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Richardson v. McGriff11/15/2000
(3) Challenging the suspect to halt;
(4) Pursuing suspects until it becomes obvious that capturing them is unlikely and/or further pursuit is likely to endanger the officer or others.
b. The probable cause standard allows officers to act in situations without having absolute knowledge that a violent felony has occurred but requires that their actions be based on more than mere suspicion.
c. Both the element of the officer's probable cause to believe a dangerous felony has been committed and the element that the offender poses an imminent threat to the officer or others in the immediate vicinity of the crime must be present before an officer can use deadly force to arrest the offender or prevent his escape.
(1) Using deadly force to stop an escaping suspect must be based on a specific threat of imminent danger and not on a general threat to the community because of the viciousness of the crime.
NOTE: Where feasible, the officer should give verbal warning prior to shooting at the felon. There are, however, situations when the issuance of a warning would be detrimental to the safety of the officers or others. In such a case, the officer need not give warning if to do so would increase the risk to himself or others. (Emphasis in original).
Anticipating that Petitioner would attempt to offer such evidence at trial, Respondent filed a pre-trial motion in limine seeking to prohibit Petitioner from introducing evidence of any alleged violations of police procedure. Respondent's written motion, although specifically alluding to the 2 May 1995 Training Bulletin and "the Rules and Regulations published June 24, 1988," did not limit its request for relief only to those items. In granting the motion, the trial judge reasoned:
I have reviewed again the complaint, and I don't see any allegations in the complaint that this suit is based upon a violation of police orders, police regulations, police guidelines, and that as a result of the defendants' failing to observe and follow police orders, rules, regulations, guidelines, whatever they may be, the defendant (sic) had been harmed. I don't see that at all in the complaint.
In fact, the final paragraph of the complaint, Paragraph 23, says this:
"At all times relevant hereto, the actions of defendants in (a) brutally assaulting Richardson, (b) filing false criminal charges against Richardson, and (c) subjecting Richardson to humiliation on the face of a lack of probable cause were all performed by defendants without warrant or justification, without probable cause and were negligent, wanton, malicious and reckless."
These are the reasons given for the wrongful acts of the defendants, that they acted in this manner. There is not a single count in the complaint labeled violation of police orders, regulations, guidelines, et cetera.
I think what this comes to is, as I think has been acknowledged by counsel, an effort to prove that the acts of the defendants were wrongful simply because they didn't comply with certain orders. And that there is no emphasis in the case, from what I read the complaint as being, that by reason of the failure of the defendants to follow rule this, rule that, order this, order that, it caused harm to the defendant.
I think to try to bring it in, in the manner that the plaintiff proposes, would be, first of all, causing a trial within a trial, and that we would get very bogged down into the whole history import of these orders and regulations. And then we get into guidelines, and plaintiff's counsel is suggesting that guidelines don't give any discretion because they use the words "shall" and "must
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