Galbraith v. County Of Santa Clara

307 F.3d 1119 Nelson GALBRAITH, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. COUNTY OF SANTA CLARA, a Municipality of the State of California; Angelo Ozoa, MD, individually, and in his official capacity as Santa Clara County Chief Medical Examiner-Coroner, Defendants-Appellees. No. 00-17369. United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. Argued and Submitted April 11, 2002. Filed October 9, 2002. COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED Michael Goldsmith, Park City, Utah, and Thomas R. Hogan, Law Offices of Thomas R. Hogan, San Jose, California, for plaintiff-appellant. James E. Towery, Hoge, Fenton, Jones & Appel, Inc., San Jose, CA, for defendants-appellees. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of California; Spencer M. Williams, Senior Judge, Presiding. D.C. No. CV-99-20887-SW. Before SCHROEDER, Chief Judge, B. FLETCHER and KOZINSKI, Circuit Judges. OPINION SCHROEDER, Chief Judge. 1 This appeal involves a claim that a county coroner falsified an autopsy report, leading to the false arrest and prosecution of plaintiff Nelson Galbraith ("Galbraith") for murder in violation of his constitutional rights. The central question is whether a heightened pleading standard should…