Court Opinion

ID: 9490438
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 13:43:33.663818+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:54:06.115533
License: Public Domain

PANNER, District Judge,
Concurring in Part and Dissenting in Part:
I respectfully dissent. I would affirm the district court’s judgment in its entirety.
*1128The majority correctly holds that Shakow-ski is entitled to qualified immunity with respect to the omissions. The majority, erroneously in my opinion, also holds that this case must be remanded for the district court to reconsider whether Shakowski is entitled to qualified immunity for alleged misstatements in his search warrant affidavit.
The majority finds error because the district court required Lombardi to prove at trial that Shakowski made the alleged misstatements with the intent to mislead the state court judge. The district court was preparing to try the issue before a jury when Lombardi stipulated that he could not prove that Shakowski “knowingly and intentionally, or with a reckless disregard for the truth, [made] false statements or omissions in his search warrant affidavit in order to mislead the state court judicial officer as to the existence of probable cause.” Based on Lombardi’s stipulation, the district court entered judgment in Shakowski’s favor.
The majority concedes that the only real issue is whether Shakowski intentionally or recklessly reported falsely what the confidential informants told him. The informants contended that Shakowski deliberately lied about his conversations with them. Based on the facts in this case, if Shakowski lied about what the informants told him, he obviously intended to deceive the magistrate. There were no other allegations to support the warrant.
Even if the majority is correct that the district court should not have required proof of Shakowski’s intent to deceive the magistrate, the error, if any, is irrelevant under these facts. When Lombardi stipulated that he could not meet the burden of proof established by the district court, in effect he was conceding that he could not prove Shakowski had lied. It makes no sense to return this matter to the district court to resolve whether Shakowski lied, because that’s the very issue the district court offered to submit.
There may be cases in which it would be error to require the plaintiff to prove intent to deceive the magistrate, but this is certainly not one. This circuit’s decisions require that the plaintiff make a substantial showing of a deliberate or reckless falsehood or omission that is material to the probable cause determination. See, e.g., Hervey v. Estes, 65 F.3d 784, 789 (9th Cir.1995) (referring to “dishonestly included or omitted information”); Branch v. Tunnell, 937 F.2d 1382, 1388 (9th Cir.1991) (plaintiff must establish that, but for the dishonesty, the challenged action would not have occurred). These decisions speak of conduct involving dishonesty, as does Franks. Franks v. Delaware, 438 U.S. 154, 165, 98 S.Ct. 2674, 2680, 57 L.Ed.2d 667 (1978) (affidavit should be “ ‘truthful’ in the sense that the information put forth is believed or appropriately accepted by the affiant as true”). “Dishonesty” ordinarily is associated with an intent to deceive. Aside from the fact that here, requiring proof of intent to deceive had no effect, it’s difficult to imagine any case involving alleged Franks violations where such an instruction on intent would be inappropriate.
The district court in this case gave Lombardi every opportunity he was entitled to. Lombardi declined to proceed. The district court’s judgment was entirely appropriate.