Tuesday, March 07, 2000
Judges dismiss Tennessee deadly force lawsuit
Deputies' actions called reasonable
BY BEN L. KAUFMAN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
When a deputy approached the seemingly stalled car that he had been pursuing, the motorist began to drive off.
The lawman leaped to safety and fired nine shots when it appeared the fleeing driver would collide with an oncoming squad car.
Unlike the Cincinnati encounter that killed driver Michael Carpenter last year, no one died in that 1995 Clay County, Tenn., confrontation.
However, the litigation it initiated illuminates differences among federal judges who invariably review cases addressing police use of deadly force to halt a motorist.
As recounted last week by the majority on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit in Cincinnati, the Clay County incident included these ingredients:
• Deputy Michael Thompson saw Robert Scott race through a stop sign, weave off the pavement, turn at a high speed and narrowly miss Sheriff Chinn Anderson in a parked cruiser.
• Deputy Thompson, Sheriff Anderson and Deputy Billy Pierce, in a third vehicle, chased Mr. Scott for 20 minutes at up to 100 mph.
• Mr. Scott missed a turn, skidded several hundred feet and stopped against a guard rail.
• Deputy Pierce approached with pistol drawn and Mr. Scott accelerated forward, returning to the road, and headed for Deputy Thompson's vehicle.
• Deputy Pierce jumped out of the way and fired five shots at Mr. Scott and four at his tires. That stopped the car, missed Mr. Scott and seriously wounded passenger Patricia Scott.
Mr. Scott pleaded guilty to a variety of charges.
Ms. Scott, his former wife, sued the county, sheriff and both depu ties. She said the shooting was excessive force that violated her Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable seizure.
Deputy Pierce said he didn't know she was in the car. The defendants sought pretrial summary judgment, arguing they were immune from liability because their discretionary actions did not violate Ms. Scott's clearly established rights.
A trial judge in Cookeville, Tenn., said there were too many unresolved questions for summary judgment and a jury would decide what was reasonable.
Defendants appealed that decision and 6th Circuit Judges Robert Krupansky and Danny J. Boggs granted summary judgment. They said the use of force was not excessive nor was the seizure unreasonable “from the perspective of a reasonable officer on the scene rather than with the 20/20 vision of hindsight.”
Even after accepting Ms. Scott's version of the facts, the judges said, 1989 Supreme Court guidelines established that Deputy Pierce's “hail of bullets” was reasonable:
• Deputies saw Mr. Scott commit life-threatening crimes.
• During the chase, Mr. Scott committed felonies and threatened other drivers and the officers.
• Mr. Scott resisted arrest by trying to elude deputies.
“Pierce permissibly discharged his professional duty to restore and maintain lawful order through the most effective instrumentality readily available, namely, gunfire,” Judge Krupansky wrote. “His actions therefore could not violate the Fourth Amendment rights of any unknown passenger who may have been injured by his actions.”
Judge Krupansky said the other defendants also were entitled to immunity.
Judge Eric L. Clay dissented. He said his colleagues so misconstrued evidence in favor of the defendants that the judges stated as fact what “was in the minds of the deputies.”
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