Dist. Ct. erred in granting defendants-police officials’ motion for summary judgment in section 1983 action alleging that defendants-police officials denied plaintiff due process when investigating and prosecuting murder charge against plaintiff by withholding exculpatory evidence, which resulted in plaintiff being convicted of said charge that was eventually overturned in plaintiff’s post-conviction petition. Plaintiff presented sufficient evidence of Brady violations committed by defendants to withstand instant summary judgment, where: (1) defendants failed to disclose impeachment evidence indicating that key govt. witness, who had identified defendants as shooters, was actually unaware who had shot victim; (2) state’s case against defendants had no physical or forensic evidence linking plaintiff to instant murder; and (3) one defendant generated false statement for witness to hide fact that said witness had identified another individual as culprit in murder. Ct. similarly noted as Brady violation, fact that one defendant-police officer delayed tender (until eve of trial) of 40 hours of jail telephone calls from key witness, which effectively precluded defense counsel from discovering that said witness had claimed that he had been threatened and coached as to what to say to police. Dist. Ct. did not err, though, in granting portion of summary judgment motion with respect to plaintiff’s claim that defendants had fabricated evidence by coercing witness to generate false statements, where plaintiff failed to presented evidence that defendants knew that said statements, although coerced, were false.
Federal 7th Circuit Court
Civil Court
Due Process