Safar v. Tingle

Plaintiffs Eshow and Safar were arrested for an allegation of fraud that was mistakenly reported and almost immediately retracted. Safar was also briefly incarcerated. Plaintiffs filed suit under 42 U.S.C. 1983 and state law, against the police officer and prosecutor who, at different stages of the criminal process, learned that no crime had occurred and yet failed to take steps to withdraw an arrest warrant. Given the absence of an established duty to act, the Fourth Circuit affirmed the award of qualified immunity to the officer on the section 1983 claims. The court affirmed the grant of absolute immunity to the prosecutor because the prosecutor's decision whether to withdraw an arrest warrant was intimately associated with the judicial phase of the criminal process. However, the court reversed as to the state law claims, remanding to the district court to dismiss the state law claims without prejudice to plaintiffs' right to advance their case in state court. View "Safar v. Tingle" on Justia Law