Stapley v. Pestalozzi, No. 12-16145 (9th Cir. 2013)
Annotate this CasePlaintiffs, a former Maricopa County Board of Supervisors member and his spouse, filed suit against defendants, former prosecutors and their spouses, alleging that defendants initiated a frivolous federal civil Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), 18 U.S.C. 1961 et seq., suit against plaintiffs. The suit was part of an ongoing "political war" in Maricopa County. The prosecutors claimed that they were entitled to absolute prosecutorial immunity from any claims arising out of their filing of the civil RICO action. The court held that, under the circumstances of this case, the prosecutors were not entitled to absolute immunity because their actions were not sufficiently "analogous to those of a prosecutor." Accordingly, the court affirmed the district court's denial of defendants' motions to dismiss based on these claims.
Court Description: Civil Rights. The panel affirmed the district court’s denial of former Maricopa County prosecutors Andrew Thomas’s and Lisa Aubuchon’s (and their spouses’) motions to dismiss based on absolute immunity. Former Maricopa County Board of Supervisors member Donald T. Stapley, Jr. and his spouse (“plaintiffs”) brought this lawsuit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and state law alleging that Thomas and Aubuchon initiated a frivolous federal civil racketeering (“RICO”) suit against Stapley to harass him as part of an ongoing political war in Maricopa County involving the Board of Supervisors, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, and others. Thomas and Aubuchon were later disbarred, in part for initiating the RICO suit in question. The panel held that, under the circumstances, Thomas and Aubuchon were not entitled to absolute immunity because their actions were not sufficiently analogous to those of a prosecutor.
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