Brown & James lawyers Steven Schwartz and Brian Sableman obtained summary judgment in the Circuit Court of St. Louis City for two lawyers and a law firm in a malicious prosecution case. The suit was filed by a former police officer who claimed that a civil rights lawsuit filed by the lawyers on behalf of two women was brought maliciously and without probable cause. In the underlying suit, the two women claimed that the police officer drugged them when he bought them each a drink at a bar in St. Charles, Missouri. As soon as they finished the drinks, they both blacked out and awoke several hours later at the police officer’s apartment in St. Louis County. They had no memory of going there. The Court in the malicious prosecution case held that the settlement of the underlying suit by the police officer’s employer defeated the malicious prosecution claims as a matter of law, because the underlying suit was not terminated in his favor. The Court also found that the former police officer failed to produce evidence sufficient to establish the other elements of the malicious prosecution claim – lack of probable cause and malice. The Court also held that the lawyers’ statements made in pleadings in the underlying case were protected by the judicial proceedings privilege.
Click the link below to read about another ruling arising out of the same case: