Wheeler v. Kidder, No. 20-3292 (8th Cir. 2021)
Annotate this CaseThe Eighth Circuit affirmed the district court's denial of qualified immunity to officers in a 42 U.S.C. 1983 action alleging that plaintiff's constitutional and state-law rights were violated when he was arrested for committing capital murder and abuse of a corpse. In this case, the officers moved for summary judgment, contending, pursuant to Messerschmidt v. Millender, 565 U.S. 535 (2012), that the prosecuting attorney's approval of the warrant affidavit entitles them to qualified immunity. The court concluded that the district court properly denied the second motion for summary judgment, which was based entirely on Messerschmidt and asserted reliance on counsel. The court explained that, given the prosecutor's testimony, a rational jury could find that the officers did not rely on her informed legal advice in making the challenged omissions or statements in the affidavit.
Court Description: [Smith, Author, with Colloton and Erickson, Circuit Judges] Civil case - Civil rights. The district court did not err in determining the defendant police officers were not entitled to qualified immunity based on an argument that they reasonably relied on the advice of the prosecuting attorney in crafting a misleading arrest-warrant affidavit; this case is factually distinguishable from Messerschmidt v. Millender, 565 U.S. 535 (2012), on which defendants rely, because Messerschmidt did not involve a claim that officers obtained a warrant based on a misleading affidavit. Judge Colloton, concurring.
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