Buehler v. City of Austin/Austin PD, No. 15-50155 (5th Cir. 2016)
Annotate this CasePlaintiff filed suit against Austin police officers and the City of Austin for violating his constitutional rights after officers arrested plaintiff three times for interfering with police duties while he filmed police department interactions with other citizens. The district court granted summary judgment for defendants. The district court reasoned that, under the court's independent intermediary doctrine, the officers could not be held liable for arrests the grand jury found supported by probable cause. The court declined to overrule its cases applying the independent intermediary doctrine where the doctrine has been a well-settled Fifth Circuit rule of orderliness and plaintiff cites no intervening change. Therefore, the court concluded that, under established circuit law, plaintiff had the burden of affirmatively showing that the grand jury’s deliberations were tainted, and failed to do so. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment.
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