©2017 Brian S. Batterton, Attorney, Legal & Liability Risk Management Institute (www.llrmi.com) On November 8, 2016, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals of decided Corrigan v. District of Columbia[i], in which the court examined whether exigent circumstances justified two separate warrantless entries into the residence of a man that called a suicide hotline. The relevant facts of Corrigan, taken directly from the case, are as follows: Matthew Corrigan is an Army Reservist and an Iraq war veteran who, in February 2010, was also an employee of the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics. On the night of February 2, 2010, [...]

©2017 Brian S. Batterton, Attorney, Legal & Liability Risk Management Institute (www.llrmi.com) On November 28, 2016, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals of decided Bailey v. Wheeler[i] , in which serves as an excellent review of the law as it pertains to retaliation under the First Amendment. The relevant facts of Bailey, taken directly from the case, are as follows: Bailey had more than seventeen years of law-enforcement experience when he joined the City of Douglasville Police Department (“Police Department”) as a police officer in March 2010. So it is not surprising that between May 2010 and June 2012, Bailey received above-average employee [...]

©2017 Brian S. Batterton, Attorney, Legal & Liability Risk Management Institute (www.llrmi.com) On December 5, 2016, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals of decided Bell v. Cumberland County, TN et al.[i] , in which the court examined whether a deputy’s use of deadly force was reasonable when a suspect attacked him with a skillet. The incident began when Mr. Fish, who had been in a relationship with Ms. Franklin, came onto her property for the purpose of harassing her. Mr. Fish had a history of domestic abuse toward Franklin, and deputies had been called there on numerous occasions. Deputies located Fish and [...]

2017 Brian S. Batterton, Attorney, Legal & Liability Risk Management Institute (www.llrmi.com) On October 20, 2016, the Court of Appeals of Georgia decided DeGeorgis v. State[i] , in which the court examined the issue of whether a police officer violated the Fourth Amendment when he searched a computer without a warrant. The relevant facts of DeGeorgis, taken directly from the case, are as follows: [I]n August 2012, DeGeorgis's estranged wife brought a computer tower to the Holly Springs Police Department and expressed concern that she had discovered child pornography on its hard drive. Upon speaking to a police lieutenant, DeGeorgis's wife explained that [...]

©2017 Jack Ryan, Attorney, Legal & Liability Risk Management Institute (www.llrmi.com) Does the fact that the officer’s pre-shooting conduct, even if unconstitutional, created the need for deadly force, is the shooting unreasonable? The short version of Mendez v. Los Angeles County is that officers went to a home to search for a wanted subject (parolee) who was listed as “armed and dangerous,” though all parole violators were listed that way. Upon arrival the officers forced their way into the home without a warrant, exigency, or consent. The officers did not find anything. Officers then went to a shed in the backyard, which was [...]

©2017 Jack Ryan, Attorney, Legal & Liability Risk Management Institute (www.llrmi.com) In Liverman v. City of Petersburg [Virginia][1] the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit reviewed the discipline of two officers from the City of Petersburg Police Department that was based on posts they had made on Facebook. In its review the court overturned the discipline and concluded that the police department’s policy was “overbroad” because it prohibited too much, and therefore infringed on the officers’ First Amendment rights. The policy provisions the court took issue with are outlined as follows (actual policy language bold print): The preface to the [...]