Judge Allows Jury to Hear Civil Case over Botched Tenn. Raid
Sheriff's Department burned down a mobile home
The Sullivan County Sheriff's Office's lost its bid for immunity against being sued for burning down a mobile home during a botched standoff two years ago.
U.S. District Judge J. Ronnie Greer, instead of writing off the blaze as the result of a good-faith mistake, has decided that a jury should decide whether police resorted to heavy-handed tactics when tossing inside a dozen teargas grenades for a fugitive who might not have been there.
"The Court cannot conclude that the officers are entitled to qualified immunity regarding the force used and the destruction of the plaintiffs' home," Greer wrote in an opinion filed in Greeneville, Tenn. "The reasonableness of their actions quite candidly must be decided by a jury based on the current state of this record."
(Hat tip to Sloopyinca)
Hide Comments (0)
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post commentsMute this user?
Ban this user?
Un-ban this user?
Nuke this user?
Un-nuke this user?
Flag this comment?
Un-flag this comment?