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Stewart v. District Attorney for the Eighteenth Circuit Court District for the State of Mississippi8/23/2005
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. It is the direct function of the district attorney's office to participate in grand jury investigations in accordance with Mississippi Code Annotated § 25-31-13 (Rev. 2003). Further, it is a requirement of prosecuting cases that the information contained in the indictments be given to the applicable law enforcement office so that an arrest may be made. It cannot be said that the assistant district attorney operated outside of the scope of her employment, and she is, therefore, entitled to the protections afforded her by the Mississippi Tort Claims Act. As such, we find this issue is without merit.
III. WHETHER THE DOCTRINES OF JUDICIAL IMMUNITY, GOVERNMENTAL IMMUNITY, AND SOVEREIGN IMMUNITY UNDER THE MISSISSIPPI TORT CLAIMS ACT BAR STEWART'S ACTION AGAINST THE ASSISTANT DISTRICT ATTORNEY?
DISCUSSION
. Stewart next separates out as an individualized argument the contention that the assistant district attorney exceeded the scope of duties prescribed to her by statute and is, therefore, no longer protected by the Mississippi Tort Claims Act. Having already addressed this issue, we will not do so again. We have already determined that the assistant district attorney did not exceed the scope of her authority; therefore, this issue is without merit.
IV. WHETHER THE ACTIONS OF THE ASSISTANT DISTRICT ATTORNEY VIOLATED PLAINTIFF'S CONSTITUTIONAL OR STATUTORY RIGHTS?
DISCUSSION
. Stewart last contends that the actions of the assistant district attorney and her secretary violated his Fourth Amendment rights, as they lacked probable cause for his arrest. As stated above, neither of these individuals were involved in Stewart's actual arrest. Rather, Stewart's identifying information was given to law enforcement officials so that Stewart could be detained pursuant to the eleven indictments returned against him. Further, upon realizing that the wrong "Gary Stewart" had been arrested, the charges against Stewart were dismissed. As noted by the dissent, upon discovering that the State had arrested the wrong person, the charges against Stewart were not dismissed for several days. Although if this statement is taken at face value, it would appear that Stewart remained incarcerated during this time, but it should be noted that he had been released on bond prior to discovering that the wrong Gary Stewart had been arrested. Further, the hearing did not occur sooner due to Stewart's scheduled hearing which was quickly approaching. With the fact that Stewart was released on bond awaiting a scheduled hearing, it cannot be stated that Stewart was harmed by this delay in having the charges dropped.
. As each of the issues raised by Stewart are related, it is now proper to address the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decision of Sanchez v. Swyden, 139 F.3d 464 (5th Cir. 1998), which addresses the previous issues, as well as the present issue of constitutional and statutory rights. The facts of Sanchez are very close to the facts of the case sub judice. In the Sanchez decision, Oscar Sanchez brought a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 claim against a multitude of public officials, claiming that his twenty six hour detention violated his due process rights.
. In August 1992, Sanchez arrived at Houston's Intercontinental Airport from Mexico and passed through the United States Customs Service. While passing through Customs, an agent matched his name and physical description to a warrant issued from Cheatham County, Tennessee. Due to the outstanding warrant, Sanchez was detained so that Customs could determine whether "Oscar F. Sanchez" was indeed still wanted in Cheatham County.
. That evening, the Cheatham County's Sheriff's Dep
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