The court of appeals affirmed a district court’s orders in part, reversed in part, and remanded the action with directions. The court held that for purposes of a plaintiff’s claim of malicious prosecution, a defendant who has fabricated evidence may still have acted with probable cause if the defendant was aware of other evidence which would have made it objectively reasonable to suspect the plaintiff’s guilt.
In late 2000 Kent Roberts, former General Counsel of McAfee, Inc., allowed the company’s Controller and Senior Vice President, Terry Davis, to backdate thousands of stock options that had been issued to Robert months earlier as a reward for a promotion. The backdating was not per se illegal, but its lawfulness depended upon whether Davis and Roberts had the authority to carry it out and whether McAfee should have recorded a compensation expense accordingly.
