Stewart v. District Attorney for the Eighteenth Circuit Court District for the State of Mississippi

923 So. 2d 1017, 2005 Miss. App. LEXIS 589, 2005 WL 2008748
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedAugust 23, 2005
DocketNo. 2003-CA-02582-COA
StatusPublished

This text of 923 So. 2d 1017 (Stewart v. District Attorney for the Eighteenth Circuit Court District for the State of Mississippi) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Mississippi primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Stewart v. District Attorney for the Eighteenth Circuit Court District for the State of Mississippi, 923 So. 2d 1017, 2005 Miss. App. LEXIS 589, 2005 WL 2008748 (Mich. Ct. App. 2005).

Opinions

MYERS, J.,

for the Court.

STATEMENT OF FACTS

¶ 1. Gary Stewart is an African-American resident of New Orleans, Louisiana, where he has lived his entire life. At the time of his arrest in Louisiana, on bad check charges brought in Mississippi, Stewart was working for both the New Orleans Aviation Board and Office Depot. Stewart lost his job with Office Depot as a result of being arrested and jailed in Mississippi.

¶ 2. Around February 2, 1997, Stewart lost his wallet which contained his Louisiana personal identification card. Stewart reported his identification card as lost and was issued a replacement. The identification card lost had his Social Security number, name, picture, date of birth, expiration date, class title, and class letter. Stewart did not have a driver’s license at the time his wallet was lost.

¶ 3. An unidentified white male found Stewart’s wallet and, using the information contained on Stewart’s identification card, obtained a fake personal identification card using Stewart’s identifying information. The fake personal identification card had a picture of a white male but contained Gary Stewart’s Social Security number and stated the individual’s name as “Gary Stewart.”

¶ 4. The white male used this fake identification card to establish a checking account at Great Southern National Bank in Hattiesburg, Mississippi under Gary Stewart’s name and Social Security number and, using this account, wrote checks in an amount totaling $6,890.42. As a result, grand juries for the January and February 1998 terms of the Second Judicial District of the Circuit Court of Jones County, Mississippi returned indictments against Stewart, on false pretense charges stemming from the bad checks.

[1019]*1019¶ 5. On January 3, 2000, a new district attorney took office and one' of the tasks the new regime undertook was to try and locate some of the people who were indicted by prior grand juries. One such file was that of Gary Stewart, which contained a photograph of the white male involved in writing the checks, as one of the businesses which accepted an invalid check obtained a copy of the identification card the imposter was using.

¶ 6. Stewart was working at the New Orleans International Airport when he was contacted by his mother. Stewart’s mother informed him that the Louisiana State Police had visited her, leaving a telephone number for Stewart to contact them. Stewart contacted the Louisiana State Police and was informed that they had “received a complaint from Mississippi that somebody was writing checks in [his] name,” and that he needed to come to the station to obtain a new driver’s license number. Stewart by this time had acquired a driver’s license. When Stewart arrived at the Louisiana State Police station, he was arrested for committing false pretenses in Mississippi.

¶ 7. Stewart remained imprisoned in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, until he was extradited to Jones County. During his ten day incarceration at the Jefferson Parish, Louisiana Sheriffs Office, Stewart alleges that he became ill because he was unable to obtain his insulin medication for, .his diabetic condition.

¶ 8. On March 9, 2000, Stewart had an initial appearance before Circuit Court Judge Billie Joe Landrum on the false pretenses indictments. Stewart was denied bail and his preliminary hearing was scheduled for March 28, 2000. Stewart obtained an attorney and was released on bail on March 14, 2000.

¶ 9. On March 23, 2000, the photo of the imposter was located in one of approximately ten files the 'district attorney’s office had on Gary Stewart. Mel Riley, an investigator for the district attorney’s office, wrote the Mississippi Department of Public Safety requesting a driver’s license photograph of Gary Stewart, with a certain driver’s license number. The Department of Public Safety sent Riley a copy of a photograph of the white male ■ who obtained the fake identification card using Stewart’s personal information. Upon realizing that the wrong individual had been arrested, on March 28, 2000, Judge Land-rum dismissed the false pretense charges against Stewart.

¶ 10. Stewart filed this complaint in the Circuit Court of the First Judicial District of Hinds County on May 16, 2001, against the Department of Public Safety for the State of Mississippi, the District Attorney’s Office for the Eighteenth Circuit Court District, the Jones County, Mississippi Sheriffs Department, the Jefferson Parish, Louisiana Sheriffs Department, and John Does “A” through “Z.” In his complaint, Stewart asserted claims of false arrest, unreasonable seizure, and violation of his due process rights stemming from his unlawful arrest by the defendants. Stewart’s claims against the'Jones County, Mississippi Sheriffs Department and the Jefferson Parish, Louisiana Sheriffs Department were settled prior to trial. Further, Stewart entered an agreed order on January 30, 2002, dismissing the Department of Public Safety for the State of Mississippi and transferring the case to the Second Judicial District of Jones County, Mississippi. The remaining defendant of Stewart’s complaint was the District Attorney’s Office for the Eighteenth Circuit Court District.

¶ 11. Circuit Court Judge Robert G. Helfrich was appointed as special judge to preside over the case, as Judge Landrum had recused himself. The district attorney [1020]*1020filed a motion for summary judgment on Stewart’s claims on March 6, 2003. The court granted the motion on October 31, 2003. Aggrieved by the trial court’s grant of summary judgment against his claims, Stewart appeals raising the following four issues:

I. WHETHER THE TRIAL COURT APPLIED THE PROPER STANDARD IN DETERMINING WHETHER OR NOT SUMMARY JUDGMENT WAS PROPER?
II. WHETHER THE ACTIONS OF THE ASSISTANT DISTRICT ATTORNEY WERE WITHIN THE SCOPE OF HER DUTIES, AND THUS DISCRETIONARY, AND WERE HER ACTIONS OBJECTIVELY REASONABLE?
III. WHETHER THE DOCTRINES OF JUDICIAL IMMUNITY, GOVERNMENTAL IMMUNITY, AND SOVEREIGN IMMUNITY UNDER THE MISSISSIPPI TORT CLAIMS ACT BAR STEWART’S ACTION AGAINST THE ASSISTANT DISTRICT ATTORNEY?
IV. WHETHER THE ACTIONS OF THE ASSISTANT DISTRICT ATTORNEY VIOLATED PLAINTIFF’S CONSTITUTIONAL OR STATUTORY RIGHTS?

¶ 12. Although this case presents a very unfortunate series of events which befell Stewart, this Court finds no reversible error, and therefore we affirm.

LEGAL ANALYSIS

STANDARD OF REVIEW

¶ 13. Stewart essentially raises one key issue, which is whether or not summary judgment was proper, and advances four arguments as to why he contends summary judgment was improper. In addressing Stewart’s positions, we will maintain his arguments as he presents them in order to clearly address each of his contentions. As such, the standard of review for each of the sub-issues, addressed as separate issues, is the same, which is stated as follows:

This Court applies a de novo standard of review to a grant of summary judgment by the trial court. The evidence must be viewed in the light most favorable to the party against whom the motion has been made. Russell v. Orr, 700 So.2d 619, 622 (Miss.1997). A motion for summary judgment lies only when there is no genuine issue of material fact, and the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law. M.R.C.P. 56(c).

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Sanchez v. Swyden
139 F.3d 464 (Fifth Circuit, 1998)
Pierson v. Ray
386 U.S. 547 (Supreme Court, 1967)
Burns v. Reed
500 U.S. 478 (Supreme Court, 1991)
Shaw v. Burchfield
481 So. 2d 247 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1985)
Bridges v. Pearl River Valley Water Supply Dist.
793 So. 2d 584 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 2001)
Leffler v. Sharp
891 So. 2d 152 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 2004)
Russell v. Orr
700 So. 2d 619 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1997)
Jones v. Mississippi Dept. of Transp.
744 So. 2d 256 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1999)
Townsend v. Estate of Gilbert
616 So. 2d 333 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1993)
Simmons v. Thompson MacHinery of Miss., Inc.
631 So. 2d 798 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1994)
Carter v. Spencer
5 Miss. 42 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1839)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
923 So. 2d 1017, 2005 Miss. App. LEXIS 589, 2005 WL 2008748, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stewart-v-district-attorney-for-the-eighteenth-circuit-court-district-for-missctapp-2005.