Wearry v. Perrilloux

391 F. Supp. 3d 620
CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Louisiana
DecidedJune 3, 2019
DocketCIVIL ACTION 18-594-SDD-RLB
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 391 F. Supp. 3d 620 (Wearry v. Perrilloux) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wearry v. Perrilloux, 391 F. Supp. 3d 620 (M.D. La. 2019).

Opinion

CHIEF JUDGE SHELLY D. DICK, UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

Before the Court is the Motion to Dismiss, Purusant [sic] to FRCP Rule 12(b)(6), For Failure to State a Claim Upon Which Relief Can Be Granted1 filed by Defendant, Scott M. Perrilloux ("Perrilloux"), District Attorney for the 21st Judicial District of Louisiana. Plaintiff Michael Wearry ("Wearry") has filed a Memorandum in Opposition.2 Perrilloux also filed a Supplemental Memo in Support of Motion to Dismiss.3 For the reasons that follow, the Court finds that the Motion should be denied.

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

This case arises out of the 1998 murder of Albany High School student Eric Walber. Plaintiff Michael Wearry was questioned during the initial homicide investigation, but in June 1998, law enforcement officials told the media that Wearry had an alibi and was not considered a suspect in the murder.4 The case remained stubbornly unsolved and became the subject of national media attention. Then, in 2000, "an incarcerated man named Sam Scott"5 came forward and implicated Michael Wearry in the crime. In 2002, a jury in Livingston Parish, Louisiana convicted Wearry of first-degree murder and sentenced him to death.6 Wearry appealed his conviction to the Louisiana Supreme Court, which found no merit in any of the 38 assignments of error presented and affirmed Wearry's conviction and sentence.7

Later, Wearry's defense counsel became aware of certain "belatedly revealed information [that] would have undermined the prosecution and materially aided Wearry's defense at trial."8 In 2016, after Wearry's attempts to obtain postconviction relief at the state level were unsuccessful, the United States Supreme Court granted the petition for writ of certiorari that Wearry filed from Death Row at the Louisiana State Penitentiary. Calling the state's evidence *623against Wearry a "house of cards"9 and finding that "the prosecution's failure to disclose material evidence violated Wearry's due process rights,"10 the Supreme Court vacated Wearry's conviction and remanded the case for a new trial.

On May 30, 2018, while awaiting his new trial, Michael Wearry filed this lawsuit against Scott M. Perrilloux, who was the District Attorney in the 21st Judicial District of Louisiana for Livingston Parish when Wearry was convicted. In his Complaint , Wearry alleges that Perrilloux secured his conviction by "knowingly and deliberately fabricat[ing] the account of an adolescent witness who falsely implicated [him]."11 More specifically, Wearry alleges that Perrilloux was "concerned" that the testimony of the inmate who came forward "would not be sufficient to secure a conviction and death sentence against Wearry," so he did the following:12

1) "made an intentional and deliberate decision to fabricate a narrative ... in order to procure Wearry's conviction and death sentence"13 ;
2) Identified Jeffery Ashton, a minor who was "subject to juvenile court proceedings at the time and was vulnerable to intimidation by authorities,"14 "picked him up from school, [drove] him to Perrilloux's office, and then, without a parent present ... intimidated him"15 and "provided [him] with a completely fabricated story to adopt and repeat"16 that implicated Wearry in the murder;
3) Included Wearry on a list of people Ashton identified from a photo array even though "Ashton told them he did not"17 recognize Wearry and, in fact, "had no personal knowledge connecting Wearry to Walber's death"18 ;
4) "[C]oached Ashton in at least six separate meetings to perfect the falsified story";19
5) Persuaded Ashton that he had previously provided "details about the night of Walber's murder that Ashton had never actually provided";20
6) And, after the Supreme Court vacated Wearry's conviction, allegedly instructed Livingston Parish Sheriff's Deputy Ben Ballard to "coerce Ashton into perpetuating his false testimony,"21 including "promis[ing] favors in exchange for favorable trial testimony"22 at the new trial.

Based on these allegations, Wearry brings two claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, arising out of Perrilloux's alleged "fabrication of false evidence"23 and "intentional use of perjured testimony."24 Additionally, *624Wearry brings a malicious prosecution claim under Louisiana Civil Code article 2315. On these three counts, Wearry prays for an award of damages, including punitive damages, fees, and costs.

Now, Perrilloux asks this Court to dismiss the official capacity claims against him for two reasons: first, because Wearry "makes no allegations of an official custom or policy"25 in support of his 42 U.S.C. § 1983 claims, as required by the relevant jurisprudence;26 and second, because Perrilloux argues he is entitled to absolute prosecutorial immunity with respect to the state law claim for malicious prosecution.

II. LAW AND ANALYSIS

A. Rule 12(b)(6) Motion to Dismiss

When deciding a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss, "[t]he 'court accepts all well-pleaded facts as true, viewing them in the light most favorable to the plaintiff.' "27 The Court may consider "the complaint, its proper attachments, documents incorporated into the complaint by reference, and matters of which a court may take judicial notice."28 "To survive a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss, the plaintiff must plead 'enough facts to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.' "29 In Twombly , the United States Supreme Court set forth the basic criteria necessary for a complaint to survive a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss. "While a complaint attacked by a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss does not need detailed factual allegations, a plaintiff's obligation to provide the grounds of his entitlement to relief requires more than labels and conclusions, and a formulaic recitation of the elements of a cause of action will not do."30

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Bluebook (online)
391 F. Supp. 3d 620, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wearry-v-perrilloux-lamd-2019.