Guistina Aprileo v. Cheryl Claporood, et al.

Springfield, Massachusetts, personal injury lawyer represented the Plaintiff on an excessive force claim.



In 2018, Guistina Aprileo requested police assistance with resolving a disagreement at her

home between her adult children. Soon after the police arrived, she found herself in a dispute with one of the officers, which led to her arrest on charges including disorderly conduct. Rather than admit to any wrongdoing or go to trial, Aprileo agreed with the Commonwealth to three months of pretrial probation under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 276, § 87 ("Section 87"), and a state court approved the agreement. After Aprileo successfully completed probation,

the Commonwealth dismissed the charges against her. Later, Aprileo filed suit against the three officers and the City of Springfield under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging that one of the officers used excessive force against her during the arrest and fractured her elbow.



This case poses one central question: Does Heck v. Humphrey, 512 U.S. 477 (1994), which held that a § 1983 claim

cannot impugn a valid criminal judgment, bar Aprileo's claim here? See id. at 486-87. We agree with the district court, as well as with the majority of our sister circuits to have considered the question, that the Heck bar is not triggered when there is no underlying criminal conviction or sentence. Because Aprileo was not convicted of any crime, and she secured a dismissal of the charges against her without a guilty plea or any admission of wrongdoing, the Heck bar does not apply.

Affirmed