Town of Newton et al. v. Rumery (480 U.S. 386)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided March 9, 1987 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 480 U.S. 386 · 107 S. Ct. 1187
- Decided
- March 9, 1987
- Term
- October Term 1986
- Vote
- 5–4
- Majority author
- Justice Powell
- Issue area
- Civil Rights
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Justice Powell announced the judgment of the Court and delivered the opinion of the Court with respect to Parts I, II, III-A, IV, and V, and an opinion with respect to Part. III-B, in which The Chief Justice, Justice White, and Justice Scalia join. The question in this case is whether a court properly may enforce an agreement in which a criminal defendant releases his right to file an action under 42 U. S. C. § 1983 in return for a prosecutor’s dismissal of pending criminal charges. I. In 1983, a grand jury m Rockingham County, New Hampshire, indicted David Champy for aggravated felonious sexual assault. Respondent Bernard Rumery, a friend of Champy’s, read about the charges in a local newspaper. Seeking information about the charges, he telephoned Mary Deary, who was acquainted with both Rumery and Champy. Coincidentally, Deary had been the victim of the assault in question and was expected to be the principal witness against Champy. The record does not reveal directly the date or substance of this conversation between Rumery and Deary, but Deary apparently was disturbed by the call. On March 12, according to police records, she called David Barrett, the Chief of Police for the town of Newton. She told him that Rumery was trying to force her to drop the charges against Champy. Rumery talked to Deary again on May 11. The substance of this conversation also is disputed. Rumery…
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