Kiss

Kiss v. City of Santa Clara

Good Law
206 F. App'x 679
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth CircuitNovember 14, 2006No. 05-15837California272 words

Opinion

Lead Opinion

MEMORANDUM **

Zoltán Kiss appeals from the district court’s summary judgment in favor of the City of Santa Clara and its police officers in his 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action alleging false arrest and malicious prosecution. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 . After de novo review, Hart v. Parks, 450 F.3d 1059 , 1065 n. 4 (9th Cir. 2006), we affirm.

The district court properly concluded that Kiss failed to raise a triable issue of fact as to whether Officer Pilger lacked probable cause to arrest Kiss. See id. at 1065-66 (probable cause exists when the facts and circumstances within the officer’s knowledge and of which he had reasonably trustworthy information were sufficient to warrant a prudent person believing that the plaintiff had committed an offense). Once probable cause has been established, the police are neither required to “investigate independently every claim of innocence,” nor compelled “by the Constitution to perform an error-free investigation of such a claim.” Baker v. McCollan, 443 U.S. 137, 145-46 , 99 S.Ct. 2689 , 61 L.Ed.2d 433 (1979).

The district court also properly concluded that Kiss failed to raise a triable issue of fact as to whether Detective…

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