Daniels v. Kieser

• Decision Date: 26 September 1978
• Docket Number: No. 78-1648,78-1648
• Citation: 586 F.2d 64
• Parties: Zed DANIELS, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Richard L. KIESER, Defendant-Appellant. . Heard
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 64

586 F.2d 64

Zed DANIELS, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Richard L. KIESER, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 78-1648.

United States Court of Appeals Seventh Circuit.

Heard Sept. 26, 1978.

Decided Nov. 7, 1978.

Nancy K. Needles, Asst. U. S. Atty., Chicago, Ill., for defendant-appellant.

Terrence Hutton, Jenner & Block, Chicago, Ill., for plaintiff-appellee.

Before CUMMINGS, WISDOM, ^* and SPRECHER, Circuit Judges.

CUMMINGS, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiff is a Chicago businessman whose automobile was stolen in Chicago on June 14, 1976. Blandford Phoenix, another Chicagoan, was arrested in La Porte, Indiana, in possession of the automobile. On October 20, 1976, a bench trial commenced in which the Government attempted to show that Phoenix had violated the Dyer Act (18 U.S.C. §§ 2311-2313) by the theft and interstate transportation of plaintiff's automobile. ¹

Plaintiff was served with a subpoena to appear on October 15, 1976, as a witness at Phoenix's trial in South Bend, Indiana. However, through an associate, plaintiff advised federal prosecutor Richard Kieser that he would be unable to appear on that date and on October 13 the trial was reset to October 20, 1976. The bench trial commenced on that date and the Government presented certain evidence but did not conclude its case. The trial was scheduled to resume on November 4, 1976, because plaintiff had secured a continuance until then for his appearance as a government witness. According to the complaint, plaintiff was advised by his South Bend attorney "that the case would proceed on November 4, 1976 and a new subpoena would be served" on him. Since no subpoena was served upon him, plaintiff left Chicago for Bermuda on November 3, 1976, to attend a professional association meeting. After plaintiff left his Chicago office for O'Hare airport to depart for Bermuda, a Deputy United States Marshal in Chicago telephoned plaintiff's office that he had just discovered an unserved November 4, 1976, subpoena for plaintiff's attendance at Phoenix's trial. The Deputy Marshal "explained the subpoena had been misplaced, apparently by another Deputy United States Marshal who had left on vacation without serving it." An associate of plaintiff advised the Deputy United States Marshal about plaintiff's pending departure and provided him with the flight number and date of plaintiff's expected return, which was on November 9, 1976. The Deputy Marshal said he would attempt to explain the matter to defendant and obtain a new trial date, but defendant allegedly refused to seek another continuance and told the Deputy Marshal to have plaintiff in South Bend on November 4 for resumption of the trial.

On November 4, defendant appeared before Judge Grant in South Bend and told the judge that plaintiff "was attempting to evade service of the subpoena" and persuaded the court to issue a material witness arrest warrant for Daniels under 18 U.S.C. § 3149. ² According to the complaint, the prosecutor made the following unsworn false statements (or statements in reckless disregard of the truth) in order to obtain Daniels' material witness arrest warrant from Judge Grant:

"(a) That Mr. Daniels was attempting to evade service of the subpoena;

"(b) That Mr. Daniels had previously attempted to evade service of the subpoena;

"(c) That Mr. Daniels had left town after having been notified by the United States Marshal's office that there was a subpoena for him;

"(d) That Mr. Kieser had been assured on November 3, 1976 by Thomas Shanahan, a lawyer who represented Mr. Daniels, that Mr. Daniels would be in the South Bend courtroom at 1:00 p.m. on November 4, 1976;

"(e) That Mr. Shanahan told Mr. Kieser on November 3, 1976 that Mr. Daniels was 'double-crossing' Mr. Shanahan and not keeping an agreement between Mr. Shanahan and Mr. Kieser;

"(f) And that Mr. Kieser had no idea of when Mr. Daniels would return to the United States."

On November 4, as the transcript of that date reveals, the Dyer Act defendant Phoenix was not present in court, supposedly because he thought the trial was continued until November 5, so that the trial could not have proceeded on November 4 anyway.

When plaintiff returned to O'Hare airport in Chicago on November 9, he was arrested and taken into custody in the presence of his wife, business associates and clients, and was interrogated, handcuffed and taken to the federal lockup in Chicago upon defendant's directions pursuant to the material witness arrest warrant of November 4. When plaintiff arrived at the lockup, he was fingerprinted, photographed, disrobed, searched, physically examined and imprisoned in the maximum security portion of the Federal Detention Center until a United States Magistrate released him on November 10, 1976. Plaintiff subsequently testified as a government witness when Phoenix's trial resumed in South Bend.

Plaintiff later instituted this suit against prosecutor Kieser. Count I of the complaint alleged a violation of plaintiff's rights under the Fourth and Fifth Amendments and under 18 U.S.C. § 3149. Count II was a false imprisonment count; Count III was for malicious prosecution, and Count IV was for abuse of process. In each count except Count III, plaintiff sought $100,000 in damages plus $50,000 in punitive damages and costs and reasonable attorney's fees. ³

The Government filed a motion to dismiss on the ground that defendant was an Assistant United States Attorney for the Northern District of Indiana and as a public prosecutor was "absolutely immune from civil acts of the nature set forth in the complaint" (Record Item 3, page 3). The plaintiff insisted that in the circumstances of this case, the prosecutor had only qualified immunity. ⁴ Judge Will agreed with the plaintiff and filed a memorandum opinion denying defendant's motion to dismiss. Daniels v. Kieser, 446 F.Supp. 1160 (N.D.Ill.1978).

The district court first noted that plaintiff brought the action under federal law and under state law pursuant to diversity jurisdiction. The court decided that the rule of Imbler v. Pachtman, 424 U.S. 409, 96 S.Ct. 984, 47 L.Ed.2d 128, which held that a state prosecutor acting within the scope of his duties in initiating and pursuing a criminal prosecution and presenting the state's case is absolutely immune to a suit for damages for alleged deprivations of the accused's constitutional rights, did not apply to this case. Judge Will noted that Imbler left open the question of a prosecutor's liability for actions taken in an investigative or administrative capacity. Apparently not realizing that Phoenix's trial had actually commenced on October 20 and had been interrupted only because of plaintiff's absence, he stated:

"We are not at all certain that a request for a bench warrant at a (November 4) status hearing prior to the commencement of trial is part of the 'judicial phase of the criminal process' and we are inclined to believe that it is simply a ministerial act within the prosecutor's administrative functions." (446 F.Supp. at 1162; footnote omitted.)

That may well be true, but the Phoenix trial had commenced and defendant's action in securing plaintiff's attendance as a witness was part of the trial process. Therefore, the first underpinning of the ruling below cannot stand. ⁵

The district judge also thought that absolute prosecutorial immunity should not apply when the plaintiff is not an allegedly wronged criminal defendant but is a witness for the prosecution, stating:

"While there may be merit in the concern that a prosecutor will be hesitant to bring an action against a defendant for fear of being subject to civil liability, there seems to us to be little ground for believing that a prosecutor will choose his witnesses differently because of the same fear. Nor does the common law origin of prosecutorial immunity, stemming from the question of amenability to suit for malicious prosecution, have any application when the civil plaintiff is a witness rather than a defendant." (446 F.Supp. at 1163.)

As will be seen, this second underpinning of the district court's rationale has been rejected by the Supreme Court, leaving no foundation for the district court's well-meaning decision.

The district court concluded that defendant had available to him only the good faith defense attendant on the qualified immunity available to public officials. Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1292(b), Judge Will certified as appropriate for immediate appeal the question whether in the circumstances presented the prosecutor enjoyed absolute or only qualified immunity. On May 10, 1978, we granted defendant's application for an interlocutory appeal. We reverse.

The latest authoritative pronouncement on the subject of prosecutorial immunity is found in Butz v. Economou, --- U.S. ----, ----, 98 S.Ct. 2894, 57 L.Ed.2d 895, where the Supreme Court held that absolute prosecutorial immunity, rather than merely qualified official immunity, is extended to Executive Branch officials whose duties are prosecutorial in nature. In Butz the Court (unanimous in this respect) reaffirmed the holdings in Yaselli v. Goff, 275 U.S. 503, 48 S.Ct. 155, 72 L.Ed. 395, and Imbler v. Pachtman, 424 U.S. 409, 96 S.Ct. 984, 47 L.Ed.2d 128, that prosecutors have absolute immunity while "participating in the judicial process." The Court reasoned that a qualified immunity might have an adverse effect on the functioning of the criminal judicial system by discouraging the initiation of prosecutions and "by affecting the prosecutor's conduct of the trial." In Butz, the Court reiterated its observation in Imbler that

"If prosecutors were hampered in exercising their judgment As to the use of . . . Witnesses by concern about resulting personal liability, the triers of fact in criminal cases would often be denied relevant evidence." (424 U.S. at 426, 96 S.Ct. at 993; emphasis supplied.)

As the Butz Court noted, in Imbler the Court specifically reserved the question whether absolute immunity is required "for...