Week of March 14, 2023

Holding as “conclusory” allegations that defendants suppressed exculpatory police reports and “knowingly and deliberately failed to provide these reports to [defendant], his defense attorneys, or prosecutors” and that defendant would have used reports to impeach witnesses; faulting plaintiff for failing to identify each witness who would have been impeached, which testimony would have been discredited, and which defendant was responsible for suppressing each report; rejecting claim of fabricated evidence based on similar arguments about conclusory allegations; rejecting claims a

Statute of limitations for civil claim for search, seizure, and arrest claims ran while criminal charges were still pending against defendant; not plain error for court to decline equitable tolling to extend statute until criminal case terminated.

Recognizing that favorable termination element for malicious prosecution is no longer good law following Thompson v. Clark, 142 S.Ct. 1332 (2022); affirming dismissal of malicious prosecution claim for insufficiently specific allegations.

Holding that Thompson v Clark, 142 S.Ct. 1332 (2022) overruled Castellano v. Fragozo, 352 F.3d 939 (5th Cir. 2003) with respect to the viability of a malicious prosecution claim under § 1983, and thus reinstated the elements found necessary by the Fifth Circuit in Gordy v. Burns, 294 F.3d 722 (5th Cir.

Passenger’s livestreaming of officer’s traffic stop of vehicle was protected by First Amendment; plaintiff plausibly alleged a municipal policy to prohibit occupant from livestreaming traffic stop; individual officer had qualified immunity because right to livestream traffic stop was not clearly established.

Plaintiff criticized officer no. 1 on social media for issuing her a parking violation; several years later officer no. 2 stopped plaintiff for reckless driving, officer no. 1 heard it on the radio and offered to buy officer no. 2 lunch if he issued a citation, which he did; plaintiff then sued officer no.

Officer lacked probable cause for arresting plaintiff for interfering with an officer by posting sign “Cops Ahead” to warn motorists of distracted-driving operation; well-settled that only physical conduct and fighting words give rise to viable charge of interfering with an officer; plaintiff was speaking on a matter of public concern and speech was not “integral to criminal conduct” and was protected by First Amendment; restricting plaintiff’s speech did not satisfy strict scrutiny and was not narrowly tailored.

Convicted prisoner had twice before been placed on suicide watch, then released from it; over three week period got into fight with another prisoner, acted distant, had abrasions on wrist, was unkempt, not eating, lost weight, slept poorly, stated he “needed help,” falsely accused cell mate of raping him; then committed suicide ten days later after asking for his cellmate to be removed; court holds even if prisoner should have been moved to suicide watch due to incidents during the three week period, there were no signs of suicidal behavior ten days later when he committed suici

Pretrial detainee in withdrawal from alcohol or drugs with severe vomiting and diarrhea, treated only with two doses of antiemetics prescribed by fax by doctor who never saw him died five days after arrest; court reviews impact of Kingsley on standard and concludes elements for pretrial detainee’s claim are now: “(1) that [plaintiff] had a sufficiently serious medical need and (2) that each defendant acted deliberately (not accidentally), [and] also recklessly in the face of an unjustifiably high risk of harm that is either known or so obvious that it should be known”;

Suspect's subjective knowledge of whether he is encountering police is not relevant, but question is whether an objectively reasonable officer could conclude, that suspect knew he was pursued by police; deadly force was reasonable where subject was suspected of involvement in two violent felonies where bystanders were threatened with a gun, fled police, ignored warnings to drop his gun, ran around corners where it was possible to ambush officers, had gun out, and picked up gun repeatedly after being told to drop it.