The Danger Doctrine and Civil Liability; Leaving a DV Victim in more danger; Qualified Immunity...

The Danger Doctrine and Civil Liability:  Leaving a DV Victim in More Danger Than He/She was Originally Found:  Qualified Immunity from Civil Liability:

(1) Pursuant to the “Danger Doctrine,” a law enforcement officer may be civilly liable where the officer’s affirmative actions create or expose a plaintiff to an actual, particularized danger that he or she would not otherwise have faced, the resulting injury was foreseeable; and the officers were deliberately indifferent to the known danger; a “due process” issue.

(2) Although a due process violation did in fact occur, law enforcement officers will not be held civilly liable unless the rights violated are so sufficiently well defined that any reasonable officer in the involved officer’s shoes would have known that his or her conduct violated the plaintiff’s right to due process.

From April through September, 2013, Desiree Martinez (and her daughter) lived with a City of Clovis police officer by the name of Kyle Pennington in a tumultuous, abusive, live-in relationship.  Specifically, on May 2, 2013, Pennington abused Martinez while the two of them were at Martinez’s cousin’s home.  Other than Martinez being pushed down a flight of stairs, the details of the incident were left unexplained by the Court.  Martinez fled her cousin’s house, hiding outside while calling the police, sending Clovis P.D. officers to the residence she shared with Pennington.  Pennington returned home by himself as Martinez sought the assistance of a taxicab.  Clovis Police Officers and Pennington were all waiting for her when she got home shortly thereafter.  Upon her arrival in the taxi, Pennington approached her and warned her not to say anything to the officers about what had happened at her cousin’s house.  What happened next is subject to some differences of opinion.  Officer Kristina Hershberger described in later testimony a “highly intoxicated” and somewhat uncooperative Martinez who ....