RICHMOND (LN) — A federal judge in Virginia's Western District on Thursday cleared a Marion, Virginia, police officer of all civil-rights claims stemming from her role in signing an arrest warrant she lacked authority to issue, while allowing two state-law malicious prosecution claims to proceed against the private citizen who filed the underlying complaint.
Bridget Preston sued Jessica Williams and Marion police officer April Morgan after Williams filed a felony strangulation complaint against Preston in Smyth County, even though the underlying altercation had occurred in neighboring Wythe County. Morgan, who knew Williams socially, signed the complaint as the law enforcement officer required for a felony charge. The warrant was nolle prossed, with the local prosecutor citing procedural deficiencies, insufficient evidence, and a prior adjudication of the same incident.
The dispute traces to a January 2024 basketball game at a Wythe County school, where Preston and Williams — whose daughters had played sports together before a falling out — encountered each other in a hallway and a physical fight broke out. The Wythe County General District Court had already found Williams guilty of misdemeanor assault and battery and dismissed the charge against Preston when Williams filed the strangulation complaint months later.
Senior U.S. District Judge James P. Jones granted summary judgment to Morgan on the federal Section 1983 malicious prosecution and conspiracy counts, holding that she was shielded by qualified immunity. Morgan was not present during the altercation and relied on Williams's account and other witness statements; the court held that the absence of probable cause would not have been clear to a reasonable officer in her position. Morgan explained that signing the Wythe County warrant was outside her authority, attributing it to a lapse in judgment due to personal circumstances and stress rather than a deliberate attempt to harm Preston.
Morgan also won dismissal of the state-law malicious prosecution count on two independent grounds: Preston conceded she was unaware of any tension between herself and Morgan, and Morgan was acting in her official capacity — on duty and in uniform — when she signed the complaint, satisfying Virginia's four-factor sovereign immunity test.
The conspiracy claim against Williams fared no better. Although the uncontested record showed Williams and Morgan had a social relationship and that Morgan signed the criminal complaint as a law enforcement officer, Judge Jones found no evidence the two had discussed a plan to maliciously prosecute Preston or coordinated to obtain an unlawful warrant. Interaction process, the court held, does not by itself establish a Section 1983 conspiracy.
Williams's bid to exit the case entirely failed, however. On the assault and battery malicious prosecution count, the court found that video of the hallway encounter showed Williams as the initial physical aggressor but lacked audio, leaving the nature of Preston's contact — and whether it was lawful self-defense — for a jury to resolve. On the felony strangulation count, the video showed Preston shoving Williams away after Williams jumped toward her and made chest contact; the court held that a reasonable jury could conclude there was no probable cause to believe Preston had applied pressure to Williams's neck sufficient to impede her blood circulation or respiration.
Morgan is terminated. Preston's trial against Williams on the two surviving state-law claims will proceed before Judge Jones.