard and 40 No. 04-3614 Riley, we must treat Teresa’s due process claim as one predicated on Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 87 (1963).17 Such a claim is viable when the prosecution or police fails to disclose exculpatory evidence to a criminal defendant before trial. See Gauger v. Hendle, 349 F.3d 354, 360 (7th Cir. 2003). The failure of Officers Sheppard and Riley to disclose the coercive circumstances of Teresa’s confession does not, however, state a viable Brady claim. Our decision in Gauger controls such a situation. In that case, Gauger sued three detectives under § 1983 for allegedly giving the prosecution a false account of Gauger’s interrogation. The court found Gauger’s “proposed extension of Brady difficult even to understand.” Id. The court explained: 17 In the Sornbergers’ summary judgment briefing, they term the officers’ concealment of evidence a due process violation. The Sornbergers do not further articulate the specific due process right being invoked. Nor does the Sornbergers’ appellate brief provide any illumination, as it focuses on showing why the district court was wrong to dismiss the predicate coerced confession claim. The Sornbergers’ complaint also alleged that the officers perjured themselves at the suppression hearing. Of course, were Teresa claiming damages solely based upon the officers’ perjured testimony, the officers would be entitled to absolute immunity. See Briscoe v. LaHue, 460 U.S. 325 (1983); Buckley v. Fitzsimons, 20 F.3d 789 (7th Cir. 1994). However, Teresa also argues that the officers withheld exculpatory information and lied to the prosecutor who successfully indicted her and Scott. “Neither the withholding of exculpatory information nor the initiation of constitutionally infirm proceedings is protected by absolute immunity.” Ineco v. City of Chicago, 286 F.3d 994, 1000 (7th Cir. 2002). The fact that Teresa also complained of perjury does not foreclose her Brady claim. No. 04-3614 41 It implies that the state has a duty not merely to disclose but also to create truthful exculpatory evidence. Indeed the duty to disclose falls out, because Gauger knew what he had said at the interrogation. The problem was not that evidence useful to him was being concealed; the problem was that the detectives were giving false evidence. Gauger wants to make every false statement by a prosecution witness the basis for a civil rights suit, on the theory that by failing to correct the statement the prosecution deprived the defendant of Brady material, that is, the correction itself. Id. (citations omitted). Here, Teresa complains that Officers Sheppard and Riley failed to disclose the circumstances of her interrogation. However, Teresa already was quite familiar with those circumstances. Teresa knew herself what occurred during the interrogation, and the police were under no Brady obligation to tell her again that they coerced her into confessing. Nor can Brady serve as the basis of a cause of action against the officers for failing to disclose these circumstances to the prosecutor. Brady rights run to the criminal defendant, not to the prosecution. The Constitution does not require that police testify truthfully; rather “the constitutional rule is that the defendant is entitled to a trial that will enable jurors to determine where the truth lies.” Buie v. McAdory, 341 F.3d 623, 625-26 (7th Cir. 2003). Teresa was not deprived of evidence held by the police or prosecutor that would have helped her question the officers’ version of the events in court. She therefore has not stated a valid Brady claim. 42 No. 04-3614