Week of March 31, 2022

Detective and sergeant sought and obtained arrest warrant for plaintiff and attempted to defend § 1983 claim for false arrest and malicious prosecution on grounds of absolute immunity; court rejects argument: “Long-standing precedent makes clear that swearing to an arrest warrant affidavit and executing an arrest are traditional police functions, and performing such functions at the direction of a prosecutor does not transform them into prosecutorial acts protected by absolute immunity.

Factual disputes precluded summary judgment on qualified immunity: “we hold that, if a police officer finds an individual’s statements regarding his lack of intent to commit a crime to be credible in light of the totality of the circumstances, or if (at the very least) such exculpatory statements could materially impact the probable cause determination by a neutral magistrate judge, that officer cannot then use the incriminating portions of those statements as the foundation for probable cause in an arrest warrant affidavit for that individual, while either knowingly or recklessly concealin