Summary Judgment

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Tracy Williams v. Brandon Brooks

Case No.:15-1763

Officials: POSNER, FLAUM, and WILLIAMS, Circuit Judges.

Practice Area: Summary Judgment

Probable cause existed for police stop and actions taken by officer were reasonable given the circumstances.

“Williams’s argument misstates the law. “Evidence of acquittal in a criminal action is generally irrelevant and inadmissible in a civil case involving the same incident since it constitutes a negative sort of conclusion lodged in a finding of failure of the prosecution to sustain the burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt.” Estate of Moreland v. Dieter, 395 F.3d 747, 755 (7th Cir. 2005) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). Therefore, the district court correctly decided that it was not bound by the state court’s findings. Additionally, even if the district court adopted the state court’s finding that Williams did not resist law enforcement, it would be irrelevant to his unlawful arrest claim. As explained above, a reasonable jury must find that since Officer Brooks had probable cause for the traffic stop, he could ar rest Williams—for the traffic infraction or for resisting law enforcement—without violating the Fourth Amendment”

Affirmed

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.