Lopez v. City of Chicago case brief

Lopez v. City of Chicago case brief summary
464 F.3d 711 (2006)

CASE SYNOPSIS

Plaintiff arrestee appealed the grant of judgment as a matter of law to defendants, a city and detectives, by the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, on his 42 U.S.C.S. § 1983 claim, alleging that defendants subjected him to an unconstitutional detention in violation of the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments, and his state law claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress.

DISCUSSION

• The court reversed the grant of judgment as a matter of law to defendants, holding that the arrestee was entitled to judgment as a matter of law on his claim that the detectives violated his Fourth Amendment right to a prompt judicial determination of probable cause. 
• When a Gerstein probable cause hearing was not held within 48 hours of a warrantless arrest, the government had to show the existence of an emergency or other extraordinary circumstance to justify its failure to promptly present the person arrested to a judicial officer for a probable cause determination. 
• In the instant case, defendants offered no reason for the five-day delay other than the continuation of their investigation, but delays to gather additional evidence were per se unreasonable under McLaughlin. 
• The court found that there was conflicting evidence at trial on the arrestee's treatment while in the detectives' custody, raising a jury issue on his constitutional claim relating to the conditions of his warrantless detention and his state law claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress. 
• The district judge should not have taken the claims from the jury and resolved the factual conflict himself.

CONCLUSION
The court reversed the district court's order.

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