United States Ninth Circuit

In a suit under 42 U.S.C. section 1983 alleging that defendants violated the terms of an oral plea agreement by advocating for plaintiff's imprisonment past the term agreed to in the plea, summary judgment on grounds of immunity is affirmed for all defendants where: 1) prosecutors should be afforded absolute immunity for parole recommendations; 2) parole board members are entitled to absolute immunity for parole board decisions; 3) plaintiff failed to present any evidence that defendant-warden set in motion a series of acts by others, which she knew or reasonably should have known, would cause others to inflict the constitutional injury, and the warden lacked independent authority to order the release; and 4) in the absence of a waiver by the state or a valid congressional override, under the eleventh amendment, agencies of the state are immune from private damage actions or suits for injunctive relief brought in federal court.

Appellate Information

• Decided 01/22/2009
• Published 01/22/2009

Judges

• RAWLINSON, Circuit Judge:, Before:  ALEX KOZINSKI, Chief Judge, ANDREW J. KLEINFELD and JOHNNIE B. RAWLINSON, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Richard Hamlish, Westlake Village, CA, for appellant Liza Brown.


• For Appellees:
  
• Jennifer A.D. Lehman, Senior Deputy County Counsel, Los Angeles, CA, for appellees Steve Cooley, Mitchell Harris, Keith Thompson and Kathleen Tuttle., Leena M. Sheet, Deputy Attorney General, Los Angeles, CA, for appellees California Department of Corrections, Board of Prison Terms, and Warden Susan Poole.