Prosecutor Not Entitled to Immunity in Fabricated Evidence Suit

A Louisiana prosecutor and a detective lost their bids for absolute immunity from a former murder defendant’s lawsuit alleging that they intimidated a juvenile witness to adopt a narrative about the crime they conjured from whole cloth, the Fifth Circuit said.

The prosecutor was acting as an investigator, rather than an advocate, and thus isn’t entitled to absolute prosecutorial immunity, Judge James L. Dennis said Tuesday. Police officers also aren’t “entitled to the absolute immunity reserved for a prosecutor,” the court said.

The 1998 murder of a pizza delivery driver in Livingston Parish, La., was a cold case until a ...