Walczak

MEMORANDUM *

Jerome Walczak appeals the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of Patricia Nuss, a detective for the San Bernardino County Sheriffs Department. After reviewing Detective Nuss’s report of two investigatory pretext calls made to Walczak, the district attorney brought charges against Walczak under California Penal Code § 288(a) for lewd acts upon a child. The pretext calls were undertaken because, without the corroboration Detective Nuss hoped they would provide, the allegations against Walczak would have been barred by the statute of limitations. The alleged molestation took place from 1978 to 1983, was reported in 2002, some nineteen years after the fact, and prosecution would have been barred by California’s six-year statute of limitations, Cal.Penal Code § 801 (2003), unless there was “independent evidence that clearly and convincingly corroborate[d]” the alleged “substantial sexual conduct,” Cal.Penal Code § 803(g)(2)(B).

Walczak brought this 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action after the assistant district attorney dropped the charges, stating that “the pretext calls did not contain exactly what was summarized by the detective in the supplemental report.”…

dissenting:

Government officials are accorded qualified immunity “to shield them from undue interference with their duties and from potentially disabling threats of liability.” Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 806 , 102 S.Ct. 2727 , 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982). In this case, the majority would strip away a police detective’s protection based on little more than the fact that her investigative report reflects her inference, based on her substantial experience investigating child molesters, that Walczak had engaged in criminal conduct. I respectfully dissent.

Detective Nuss investigated a victim’s claims that Walczak abused her when she was ten years old. Her investigation included interviewing the victim and setting up two phone calls, one between Walczak and the victim, and one between Walczak and a police officer pretending to be the victim’s therapist. Detective Nuss has investigated approximately 2,000 other cases involving allegations of child molestation. Based on her investigation in this case, she believed there was sufficient evidence of abuse to make a presentation to the district attorney. Thereupon, Detective Nuss drafted a report regarding her investigations and…