Opinion ID: 3032372
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Functional Analysis

Text: The central issue in determining whether Gammick and Helzer are entitled to absolute immunity is defining the particular function they were engaged in when they allegedly retaliated against Botello. The acts of Gammick and Helzer fit within three separate categories of conduct: (1) their communications to the School Police Department in an effort to dissuade it from hiring Botello; (2) their decision not to prosecute Botello’s cases; and (3) their communications to the School Police Department insisting that Botello be barred from all stages of the investigative process. 1. Telephoning the School Police Department to Dissuade It from Hiring Botello [3] Botello claims that before they adopted their nonprosecution policy, the prosecutors first retaliated against him by telephoning the School Police Department trying to sabotage his job prospects. Gammick and Helzer are not entitled to absolute immunity for this conduct, which had no connection to the judicial process. When they involved themselves in the School Police Department’s personnel decision whether to 5 Although we focus on the administrative nature of Gammick’s and Helzer’s conduct, by attempting to dictate the manner in which future investigations should be staffed and conducted, the prosecutors were likely engaging in an investigative rather than a judicial function. Buckley, 509 U.S. at 273 (“When a prosecutor performs the investigative functions normally performed by a detective or police officer, it is neither appropriate nor justifiable that, for the same act, immunity should protect the one and not the other.”) (internal quotation marks omitted). BOTELLO v. GAMMICK 7525 hire Botello, they were at best performing an administrative function and, as such, could only be entitled to qualified immunity. See Forrester, 484 U.S. at 228-30. Their defamatory comments about Botello were simply an attempt to disrupt an employment decision. Thus, Gammick and Helzer are not entitled to absolute immunity for their communications with the School Police Department regarding its hiring of Botello.6 2. Decision not to Prosecute [4] Having failed to thwart the School Police Department’s hiring of Botello, Gammick and Helzer allegedly attempted to have him fired by announcing their refusal to prosecute any cases where Botello participated in any phase of the investigative process. The prosecutors’ failure to offer an explanation for their nonprosecution policy and their refusal to prosecute Botello’s cases under any circumstances, for instance even where there might be corroborating evidence or testimony, give us pause. Nonetheless, their decision not to prosecute Botello’s cases and their communication of that decision is intimately tied to the judicial process and is thus entitled to absolute immunity. See Roe, 109 F.3d at 583; cf. Beck v. Phillips, 685 N.W. 2d 637 (Iowa 2004) (holding that the prosecutor was entitled to absolute immunity for his nonprosecution policy but only qualified immunity for sending letters communicating the policy to city officials). 3. Barring Botello from All Stages of the Investigative Process [5] The prosecutors’ demands that Botello be barred from participating in any aspect of any investigation were not intimately tied to the judicial process. Rather, in insisting that Botello be barred from any aspect of the investigative process, 6 We express no opinion as to whether the prosecutors’ actions damaged Botello. 7526 BOTELLO v. GAMMICK even from the earliest stages of preliminary investigations, Gammick and Helzer were in essence dictating to local law enforcement authorities how future criminal investigations should be conducted and staffed — an administrative function. [6] Although Gammick and Helzer argue that their staffing directives fall within Roe’s protection, such a reading of Roe would extend absolute immunity to conduct well beyond the prosecutorial function. See Burns, 500 U.S. at 495 (“Almost any action by a prosecutor . . . could be said to be in some way related to the ultimate decision whether to prosecute, but we have never indicated that absolute immunity is that expansive. Rather, . . . we inquire whether the prosecutor’s actions are closely associated with the judicial process.”). Because the official seeking absolute immunity bears the burden of demonstrating that absolute immunity is justified for the function in question, see Buckley, 509 U.S. at 269, it was the prosecutors’ burden to demonstrate that their conduct was tied to an exercise of their prosecutorial judgment. Here, they failed to demonstrate a connection between their unexplained, unqualified blanket prohibition on Botello’s involvement in any aspect of an investigation and the judicial process. Under Gammick’s and Helzer’s nonprosecution policy, it made no difference whether Botello was a potential witness, or whether his testimony could be corroborated by other witnesses or physical evidence. Cf. Roe, 109 F.3d at 584 (noting that prosecutors would not prosecute Roe’s cases absent corroborating evidence or testimony). Instead, Gammick and Helzer sought to usurp the staffing decisions Chief Meiras might make to use Botello in ways that would not compromise a criminal prosecution and would comport with the prosecutors’ nonprosecution policy. In Roe, the police chief had a number of staffing choices in light of the prosecutors’ qualified nonprosecution policy, including transferring Roe as the chief did, or making sure that there would always be an officer other than Roe who could testify BOTELLO v. GAMMICK 7527 or corroborate Roe’s testimony. Gammick and Helzer gave Chief Meiras no such options. We fail to see why Gammick and Helzer should be entitled to absolute immunity when they stepped into the shoes of Chief Meiras, who would at most be entitled to only qualified immunity as an administrative decision-maker. See Burns, 500 U.S. at 486-87 (explaining that qualified rather than absolute immunity is presumed sufficient to protect government officials in the course of their duties). [7] Just as a prosecutor may not assert that his actions are absolutely immune merely because they are performed by a prosecutor, see Buckley, 509 U.S. at 273, a prosecutor may not assert blanket absolute immunity by labeling all his actions as within a particular prosecutorial function. By simply characterizing all of their conduct as a decision not to prosecute, Gammick and Helzer have not met their burden of showing that absolute immunity is justified either for their attempted interference with the School Police Department’s hiring of Botello or for their administrative demands that Botello be barred from participating in all stages of the investigative process. Accordingly, we reverse and remand to the district court to determine whether Gammick and Helzer are entitled to qualified immunity. See, e.g., Milstein, 257 F.3d at 1013 n.6.