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.
141583P.pdf 09/03/2015 Danelle Hollingsworth v. City of St. Ann
U.S. Court of Appeals Case No: 14-1583
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri - St. Louis
[PUBLISHED] [Colloton, Author, with Riley, Chief Judge, and Kelly, Circuit
Judge]
Civil case - Civil rights. In an action alleging the defendant police and
corrections officers used excessive force when they tased plaintiff after
she refused to doff her clothing and put on a jail jumpsuit, it was
reasonable for officers to use some force to cause plaintiff to comply
with their orders; it was not clearly established at the time of the
incident that use of a taser, resulting in only de minimis injury, was an
unconstitutional use of force, and the officers were entitled to qualified
immunity on the claim; qualified immunity also shields the two defendant
officers accused of an unreasonable failure to intervene; with respect to
plaintiff's claim, the City's Taser policy was not unlawful on its face
and plaintiff did not present evidence that the City was deliberately
indifferent to her Fourth Amendment rights. Judge Kelly, concurring.