Johnson v. Myers

Dist. Ct. did not err in granting defendant-police officer’s motion for summary judgment in plaintiff’s section 1983 action, alleging that defendant subjected him to false arrest on drug distribution charges by arresting him without probable cause. Record showed that defendant arrested plaintiff pursuant to arrest warrant, and thus plaintiff faced uphill battle to overcome presumption of validity accorded to warrant and information underlying it. Moreover, while plaintiff asserted that Myers lied in his warrant application by stating that confidential informant identified plaintiff from plaintiff’s driver’s license photograph as drug seller, plaintiff could only muster bare allegations that defendant had lied on his warrant application, which was insufficient to overcome presumption that arrest warrant was valid and that his arrest was supported by probable cause. Ct. further noted that without plaintiff's driver’s license in record, it could only guess as to whether reasonable officer in defendant’s position would have found plaintiff’s match to drug seller or whether defendant had made false statements in his warrant application.