United States Eighth Circuit

In a civil rights action challenging plaintiff's prosecution, conviction, re-prosecution, and eventual acquittal for the alleged molestation of his adopted daughter, judgment for plaintiff is affirmed where: 1) defendant was not permitted to relitigate the issue of qualified immunity; 2) defendant failed to offer any actual evidence -- expert or otherwise -- that plaintiff, a convicted child molester, would have been released on bond pending his re-trial; 3) the district court did not abuse its discretion in prohibiting defendant from eliciting testimony from the prosecutor in plaintiff's case as to whether defendant had testified correctly during his deposition, as the jury heard defendant's own testimony that he believed that he had testified correctly; and 4) the punitive damages award amounted to approximately seven percent of the actual damages, and thus there was no plain error in the punitive damages award.

Appellate Information

• Decided 05/17/2010
• Published 05/17/2010

Judges

• SMITH, Circuit Judge., Before SMITH and COLLOTON, Circuit Judges, and KORNMANN,District Judge.

Court

• United States Eighth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Susan Ford Robertson, argued, Kansas City, MO, for appellant.


• For Appellees:
  
• Michael Kanovitz, argued, Chicago, IL, Arthur Loevy and Jon Loevy, Chicago IL, Brian McCallister, Christopher Lawler, and Cyndy Short, Kansas City, MO, on the brief, for appellee.