John Betts v. Martha Anne Shearman

JOHN M. WALKER, JR., Circuit Judge:

In this appeal we consider whether the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (J. Paul Oetken, District Judge) erred in granting defendants’ motions to dismiss the complaint in this 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action in which the plaintiff seeks damages arising from his arrest based on allegedly false accusations made by a complaining victim.

We hold, first, that because arguable probable cause existed to arrest Betts, his claims for false arrest, false imprisonment, abuse of process, and malicious prosecution were properly dismissed. Second,…