Opinion ID: 3000257
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: facts

Text: Because this case comes to us from a dismissal under Rule 12(b)(6), we must accept all well-pleaded allegations in the complaint as true and draw all reasonable inferences in favor of the plaintiffs. See Marshall-Mosby v. Corporate Receivables, Inc., 205 F.3d 323, 326 (7th Cir. 2000). Robert Alty is a police officer for the City of Belvidere, Illinois. In 1998 he arrested a driver for operating a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol. That driver turned out to be a friend or relative of Edward Krieger, a Deputy Sheriff of Boone County, Illinois. This incident resulted in animosity between the two officers that No. 04-4162 3 culminated in a face-to-face altercation at some point in 2001. According to the allegations of the complaint, after that incident, Deputy Krieger engaged in “a pattern of onduty conduct designed to harass, annoy, and intimidate” Officer Alty and his girlfriend, Anita Christensen. Specifically, the couple alleges that Deputy Krieger repeatedly followed them, both individually and with each other, while they drove on Boone County streets; parked his squad car in front of Ms. Christensen’s place of employment in order to watch her; and sat in his police car outside of businesses that the plaintiffs were visiting in an effort to cause the couple “difficulties with the proprietors of such establishments.” Ms. Christensen and Officer Alty claimed that Deputy Krieger’s actions were performed under color of state law and deprived them of their rights to privacy, freedom of association, freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures and “substantive due process rights under the First, Fourth, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments.” The complaint further alleges that Officer Alty and Ms. Christensen had filed numerous complaints with Deputy Krieger’s supervisors at the Boone County Sheriff ’s Department, but that the Department had not taken any action to correct the situation. Finally, the complaint alleges that Deputy Krieger’s conduct constituted the intentional infliction of emotional distress under Illinois law.