By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//July 3, 2014//
U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit
Civil
Civil Rights — unlawful searches
Even if an affidavit in support of a search warrant was misleading, it does not support a Section 1983 claim where probable cause was nevertheless present.
“But candor in the affidavit would not have undermined the existence of probable cause. Curtis had, so far as appears, seen marijuana plants in Jennifer’s basement just a few days earlier. Her possession of them had been criminal even if she’d been planning to get rid of the plants and just hadn’t gotten around to doing so yet (though in fact she had). What was wrong with the affidavit was the motivation — Curtis’s spite, his desire to see his daughter-in-law arrested just four days after the death of her child (his grandchild) and maybe even prosecuted (though that would be an unlikely sequel to the search even if the plants had still been in her basement) — though if she were prosecuted he might be as well, as her accomplice in the growing of the marijuana.”
Affirmed.
13-1992 Scherr v. City of Chicago
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Der-Yeghiayan, J., Posner, J.