Robert H. Wright, Jr. v. Jerald Watson, et al.

Is a malicious prosecution claim under the Fourth Amendment and Manuel v. City of Joliet, 137 S. Ct. 9112 (2017) the proper civil remedy for an “overcharge” prosecution where a suspect is lawfully arrested for a trivial misdemeanor but is also subjected to piled-on felony charges in an attempt to pressure him into a guilty plea and financial settlement of a civil forfeiture action in which the proceeds go to the arresting agency, when both the felony prosecution and civil forfeiture are based on the knowingly false statements of a police investigator?

Does a Fourth Amendment malicious prosecution claim arise when a police investigator knowingly overcharges a rural property owner with felony drug manufacturing to leverage an abusive civil forfeiture proceeding – which requires a seizure of at least four ounces of marijuana from the suspect’s property – when there is only probable cause to charge him with constructive possession of less than one-third of an ounce of marijuana found on the property and there is no probable cause that he has anything to do with an inconspicuous patch of marijuana plants growing outside his fence on a neighbor’s land, thereby causing great damage to his reputation and resulting in his termination as treasurer of a large corporation which has employed him for 35 years?