Thompson v. King, et al., No. 12-3450 (8th Cir. 2013)
Annotate this CasePlaintiff filed suit against the County and others after her son Johnny died from multiple drug intoxication while in the county jail. At issue on appeal was the district court's denial of qualified immunity on summary judgment for the law enforcement officials. The court concluded that Officer Furr did not have subjective knowledge that Johnny required medical attention and that Officer Furr was not deliberately indifferent to Johnny's medical needs. Accordingly, Officer Furr was entitled to qualified immunity. In regards to Officer King, the court concluded that a reasonable officer would have known that a constitutional violation occurred by deliberately disregarding Johnny's serious medical needs in the circumstances Officer King confronted. Accordingly, the district court properly denied Officer King qualified immunity because this constitutional right was clearly established. Accordingly, the court affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded for further proceedings.
Court Description: Civil case - Civil rights. In a civil rights action alleging defendant officers were deliberately indifferent to a serious medical need presented by plaintiff's decedent, the district court erred in denying defendant Furr's motion for summary judgment based on qualified immunity as he did not have subjective knowledge that plaintiff's decedent required medical attention and was not deliberately indifferent to his medical needs; the court did not err in denying defendant King's summary judgment motion as plaintiff's decedent presented noticeable symptoms of severe intoxication while he was being booked by King, and a reasonable jury could find King had subjective knowledge of a serious medical need and deliberately disregarded that need. [ September 19, 2013
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.