Juriss v. McGowan

• Decision Date: 24 February 1992
• Docket Number: No. 91-1141,91-1141
• Citation: 957 F.2d 345
• Parties: Laura Ann JURISS, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Paul McGOWAN and Russell Stanfield, jointly and severally, Defendants-Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 345

957 F.2d 345

Laura Ann JURISS, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Paul McGOWAN and Russell Stanfield, jointly and severally,

Defendants-Appellants.

No. 91-1141.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued Sept. 23, 1991.

Decided Feb. 24, 1992.

John H. Otto, (argued), Zimmerly, Gadau, Selin & Otto, Champaign, Ill., for plaintiff-appellee.

Randall Ray, (argued), Sebat, Swanson, Banks, Garman & Townsley, Danville, Ill., for defendants-appellants.

Before COFFEY and FLAUM, Circuit Judges, and ENGEL, Senior Circuit Judge. ^*

FLAUM, Circuit Judge.

Laura Ann Juriss sued the Village of Grant Park, its police chief Russell Stanfield, and part-time police officer Paul McGowan for damages under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Juriss alleged that Stanfield and McGowan, and through them the village, violated her fourth amendment rights by arresting her without probable cause (i.e., false arrest), and further by executing the arrest with excessive force. The district court granted summary judgment to the village on all counts, and to the officers on the excessive force count. The court denied the officers' request for summary judgment on the false arrest count, finding that McGowan did not enjoy absolute immunity and that neither officer enjoyed qualified immunity as to that claim. Here, the officers take an interlocutory appeal, as is McGowan's right under Nixon v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 731, 741-43, 102 S.Ct. 2690, 2696-98, 73 L.Ed.2d 349 (1982), and both officers' right under Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 530, 105 S.Ct. 2806, 2817-18, 86 L.Ed.2d 411 (1985). We affirm.

I.

The incidents giving rise to this case occurred in Grant Park, Illinois, a small village in Kankakee County. Because the officers moved for summary judgment, we review the evidence in the light most favorable to Juriss and draw all inferences to her benefit. DeValk Lincoln Mercury, Inc. v. Ford Motor Co., 811 F.2d 326, 329 (7th Cir.1987).

Juriss, a resident of Grant Park, waited tables at the L & K Restaurant, a local hangout situated across the street from the village police station, and the locus of many events significant to this case. Although Juriss was divorced from Eddie Beach, she sometimes invited him to her apartment for visits of varying durations. Beach, however, was inclined to overstay his welcome, and Juriss occasionally had to call the Grant Park police to oust him when he would refuse to leave. Still, for reasons not explored in the record, Juriss again invited Beach to her home sometime prior to October 3, 1987. On that date Juriss again asked Beach to leave, and again he refused. Juriss then walked over to the L & K, spotted officer McGowan, and sought his assistance in expelling her ex-husband.

Juriss and McGowan returned to the apartment, and McGowan told Beach to get out. The two men exchanged words and began scuffling when McGowan tried to handcuff Beach. Beach eventually broke free, ran out the door and fled down the street. The police tried but failed to apprehend Beach after his escape. About a week later a grand jury in Kankakee County, after hearing testimony from McGowan, indicted Beach for aggravated battery and escape, and a warrant was issued for his arrest. At this point Beach became a fugitive from justice--although, importantly, neither he nor anyone else (except those involved in procuring the indictment) knew it because the arrest warrant was placed under seal and otherwise shielded from the public eye.

Despite the secrecy surrounding Beach's indictment and arrest warrant, word of the Beach-McGowan altercation spread, and speculation arose as to what would happen next. About a month or two later, Brenda Bacon, a co-worker and close friend of Juriss, told officer McGowan at the L & K that she hoped the police would arrest Beach the next time he came to town. (Bacon was angry at Beach for reasons not relevant to this action.) McGowan, however, kept the sealed arrest warrant under wraps, and told her that Beach was not wanted. This is significant, for McGowan told police chief Stanfield about Bacon's inquiry and his evasive response, and Stanfield approved. For her part, Bacon told Juriss that there was no outstanding warrant for Beach's arrest, and Juriss passed this information on to Beach.

Beach returned to Juriss' apartment (presumably with her acquiescence) on December 12, 1987. As luck would have it, McGowan was driving by Juriss' building when Beach was about to enter; McGowan parked the car, set up surveillance, and called Stanfield. Stanfield arrived about an hour later with officer Volpe (who is not a party to this action), and later that evening the three officers decided to apprehend Beach pursuant to the sealed warrant. Volpe and McGowan approached the front door of Juriss' apartment, and Stanfield went to watch the side entrance.

McGowan knocked on the door and requested entry on behalf of himself and Volpe. He told Juriss, who had partially opened the door, that they had come to get Eddie Beach, and that they knew Beach was there because his car was parked in the driveway; Juriss answered that the car belonged to Beach's father, not to Beach. McGowan requested entry but Juriss refused; she maintains (now, but did not tell the officers then) that she needed a few seconds to dress because she was not fully clothed. After McGowan threatened to arrest Juriss for obstruction, she let the officers in and they arrested Beach without incident. At no point prior to gaining entry did McGowan or Volpe tell Juriss that they had a warrant for Beach's arrest.

A couple of days later Kankakee County prosecutors, after speaking with McGowan and Stanfield, decided to seek an indictment against Juriss for aiding a fugitive in violation of § 31-5 of the Illinois Criminal Code. Subsequently, on December 17, McGowan and Stanfield recounted the story of Beach's arrest while taking an afternoon break at the L & K. They asked Bacon, who was waiting tables at the time, what Juriss told her about the events immediately preceding Beach's arrest. Here the testimony diverges. Bacon maintains that she told the officers that Juriss had told her (Bacon) that the colloquy at Juriss' door prior to Beach's arrest proceeded as described above. Bacon's account was confirmed by Phillip Liard, a part-time student and journalist, who overheard Bacon's conversation with the officers from another table. McGowan and Stanfield, however, recall things differently. They contend that Bacon told them that Juriss had told her (Bacon) that she (Juriss) had tried to delay the police to give Beach a chance to escape through her (Juriss') side door. Stanfield put his version of the conversation with Bacon in a police report.

On December 18, McGowan once again appeared before the Kankakee County grand jury, this time for the purpose of indicting Juriss. He testified that Juriss, while speaking to him at her apartment door, had told him that Beach was not in her apartment. (Juriss maintains that she merely told them that the car to which he referred belonged to Beach's father, not to Beach.) McGowan also testified that he believed that Juriss was harboring and concealing Beach, and that she knew Beach was wanted by the police. Finally, he gave what is essentially Stanfield's version of the conversation both officers had with Bacon the preceding afternoon at the L & K. The grand jury indicted Juriss for aiding a fugitive and a warrant was issued for her arrest.

Stanfield, McGowan and another officer then went to the L & K, ordered drinks, and, about an hour later, arrested Juriss. The county prosecutors dropped their case against Juriss approximately two months later when Beach pled guilty to one of the counts against him. Christine Moriarty, an assistant state's attorney in the Kankakee County office, subsequently stated that Juriss was indicted and arrested in large part to induce a guilty plea from Beach. Juriss filed suit thereafter. On appeal we must decide whether the district court erred in denying McGowan absolute immunity and both officers qualified immunity as to Juriss' false arrest claim.

II.

Briscoe v. LaHue, 460 U.S. 325, 103 S.Ct. 1108, 75 L.Ed.2d 96 (1983), provides that a witness at trial has absolute immunity from suit under § 1983 for giving false testimony damaging to a subject of that testimony. We extended Briscoe to immunize grand jury witnesses in Kincaid v. Eberle, 712 F.2d 1023 (7th Cir.) (per curiam), cert. denied, 464 U.S. 1018, 104 S.Ct. 551, 78 L.Ed.2d 725 (1983). McGowan contends that Kincaid absolute immunity extends to his arrest of Juriss because his immune grand jury testimony directly lead to the arrest. We take him to mean the following: McGowan would not have arrested Juriss but for the indictment returned by the grand jury, and the grand jury would not have indicted Juriss but for McGowan's testimony. McGowan is absolutely immune for his grand jury testimony. Since that testimony was the "proximate cause" (McGowan's phrase) of Juriss' arrest, he also is absolutely immune for the arrest.

This reasoning is flawed. Juriss sued McGowan for false arrest, not for lying to the grand jury. (We accept, for the purpose of reviewing the officers' motion for summary judgment, Juriss' allegation that McGowan actually lied to the grand jury about Juriss' actions immediately prior to Beach's arrest. At trial, the trier of fact may of course choose to credit McGowan's account.) The fact that his grand jury testimony caused the subsequent arrest is irrelevant, because testifying and arresting are two independent acts. Absolute immunity is granted with an eye to the function performed by the sued official, not to the status or identity of that official. Burns v. Reed, --- U.S. ----, 111 S.Ct. 1934, 1939, 114 L.Ed.2d 547 (1991); Forrester v. White, 484 U.S. 219, 224, 108 S.Ct. 538, 98 L.Ed.2d 555 (1988); Briscoe, 460 U.S. at 342, 103 S.Ct. at 1119. As such, Briscoe emphasized that subjecting public officials to § 1983...