Qualified immunity for officers in school parking lot incident
Facts (If you are new to 1983 actions, click here for help) On August 19, 2021, Santa Fe Independent School District (SFISD) Chief Ruben Espinoza monitored traffic in front of the Roy J. Wollam Elementary School during morning drop-off hours. He was tasked with, inter alia, preventing illegal left-hand turns into the school parking lot. […]
1983 case from Benton County, Mississippi
Facts (If you are new to 1983 actions, click here for help) Chelsea Knighton was married to Rob Graves. Kathy Graves, Rob’s mother and Knighton’s then-mother-in-law, is the Circuit Clerk of Benton County. Knighton and Kathy have had a long and difficult relationship. This incident took place after several years of drug-related issues. According to […]
Factual dispute in deadly force matter
Facts (If you are new to 1983 actions, click here for help) Early in the morning of September 14, 2022, Sgt. Iversen pulled Timothy Randall over for failure to fully stop at a stop sign at the intersection of State Highways 42 and 64 in Rusk County, Texas. The parties dispute whether justification existed for […]
An officer is entitled to qualified immunity even when he reasonably but mistakenly concludes that probable cause is present.
Facts (If you are new to 1983 actions, click here for help) The following is depicted in bodycam footage, which both sides rely on. Around 2:00 a.m. on May 27, 2023, several deputies, including Deputies Valdez and Aldrich, arrived at Lance Parsons’s home. The deputies were there to arrest Parsons’s adult son, Alexander, for domestic […]
Qualified immunity granted to school resource officer
Facts (If you are new to 1983 actions, click here for help) As the school resource officer for Onalaska Elementary School in Onalaska, Texas, Officer Tammie Heeth directed traffic as parents dropped their children off at school. Parents arriving on time would drive down Gantry Street to drop their children off at the back entrance […]
Qualified immunity granted when deadly force used in executing felony warrants
Facts (If you are new to 1983 actions, click here for help) On April 27, 2022, the Houston Police Department conducted an operation to find and arrest Jalen Randle to execute three felony warrants stemming from an incident that occurred the month before: aggravated assault of a family member, being a felon in possession of […]