Steven Barnett v. Joshua Marquis

MEMORANDUM

Steven M. Barnett appeals the district court’s dismissal of his 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action alleging violations of his First and Fourteenth Amendment rights. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 . We review de novo both a district court’s order granting a motion to dismiss pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6), Lacey v. Maricopa County, 693 F.3d 896, 911 (9th Cir. 2012), and a district court’s ruling on absolute immunity, Botello v. Gammich, 413 F.3d 971, 975 (9th Cir. 2005). We affirm. Because the parties are familiar with the facts and the procedural history, we will not recount them here.

I

The district court properly held that prosecutors Marquis and Brown are entitled to absolute immunity as to the decision to stop using Barnett as a witness. Prosecutors are absolutely immune from suit under § 1983 for prosecutorial' conduct, which is “intimately associated with the judicial phase of the criminal process.” Imbler v. Pachtman, 424 U.S. 409, 430 , 96 S.Ct. 984 , 47 L.Ed.2d 128 (1976). Determining whether conduct is prosecutorial is an “inexact science.” Lacey, 693 F.3d at 912 . Therefore, we take a “functional approach” to this question, Buckley v. Fitzsimmons, 509 U.S.…