◆ SpookStack

114 Nos. 77-1698, 77-1210 & 77-1870 qualified immunity to the prosecutor also could have an adverse effect upon the functioning of the criminal justice system.” In the present case, the counterattack to the publicity was for the purpose of avoiding such an adverse effect. It is the state authorities who prosecute, and irrespec- tive of whether the federal defendants may have thought prosecution was proper, I fail to see a jury case of malicious prosecution against them. One, of course, does not have to be in the prosecutor’s office to be chargeable with malicious prosecution but he should have some con- nection with bringing about the wrongful prosecution more than just thinking that the defendant should be prosecuted. 2. Claimed obstructionism. Under my view the matter of the raid would only remain in litigation as to the shooters. Without the issue of conspiracy as to the raid, the post-hoc claimed acts of obstructionism, upon which the Anderson plaintiffs particularly rely, have not been, it seems to me, demonstrated to have harmed the plaintiffs. As Chief Judge Fairchild has pointed out in his concurrence, it seems clear that plaintiffs cannot recover damages for injury to reputation, without more. If the defendants have engaged in the obstruction of justice or perjury the criminal courts not this civil suit are the proper place for their consideration. Indeed, the history of criminal proceedings in the area with which we are concerned during the past decade testifies to the fact that high office or powerful position does not provide a shield against successful prosecution for violations of the law. I find it almost incredible that Sadunas, who made a mistake in identifying one of many guns he examined from which a shell had been fired, is being left in the case. This is particularly true because he is paying a penalty for honesty by promptly acknowledging his mis- take when he made a reexamination and because this is not a case of a rifle or pistol cartridge where the rifling in the barrel gives a much more distinctive basis for idereteatzon than in the shotgun shell casing here in- volved.