Devereaux

Opinion by Judge TASHIMA; Concurrence by Judge FERNANDEZ; Partial Concurrence and Partial Dissent by Judge KLEINFELD.

Plaintiff Robert Devereaux brought suit in federal district court for alleged violations of his federal civil rights, and also on various state law grounds. The district *1073 court granted summary judgment in favor of all defendants as to the federal claims and then declined to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over the state law claims, dismissing them without prejudice. This timely appeal followed. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 , and we affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

This case arises out of the investigation and prosecution of Devereaux for alleged sexual abuse of foster children living in his home, an investigation that mushroomed into a sexual abuse “witch hunt” in which 43 adults were charged with over 29,000 counts of sexual molestation. We summarize the pertinent facts only briefly. The facts are set forth in detail in the three-judge panel opinion. See Devereaux v. Perez, 218 F.3d 1045, 1047-51 (9th Cir.), reh’g en banc granted, 235 F.3d 1206 (9th Cir.2000) (“Devereaux I ”).

On August 3, 1994, Detective Robert Ricardo Perez of the…

concurring:

I concur in the majority opinion insofar as it rests on the ground of qualified immunity for investigative techniques. I do not, however, join the discussion regarding knowing 1 fabrication of evidence because I do not believe that Devereaux ever properly raised or developed that issue before the district court.

Thus, I express no opinion on whether the mere development of evidence (even knowingly false evidence) or the bringing of charges (even knowingly false ones) can by itself constitute a procedural or substantive due process violation within the meaning of the United States Constitution. That kind of conduct would surely be reprehensible, and only a rapscallion in official raiment would do such a thing. However, I would not establish (or refine) a possibly far reaching principle of constitutional law based on the record and presentation in this case.

' It may be easy to decide the question here, although, as the dissent demonstrates, even that is not necessarily true. But if that right exists, we must answer a number of questions. For example, when does the violation accrue? Is it at the first evil interview, at the first presentation to the prosecutor, at the…

with whom PREGERSON and WARDLAW, Circuit Judges, join, concurring in part, and dissenting in part:

Use of children to satisfy adults’ sexual cravings is a gravely serious crime, subject to very severe penalties. Manufacturing false evidence and using the criminal law system to ruin the lives of innocent people is also a gravely serious wrong. The more terrible the crime and penalties, the more terrible is the wrong of “framing” someone for it. The seriousness of a crime never justifies manufacturing evidence and convicting the innocent. Our system of justice does not allow for the position taken by the notorious Crusader general, “kill them all, God will know his own.”

Wenatchee Washington seems to have been among the many towns engulfed by sexual witchhunts in the 1980’s and 1990’s. Its newly appointed child abuse detective on his first child sex molestation case, together with its much more experienced social workers, and its prosecutors, filed 29,727 charges of child abuse against 43 men and women. At the end of it all, few charges stood up in court except against the government’s own witness, Linda Miller, the woman whose implausible (and, as soon proved, impossible) story…