1983 action filed against first circuit solicitor
Baru A. Trump, who was charged with the murders of Cecil M. Bennett and Shirley Wiles at an Orangeburg barbershop after the murder weapon was found in his car, has filed a lawsuit in federal court against Orangeburg County prosecutor David Pascoe.
Trump was arrested in December of 2005. The complaint alleges that Pascoe's office had all of the investigative reports in the case in August or September of 2006, which I assume would have shown that there was no case against Trump, but did not dismiss the murder charge until February of 2007. Trump had told investigators that he purchased the gun from another individual named Roger Johnson, who is currently serving a prison sentence for shooting two Orangeburg County Sheriff's deputies.
From everything that I see, in the article and the complaint itself, Trump does not have a case. I'm all for filing suit against a prosecutor in the right case, to test prosecutorial immunity in light of the Pottawattamie case which was never decided by SCOTUS, but this is not that case.
Problems? Trump was also charged with unlawful carrying of a pistol, to which he pled guilty and was sentenced to a year. He was indicted by the grand jury on the murder charge, which means there was a finding of probable cause (the cliche is that the grand jury will indict a ham sandwich - despite this, a finding of probable cause is a significant hurdle that Trump would have to get around if this suit went forward). And let's not forget that the law still says that prosecutors are immune from suit for decisions such as whether or not to charge a person.
Is there a moral outrage that they allowed a man to sit in jail when they knew that there was insufficient evidence to go forward on the case? There should be. But it does not rise to the level of a prosecutor who obtains perjured testimony to make their case, who manufactures inculpatory evidence or buries exculpatory evidence. It rings of negligence, as opposed to maliciousness. It is ironic that a civil attorney, who deals in money as opposed to freedom, can be sued for malpractice but that a prosecutor, who holds a person's life in his or her hands, is immune from suit.
I predict that the complaint will never be served on Pascoe. It has been filed but not served - if it is not served within 120 days it will be dismissed. It got the media's attention, which may have been the point, but the case has too many problems to get off the ground.
