De Boise, Sr., et al. v. St. Louis County, Missouri, et al., No. 13-2742 (8th Cir. 2014)
Annotate this CasePlaintiffs, the father and minor children of the deceased Samuel De Boise, filed suit under 42 U.S.C. 1983 against police officers and the police department, as well as a claim under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), 42 U.S.C. 12101 et seq., against the county. The district court granted summary judgment on the basis of qualified immunity to Officers Lively and Percich, and to the county. The court concluded that the use of force was reasonable under the circumstances; even if Officer Percich's and Lively's repeated tasings of Samuel amounted to excessive force in violation of Samuel's Fourth Amendment rights, such rights were not clearly established at the time of the incident; and the facts in this case did not demonstrate any violation of the ADA, considering the unexpected and rapidly evolving circumstances and the use of force on Samuel was due to his objectively verifiable misconduct, not his disability. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment of the district court.
Court Description: Civil case - Civil rights. The district court did not err in finding the force used in securing plaintiff's decedent's arrest was objectively reasonable where he repeatedly failed to obey officers' commands and actively resisted arrest; nor did the court err in finding that even if repeated tasings amounted to excessive force in violation of the deceased's Fourth Amendment rights, such rights were not clearly established at the time of the incident; the facts before the court do not contemplate any violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Judge Bye, dissenting.
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