New Mexico Civil Rights Law Blog : New Mexico Civil Rights Lawyer & Attorney : Kennedy Law Firm : Albuquerque NM Excessive Force & Police Misconduct

What makes a seizure unreasonable when interpreting the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution?  How should reasonable be interpreted at the summary judgment stage, for the purposes of determining whether a police officer is entitled to qualified immunity? Recently, the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit significantly clarified competing doctrines in this area, releasing an opinion authored by Judge Tymkovich in the case of Robert and Mary Fisher v. The City of Las Cruces, 2009 U.S. App. LEXIS 22825 (10th Cir. N.M. Oct. 19, 2009).

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     Last week, the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) was courageously joined by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in its call to ban the use of the Taser device nationwide. On September 8, 2009, the SCLC, whose first President was Martin Luther King, Jr., joined the Latino organization’s call to stop this brutal and inhumane practice by police officers. LULAC started to build momentum for this push to end the use of tasers in Albuquerque, New Mexico on August 15, 2009, holding a national press conference on the steps of City Hall. SCLC will be putting major pressure on the Obama administration (pressing Congress in the coming months) to outlaw a practice already classified as “torture” by the United Nations.

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The decision in Danny Manzanares v. Sean Higdon, 07-2156, an officer of the Albuquerque Police Department, is a major victory for the rights of citizens being interrogated by the police in their own homes. The 7 yr. old case was brought by Dennis Montoya of Rio Rancho, New Mexico.

Danny Manzanares first consented to the officers entering his home to investigate allegations of rape made against a co-worker and friend, Miguel “Rick” Maestas. Danny later revoked consent, commanding the officers to leave and stop asking him questions.  Instead of leaving, the officers arrested Manzanares, who was neither a material witness nor accessory to the crime of rape, but merely stopping short of informing on his friend’s address.

Continued ...

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In a recent, split decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, the Court reversed a lower court’s judgement against Sylvia Avila, a Hispanic girl, 13 years old at the time of the incident.  The decision in Glenda Sherouse and Sylvia Avila v. Suzanne Ratchner, et al., No. 08-2105, was written by Circuit Judge McConnell.  The case and appeal was brought by Mary Y.C. Han, Paul J. Kennedy, and Caren I. Friedman for the Plaintiffs-Appellants, in a hard-fought case spanning years. 

The wrongful arrests of the teenage girls arose after three armed robberies, one of which occurred in an Albuquerque Shoes on a Shoestring, a store known for its quality shoes, priced within grasp of the reasonable.  However, because there was enough probable cause supporting the jury’s verdict against Sylvia’s African American friend, then 14 -year-old Glenda Sherouse, the district court denied Sherouse’s Motion for Judgment as a Matter of Law.  Civil Rights attorneys are sedulously scouring the opinion, in order to understand its doctrine and reasoning.
      
Contd ...

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     Today a 13 year-old student from Arizona won an important victory for the privacy of minors in a school setting. Middle-schooler Savana Redding was accused by a fellow student of distributing prescription-strength drugs to other students. She was forced to endure a humiliating strip search by Helen Romero, the school administrator, in addition to a second search by Peggy Schwallier, the school nurse. Savana’s mother, April Redding, sued on behalf of her daughter, while simultaneously managing to avoid any liability issues associated with her minor daughter allegedly throwing unsupervised parties in her own house, where alcohol and drugs were present. In the just-released slip opinion in Safford Unified School District #1, et. al. v. April Redding, 2009 WL 178472, the Court held that the search was a violation of Savana’s Fourth Amendment rights, but also that school officials were entitled to qualified immunity.

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