Hill v. Murphy

Dist. Ct. erred in dismissing portion of plaintiff’s section 1983 action, alleging that defendants-police officials violated his 4th Amendment rights when defendants entered his home, subjected him to painful tactics, and refused to provide him with medical attention in attempt to obtain damaging admissions from plaintiff that were used to generate criminal charges to which plaintiff had pleaded guilty. While Dist. Ct. believed that plaintiff’s action was subject to dismissal under Heck, 512 US 477, because judgment in plaintiff’s favor would imply invalidity of his underlying convictions, dismissal was improper since establishment of instant alleged 4th Amendment/excessive force violation would not exonerate plaintiff from his underlying false statement and attempted extortion convictions. However, Dist. Ct. did not err in dismissing plaintiff’s 5th Amendment due process claim alleging that he was improperly coerced into providing false response that formed basis of his false-statement conviction, since favorable verdict for plaintiff would be inconsistent with said conviction.