Quote:
Originally Posted by Unquestionably Confused
On 11/25/2014 2:08 PM, Pete C. wrote:
Oren wrote:
On Mon, 24 Nov 2014 21:08:13 -0500, Stormin Mormon
wrote:
No indictment in Fergy, it's all over.
No yet. The feds have nothing for civil rights violation, BUT the
Brown family will sue Wilson in civil court for wrongful death. Make
him a financially broke man.
Last I knew cops had civil immunity for their lawful actions on duty.
The family is sure to try to sure someone - the city, the state, the
store their thug robbed, etc. but I think they are SOL on the cop.
It's not the judgment he has to fear, it's the law suit. ANYONE can sue
ANYONE for ANYTHING. The action still must be defended and that costs
money.
Further, if punitive damages are sought, then the individual must/should
have his OWN attorney - generally not paid for by the municipality - to
defend HIS interests. If punitive damages are awarded (and never say
never) it's HIS to pay. The city or county cannot indemnify him as it
is against public policy. Punitive damages are awarded to PUNISH wrong
doing. No punishment of the individual agent if the municipality pays
them on his behalf, hence they are not allowed to. |
I expect his police union will have a lawyer on retainer that does work like this whenever a cop gets sued for something he did as part of his job. The city or municipality won't pay that lawyer, the union will out of the union dues the cops pay every month. Or, at least, that would make some kinda horse sense to me.
Quote:
It's not the judgment he has to fear, it's the law suit. ANYONE can sue
ANYONE for ANYTHING. The action still must be defended and that costs
money.
|
Yes, but if the judge considers it a trivial or unjustifiable suit meant only to harass, he can order the person doing the sueing to reimburse the person being sued for his legal expenses. Here in Canada, a prominant radio host sued the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for 55 million dollars cuz he got fired when the company found out he was beating up his girlfriends. Gean Gomeshi, the radio host, has since dropped his law suit, and the court has ordered him to pay the CBC $18,000 $CDN for the company's legal expenses in preparing to defend themselves in court. So, it's not a trivial matter to sue someone just out of spite. That spite can cost you a lot of money.