United States First Circuit

In plaintiffs' 42 U.S.C. section 1983 suit against a Massachusetts town and more than two dozen police officers in their official and personal capacities, claiming that for thirteen years, the town's police conspired to and did deprive family members of their constitutionally protected civil rights and committed state law torts in order to drive plaintiffs out of town, judgment of the district court is affirmed in part, reversed in part and remanded where: 1) the error in instructing the jury in the first trial on the state law crime of assault and battery on a police officer requires that there be a new trial on the only successful federal civil rights claim against a police officer in that trial, as this error undercuts the basis for a defendant police officer's defense to a federal claim of false arrest for that crime; 2) the federal civil rights award against the town and the award of attorney's fees under section 1988 is vacated; 3) state law verdicts in the first trial against the town and two officers based on intentional infliction of emotional distress (IIED) are vacated; 4) a state law verdict in the second trial is vacated and a judgment entered for defendants on a state IIED because there was no evidence at trial supporting a finding that the officer intended to inflict emotional distress or that his conduct caused the emotional harms asserted by one of the minor plaintiffs; 5) the verdict for plaintiffs against the other officer on an assault charge stands; and 6) district court's grant of defendants of judgment as a matter of law on plaintiffs' cross-appealed claims against the two officers is affirmed.

Appellate Information

• Decided 07/13/2010
• Published 07/13/2010

Judges

• LYNCH, C.J.

Court

• United States First Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Leonard H. Kesten, Andrew M. Fischer