High Court Rejects Precedent in Suit Against Police

The state Supreme Court has erased an appellate ruling that would have allowed lawsuits against police who take control of a hostage situation and allegedly mishandle it, causing injuries or death.

The court decided last week to allow an individual suit against Antioch, Calif., police by the estranged wife of a man who killed their two children and himself during a hostage standoff. But the justices unanimously withdrew the appellate decision in the case as a legal precedent for other cases.

Justices Marvin Baxter and Kathryn Mickle Werdegar voted to grant a Supreme Court hearing and decide the issues in the case, two short of the majority needed for review by the seven-member court.

The case arose from the July 1993 deaths of Joel Souza and his two children, Nicholas, 8, and Cheri, 5.

Police were summoned to the family home after Souza confronted his wife, Jennifer, in a parking lot and held a gun to his daughter’s head, according to appeals court records.

Officer Michael Schneider, a trained hostage negotiator, talked with Souza and his son through the locked door and persuaded him to get rid of four of his guns. After more than eight hours and conflicting signals from Souza about his intentions, Capt. Edgar Keller, who had arrived several hours earlier, told Schneider to give Souza 10 minutes.

Schneider, who said later he thought the order was a mistake, told Souza a police SWAT team would enter unless he surrendered in 10 minutes. Keller quickly sent word that Schneider had misunderstood him and that the deadline did not include a threat to enter the room.

But Souza was never told that. He fired the fatal shots a minute before the deadline.

Jennifer Souza’s suit against the city and the two officers was dismissed by Contra Costa County Superior Court Judge Ignacio Ruvolo, who said the police were not legally accountable to her. But the 1st District Court of Appeal disagreed and said a jury should decide if the officers had acted reasonably.

Major law enforcement groups and 100 city governments had urged dismissal of the suit, saying the threat of damages for allegedly mishandling a hostage rescue would discourage police from acting decisively.