LOS ANGELES : Dismissal of Suit Against Marilyn Quayle Is Upheld

A woman who says she was assaulted by Secret Service agents while Marilyn Quayle was touring quake-damaged Yucca Valley in 1992 cannot sue the former vice president’s wife, an appeals panel has ruled in Los Angeles.

In unanimously upholding a Los Angeles judge’s ruling to dismiss the lawsuit, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals determined Monday that Quayle was a temporary government employee during her visit and cannot be sued in that capacity.

Quayle was a member of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s advisory board and chairwoman of the Natural Disaster Advisory Board at the time of the alleged incident.

Florence Billings, then 70, of Yucca Valley claimed that she was standing at the roadside holding a small sign that read: “If you want to see real disaster, go to Washington, D.C.”

Secret Service agents allegedly determined that the sign was a threat to security and attempted to remove it.

Billings filed her $4.5-million lawsuit in May, 1993, claiming that the agents violated several of her constitutional rights when they allegedly knocked her face-first to the ground, handcuffed her and arrested her.