I know the police do the best they can, but there is a concept known as DUE DILIGENCE!
Dearheart - Sue SUE SUE. Every damned one of them. If the detectives were too busy to check on basic facts then that is negligence. Big time.
And, as everyone knows, I am a big supporter of Law Enforcement. But this is wrong from every and any possible perspective.
The cynic in me says they kept her in jail for five days to try to find something to charge her with for CYA. Hope I’m wrong.
I go right back to what I’ve been saying for the past decade....wannabe cops. We’ve got huge issues in small towns across America with them....and I can now see that these wannabe guys have finally arrived at major cities.
As for the legal case....if I were the city manager...I’d start to pull out the city insurance package and take a guess on what she will ask for. Since she spent at least three days in jail...I’d put the magic number up around $15 million and as they offer $12 million...take it.
As for the cops involved? I would probably go ahead and terminate them for their performance.
She can sue in this case, but she is suing the tax payer funded police department. Police officers are covered by qualified immunity by law.
They should lift the veil of personal immunity so officers are held civilly and criminally responsible for violating Constitutional rights.
Until that happens,... it is business as usual and no officer has to fear his pension/job when he illegally detains an innocent person.
What is Qualified Immunity?
Governmental officials, performing their specified functions, are afforded qualified immunity from liability stemming from civil damages suffered by others to the extent that the officer’s actions “does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known.”23
Secondly, qualified immunity protects “all but the plainly incompetent or those who knowingly violate the law.”24 Lastly, a federal court ruled that law-enforcement officers are protected from “bad guesses in gray areas” and liable “for transgressing bright lines.”