Rasanen v. Brown, No. 12-680 (2d Cir. 2013)
Annotate this CasePlaintiff filed suit against defendants, asserting claims under 42 U.S.C. 1983 and for negligence, after plaintiff's son was shot and killed by a state trooper. In regards to the negligence claim, the court found nothing in the record that contravened the district court's conclusion that there was no evidence either that the planning of the search contributed to the son's death, or that the trooper shot the son unintentionally; in regards to the timing of the search, the court agreed with the district court that the matter of premature entry was immaterial to the question of excessive force; and in regards to the sufficiency of the evidence, a district court's denial of a motion for new trial on weight-of-the-evidence grounds was not reviewable on appeal. The court concluded, however, that in the circumstances of this case - the close-range shooting of a suspect by a law enforcement officer - the district court was required to instruct the jury that it must find that this use of force was excessive unless the jury found that the officer had probable cause to believe that the suspect posed a significant threat of death or serious physical injury to the officer or others. Because the district court did not give this instruction, it plainly erred under the current law. Accordingly, the court reversed and remanded for a new trial.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.