Olson v. Champaign County, Illinois

Federal 7th Circuit Court
Civil Court
Immunity
Citation
Case Number: 
No. 12-3742
Decision Date: 
April 30, 2015
Federal District: 
C.D. Ill.
Holding: 
Reversed and remanded
Dist. Ct. erred in granting defendants-prosecutor and police detectives’ motion for summary judgment in section 1983 action alleging that defendants violated plaintiff’s 4th Amendment rights by causing issuance of plaintiff’s arrest warrant without probable cause, after finding that defendant-prosecutor was entitled to absolute immunity and that defendants-detectives were entitled to qualified immunity. Under Kalina, 522 US 118, defendant-prosecutor was not entitled to absolute immunity where plaintiff alleged that prosecutor was acting as witness, as opposed to advocate of state, when he personally vouched for false testimony provided by defendants-detectives in order to obtain plaintiff’s arrest warrant. Moreover, defendants-detectives were not entitled to qualified immunity, where plaintiff alleged that both detectives conducted investigation that turned up no evidence linking plaintiff to crime and yet gave false information to obtain said arrest warrant.