AELE LAW LIBRARY OF CASE SUMMARIES:
Civil Liability
of Law Enforcement Agencies & Personnel


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Other Misconduct: Lineups

     A man exonerated of his rape conviction by DNA evidence after serving 23 years in prison claimed that a police officer involved in the investigation was liable because he allegedly failed to disclose an incident which may have suggested that another man, who visited the victim's apartment while the officer was there, committed the crime. But no reasonable jury could find that the officer knew, at the time, the exculpatory value of the visit without simply speculating. At worst, the officer acted negligently in failing to identify the actual rapist as a suspect, and this was insufficient to show a reckless investigation. The plaintiff also failed to show that another defendant officer conducted an improperly suggestive lineup. The victim's identification of the plaintiff as her rapist, although mistaken, had significant indicia of reliability to be admitted as evidence at trial. Briscoe v. County of St. Louis, #11–3034, 690 F.3d 1004 (8th Cir. 2012).
    Suspect's constitutional rights were not violated by an allegedly unduly suggestive photographic array shown to robbery victims and used as the basis for a search warrant for his residence and an arrest warrant for him Sejnoha v. City of Bisbee, 815 F.Supp. 1300 (D.Ariz 1993).


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