Peter GAKUBA, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Charles O‘BRIEN, et al., Defendants-Appellees.
No. 12-3345.
United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.
Submitted Feb. 14, 2013. Decided March 25, 2013.
751
The district judge must recalculate the award using the net trebling approach. If any of the real estate remains unsold, the parties should address how its value is to be determined. The district court assumed that real estate in a lender‘s or guarantor‘s inventory has no value at all, so there is nothing to subtract in either a gross or a net approach. That cannot be right. Courts routinely determine the value of real property that is off the market—valuation for estate-tax purposes is one example, and valuation in condemnation proceedings is another. The United States’ loss is the amount paid on the guaranty less the value of the collateral, whether or not the agency has chosen to retain the collateral. The damages should not be manipulated through the agency‘s choice about when (or if) to sell the property it receives in exchange for its payments.
The judgment is affirmed to the extent it finds Anchor and Munson liable, but it is reversed to the extent it adopts the gross trebling approach. The case is remanded with instructions to recalculate the award under the net trebling approach.
Peter Gakuba (submitted), Orland Park, IL, pro se.*
Before POSNER, WOOD, and TINDER, Circuit Judges.
Peter Gakuba appeals the district court‘s dismissal of his civil-rights lawsuit against law enforcement personnel and others who participated in a criminal investigation of him that led to sexual abuse charges, which remain pending. Because the district court should have stayed some of his claims and allowed others to proceed, we vacate and remand.
In 2006 a runaway teenager accused Gakuba of kidnapping and raping him in Rockford, Illinois. Gakuba alleges that investigating police barged into his Rockford hotel room without a warrant and seized his wallet and other unspecified items. The police acted after obtaining Gakuba‘s video rental records from Hollywood Video to corroborate the accuser‘s story that he had spent time watching videos in Gakuba‘s room. Gakuba was charged in Winnebago County Circuit Court with three counts of aggravated sexual abuse; those charges remain pending. See
In 2012 Gakuba filed a complaint in the Eastern Division of the Northern District of Illinois under
On appeal Gakuba asserts that his pending state criminal case does not prevent him from asserting his § 1983 claims, which arise out of the defendants’ conduct in investigating or prosecuting his case (he also clarifies that he is not raising a claim of malicious abuse of process). At first glance, one might ask whether Gakuba‘s claims are barred by Heck v. Humphrey, 512 U.S. 477, 114 S.Ct. 2364, 129 L.Ed.2d 383 (1994). But Heck does not apply absent a conviction. See Wallace v. Kato, 549 U.S. 384, 393-94, 127 S.Ct. 1091, 166 L.Ed.2d 973 (2007); Evans v. Poskon, 603 F.3d 362, 363 (7th Cir.2010).
It is Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37, 91 S.Ct. 746, 27 L.Ed.2d 669 (1971), with which we must be concerned. Younger holds that federal courts must abstain from taking jurisdiction over federal constitutional claims that may interfere with ongoing state proceedings. See SKS & Assocs., Inc. v. Dart, 619 F.3d 674, 677 (7th Cir.2010). Gakuba‘s claims of damages resulting from illegal searches, seizures, and detentions meet that description: they involve constitutional issues that may be litigated during the course of his criminal case, see Simpson v. Rowan, 73 F.3d 134, 138 (7th Cir.1995); Gilbertson v. Albright, 381 F.3d 965, 968 (9th Cir.2004) (en banc); Carroll v. City of Mount Clemens, 139 F.3d 1072, 1075 (6th Cir.1998). Deciding those issues in federal court could undermine the state court proceeding, see Simpson, 73 F.3d at 138. Because monetary relief is not available to him in his defense of criminal charges, however, and because his claims may become time-barred by the time the state prosecution has concluded, the district court should have stayed rather than dismissed Gakuba‘s civil-rights claims. See Simpson, 73 F.3d at 138-39; see also Green v. Benden, 281 F.3d 661, 667 (7th Cir.2002); D.L. v. Unified Sch. Dist. No. 497, 392 F.3d 1223, 1228 (10th Cir.2004); Habich v. City of Dearborn, 331 F.3d 524, 533 n. 4 (6th Cir.2003).
Gakuba also continues to press his contention that Hollywood Video violated the VPPA when it turned over his video rental records to the police. The Act makes “video tape service providers” civilly liable to their customers if they disclose their rental information under certain circumstances. See