Royal Feaster v. Thomas Miksch, Terry Livers, Joseph Barclay, Phillip Barnes, and City of Akron

KENNEDY, Circuit Judge.

Defendants, police officers of the city of Akron, appeal the refusal by the District Court to grant them summary judgment on the basis of qualified immunity in this section 1983 action. Alternatively, they assert that the District Court should have abstained from proceeding in this case pending the outcome of state criminal proceedings against Royal Feaster, the plaintiff in this case.

The decision of whether to abstain and the question of whether these defendants are entitled to qualified immunity are, as the parties have recognized, closely interconnected. Plaintiff’s…