Two Orange County detention officers cannot avoid liability in a federal lawsuit alleging that their neglect led to a man’s death in 2020, a federal appellate court ruled last week.
On July 2, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit concluded that there was sufficient evidence that the officers waited 22 minutes to check on inmate Maurice King, even though they suspected he had been assaulted and had heard him groaning, because they wanted to avoid extra paperwork.
As a result, the court said, the officers cannot claim qualified immunity, a legal doctrine that exempts law-enforcement officers from liability in lawsuits. Except in rare instances, like this case, qualified immunity makes it difficult for plaintiffs to win lawsuits against law-enforcement officers. This ruling will likely set precedent for how similar cases will be handled in the future…