Opinion ID: 659342
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Prosecutorial Overreaching.

Text: 25 The Rumery plurality recognized that prosecutors may be tempted to bring frivolous charges, or to dismiss meritorious charges, to protect the interests of other officials. Id. at 395, 107 S.Ct. at 1193. The public interest is disserved when a prosecutor ... brings trumped-up charges to extort a release of civil claims. Lynch v. City of Alhambra, 880 F.2d 1122, 1128 n. 9 (9th Cir.1989). 3 Thus, Rumery upheld a release-dismissal agreement where it was voluntarily made and there was no evidence of prosecutorial overreaching apart from the agreement itself. Berry v. Peterson, 887 F.2d 635, 636, 640 (5th Cir.1989). 26 Hill supports the allegation of prosecutorial misconduct with the affidavit of his mother, who avers that she telephoned Whipkey and threatened to sue him before he conferred with Bonacci and before Bonacci filed charges, and the December 20 police report, which shows that Hill was hospitalized for the elbow injury before Bonacci filed charges. In short, the affidavits indicate that Bonacci could have, chronologically speaking, discerned the threat of Hill's civil rights action before drafting the charges against Hill. However, Bonacci's affidavit asserts that he did not know of Hill's potential civil rights claim until after the charges were drafted. In the face of Bonacci's unrefuted affidavit, Hill proffers no evidence suggesting that the circumstances surrounding [the] arrest and threatened prosecution [we]re ... suspicious. Lynch, 880 F.2d at 1128. Thus, as in Rumery, there is no evidence of prosecutorial overreaching apart from the release-dismissal agreement itself. 27 The factual situation in this case is significantly different from that related in Coughlen, where the plaintiff and the prosecutor executed the release-dismissal agreement without the benefit of judicial supervision. Coughlen, 5 F.3d at 972. Here, by contrast, a state judge, who was well-advised of the charges against Hill, authorized the release. Moreover, the state charges withstood motions filed by Hill's attorney before any release was signed, which buttresses the conclusion that there was no prosecutorial overreaching. Again, the City has carried its burden on this issue. 28