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708 F.2d 442

Docket No. 82-3383.

Freeman ex rel. Sanctuary v. Hittle

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals

Submitted April 1983.

Decided June 13, 1983.

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals · decided 1983-06-13

2 counsel of record

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“... investigative functions carried out pursuant to the preparation of a prosecutor's case also enjoy absolute immunity.”

quoted by 5 later decisions, including McKinney v. R Leavitt E I, Ybarra v. Reno Thunderbird Mobile Home Village

Applies 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Civil Rights Act of 1871 / Section 1983 (Ku Klux Klan Act))

Relies on Imbler v. Pachtman · Atkins v. Lanning · Dennis O'COnnOr v. State of Nevada

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Opinion by (per_curiam) · Decided 1983-06-13

How this case has been cited

Cited by 19 later decisions — most recently February 2003

15 federal appellate ·

140198319902000decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

¶1*443George W. Freeman, pro se.

¶2Christine Cary, Richard C. Robinson, Spokane, Wash., Mary Ann Condon, Asst. Atty. Gen., Charles S. Hamilton, III, Diane G. Geiger, Stafford, Frey & Mertel, Seattle, Wash., for defendants-appellees.

¶3Before GOODWIN, KENNEDY and ALARCON, Circuit Judges.*

¶5PER CURIAM:

¶6George Freeman, individually and on behalf of The Sanctuary, a Universal Life Church Monastery, appeals from the dismissal of his civil rights action. Freeman alleged that the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s office deprived him of property without due process in violation of 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983,1985 and 1986, and interfered with his contractual relationship with his landlord. We affirm.

¶7The district court correctly found that all four defendants were absolutely immune from suit. Imbler v. Pachtman, 424 U.S. 409, 96 S.Ct. 984, 47 L.Ed.2d 128 (1976). Defendants’ motion for summary judgment was properly granted.

¶8The complaint named as defendants the King County Prosecuting Attorney (Mal-eng), two Deputy Prosecuting Attorneys (Redkey, Evans), and an investigator for the Fraud Division of the Prosecuting Attorney’s office (Colwell). The complaint alleged that Colwell, acting under the authority of the Maleng’s office, told the plaintiff’s landlord that he was not getting as much rent from plaintiff’s lease as he could get from someone else.

¶9Freeman claims that the purpose of the statement was to cause the landlord to terminate The Sanctuary’s lease, thereby depriving it of property without due process, He also contends that the statement wrongfully interfered with the contractual relationship between landlord and tenant.

¶10A state prosecuting attorney acting within the scope of his duties in initiating and pursuing a criminal prosecution is absolutely immune from a civil suit for damages under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for alleged deprivations of constitutional rights. Imbler v. Pachtman, 424 U.S. 409, 96 S.Ct. 984, 47 L.Ed.2d 128 (1976). Investigative functions carried out pursuant to the preparation of a prosecutor’s case also enjoy absolute immunity. Atkins v. Lanning, 556 F.2d 485, 488-89 (10th Cir.1977); see also O’Connor v. State of Nevada, 686 F.2d 749, 750 (9th Cir.1982).

¶11The challenged actions of Maleng, Redkey, and Evans were within the scope of the prosecutor’s duties in initiating and pursuing the state’s case. They therefore have absolute immunity from damages under § 1983. Maleng’s involvement with Freeman and The Sanctuary was limited to the use of his title in the formal pleadings of the state criminal case pursued against Freeman. Evans, Redkey’s supervisor, did not participate in Redkey’s decision to pursue criminal charges against Freeman. Redkey, the Deputy Prosecuting Attorney, was responsible for Freeman’s prosecution. Thus, the district court correctly found that Maleng, Redkey, and Evans were entitled to absolute immunity from damages under Freeman’s § 1983 suit for deprivation of property without due process.

¶12Affirmed.

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