No malicious prosecution claim where criminal charges were dismissed in a compromise

This police misconduct lawsuit alleges that plaintiff was falsely arrested in a domestic dispute on Thanksgiving Day in 2018. It all happened in Connecticut. The complainant said that plaintiff pushed a houseguest to the floor. When the police showed up, plaintiff got into an argument with the officer, who smacked plaintiff's hand away when she raised her hand, and plaintiff fell to the ground, where she was handcuffed. Plaintiff was arrested for assault of an elderly victim but the charges were ultimately dismissed. Judgment for the police.

The case is Chapdelaine v. Desjardin, decided on July 2. Plaintiff's malicious prosecution claim was dismissed on summary judgment. The argument on appeal was that if the police lacked probable cause to arrest, then they may be liable for malicious prosecution. You can bring such a claim if the arrest was in fact lacking in probable cause and the case got dismissed without a conviction but -- and this is crucial -- cases hold that if the case was dismissed or withdrawn as a result of a calculated decision based on a compromise, then there is no malicious prosecution claim. When you have such a compromise, then it's not a true dismissal suggesting the plaintiff was innocent of the charge. 

In other words, the underlying criminal charge must have ended favorably for the plaintiff. That wrinkle on malicious prosecution claims knocks out plaintiff's claim because the charges against her were dismissed as a result of a compromise involving the plaintiff attending mental health treatment in exchange for the charges being dismissed. The Second Circuit reasons it this way:

The underlying state criminal matter was pending against Chapdelaine for nearly five years and the court's dismissal of the charges following her completion of a one-day diversionary program reflects a court-ordered compromise. The Connecticut Superior Court judge explained on the record that -- based on the five-year length of the case without resolution and Chapdelaine's efforts to attend mental health treatment during the pendency of the case -- the criminal charges would be dismissed contingent upon Chapdelaine's agreement to and completion of a one-day supervised diversionary program. She indeed agreed to the compromise and completed the program. 

Under these circumstances, the dismissal of Chapdelaine's criminal charges was not a favorable termination for purposes of a malicious prosecution claim. The leading case on this issue is the recent Carruthers v. Colton (2025), which held that proceedings ending in a compromise, and in particular plea dispositions, are not really the kind of "favorable termination" that allow you to sue for malicious prosecution.