DISCLAIMER: The following unofficial case summaries are prepared by the clerk's office
as a courtesy to the reader. They are not part of the opinion of the court.
123918P.pdf 07/23/2014 James Gladden, Jr. v. Kenneth Richbourg
U.S. Court of Appeals Case No: 12-3918
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas - Little Rock
[PUBLISHED] [Wollman, Author, with Shepherd, Circuit Judge, and Webber,
District Judge]
Civil case - Civil rights. District court did not err in granting
defendant police officers summary judgment based on qualified immunity on
plaintiff's claim that they violated his decedent's civil rights when they
dropped him at an isolated off-ramp on a cold December night knowing that
he was intoxicated and unable to care for himself; no special relationship
existed entitling the victim to police assistance under the Fourteenth
Amendment since the undisputed facts demonstrated he voluntarily accepted
a ride to the location and was sober enough to make the decision
rationally; with respect to plaintiff's claims against the police chief,
assuming the North Little Rock Police Department had a policy of taking
intoxicated person to remote locations, plaintiff could not establish the
custom implicated either of the special situations where police have an
affirmative duty of care - a person is in their custody or the officer
affirmatively placed them in danger - and his official capacity claims
must fail; as he had failed to establish his federal claims, plaintiff's
state law civil rights and wrongful death claims must fail.