Ernest Edgar Black and Amy Elizabeth Blackv.Jeff Wigington, et al.
Ernest and Amy Black sued sheriff’s deputies, an investigator, and the sheriff after deputies entered their trailer during a suspected burglary investigation, found contraband, and arrested them; the charges were dropped after a state court suppressed the evidence. The Eleventh Circuit held that the deputies were entitled to Georgia official immunity on the trespass claim because the record did not support an inference of actual malice, even if their entry was unreasonable or reckless. It also held that the exclusionary rule does not apply in civil suits against police, so evidence found in the trailer supplied probable cause for the arrest warrants and the deputies and investigator were entitled to qualified immunity from malicious-prosecution liability. The court ruled that sovereign immunity was abrogated for the Title II disability claim alleging conduct that also plausibly violated the Equal Protection Clause, but it lacked interlocutory jurisdiction to review the merits of that constitutional claim. It reversed and directed judgment for the deputies on trespass and for the deputies and investigator on malicious prosecution, affirmed denial of sovereign immunity for the sheriff on the Title II claim, and remanded that claim for further proceedings.
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