Robin Dooley and Patrick Matz v. Jerome Reiss, Ken McAlpine Mike Manley, Randy Worrell, Dale Wilcox and Stephen Marks

Horticulturally speaking, this case is a sucker springing from the roots of another civil rights action. Plaintiffs appeal from the district court’s dismissal of their complaint alleging violations of 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983 , 1985(2), and 1986. The complaint alleges that defendants conspired to commit perjury and to conceal evidence in a separate section 1983 action against certain defendants also involved in this case. The district court dismissed the complaint with prejudice for failure to state a claim and awarded attorney’s fees to one of the defendants pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1988 . We affirm in part and reverse in part.

I.

FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS BELOW

The allegations of the complaint must be considered as true for purposes of evaluating a motion to dismiss. See, e.g., Cruz v. Beto, 405 U.S. 319, 322 , 92 S.Ct. 1079, 1081 , 31 L.Ed.2d 263 (1972). The parent case was Dellos v. Reiss (C.D.Cal. No. 80-5820), brought by appellants Robin Dooley and Patrick Matz against four officers of the Anaheim, California, police department. Dooley and Matz, along with two other plaintiffs, sought damages for an allegedly unlawful search committed by police officers Jerome Weiss, Ken McAlpine,…