Ashli Babbitt's family plans to sue Capitol Police, officer who shot her

[ansible]

Capitol rioter Ashli Babbitt’s family plans to sue the US Capitol Police and the yet-to-be-named officer who fatally shot her during the riot on Jan. 6, according to an attorney representing the family. Babbitt, draped in then-President Donald Trump’s campaign flag, was shot as she tried to climb through a smashed-out window into the House of Representatives Speaker’s Lobby.

The 35-year-old Californian was a veteran of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. She traveled to DC to participate in a large pro-Trump demonstration branded “Stop the Steal” on the day Joe Biden was to be officially certified as president-elect based on electoral votes. The officer who killed Babbitt has never been publicly identified and was not charged with a crime after a Justice Department review, but attorney Terry Roberts told Zenger News he knows their name, Newsweek reported.

“What it looks like is this guy shot this lady for no legitimate law enforcement purpose. And you know, they ought to be pretty ashamed of that,” Roberts said. “In a free country like ours, it’s very strange and odd that they wouldn’t identify the officer, or even provide some details, explaining why he had to kill her. You would probably expect this kind of thing to happen in Russia,” he said.

https://nypost.com/2021/04/29/ashli-babbitts-family-to-sue-capitol-police-over-her-death/

[PortTack]

1. OFFS...Shot her for no particular reason? She was breaking into a secured bldg, she was told to stop

[Stallion]

3. White Privilege?

[jimfields33]

6. Many times police say stop and shoot anyway.

[uponit7771]

15. +1, where there were bomb threats earlier

[BlueLucy]

2. Law suits of people getting shot...

in the commission of a felony don't get very far.

[PortTack]

5. Exactly!!

[W_HAMILTON]

4. LOL

[FlyingPiggy]

7. She was NOT where she was supposed to be and doing something she was NOT supposed to do

This is absolutely ridiculous. I hope there is a way to countersue this frivolous lawsuit.

[Hortensis]

8. Hope they have to pay their own legal bills and that the court requires

them to reimburse all costs incurred.

[Bristlecone]

9. Did she comply?

[LetMyPeopleVote]

20. No

Terrorists rarely comply with orders

Link to tweet

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[Wingus Dingus]

10. "Explaining why he had to kill her"--maybe because

an uprecedented chaotic attack on the Capitol and its officers was underway, the police were tasked with protecting Congress, and she was climbing through a broken window like a fucking zombie to access members of Congress. I'm guessing that's probably it.

[struggle4progress]

11. Blackstone: Commentaries on the Laws of England, Book IV, Chapter IX

Of Offenses Against the Public Peace

... 6 ... all persons .. are bound to attend .. in suppressing a riot, upon pain of fine and imprisonment; and .. any battery, wounding, or killing the rioters, that may happen in suppressing the riot, is justifiable ...

https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/blackstone_bk4ch11.asp

[Stallion]

14. Nice Citation

[StarfishSaver]

12. The same people who claim a "mob" of 5 people taking pictures and begging

Chauvin to let George Floyd up so he could breathe was justification for him to keep grinding his knee into his neck until he died are now claiming that a Capitol Police Officer was out of line for shooting a member of a raging, violent mob as she climbed through a broken window trying to get at Members of Congress?

Let's see how that goes for them.

[sinkingfeeling]

13. I volunteer to serve on that jury.

[Maru Kitteh]

16. Who did Terry Robert's mom bribe when

he sat for the bar?

[LetMyPeopleVote]

19. He is an older attorney at a three person firm

Here is the attorney representing the terrorist family It is a three person firm that also does car wrecks http://robertsandwood.com/our-lawyers/terrell-n-roberts-iii/

Mr. Roberts has developed a special expertise in the field of police misconduct and civil rights litigation. In the past two decades, he has helped dozens of clients recover millions of dollars in damages for police brutality and police misconduct, including a 2.7 million dollar verdict for the family of a Howard University student who was killed by the police. Some of his accomplishments in cases against the police were noted in a Washington Post article entitled Putting the Screws to Police Brutality.

The family cannot file suit until October and the lawyer is already trying to make the case that qualified immunity does not apply. https://www.newsweek.com/us-capitol-police-sued-10-million-killing-unarmed-rioter-1587449

The police lieutenant might assert "qualified immunity" in an attempt to shield his personal assets from any damages a court might award. But "I don't know how on earth he could. This is a clear case of excessive force," Roberts said. Law enforcement officers in the U.S. cannot assert qualified immunity protection in cases where victims, or their estates, prove their rights were "clearly established" at the time of an incident.

Roberts told Zenger News that "within the next ten days" he will serve notice to U.S. Capitol Police, which patrols the office buildings and grounds of the Capitol, that he intends to file suit in Federal District Court in Washington, D.C. "We intend to vindicate Ashli's constitutional rights, which were egregiously violated," said Roberts, referring to a Fourth Amendment claim. The suit, he said, will also include a civil rights claim filed personally against the lieutenant.

The fact that they lawyer is talking about qualified immunity tells me that the lawyer knows that he will have trouble. It appears that the proposed compromise on the George Floyd Act is to maintain qualified immunity for officers. The notice mentioned above is to start the six month period that must expire before suit can be filed.

[dsc]

24. Good luck with that

Since the case would have to have the exact same set of facts and literally no one has ever been in a protest that has breeched the Capitol qualified immunity won't be overcome.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

26. You and I are in agreement

This will be a difficult case. I am former big law and most of the firms that I do deals with are biglaw or former biglaw. This is a case that a big law firm would not touch on a contingency basis.

[Frustratedlady]

17. They're probably dreaming of a $27M settlement, or more...

I had to read the article twice, as I couldn't believe it.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

18. The fellow terrorists arrested who were part of this attack should be charged with felony murder

Last edited Sat May 1, 2021, 01:28 PM - Edit history (1)

Link to tweet

Federal prosecutors have charged at least eight people who were in the crowd around Babbitt in the moments before she was shot. They include Christopher Ray Grider, a Texas winery owner who is accused of trying to kick in the Speaker’s Lobby doors; Zachary Jordan Alam, of Pennsylvania, who is accused of smashing the glass pane Babbitt attempted to crawl through; and Chad Barrett Jones, of Kentucky, who is accused of smashing another pane with a wood stick that had a Trump flag attached.

Authorities had suggested the possibility of bringing felony murder charges against rioters if Babbitt’s death was a foreseeable consequence of felony conduct by others, according to a person familiar with the matter. But they have since ruled out that possibility, given case law that allows such charges only in instances when an accomplice is responsible for a victim’s death, not a law enforcement officer.

D.C. police are required by law to identify officers involved in serious uses of force within five business days of an incident. They are also required to release video from body cameras of the officers directly involved. The law only applies to D.C. police. Capitol Police are not equipped with body cameras.

[spooky3]

21. This will be dismissed. Classic example of how anyone can file a frivolous lawsuit over anything.

I thought GQPers didn't like Our Litigious Society.

[LisaL]

22. Good luck with that.

[Thtwudbeme]

23. So much for support the Blue Line

Hypocrites all of them

[BannonsLiver]

25. She was participating in an attempted coup and was not compliant.

Shit happens.

[crickets]

27. This is a non-starter. Ashli Babbitt's family can't really hope to accomplish much, except...

There's one thing they might get out of this that many Repubs dearly want: making the officer's name public.

[ripcord]

28. They should have shot her in the leg.