Cross-Post; Research Help Requested
Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2016 12:33 pm
I originally posted in the National News section, but this might be more in up the alley of the open carry crowd. Any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated.
I've ruled out the guy who sued Cleveland Heights (settled, no verdict), the guy who sued the City of Philadelphia (settled, no verdict) and the guy who sued in New Mexico, St. John (settled, no verdict). Again, lots of settlements, virtually no verdicts. Any suggestions?I'm doing some research for a presentation on civil liability of police officers for arresting/stopping/detaining open carriers. I've found exactly zero verdicts returned in favor of an open carrier on a civil suit alleging unlawful search / seizure by a police officer, police department, or municipality. I've been on Westlaw for the past hour without much success, and I've been on google for the last half-hour, also without success. (In my defense, if such a verdict exists, I've been on Westlaw for the better part of the last two weeks on this project, and I'm sort of running on fumes at this point.) I know that at some point in the history of open carry, someone has taken one of those cases to verdict, and there's got to be at least one verdict in favor of the open carrier. I turn to the gun fanatics of Ohioans for Concealed Carry: certainly some of you can direct me to a news story, or better yet a decision granting judgment, or better still a decision from a court of appeals affirming a verdict.
What I'm NOT looking for are reports of settlements. Those are a dime a dozen. I am also NOT looking for cases where someone has challenged the validity or invalidity of laws pertaining to open carry. I'm ONLY interested (for this project) in verdicts from civil suits.
I seem to recall a case, I think it was from Virginia, perhaps five or seven years ago, where a cop arrested a lady for open carry, and then arrested her again virtually immediately when she was released from jail, and then after the prosecutor dismissed the charges, the officer arrested her again on her way out of the courthouse. It was something very egregious, and if memory serves, she got a verdict around $50k. Anyone remember that? That, or any other verdict, you could point me to, would be very helpful.