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City of Florence v. Chipman2/22/2001
AMENDED: FEBRUARY 26 2001
TO BE PUBLISHED
REVERSING
This appeal is from an opinion of the Court of Appeals which reversed and remanded a summary judgment in a wrongful death negligence claim against three Florence police officers and their employer , the City of Florence.
The threshold issue is whether the circuit judge properly granted summary judgment on the negligence claim against the officers. The questions presented are whether the decision of the Court of Appeals abrogates the special relationship doctrine based on the events of this case; whether the application of Fryman v. Harrison, Ky., 896 S.W.2d 908 (1995) was proper; whether there was a special relationship between the officers and Black creating a duty to protect her from harm; whether the actions of the officers became ministerial once they allegedly took Black into custody; whether there is an immunity defense; whether there was a superseding or intervening cause for the death, and whether principles of official immunity under Kentucky law and qualified immunity under federal civil rights law were properly considered.
Conni Black, her boyfriend, Steve Kritis, and Susan Stemler were patrons at a Florence bar on February 19, 1994. The evidence indicates that Kritis assaulted Black and she subsequently left with Stemler whom she had met that night while line dancing at the bar. Kritis followed the Stemler car and chased it through residential streets in the early morning hours. Ultimately the vehicles reached an intersection and were confronted by police.
Wince, a Florence police officer, joined other police at the scene and was assigned the task of handling Stemler who was tested for alcohol and arrested for DUI. Another officer, Boone County Deputy Sheriff Reuthe, initially determined that Kritis was not intoxicated although there was a smell of some substance at the scene. Deposition testimony by Reuthe indicated that he was familiar with DUI testing and that he had received commendations within his department in the previous four years for the most DUI arrests, and had taught at numerous seminars on DUI detection and investigation. He testified that he had conducted a type of sobriety test on Kritis while the subject remained in his pickup truck. The deputy said he observed Kritis for signs of intoxication such as nervousness, slurred speech, poor hand and eye coordination, failure with short term memory and inability to process information. He stated that Kritis responded without hesitation or difftculty to his questions and that he then determined upon observation that the demeanor, appearance and responsiveness of Kritis indicated that he was not intoxicated so as to require additional sobriety testing. Ruethe stated that he had no reasonable articulable suspicion to remove Kritis from the vehicle. Reuthe also reported to Florence Police Lieutenant Dusing that Kristis told him that Stemler was a lesbian and had kidnapped his girlfriend.
Barker, an eye witness who had followed the chase, told the officers that Stemler was the wrong person to arrest and that Kritis was crazy. Barker would later characterize the officers as arrogant because they apparently dismissed his account and told him to leave the scene.
Black, who appeared to be drunk, remained seated in the Stemler automobile. Outside of her presence, Lieutenant Dusing directed Officer Dolan to arrest her for public intoxication unless she decided to leave with Kritis. A careful review of the record indicates that no threat of arrest was ever communicated to Black by the police if she refused to accompany Kritis. The officers escorted her from the Stemler automobile when she told the
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