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 ....