The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the district court’s denial of former Maricopa County prosecutors, Andrew Thomas and Lisa Aubuchon, and their spouses’ motions to dismiss based on absolute immunity.
Former Maricopa County Board of Supervisors member Donald T. Stapley, Jr. and his spouse brought this lawsuit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and state law alleging that Thomas and Aubuchon initiated a frivolous federal civil racketeering (“RICO”) suit against Stapley to harass him as part of an ongoing political war in Maricopa County involving the Board of Supervisors, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, and others.
Thomas and Aubuchon were later disbarred, in part, for initiating the RICO suit in question.
Under the circumstances, the panel held that Thomas and Aubuchon were not entitled to absolute immunity because their actions were not sufficiently analogous to those of a prosecutor.