NONPRECEDENTIAL DISPOSITION
To be cited only in accordance with Fed. R. App. P. 32.1
United States Court of Appeals
For the Seventh Circuit
Chicago, Illinois 60604
Submitted March 5, 2019*
Decided March 5, 2019
Before
MICHAEL S. KANNE, Circuit Judge
ILANA DIAMOND ROVNER, Circuit Judge
DAVID F. HAMILTON, Circuit Judge
No. 18‐2322
ALFREDO MOLINA‐GARCIA, Appeal from the United States District
Plaintiff‐Appellant, Court for the Northern District of Illinois,
Eastern Division.
v.
No. 18 C 1394
ZACHARY T. FARDON and
CHRISTOPHER J. STETLER, Charles R. Norgle,
Defendants‐Appellees. Judge.
O R D E R
Alfredo Molina‐Garcia appeals the dismissal of his suit alleging that two
prosecutors maliciously prosecuted and then falsely imprisoned him for five years.
Because the district court correctly dismissed the suit as untimely, we affirm.
* The defendants were not served in the district court and are not participating in
this appeal in their individual capacities. The United States filed a brief for the
defendants in their official capacities only. We have agreed to decide this case without
oral argument because the briefs and record adequately present the facts and legal
arguments, and argument would not significantly aid us. See FED. R. APP. P. 34(a)(2)(C).
No. 18‐2322 Page 2
In 2010, Molina‐Garcia was arrested and detained on drug‐trafficking charges.
Molina‐Garcia says that, during his detention, he was denied medical care for a
“prostate problem” until 2013, when he underwent an unsuccessful surgery. In
December 2015—after Molina‐Garcia had been detained for five years—the government
moved to dismiss the charges against him. The following month, he was transferred
from the federal jail to an immigration detention center. He was released from
immigration custody in August 2016.
In February 2018, Molina‐Garcia sued Zachary Fardon (the former U.S. Attorney
for the Northern District of Illinois) and Christopher Stetler (an Assistant U.S. Attorney)
in their individual and official capacities, bringing claims for false imprisonment,
malicious prosecution, and medical malpractice.
The district court—noting that Molina‐Garcia had not invoked the Federal Tort
Claims Act (FTCA), 28 U.S.C. §§ 1346(b), 2674, or named the United States as a party
defendant—construed the complaint as a Bivens action against the officers in their
individual capacities only. See Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents, 403 U.S. 388 (1971).
Because Molina‐Garcia filed suit more than two years after his release from custody on
the dismissed charges, the court ordered him to show cause why the complaint should
not be dismissed as time‐barred. See Delgado‐Brunet v. Clark, 93 F.3d 339, 342 (7th Cir.
1996) (statute of limitations for Bivens actions in Illinois is two years). Molina‐Garcia
responded that he was not released from immigration custody until August 2016; he
feared that filing suit earlier would adversely affect his application for a work permit;
and he lacked resources and knowledge of the law. Finding those explanations
insufficient to merit equitable tolling, the court dismissed the suit as untimely.
We pause to clarify the nature of Molina‐Garcia’s claims and the scope of this
appeal. Although the district court construed his suit as a Bivens action, Molina‐Garcia
does not develop any appellate arguments about (or even mention) his claims against
the prosecutors in their individual capacities. It thus appears that he no longer wishes to
pursue a Bivens action. See Ienco v. Angarone, 429 F.3d 680, 685 (7th Cir. 2005).1
1 Even if Molina‐Garcia had pursued his Bivens claims on appeal, the district
court properly dismissed them: “Prosecutors are absolutely immune for actions they
undertake in their capacities as prosecutors, even including malicious prosecution
unsupported by probable cause.” Archer v. Chisholm, 870 F.3d 603, 612 (7th Cir. 2017)
(citing Imbler v. Pachtman, 424 U.S. 409, 427 (1976)). And because “a Bivens claim is
brought against the individual official for his or her own acts, not the acts of others,”
No. 18‐2322 Page 3
Molina‐Garcia focuses his brief on his official‐capacity claims, which, for purposes of
this order, we will treat has having been brought against the United States under the
FTCA. See Kentucky v. Graham, 473 U.S. 159, 166 (1985). The district court considered
construing these claims in this manner but declined to do so because Molina‐Garcia
failed to name the United States as a defendant in the complaint. However, this
pleading error is not necessarily fatal to his federal tort claims. See, e.g., 28 U.S.C.
§ 2679(d)(1) (requiring substitution of United States as defendant if government certifies
that its employee was acting within scope of employment when alleged tort occurred).2
Molina‐Garcia first argues that the two‐year limitations period for his
malicious‐prosecution and false‐imprisonment claims should have started running
upon his release from immigration custody in August 2016 because the indictment and
federal incarceration “clearly led to the immigration detention.” But any causal
connection between these events is irrelevant for claim‐accrual purposes. To the extent
Molina‐Garcia alleges that he was detained on drug charges without probable cause, his
claims accrued on January 11, 2016, upon his release from custody on those charges.
See Manuel v. City of Joliet, 903 F.3d 667, 669–70 (7th Cir. 2018); see also Alexander v. United
States, 721 F.3d 418, 425 (7th Cir. 2013) (noting that federal claim‐accrual rules, including
the continuing‐violation doctrine, apply in FTCA suits). Molina‐Garcia’s detention
beyond that date was not for the dismissed drug charges but for immigration purposes,
and he does not allege that the immigration detention itself was unlawful.
Molina‐Garcia also argues that, even if the claims accrued in January 2016, the
seven months he spent in immigration custody should be equitably tolled because
during that time, he had no access “to any legal materials whatsoever.” But he
misconstrues the equitable‐tolling doctrine. For equitable tolling to apply, he must show
that some “extraordinary circumstance” prevented him from filing suit and that he had
been pursuing his rights diligently. See Pace v. DiGuglielmo, 544 U.S. 408, 418 (2005);
see also United States v. Kwai Fun Wong, 135 S. Ct. 1625, 1638 (2015) (equitable tolling is
available in FTCA suits). Molina‐Garcia has shown neither. First, incarceration, lack of
Ziglar v. Abbasi, 137 S. Ct. 1843, 1860 (2017), the prosecutors may not be held personally
liable for the medical care that Molina‐Garcia received during his pretrial detention.
2 Molina‐Garcia also did not state whether he presented his claims to the
appropriate federal agency within two years after their accrual, see 28 U.S.C. §§ 2401(b),
2675(a), but this omission is not dispositive either. See Watkins v. United States, 854 F.3d
947, 948–49 (7th Cir. 2017) (discussing FTCA’s “savings clause,” 28 U.S.C. § 2679(d)(5),
which allows unexhausted claims to proceed in limited circumstances).
No. 18‐2322 Page 4
resources, and ignorance of the law are not “extraordinary circumstances” that merit
equitable tolling. See, e.g., Bryant v. City of Chicago, 746 F.3d 239, 242 (7th Cir. 2014);
Tucker v. Kingston, 538 F.3d 732, 734–35 (7th Cir. 2008). Second, regarding diligence,
even if Molina‐Garcia was prevented from filing a claim during his seven months in
immigration detention, he never justified his failure to file suit within the ensuing
seventeen months. See Rosado v. Gonzalez, 832 F.3d 714, 717 (7th Cir. 2016); Cada v. Baxter
Healthcare Corp., 920 F.2d 446, 452–53 (7th Cir. 1990). Indeed, he concedes that he had
“the means and the time” upon his release to research and submit a timely claim; he just
failed to do so.3
Because the district court did not abuse its discretion in refusing to equitably toll
the statute of limitations, the judgment is AFFIRMED.
3 Molina‐Garcia does not mention his medical‐malpractice claim on appeal, but
it too would be untimely. This claim accrued, at the latest, in May 2013, after the
surgery that allegedly caused his ongoing injuries. See United States v. Kubrick, 444 U.S.
111, 120 (1979). The two‐year limitations period thus expired in May 2015, nearly three
years before he filed suit (and well before he was placed in immigration detention).
Alfredo Molina-Garcia v. Zachary Fardon
Combined Opinion