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Another in a series of stories of police officers defunding themselves or their departments/jurisdictions
Police defund themselves
I hope they had insurance or their union has enough clout...
It began with a gun in his face and lasted an hour, during which Hicks had been detained twice and missed the motorcade he was supposed to lead as a U.S. Secret Service officer on July 11, 2015. Hicks sued the two Park Police officers involved, Gerald Ferreyra and Brian Phillips, and a jury in 2021 awarded him $730,000 in compensatory and punitive damages.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit affirmed Hicks’s jury award after the officers, who were sued personally, appealed. The officers argued that the law protects government employees from such suits as long as the constitutional violation wasn’t clear from prior cases. The U.S. Supreme Court has also decreed that such lawsuits can only be brought against federal officers in an extremely narrow set of circumstances.
Hicks cleared both bars. The 4th Circuit agreed with a Maryland district judge that the officers should have known they were violating Hicks’s Fourth Amendment rights and that they did so in a way similar to the search that first led the Supreme Court to allow civil rights lawsuits against federal workers in 1971.
“We have little trouble concluding that settled law provided fair warning to the officers that their actions would constitute a deprivation of Hicks’s rights during both the first and second stops,” Judge Barbara Milano Keenan wrote for the federal appellate court in this week’s opinion.
While the two officers were found personally liable, the U.S. government still has the prerogative to pay the penalties on their behalf.
The facts of the case were largely undisputed. Ferreyra saw Hicks’s unmarked car on the shoulder of the road and approached from the passenger side for a “welfare check.” When he saw the gun in its holster on the passenger seat, Ferreyra pointed his service weapon at Hicks and repeatedly yelled, with expletives, “Don’t touch the gun.” Hicks followed orders to roll down the window and immediately identified himself as a U.S. Secret Service officer, showing his credentials. Ferreyra took the gun and credentials while continuing to yell commands at Hicks not to move.
Though there was no evidence of a crime, Ferreyra insisted that Hicks wait for a Park Police officer to arrive from Anacostia, 25 minutes away. In the meantime Phillips arrived at the scene and interrogated Hicks about whether he was sleeping and why he left his gun on the seat. Hicks did not answer — he was on the phone with his own supervisor, explaining the situation.
The motorcade, which was protecting the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, came and went without Hicks; Phillips waved as it passed. When the Park Police sergeant arrived, he talked to Hicks’s supervisor by phone and finally ended the stop.
Hicks began driving away and called his superior again to figure out where to go. But within minutes he was pulled over — by Phillips, who demanded Hicks’s license and registration. Hicks was let go a second time without a ticket.
[more in the link]
Police defund themselves
I hope they had insurance or their union has enough clout...
A federal appeals court this week affirmed that the officers who pulled over Nathaniel Hicks owe him $730,000 in damages
Nathaniel Hicks recalled crying three times in his adult life: when his grandmother died, when his father died, and when he was stopped by the U.S. Park Police.It began with a gun in his face and lasted an hour, during which Hicks had been detained twice and missed the motorcade he was supposed to lead as a U.S. Secret Service officer on July 11, 2015. Hicks sued the two Park Police officers involved, Gerald Ferreyra and Brian Phillips, and a jury in 2021 awarded him $730,000 in compensatory and punitive damages.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit affirmed Hicks’s jury award after the officers, who were sued personally, appealed. The officers argued that the law protects government employees from such suits as long as the constitutional violation wasn’t clear from prior cases. The U.S. Supreme Court has also decreed that such lawsuits can only be brought against federal officers in an extremely narrow set of circumstances.
Hicks cleared both bars. The 4th Circuit agreed with a Maryland district judge that the officers should have known they were violating Hicks’s Fourth Amendment rights and that they did so in a way similar to the search that first led the Supreme Court to allow civil rights lawsuits against federal workers in 1971.
“We have little trouble concluding that settled law provided fair warning to the officers that their actions would constitute a deprivation of Hicks’s rights during both the first and second stops,” Judge Barbara Milano Keenan wrote for the federal appellate court in this week’s opinion.
While the two officers were found personally liable, the U.S. government still has the prerogative to pay the penalties on their behalf.
The facts of the case were largely undisputed. Ferreyra saw Hicks’s unmarked car on the shoulder of the road and approached from the passenger side for a “welfare check.” When he saw the gun in its holster on the passenger seat, Ferreyra pointed his service weapon at Hicks and repeatedly yelled, with expletives, “Don’t touch the gun.” Hicks followed orders to roll down the window and immediately identified himself as a U.S. Secret Service officer, showing his credentials. Ferreyra took the gun and credentials while continuing to yell commands at Hicks not to move.
Though there was no evidence of a crime, Ferreyra insisted that Hicks wait for a Park Police officer to arrive from Anacostia, 25 minutes away. In the meantime Phillips arrived at the scene and interrogated Hicks about whether he was sleeping and why he left his gun on the seat. Hicks did not answer — he was on the phone with his own supervisor, explaining the situation.
The motorcade, which was protecting the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, came and went without Hicks; Phillips waved as it passed. When the Park Police sergeant arrived, he talked to Hicks’s supervisor by phone and finally ended the stop.
Hicks began driving away and called his superior again to figure out where to go. But within minutes he was pulled over — by Phillips, who demanded Hicks’s license and registration. Hicks was let go a second time without a ticket.
[more in the link]
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