Appeals Court Grants Immunity to Texas Cops Who Held Handcuffed Woman Face Down in a Fire Ant Hill
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Taylor Rogers didn't show that it was clearly established that it was excessive force to be held down on a pile of fire ants while handcuffed.
A federal appeals court ruled that a Texas woman can't sue two Santa Fe police officers who pinned her face down on a fire ant hill while she was handcuffed, causing her to receive hundreds of painful bites to her face.
In an August 6 opinion, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit reversed a lower court decision allowing Taylor Rogers' lawsuit against the City of Santa Fe and the two officers to move forward. Instead, the panel held that the officers were shielded from her claims under the doctrine of qualified immunity.
In a press conference last Friday, Rogers' attorney, Randy Kallinen, criticized the ruling.
"The United States 5th Circuit Court of Appeals is out of touch with the Constitution and the public, granting police immunity in the most egregious of cases," Kallinen said. "The people need to elect officials who will nominate and affirm judges loyal to the Constitution."
Kallinen told The Daily News that he has requested an en banc hearing for the full 15-member 5th Circuit to review the case, and he'll petition the Supreme Court for review if that fails.
"The facts, injuries and footage speaks for itself," Kallinen said. "If they let this one slide, they're letting police do just about anything."
Santa Fe Independent School District Police officers arrested Rogers in 2021 after she drove erratically through a school parking lot and disobeyed commands to stop. According to the 5th Circuit opinion, she continued to thrash and resist officers in a state of hysteria after being handcuffed.
Santa Fe ISD officer Christian Carranza then threw Rogers to the ground and held her face down in a pile of fire ants while twisting her legs upward, effectively hog-tying her.
Body camera footage released by Kallinen showed Rogers begging for Carranza to stop while multiple other officers watched. "Ants are on my face! Ants are getting on my face, please!" Rogers yelled. "How can y'all do this? Ants are on my face! Please let go!"
After pleading guilty to felony evading arrest, Rogers filed a civil rights lawsuit in 2023 alleging excessive force, failure to intervene, cruel and unusual punishment, and deprivation of due process. Pictures accompanying Rogers' lawsuit showed her face, neck, and upper chest covered with hundreds of ant bites.
"No reasonable officer would have held Ms. Rogers legs up and behind her body whilst also pressing her face and torso into a pile of fire ants," Rogers' lawsuit said, noting that she is 5 feet, 7 inches tall and weighs roughly 130 pounds.
However, the officers argued they were entitled to qualified immunity, a legal doctrine that makes government officials immune from lawsuits when the constitutional right they are accused of violating isn't clearly established.
Last June, a federal judge allowed Rogers' lawsuit to proceed and ruled that the two Santa Fe officers weren't entitled to qualified immunity.
The 5th Circuit panel reversed that decision, ruling that because Rogers couldn't point to analogous case law finding that using a leg-leverage technique to restrain a resisting suspect on top of a fire ant hill was unconstitutional excessive force, her claims were barred by qualified immunity.
Civil liberties groups and criminal justice advocates have long argued that qualified immunity allows police officers to drag out lawsuits for years and stop cases from ever being considered by jury, even in cases of egregious abuse, such as detectives lying under oath or correctional officers who watched a jail inmate die soaked in his own vomit over the course of 13 hours.