Under state law, in false arrest, false imprisonment and malicious prosecution cases, plaintiff’s counsel faces defeat by the establishment of probable cause. However, under the Third Circuit’s recent decision in Halsey v. Pfeiffer, 750 F.3d 273 (3d Cir. 2014), where fabrication or withholding of evidence has a meaningful connection to a prosecution, conviction and incarceration, an independent cause of action now exists under § 1983 for deprivation of substantive due process under the Fourteenth Amendment, despite the existence of probable cause.

In so holding, the court joined a number of other circuits. See Zahrey v. Coffey, 221 F.3d 342, 344 (2d Cir. 2000); Washington v. Wilmore, 407 F.3d 274, 282 (4th Cir. 2005); Castellano v. Frogozo, 352 F.3d 939, 955 (5th Cir. 2003); Gregory v. City of Louisville, 444 F.3d 725, 737 (6th Cir. 2006); Buckley v. Fitzsimmons, 20 F.3d 789, 797 (7th Cir. 1994); Moran v. Clarke, 296 F.3d 638, 646-647 (8th Cir. 2002); Devereaux v. Abbey, 263 F.3d 1070, 1074-75 (9th Cir. 2001); Pierce v. Gilchrist, 359 F.3d 1279, 1285 (10th Cir. 2004); Rowe v. City of Fort Lauderdale, 279 F.3d 1271, 1281 (11th Cir. 2002); see also Riley v. Hessenflow, No. 11-04253-CV-C-NKL (W.D.Mo. Jan. 10, 2013).

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