1] Family handcuffed at gunpoint by police sues Aurora, Colorado. Terrible images in the complaint. These cases are filed all the time. This time it's different: Colorado has a new law.

2] According to the complaint, APD relied on license plate scanner that indicated plt's license plate matched
that of a stolen vehicle. But it was a motorcycle with Montana plates, not an SUV with Colorado plates, which was what plt was driving.
3] This would be a challenge to win in Federal Court. Police "can rely on information obtained from a police computer database in order to establish probable cause." Hughes v. McWilliams, (SDNY 2009).
4] Police reliance on cpu information is "reasonable even if the information is incorrect, provided the police officer did not know or have reason to know that the information was false or unreliable." Arizona v. Evans, 514 U.S. 1, 15-16 (1995).
5] But it seems from the Complaint that the police knew that the vehicles didn't match and possibly that the states were wrong (and aren't motorcycle plates a different size?).
6] So this might have been a winnable case in federal court, even with "qualified immunity." But with the new law, probably no one will ever file in CO federal court again. They'll all file in CO state court. Here's why...
7] The CO law doesn't exactly "end" qualified immunity. It allows for claims against police who violate CO constitutional rts under CO law. It's a state version of the federal Section 1983, the main federal civil rights statute.
8] BUT, the CO law specifically says “qualified immunity is not a defense to liability.” So *only* in CO court, qualified immunity not a defense. In federal court, under Section 1983, it still is. So, if you're a plaintiff, there's little incentive to sue in fed ct.
9] This is a big deal b/c qualified immunity protects law enforcement from lots of claims. US Supreme Court created qualified immunity in 1982, which shields officers from any liability, unless they violated rights that were “clearly established.”

More from Law

You May Also Like

First thread of the year because I have time during MCO. As requested, a thread on the gods and spirits of Malay folk religion. Some are indigenous, some are of Indian origin, some have Islamic


Before I begin, it might be worth explaining the Malay conception of the spirit world. At its deepest level, Malay religious belief is animist. All living beings and even certain objects are said to have a soul. Natural phenomena are either controlled by or personified as spirits

Although these beings had to be respected, not all of them were powerful enough to be considered gods. Offerings would be made to the spirits that had greater influence on human life. Spells and incantations would invoke their


Two known examples of such elemental spirits that had god-like status are Raja Angin (king of the wind) and Mambang Tali Arus (spirit of river currents). There were undoubtedly many more which have been lost to time

Contact with ancient India brought the influence of Hinduism and Buddhism to SEA. What we now call Hinduism similarly developed in India out of native animism and the more formal Vedic tradition. This can be seen in the multitude of sacred animals and location-specific Hindu gods