ST. PAUL (WJON News) - The American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota has stepped into a dispute between a Maple Grove police officer and a woman who claims she was treated with excessive force.
The Facts of the Case:
- In January 2020, The unnamed complainant says she and her husband were at home when Maple Grove police tried to kick down her door, wrongfully thinking her husband had shoplifted a snowblower.
- She claims she was making dinner, and her husband was playing video games with headphones on and did not hear the police at the door.
- She claims she was nine months pregnant at the time.
- The lawsuit claims Maple Grove police officer Samantha Geisler threw her to the ground onto her stomach.
- The complainant went into labor while detained at the Hennepin County Jail.
- Deputies reportedly ignored her pleas for help, and she was put into shackles while in labor, against state law.
- She was never charged with a crime, and all charges were dropped against her husband.
The aftermath:
- The complainant filed a lawsuit against Officer Geisler, but a lower court threw out the lawsuit saying it did not include the wording that the officer “was sued in her individual capacity.”
- The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals requires this specific wording when people harmed by police or other government agents sue over a violation of their rights.
ACLU-MN Staff Attorney Catherine Ahlin-Halverson says that specific wording is an obstruction of an individual’s constitutional rights.
That means that anyone living in the Eighth Circuit, which includes Minnesota, can lose their ability to pursue a lawsuit against a police officer if they can’t afford an attorney, don't have a local civil liberty specialist as a lawyer, or just have a lawyer who makes a technical mistake. If your attorney doesn’t write the words ‘in their individual capacity’ while suing a government agent like the police, you are out of luck. The Eighth Circuit, which includes Minnesota, is the only circuit in the entire nation that follows this harsh and punitive rule that can make it harder for people to sue for justice. We think it is time to change that. Government agencies and officials should be held accountable when they violate our rights and harm us.
The unnamed complainant also filed a lawsuit against Hennepin County, which was resolved in 2023.
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