----- forwarded message ----- Date: Tue, 02 Oct 2001 12:53:56 -0700 From: radtimes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: High court sends back Humboldt brutality case
High court sends back Humboldt brutality case http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2001/10/02/MN56564.DTL Demonstrators had sued over use of pepper spray Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer Tuesday, October 2, 2001 The Supreme Court directed a federal appeals court yesterday to reconsider whether Humboldt County protesters who were subjected to pepper spray during an anti-logging demonstration can sue law enforcement for excessive force. Nine demonstrators whose eyes were swabbed with the stinging chemical to break up sit-ins against Pacific Lumber Co. in 1997 sued the county, the city of Eureka and two officers. After a jury deadlocked, a federal judge dismissed the case, saying no reasonable juror could find that the officers acted unreasonably. But the U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco disagreed last year and ordered a retrial, saying jurors could conclude that the officers inflicted needless pain on unresisting protesters. It was the first appellate ruling to allow a brutality suit against police for use of pepper spray. But yesterday, the Supreme Court set the ruling aside, holding any retrial in abeyance, and told the appeals court to take another look at the case under a new standard. That new guideline -- which favors police -- was established earlier this year by the high court in a San Francisco case. The court threw out a brutality suit brought by an animal-rights protester, ruling that these cases can be dismissed if an officer reasonably believed the level of force involved was legally permissible. "It's a different ballgame now," William F. Mitchell, a lawyer for the Humboldt County officers, said yesterday. "There has to be some law out there that puts officers on notice that what they're doing is unreasonable." But lawyers for the demonstrators said they still expect a retrial, even under the new standard. The case stems from protests against Pacific Lumber Co.'s cutting of old- growth trees. Demonstrators chained themselves together at company headquarters and at the office of a pro-logging congressman. At another protest, two men fastened themselves to logging equipment. After warnings, sheriff's deputies and Eureka police applied cotton swabs doused in pepper spray to the corners of the protesters' eyes. Those who resisted were sprayed in the face at close range. The juror deadlocked 4 to 4 on the brutality suit and U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker ordered the case dismissed, saying no reasonable juror could find that the officers acted unreasonably. The case is Humboldt County vs. Headwaters Forest Defense, No. 00-1649.
