Reilly Pozner Wins Reinstatement of Civil Rights Lawsuits
In a victory in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, Reilly Pozner attorney Jason Lynch won the reversal of two rulings by the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas that dismissed lawsuits brought by a pro se plaintiff under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The plaintiff, Martin Vasquez Arroyo, alleged in his Section 1983 actions that police and prosecutors in Kansas falsified his signature on two pre-trial diversion agreements. The District Court dismissed the actions, ruling that the claims were barred by the doctrine limiting Section 1983 suits announced by the Supreme Court in Heck v. Humphrey, 512 U.S. 477 (1994).
The Tenth Circuit appointed Jason to represent Mr. Vasquez Arroyo after he filed his appeals without a lawyer. The Court of Appeals adopted Jason's argument that Heck v. Humphrey did not apply in Mr. Vasquez Arroyo's cases, and the Court reversed the dismissals of Mr. Vasquez Arroyo's complaints and remanded the cases to the District Court for further proceedings. The decision by the Court of Appeals is reported as Arroyo v. Starks et al., __ F. 3d __, 2009 WL 4827370 (10th Cir. 2009).
The opinion by the Court of Appeals can be accessed here
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