[PUBLISH] In the United States Court of Appeals For the Eleventh Circuit

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No. 21-13632 ____________________

MEGAN GARCIA, VICTOR REVILL, Plaintiffs-Appellees, versus PAMELA CASEY, SCOTT GILLILAND, SUE ASHWORTH, BRIAN K. RATLIFF,

Defendants-Appellants.

____________________ USCA11 Case: 21-13632 Document: 104-1 Date Filed: 07/28/2023 Page: 2 of 32

2 Opinion of the Court 21-13632

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama D.C. Docket Nos. 2:18-cv-02079-KOB, 2:19-cv-00114-KOB ____________________

Before BRANCH and BRASHER, Circuit Judges, and WINSOR,∗ District Judge. BRASHER, Circuit Judge: The main question in this appeal is whether government of- ficers are entitled to qualified immunity for arresting attorneys Me- gan Garcia and Victor Revill for stashing their client’s cellphone in a bag only minutes before the police executed a search warrant for child pornography on that phone. Sheriff’s deputies Sue Ashworth and Brian Ratliff made the arrest, and Garcia and Revill allege that District Attorney Pamela Casey and Assistant District Attorney Scott Gilliland ordered the arrest. Following the arrest, DA Casey, in a statement to the press, and ADA Gilliland, on the courthouse steps, publicly accused Garcia and Revill of concealing evidence of a crime and knowingly possessing child pornography. After Garcia and Revill were tried and acquitted for the state- law crimes of obstructing governmental operations and refusal to permit an inspection, they filed this federal lawsuit. Garcia and

∗ Honorable Allen C. Winsor, United States District Judge for the Northern

District of Florida, sitting by designation. USCA11 Case: 21-13632 Document: 104-1 Date Filed: 07/28/2023 Page: 3 of 32

21-13632 Opinion of the Court 3

Revill sued Deputies Ashworth and Ratliff, DA Casey, and ADA Gilliland for unlawful arrest. They also sued Casey and Gilliland for defamation. On cross motions for summary judgment, the district court entered judgment against Deputies Ashworth and Ratliff and denied DA Casey and ADA Gilliland’s motion for summary judg- ment on the false arrest claim. The district court also denied the district attorneys’ motion for summary judgment on Garcia and Revill’s defamation claims, concluding that the district attorneys were not entitled to state-agent immunity under Alabama law. This appeal is complicated by our inconsistent case law on qualified immunity for false arrest claims. Despite the Supreme Court clarifying the standards for assessing probable cause and qualified immunity in District of Columbia v. Wesby, 138 S. Ct. 577 (2018), the courts in our Circuit have only sometimes applied that decision. Accordingly, we once again affirm that the test in Wesby should be applied to answer whether probable cause exists for an arrest or qualified immunity prevents liability for a false arrest claim. Under Wesby, we believe the defendants are entitled to qual- ified immunity against the plai