An elderly D.C. woman will finally be able to have her case heard in court after the D.C. Circuit Court determined that a reasonable jury could have determined that officers were unreasonable in shooting the plaintiff’s dog while executing a search warrant for drugs.
This is the second qualified immunity case recently reviewed by a circuit that also involved dogs within the facts.
The Robinsons and “Wrinkles”
In 2010, DC police began executing a search warrant on the Robinson residence based on the belief that Mrs. Robinson’s grandson had drugs in the home. He’d been arrested earlier with possession of marijuana.
“So Undermined as to Be Incredible”
Exactly what happened once the door was opened was, of course, in heavy dispute. Mrs. Robinson’s story was different than that of the officers and she pushed the story that Wrinkles would have only bitten officer Sarah Pezzat if she was shot at first. Pezzat claimed that Wrinkles bit down on her boot which caused her to shoot at Wrinkles. Robinson sued and Pezzat defended on qualified immunity.
The trial court heard Robinson’s evidence pretrial and determined that Mrs. Robinson’s account of the facts just did not gel with officer accounts of what had happened. But the circuit court determined that the lower court had done the job of a jury and that there was error to grant summary judgment.
Related Resources:
- Grandmother Sues D.C. Police for Killing Her Dog (Washington Examiner)
- Cops Get Immunity After Tasing Man Suffering Mental Illness (FindLaw’s U.S. Fourth Circuit Blog)
- No Qualified Immunity for Cop Who Tased Without Reason (FindLaw’s U.S. Fourth Circuit Blog)
- No Qualified Immunity for Sweep Kicking Cop (FindLaw’s U.S. Eighth Circuit Blog)
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