A senior judge has granted a motion by former Carbon County District Attorney Jean Engler and Assistant District Attorney Brian Gazo, ending a suit filed by a Jim Thorpe veterinarian who accused them of “malicious prosecution.”

Judge Joseph M. Augello, of Luzerne County, granted Engler’s and Gazo’s motion for judgment in the matter brought by Dr. Clyde R. Shoop. Augello was assigned the case after the three county judges recused themselves because they routinely handle cases of the DA’s office.

Shoop filed a civil complaint in the county court in April 2019 seeking monetary damages against trooper Erin K. Cawley, of the Pennsylvania state police station at the Lehighton barracks, Last Chance Ranch and its operator Lori McCutcheon, of 9 Beck Road, Quakertown. The charges were filed by Gazo as a ADA and approved by Engler, as DA.

Shoop was found guilty of the charges by District Judge William Kissner of Palmerton, following a preliminary hearing. Shoop appealed the decision to the county court. Following a hearing, Judge Steven R. Serfass reversed the decision of Kissner and found Shoop not guilty of the charges.

Shoop then filed a suit against Cawley and Last Chance Ranch and its operator Lori McCutcheon. He also filed a suit against Engler and Gazo claiming the charges should never have been filed against him and them filing the charges amounted to “malicious prosecution.”

Augello conducted a visual hearing on the motion for judgment filed by Engler and Gazo in March. Last week, he granted the motion which in effect dismisses the action against Engler and Gazo and the DA office.

In his opinion granting the motion of defendants Engler and Gazo, Augello wrote, “Prosecutor may benefit from two types of immunity, absolute immunity and qualified immunity.”

He wrote that absolute immunity provides a prosecutor with “absolute immunity from liability for civil damages for actions related to prosecution of a criminal case.”

He further wrote for qualified immunity, “government officials are not subject to damages liability for the performance of their discretionary functions when ‘their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known.’”

The judge wrote, “Here, defendants are entitled to absolute immunity. It is undisputed that defendant Gazo is an Assistant District Attorney and defendant Engler is a District Attorney. Plaintiff brought claims of malicious prosecution against the defendants for prosecuting him for animal cruelty.”

The judge added, “The crux of plaintiff’s claim, and the conduct for which defendants claim immunity, is that the defendants, in their role as prosecutors, acted with malice when they decided to prosecute the plaintiff.” Augello said the defendants’ actions taken to initiate and prosecute Shoop are “encompassed under absolute immunity, as they were acting within their scope of duties as advocates for the state and their actions in deciding to prosecute the case was intimately associated with the judicial process.”

Further on Augello wrote, “The case law is clear that ADAs and DAs qualify for high public official immunity. Thus, defendants are entitled to high public official immunity from plaintiff’s suit.”

Continuing, Augello wrote, “Lastly, plaintiff’s claim against the Carbon County District Attorney’s Office is without merit as the District Attorney’s office is not a suable entity.”

The suit against trooper Cawley, and the Last Chance Ranch and McCutcheon, of Beck Road, Quakertown, was moved to federal court.

Shoop has a right to appeal the decision to higher state court.