McDowell, et al. v. Blankenship, et al., No. 13-2407 (8th Cir. 2014)
Annotate this CasePlaintiffs filed suit under 42 U.S.C. 1983, alleging that deputies used excessive force that resulted in Jimmy Farris' death. The court concluded that the district court did not clearly abuse its discretion in weighing the interests of justice with due regard to the importance of live testimony and concluding that the circumstances here - the deputy's deployment to Afghanistan precluded him from appearing at trial without extraordinary effort, cost, and other hardship - tipped the balance in favor of admitting the deputy's deposition testimony. Even if the district court abused its discretion in admitting the deputy's deposition testimony, the error would be harmless where plaintiffs were not prejudiced. Accordingly, the court affirmed the district court's denial of plaintiffs' motion for a new trial.
Court Description: Civil case - Civil Rights. In a suit alleging officers used excessive force in securing plaintiff's decedent's arrest, the district court did not err in admitting one of the defendant officer's deposition testimony when he was unexpectedly absent from trial and his return from Afghanistan was highly impracticable; the court properly weighed the equities and the introduction of the deposition testimony did not prejudice plaintiffs or have a substantial influence on the verdict.
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.