Judge asks for more evidence in civil suit against Oakland, California Highway Patrol over fatal vehicle collision

Filed 42m ago · Via Courthouse News · The Buffoon Desk

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Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: Carol M. Highsmith · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

A federal judge in San Francisco said Wednesday he is inclined to dismiss several claims against Oakland and California Highway Patrol brought by the family of Marvin Boomer, Jr., an educator killed last May when a fleeing vehicle struck him during a police pursuit, while allowing wrongful death and negligence claims to proceed.

Judge William Orrick suggested the case really belongs against the individual CHP officers involved rather than the broader agencies, and asked both sides for more briefing on whether state immunity law shields officers from liability in pursuit-related collisions. Boomer's partner, Ta Ta Neshe Woodruff, was also badly hurt; the driver, then 18, is jailed without bail on manslaughter charges.

Plaintiffs' attorney Michelle Bernard called the ruling a rejection of the defendants' effort to escape accountability, while CHP maintains officers had already ended the pursuit before the crash. The family says that distinction is meaningless because the driver believed he was still being chased.

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✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

A judge telling a police agency that a lawsuit is really about the officers who did the chasing is not exactly a plot twist. It is the kind of thing you'd expect a reasonable person to say about a car that hit a hydrant, a sinkhole, and then two pedestrians. The immunity question still hanging over this case is the part worth watching, because that's usually where accountability goes to take a long nap.

Source: Read the original at Courthouse News → Scored: Lamentation · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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