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Stewart v. District Attorney for the Eighteenth Circuit Court District for the State of Mississippi8/23/2005
artment informed Customs that Oscar F. Sanchez was still wanted and faxed copies of photographs, fingerprint copies, and other identifying information, which noted the presence of a rose tattoo on Sanchez's left shoulder, to Customs. The Houston Police Department then took custody of Sanchez pursuant to the authorized "fugitive hold."
. Later that day, Sanchez was brought before a Harris County, Texas probable cause court, where Sanchez refused to waive extradition proceedings. It was during this proceeding that Sanchez proclaimed his innocence, and it was discovered that Sanchez lacked the tattoo as described in the information received from Cheatham County. The judge ordered Sanchez to be held until his identification could be confirmed. Upon comparison of the fingerprints received from Cheatham County and those of Sanchez, it was determined that Sanchez had been improperly detained and he was released. Sanchez then brought a ยง 1983 action against the numerous individuals involved in his ordeal, alleging that he had been deprived of a clearly established constitutional right and that those involved in detention had acted unreasonably. These are essentially the same arguments presented in the case sub judice.
. Without detailing each element of the Sanchez opinion, some points relied upon by the Fifth Circuit in making the decision to grant summary judgment to the defendants warrant discussion, as those same points are applicable in the case before us. First, in determining whether a defendant is entitled to qualified immunity as a matter of law, it must first be ascertained "whether an official's conduct deprived a . . . plaintiff of a 'clearly established' constitutional or statutory right." Sanchez, 139 F.3d at 466. "The constitutional right must be sufficiently clear to put a reasonable officer on notice that certain conduct violates that right." Id. In this case, the charges against Stewart were immediately dropped upon confirmation that an improper person had been detained.
. Though available, the picture of the wanted Gary Stewart was not discovered in the approximately ten files pertaining to Stewart, and this picture was not confirmed with the Department of Public Safety as the information on file until notice was given by Stewart's attorney. The assistant district attorney's actions, of which Stewart complains, were based upon the fact that many indictments for a Gary Stewart with a certain Social Security number were in her possession. The district attorney who passed the information along to the Jones County Sheriff's Department was not present at Stewart's initial appearance and was not involved in his case until the hearing to dismiss the charges. The assistant district attorney would never have had the opportunity to discover that the wrong individual was in custody, as she had no personal encounter with Stewart prior to dismissing the charges.
. Although failure to discover the single picture in one of the multiple files may indicate a slight degree of negligence, it cannot be stated that overall, the actions of the assistant district attorney were not objectively reasonable. The Fifth Circuit has stated, "a public official may successfully assert the defense of qualified immunity even though the official violates a person's civil rights, provided the official's conduct was objectively reasonable." Id. Furthermore, as reasoned by the United States Supreme Court, although at times the end result is harsh, the policy upon which immunity is founded is sound. The basis for a grant of immunity is that public officials may become hesitant to fully discharge their professional duties for fear of subsequent litigation. See Pierson v. Ray, 386 U.S. 547, 555 (1
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