A Florida woman who was shot in the face with a rubber projectile during a protest of George Floyd’s murder in 2020 cannot hold individual Fort Lauderdale police officers liable, but she can still seek civil damages from the city, a judge has ruled.
Federal Judge Rodolfo Ruiz of the Southern District of Florida handed down the 107-page opinion on Sept 4, concluding that plaintiff LaToya Ratlieff cannot hold the individual police officers liable for their response to violent events due to the officers’ qualified immunity. This protection shields many of the individual defendants in Ratieff’s lawsuit from liability for her injuries based on the plaintiff’s First Amendment claims, Ruiz said in his decision.
“On May 31, 2020, demonstrations protesting police brutality in the wake of George Floyd’s death occurred in various locations in and around downtown Fort Lauderdale …” the opinion states. “All parties agree that Ratlieff attended these demonstrations peacefully and did not herself engage in any acts of violence.”
Though attorneys for Ratlieff argued that the plaintiff’s constitutional rights were violated by officers’ response to demonstrators’ aggressive actions, the defendants alleged her injuries were not deliberate.
“Defendants contend that Ratlieff’s injuries were the accidental, regrettable consequence of (the Fort Lauderdale Police Department’s) effort to quell unlawful violence directed at FLPD after the day’s earlier, lawful demonstrations had concluded,” Ruiz said in his decision.
Though he found that individual officers could not be held liable, Ruiz concluded that a jury might find that Officer Eliezer Ramos had no justification for shooting the projectile given the circumstances at the scene. But he also said a jury might conclude that Ratlieff was in a dangerous location and that officers were using non-lethal means to deter future acts of violence
“In sum, a reasonable jury may or may not find that the city, via FLPD’s (kinetic impact projectiles) and tear gas deployment from 7:01 p.m. to 7:07 p.m., committed a civil battery against Ratlieff,” Ruiz said.
A statement released by Ratlieff’s attorneys called the decision a win for the plaintiff even if the individual officers could not be held liable for her injuries. The city of Fort Lauderdale will have to answer for the “unconstitutional and vicious treatment” of peaceful demonstrators, the statement emailed to the Florida Record says.
“(The) federal court ruling marks a significant victory in LaToya Ratlieff’s pursuit for justice for her and the many others who suffered egregious abuse at the hands of the poorly trained Fort Lauderdale Police,” the statement on behalf of the plaintiff says. “This decision paves the way for LaToya to show the public in an open trial in Fort Lauderdale federal court that the city of Fort Lauderdale and its Police Department will be held accountable.”
The statement contends that qualified immunity remains a “vexing and unjust barrier” for victims of police actions.
“(The Sept. 4) ruling confirms that despite these challenges, justice will prevail for LaToya Ratlieff,” the statement says. “The court’s decision reaffirms her commitment to seeking redress and ensuring that those responsible are brought to justice.”
Ratlieff called the department’s actions reprehensible in a prepared statement.
“This ruling is a clear signal that their behavior will not go unchecked, and that accountability is not just a possibility but an impending reality,” she said. Ratlieff’s lawsuit alleges that officers were not adequately trained on crowd-control methods and the proper use of rubber bullets.