Opinion ID: 297983
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: The Malicious Prosecution Suit.

Text: 21 O'Bryan's conduct in the bankruptcy litigation occurred in 1958. Judge Chandler was of the opinion that this conduct violated several federal criminal statutes and urged the United States Attorney to prosecute him. Two successive United States Attorneys in the Western District of Oklahoma refused to do so. Finally, in November 1961, Judge Chandler himself appeared before a grand jury and presented the evidence which he felt warranted prosecution. The grand jury returned an indictment against O'Bryan. This indictment was dismissed by Judge Frederick A. Daugherty of the Western District of Oklahoma on the grounds that Judge Chandler's presence in the grand jury room was a technical irregularity violating the secrecy of grand jury proceedings, without prejudice to the bringing of a new indictment. No new indictment was ever brought. 22 In September 1963, O'Bryan filed a $10,000,000 malicious prosecution, libel and slander suit against Judge Chandler in the Oklahoma state court, based on Chandler's actions in securing the grand jury indictment. The suit was removed to the federal court, and Judge Roy W. Harper of the Eastern District of Missouri was assigned to hear the case. Judge Harper ruled that Judge Chandler's actions were not wholly outside his jurisdiction as a federal judge and hence he was protected by the doctrine of judicial immunity from liability. O'Bryan v. Chandler, 249 F.Supp. 51 (W.D.Okl. 1964). 23 O'Bryan appealed from this decision. Judge Chandler was represented in this proceeding by the Department of Justice, the Oklahoma Bar Association as amicus curiae, and by private attorneys. On the day set for oral argument, the Tenth Circuit permitted Judge Chandler to file a document (hereinafter the blue brief) which he styled as an Official Statement. In the course of this document, Judge Chandler accused O'Bryan of being an accomplice, if not the mastermind, of the bribery of certain members of the Oklahoma Supreme Court in the Selected Investments case. 24 Some few days before the filing of this document, Judge Chandler called to his office the editor of the Oklahoma Journal, a local newspaper, and gave to him a preliminary draft (hereinafter the tan brief) of the Official Statement which differed in some respects from the blue brief as filed, but which included the bribery charge. The day after the oral argument in the case, the Oklahoma Journal published a front-page story on the case which was headlined O'Bryan Called `Bribe Mastermind'. Other newspapers in the area carried only short stories on the case and did not include the bribery charge. 25 O'Bryan filed a motion to strike the Official Statement which was denied by the Tenth Circuit; Judge Chandler's request in his Official Statement that an injunction and contempt citation be issued against O'Bryan was not acted on. Ultimately the Court affirmed Judge Harper's decision on the judicial immunity issue. O'Bryan v. Chandler, 352 F.2d 987 (10th Cir. 1965), cert. denied, 384 U.S. 926, 86 S.Ct. 1444, 16 L.Ed.2d 530 (1966). 26