A nolo contendre plea in a criminal case cannot be used to bar related civil rights litigation under the rule of Heck v. Humphrey, a divided Ninth Circuit panel held this week in a remarkable decision in King v. Villegas, 23-1713.
The “Escape Key” to Heck Bars? King suggests a no contest plea is the way to go, at least if the opinion remains in force. Photo by Daniel Maquiling on Unsplash.
The rule of Heck bars a civil litigant who has suffered a criminal conviction from bringing a case under 42 U.S.C. section 1983 where success in the civil case would necessarily imply the invalidity of that criminal conviction. There are some exceptions to that general rule, which I’ve written about previously, but for the most part Heck is a serious obstacle to civil rights litigation stemming from a situation that ended up with a criminal plea.
In King, the Ninth Circuit panel concludes that use of a no contest plea to establish a Heck bar is itself prohibited by Federal Rule of Evidence 410(a) and, more strikingly, even concludes that the fact of the conviction itself also cannot be admitted for purposes of the Heck analysis.
Dissenting, Judge Callahan notes that the majority’s position “leads to the absurd result that federal courts will be unable to perform any Heck analysis in nolo contendre cases, which are commonplace.”
Look for the cert petition, coming soon!
Related Posts: Avoid a Heck Bar: Preserving Excessive Force Claims in “Resisting Arrest” Cases After Lemos v. County of Sonoma.