No qualified immunity in doctor's false arrest case against the police

A doctor sues the police for false arrest after they charged him with sexual abuse. The charges were then dropped. The doctor says the police ruined his life through these allegations, and the district court dismissed the case on qualified immunity grounds. The Court of Appeals reinstates the case and says that, as plead, the complaint overcomes any qualified immunity objections. Plaintiff wins the appeal.

The case is Pourkavoos v. Town of Avon, a summary order issued on September 3. It started when people began accusing the doctor of sexual abuse in the course of medical examinations. In the course of their investigations, the police discovered that others had made similar allegations against the doctor. Plaintiff was charged with sexual assault involving penetration for sexual gratification. While a neutral magistrate issued an arrest warrant, which normally provides probable cause for the arrest, the court will find no probable cause if the warrant was obtained through deception by the police officer. That is the allegation here.

On a Rule 12(b)(6) motion, we accept the allegations in the complaint as true, no matter what the defendants claim. This must cause serious consternation on the part of defendants who believe in their heart there is no case but they have to proceed with the lawsuit because the complaint, if true, makes out a claim. So, while the defendant police officer insists he did nothing wrong, as the Court of Appeals notes, his defense stands in stark contrast to what plaintiff alleges in the complaint. For now, the complaint controls the case. That may change following discovery, but this is why pre-discovery motions to dismiss are frequently denied.

Plaintiff makes out a claim, the Court of Appeals (Carney, Leval and Stanceu [D.J.]) says, because he alleges that the "sexual gratification" allegations against him were falsely presented and that the doctor's physical contact with female patients related to their medical complaints, i.e., pushing on a woman's buttocks when she complained about back pain, or performing a rectal exam when the patient complained about constipation. Since clearly-established law prohibits police officers from falsely seeking search warrants that may result in a bad arrest, the defendant cannot obtain qualified immunity at this stage of the case.