GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A former Michigan State Police sergeant who hit a man with a cruiser, killing him, has asked a judge to dismiss the civil case against him.
A civil excessive force lawsuit was filed against Brian Keely on behalf of the family of Samuel Sterling, who died in April 2024. Authorities said Sterling, 25, ran away from a task force seeking to arrest him. Officers chased him to a Burger King in Kentwood while Keely pursued in an unmarked cruiser. Video released by MSP shows Sterling being hit by Keely’s SUV near the restaurant’s entrance. Sterling was hospitalized and died hours later.
In their lawsuit, Sterling’s family alleged Keely violated Sterling’s Fourth and 14th Amendment protections against excessive force and argued gross negligence and willful and wanton misconduct.
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Keely was also charged criminally with second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter in Sterling’s death. That case moved into federal court after a motion by the defense, which said it belonged there because Keely was acting as part of a U.S. Marshals task force when the death happened — an argument that Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office has disputed.
In May, a federal judge dismissed the criminal case, saying state prosecutors had not presented enough evidence to show Keely acted with disregard for Sterling’s life and that Keely had reason to believe Sterling may pose a threat to members of the public. Nessel called the decision a “miscarriage of justice,” and her office filed a notice to appeal last month.
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In a motion filed Monday in U.S. District Court, attorneys for Keely asked the court to dismiss the civil lawsuit, too, and “take notice of its own records,” referring to the dismissal of the criminal case. They argued again that Keely was immune under the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution because he was acting as a federal officer when attempting to arrest Sterling and “in performing his federal duties, did no more than was reasonably necessary to fulfill his obligations as a federal officer.”…