Shore woman can't sue police, appeals court rules

The Baltimore Sun

A pregnant Eastern Shore woman who lost her baby after police officers shoved her during a drug raid cannot sue the police involved because they are immune from such claims if they act reasonably, a federal appeals court ruled yesterday.

The opinion issued by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., overturns a decision by U.S. District Judge Marvin J. Garbis in Baltimore.

Garbis had ruled that the complaint filed by Sonya C. McCaskill against Salisbury officers and Wicomico County sheriff's deputies could proceed because "an officer who knows a woman is pregnant, and pushes her despite that knowledge, is likely acting with an intent to injure the woman. Therefore, statutory immunity is not appropriate."

Kevin Karpinski, a Baltimore defense attorney who represented the officers, said yesterday that the appeals court ruling, which the officers had requested, appears to mean that the case is now over.

"At a minimum, the officers in this case were entitled to a certain amount of deference in a rapidly changing situation," he said. Karpinski added that if the case had gone to trial, the defense would have been able to prove that the officers' action did not cause McCaskill to miscarry.

The case started with an investigation into her boyfriend, a Salisbury resident whom police suspected of dealing crack cocaine, according to the ruling. At 5:30 a.m. on April 4, 2002, court papers say the officers rammed the front door and fought with the boyfriend in the living room. The officers subdued him by pushing him down onto the sofa and placing him in plastic restraints, police said.

Witnesses said in court papers that McCaskill, who was then five months' pregnant, was in the bathroom when the officers entered the home. As the commotion with the boyfriend subsided, McCaskill emerged with her hands up and walked toward the couch.

Police ordered her to get down and then pushed her onto a mattress, where she landed on her stomach. Two days later, McCaskill was admitted to Peninsula Regional Medical Center with a premature rupture of the uterine membrane. She delivered the fetus prematurely, and it did not survive.

"We conclude that it was reasonable under the circumstances for an officer to push McCaskill down onto a mattress while securing the house after a no-knock entry, whether or not her hands were raised," the appeals panel ruled.

matthew.dolan@baltsun.com

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