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Richardson v. McGriff11/15/2000
nto the closet when the door was opened, drew his pistol and aimed it at the center mast of the closet. He then announced: "All right. We're getting ready to open the closet. Police. Come on out." Although petitioner denied hearing any such warning, Catterton confirmed the second warning, recalling that "we again announced our presence and said, `Come out of the closet.'" Hearing no response, Catterton pulled the closet door open, and, according to McGriff, "immediately my flashlight struck the light of the object, which I thought was a barrel of a big weapon. And all I saw was a glimmer, and what I perceived as someone coming towards me, and I fired." He continued, " nd the weapon fell to the ground. I took my right foot and I slid the weapon behind me, and I just stood there covering the closet. I couldn't speak or nothing. I was just - heart stopped and everything. I was totally afraid." Catterton said that he did not know whether McGriff was the one who was shot - that he was rigid, his eyes being "as big as paper plates." McGriff added later:
" y flashlight immediately silhouetted off of the pipe, and I shot. But at the time I didn't know it was a pipe. It looked, in this position, it looked like somebody was grasping a weapon, and I thought he was getting ready to lower it and fire upon me. And that's when I shot."
CONSIDERATION OF ANTECEDENT EVENTS
The first three issues raised by petitioner may be considered together. As part of his contention that Officer McGriff acted negligently and used unnecessary, unreasonable, and excessive force, petitioner urged that McGriff was remiss in entering the apartment late at night, in the dark, facing the prospect of seven armed men, without additional back-up, and that he was also remiss in not turning on the kitchen light before having Catterton open the closet. In support of those positions, he desired to offer into evidence certain guidelines and regulations of the Baltimore City Police Department and the testimony of Sergeant Laron Wilson, and he objected to a supplemental instruction to the jury directing it not to consider whether McGriff should have called for additional back-up or turned on the kitchen lights. The evidence was excluded and the instruction was given. We shall recite the relevant procedural background with respect to each of those matters, but they all hinge on whether it was appropriate for the jury to be allowed, essentially, to second-guess the decisions by Officers McGriff and Catterton to enter and search the apartment alone and to open the closet door without first turning on the kitchen light. The Batson issue, of course, is entirely separate.
To set the stage for the discussion of the first three issues, it is important to keep in mind the context. As to each of the three claims against Officer McGriff - battery, gross negligence, and violation of rights under Article 26 of the Declaration of Rights - the common issue was whether Officer McGriff acted reasonably when the closet door was opened and he saw what he regarded as an armed man about to fire on him. There was no dispute that, by shooting petitioner, McGriff intentionally caused a harmful touching and thus a battery. His defense was self-defense - that the touching was not unlawful - which brought into issue whether the deadly force was reasonable and used only as a last resort. To prove gross negligence, petitioner was required to prove that McGriff's conduct amounted to a reckless and wanton disregard of his rights, and to establish a violation of his rights under Article 26 - the State counterpart of the Fourth Amendment - petitioner had to show that McGriff did not act with objective reasonableness, from the perspective of a reasonab
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