356 results for 'cat:"Civil Rights" AND cat:"Police Misconduct"'.
Per curiam, the Fifth Circuit finds the district court properly denied summary judgment to the officer accused of using excessive force for tasing a driver during a traffic stop for “improper lane usage.” The driver was ordered out of his vehicle and did not comply. After being physically pulled from his vehicle by several officers and thrown on the ground he did not comply when ordered to put his hands behind his back. The officer tased him at this point. Tasing an unarmed subject suspected of a misdemeanor and pinned to the ground, surrounded by officers, unable to escape and giving only passive resistance, amounts to excessive force in violation of the Fourth Amendment. Affirmed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: June 14, 2023, Case #: 22-30692, Categories: civil Rights, police Misconduct
J. Peterson finds for the city and police detective in a citizen's lawsuit claiming he was falsely arrested without probable cause after an incident in which a woman he claims pressured him to have sex with her demanded he pay her for it, forced him to drive to an ATM at knifepoint and stabbed him when he tried to run away in a gas station parking lot. Though the two subjects' stories differed on key details, the detective made reasonable judgments about the credibility of the citizen and the woman when he arrived at the violent scene at the gas station and ultimately arrested the woman for armed robbery and other charges and arrested the citizen on a prostitution charge, particularly given the woman's self-incriminating statements establishing that the citizen had paid her for sex. Because the detective is shielded by qualified immunity, summary judgment is granted to him and the city and the case is closed.
Court: USDC Western District of Wisconsin, Judge: Peterson, Filed On: June 13, 2023, Case #: 3:21cv817, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: civil Rights, Constitution, police Misconduct
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J. Block grants partial summary judgment to a group of six New York police officers on a woman’s civil rights violations stemming from her arrest on charges of assaulting her ex-husband with an umbrella. The court dismisses her claims for malicious prosecution, failure to intervene and Monell liability, but preserves one claim for false arrest, finding she was able to allege the reporting officers failed to seek information from unbiased witnesses while investigating the incident following a 911 call.
Court: USDC Eastern District of New York, Judge: Block, Filed On: June 13, 2023, Case #: 1:20cv3603, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: civil Rights, Malicious Prosecution, police Misconduct
J. Sharpe grants in part a motion to dismiss and trims down a Greene County resident’s civil rights action with claims stemming from two altercations he had with local sheriffs, including false arrest and imprisonment, unlawful search and seizure and failure to intervene. The only claim to survive the partial motion was a single claim for unlawful search and seizure under state law asserted against the county, finding under circuit court precedent there is no adequate alternative remedy pursuant to federal law for his claim.
Court: USDC Northern District of New York, Judge: Sharpe, Filed On: June 7, 2023, Case #: 1:22cv276, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: civil Rights, police Misconduct
J. Flanagan denies, in part, the police officers' motion to dismiss a father's claims arising from the officers' alleged slamming of his handcuffed son to the ground, which fractured the son's elbow. The officers are not entitled to public immunity from the father's gross negligence claim, as he has sufficiently alleged they acted with malice and the incident report recounts a similar recitation of the events as the allegations in the complaint.
Court: USDC Eastern District of North Carolina, Judge: Flanagan, Filed On: May 30, 2023, Case #: 4:22CV61, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: civil Rights, Negligence, police Misconduct
J. Orme finds the Standings and Training Council properly suspended the corrections officer’s certification for 3.5 years due to his admission that he masturbated in a staff restroom while on duty at a Utah Department of Corrections prison. Case law guiding on questions of right to privacy, as cited by the officer, does not provide constitutional protection for private masturbation by a public employee at work. Affirmed.
Court: Utah Court Of Appeals, Judge: Orme, Filed On: May 26, 2023, Case #: 20210217-CA, Categories: Administrative Law, civil Rights, police Misconduct
J. Richman finds the district court properly granted summary judgment to the city in this suit brought by a DWI arrestee claiming false arrest, excessive force, negligence and vicarious liability. The arresting officer responded to a 911 call reporting an intoxicated driver. He observed the vehicle crossing lines and striking a curb before pulling it over to discover the driver with her minor children in the car. Sobriety tests suggested that she was likely impaired, and after the arrest she admitted to taking Xanax and Hydrocodone. Video evidence of the arrest shows that the officers had probable cause. There is no basis for a negligence claim. Because her underlying state law claims were properly dismissed, there is no basis for a vicarious liability claim. Affirmed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Richman, Filed On: May 23, 2023, Case #: 20-30507, Categories: civil Rights, Municipal Law, police Misconduct
J. Faber grants the Mercer County Sheriff’s Department’s motion for summary judgment in a woman’s civil rights lawsuit claiming a deputy used excessive force when he placed handcuffs on her too tight while transporting her from jail to court for an appeal hearing on her misdemeanor conviction for domestic battery. The court finds the deputy is entitled to qualified immunity since the “court has not located nor have the parties pointed to a single case that would have put [the deputy] on notice that his refusal to loosen Pennington’s handcuff would violate her
constitutional rights.”
Court: USDC Southern District of West Virginia, Judge: Faber, Filed On: May 23, 2023, Case #: 1:21cv335, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: civil Rights, Constitution, police Misconduct
J. Shah partially grants a group of Chicago police officers’ motions for summary judgment on malicious prosecution, conspiracy and intentional tort claims, brought by a man wrongfully imprisoned by almost three decades. The police in question framed the man for a 1991 murder by planting false evidence and coercing his confession, and he was only released on an overturned conviction in 2018. The court grants judgment to several individual officers who have not been sufficiently tied to the framing, but the counts stand against the rest.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Shah, Filed On: May 22, 2023, Case #: 1:19cv2204, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: civil Rights, Malicious Prosecution, police Misconduct
J. DeGravelles grants a request by the Louisiana State Police to enforce a settlement with a fired Black trooper who alleged retaliatory termination, arising from his complaints to Louisiana news media about the deadly cover-up of the alleged beating death of a Black motorist and racially disparate discipline for other alleged police misconduct. One week after a written settlement, the fired trooper sought to revoke the deal, saying his attorney allegedly pressured him into accepting an agreement that did not reinstate his position by telling him that “he could not win at trial, nor could he win on appeal.” The settlement “almost exclusively dealt” with the ending of trooper’s employment and his counsel’s warning that she would cease representing him if he chose not to accept the deal was “not an improper threat.”
Court: USDC Middle District of Louisiana, Judge: DeGravelles, Filed On: May 22, 2023, Case #: 3:21cv656, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: civil Rights, Settlements, police Misconduct
J. Chambers grants in part and denies in part the Wayne County municipality’s and two of its police officers’ motion for summary judgment in a mother’s civil rights suit claiming her son died due to head trauma following the officers’ excessive use of force. The court finds sufficient material issues of facts for a jury to decide whether one of the officers had probable cause to believe the decedent posed a threat of serious harm to him and as to whether the officer’s actions were reasonable, and on the state law claim against the chief of police for spoliation of evidence.
Court: USDC Southern District of West Virginia, Judge: Chambers, Filed On: May 19, 2023, Case #: 3:21cv197, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: civil Rights, Government, police Misconduct
J. Pacold partially grants an LGBTQ event planning organization’s motion for a preliminary injunction against a northern Illinois city, striking a city rule that would clear it of liability for the 2023 Aurora Pride Parade. The injunction also bars the city from charging the parade organizers for the cost of police services at the event. In the underlying First Amendment case, the LGBTQ organization claims the city revoked its event permit leading up to the 2022 Pride Parade in retaliation for the decision not to allow uniformed cops to march in the parade. The city then reinstated the permit at the last minute, but stuck the organization with the bill for police security hours at three times the normal hourly rate.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Pacold, Filed On: May 18, 2023, Case #: 1:23cv259, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: civil Rights, police Misconduct, Injunction
J. Johnston grants the government’s motion to dismiss the estate of a Roane County man’s civil rights suit against the U.S. Marshals Service for the man’s 2020 shooting death by a Roane County Sheriff’s deputy assigned to a Marshals task force as a special deputy. The court finds, following its prior ruling the deputy was acting in his capacity with Roane County Sheriff’s Department at the time of the shooting, the estate is collaterally estopped from making a claim under the Federal Tort Claims Act the deputy was in acting his role with the Marshals.
Court: USDC Southern District of West Virginia, Judge: Johnston, Filed On: May 16, 2023, Case #: 2:22cv426, NOS: Other Personal Injury - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: civil Rights, Wrongful Death, police Misconduct
J. Bowen finds in favor of the sheriff's department, sheriff and sheriff's deputy in a civil rights and excessive force action brought by family members after the decedent's death in a police car chase. The family members failed to show that the deputy violated any clearly established law by employing a PIT maneuver against the decedent's vehicle to end the chase. The deputy had a reasonable belief that the decedent posed a risk of serious harm to the public and to the deputy due to reckless driving.
Court: USDC Southern District of Georgia, Judge: Bowen, Filed On: May 16, 2023, Case #: 3:21cv22, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: civil Rights, police Misconduct
J. Berger grants three Parkersburg Police officers’ motion to dismiss a resident’s claims they violated his First and 14th Amendment rights when they attempted to dissuade him from filing criminal charges against a Williamstown Police officer on April 24, 2022, after the officer and two of his sons assaulted the man, believing him to be the person they saw on their home security camera earlier attempting a break-in. The court finds the resident failed to make in his complaint any plausible claim how the non-assailant officers would potentially retaliate against him if he pressed charges against his assailants.
Court: USDC Southern District of West Virginia, Judge: Berger, Filed On: May 15, 2023, Case #: 2:23cv180, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: civil Rights, Government, police Misconduct
J. Bryan finds in favor of the state for the arrestee's claim that the police officers wrongfully arrested him for attempting to meet with an undercover officer posing as a 13-year-old girl. The arrestee fails to show that the officers violated his Fourteenth Amendment rights because he does not prove that the officers used evidence they knew or should have known would have yielded false information. Even if there was fabricated evidence, he does not show that it was the proximate cause of his injury.
Court: USDC Western District of Washington, Judge: Bryan, Filed On: May 15, 2023, Case #: 3:21cv5915, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: civil Rights, Evidence, police Misconduct