The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion I'll need to review later. Here is the Clerk's summary:
081640P.pdf 07/22/2009 Sandra Brown v. Rob Zarrett, etc.
U.S. Court of Appeals Case No: 08-1640
U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota - Minneapolis
[PUBLISHED] [Wollman, Author, with Riley and Shepherd, Circuit Judges]
Civil case - civil rights. Given the circumstances surrounding plaintiff's Tasering and arrest, the district court did not err in concluding that defendant Zarrett's use of force was not objectively reasonable as a matter of law; the law was sufficiently clear to inform a reasonable police officer that it was unlawful to Taser a nonviolent, suspected misdemeanant who was not fleeing or resisting arrest, who posed little to no threat to anyone's safety and whose only noncompliance with officer commands was to disobey orders to end her phone call to a 911operator; as a result, the district court did not err in denying the defendants' motion for summary judgment based on qualified immunity; accepting plaintiff's version of events, a jury could find defendant is not entitled to official immunity because he willfully violated plaintiff's right to be free from excessive force.
Civil case - civil rights. Given the circumstances surrounding plaintiff's Tasering and arrest, the district court did not err in concluding that defendant Zarrett's use of force was not objectively reasonable as a matter of law; the law was sufficiently clear to inform a reasonable police officer that it was unlawful to Taser a nonviolent, suspected misdemeanant who was not fleeing or resisting arrest, who posed little to no threat to anyone's safety and whose only noncompliance with officer commands was to disobey orders to end her phone call to a 911operator; as a result, the district court did not err in denying the defendants' motion for summary judgment based on qualified immunity; accepting plaintiff's version of events, a jury could find defendant is not entitled to official immunity because he willfully violated plaintiff's right to be free from excessive force.
