Henry v. City of Albuquerque, No. 10-2211 (10th Cir. 2011)
Annotate this CasePlaintiff-Appellant Ed Henry appealed a district court’s final judgment in favor of Defendants-Appellees police officers Jacob Storey and Amy Fangio after a jury trial. He contended that the district court erred in (1) granting judgment as a matter of law (JMOL) to these Defendants on two of his claims and (2) rejecting a proposed jury instruction. In 2008, Plaintiff filed a civil-rights complaint against several Defendants arising from a night-time police stop. Plaintiff, an African-American, was pulled over in a rental vehicle. He was ordered out, handcuffed, and placed in the back of a marked police vehicle. After an investigation, officers realized that the rental vehicle driven by Plaintiff had been erroneously reported as stolen. Plaintiff was then released. In his complaint, Plaintiff alleged that he was singled out because of his race, in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. He also alleged that the officers used excessive force. Defendants put on no evidence. Plaintiff proposed a jury instruction to the effect that the officers’ compliance with standard operating procedures could not be considered in determining whether they used excessive force. The court did not so instruct the jury. The jury ultimately found that Officer Storey had not engaged in racial profiling and that Officer Fangio had not used excessive force. Upon review, the Tenth Circuit agreed with Defendants that the submitted jury instructions “comprehensively and correctly” covered the elements of the excessive force claim. The Court affirmed the district court's decision in all other respects.
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