Jackson v. Veterans Admin‪.‬

John Kelly spent a year in jail awaiting trial on charges that were eventually dropped. After his release, Kelly sued Chatham County, Georgia, and three of its police detectives who had been involved in his arrest. In factual terms, Kelly accused the detectives of concealing exculpatory evidence and of presenting false testimony, thereby causing his lengthy incarceration; he charged the County with failing to establish adequate procedures for conveying exculpatory evidence and with customarily seeking arrest warrants on the basis of affidavits that failed to show probable cause. In legal terms, Kelly charged the defendants with federal civil rights violations under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, and with false imprisonment and malicious prosecution in violation of state law. The defendants moved for summary judgment on grounds of qualified immunity and on the merits. For the most part, the district court denied these motions, although it granted summary judgment for the detectives on Kellys section 1983 false arrest claim.