Officer in Custodial Rights Case Seeks Immunity
In a legal offshoot of a 1994 police brutality case, a lawyer representing the city of Compton has asked a panel of federal judges to grant immunity to a city police officer who helped a county social worker take three children into custody without first notifying their parents.
Plaintiffs in the case before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals have alleged that Officer Michael Jackson--who according to a 1995 jury verdict violated a Compton teenager’s rights by beating him on July 29, 1994--also trampled the custodial rights of the victim’s family.
No emergency situation warranted taking the children, ages 2, 9 and 14, without the parents’ notification, plaintiffs’ attorney Humberto Guizar said.
But Jackson’s attorney argued that the officer should not be held liable because he was only helping a county worker.
The highly publicized, videotaped beating occurred when then-17-year-old Felipe Soltero tried to stop Jackson from taking custody of the children. In the 1995 judgment, Soltero was awarded $1 in damages.
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