Excessive Force

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Darnell Tolliver v. City of Chicago, et al.

Case No.: 15-1924

Officials: KANNE, ROVNER, and HAMILTON, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Excessive Force  

Appellant  claim for excessive force bard by decision in HECK V. HUMPHREY.

“But if the plaintiff’s factual claims in the civil suit necessar‐ ily imply the invalidity of the criminal conviction, then Heck bars the civil suit. We explained the distinction in Okoro. In that case, a federal prisoner brought a suit against federal and state officers, seeking the return of gems and cash that he claimed the officers took from him in the course of a search of his home. Okoro had been arrested in his home on suspicion of distribut‐ ing heroin, and it was during a search incident to his arrest that the defendants allegedly stole the gems and cash from him. In his civil suit, he insisted that he was not trying to sell heroin to the officers, as they had testified. Instead, he asserted, he was trying to sell them gems and the officers stole them. If his version of the event was true, then he was convicted in error because the officers’ testimony about the heroin was an essential part of the evidence against him in his conviction. We noted that if he could not prevail in his claim for the return of the gems without undermining his conviction, then he was barred by Heck until he had his conviction overturned: It is irrelevant that he disclaims any intention of challenging his conviction; if he makes allegations that are inconsistent with the convictionʹs having been valid, Heck kicks in and bars his civil suit. Edwards v. Balisok, 520 U.S. 641, 646–48, 117 S.Ct. 1584, 137 L.Ed.2d 906 (1997); Ryan v. DuPage County Jury Com‐ mission, 105 F.3d 329, 330–31 (7th Cir. 1996) (per curiam). He is the master of his ground.”

Affirmed

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