Supreme Court Rejects Appeal Of Houston Man Shot By Police; Sotomayor Dissents

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to review a ruling from a Texas court that sided with a police officer who shot an unarmed Houston man in the back during a 2010 traffic stop, quashing Ricardo Salazar-Limon's civil rights lawsuit.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in a forceful dissent, said the justices "have not hesitated" to rule against lower courts that side against police officers in cases dealing with allegations of excessive force, but that the court "rarely" gets involved when lower courts "wrongly" decide that officers are immune from misconduct charges. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg joined Sotomayor's dissent.

In 2010, Salazar-Limon was stopped on a Houston highway when officers suspected him of drunken driving. Authorities alleged that he resisted arrest and walked away after a brief struggle with an officer. When told to stop, Salazar-Limon, according to the officer involved, reached for his waistband. The officer shot him in the lower back, and the injury left Salazar-Limon partially paralyzed. (Want to get daily updates about new and other events going on in your area? Sign up for the free Houston Patch morning newsletter.)

Salazar-Limon claimed that the officer, Chris Thompson, shot him immediately during the encounter or mere seconds before he turned, and filed an excessive force claim against Thompson and the city of Houston.

When the case went to court, a federal judge ruled in the officer's favor; the case never went before a jury. The judge, in his ruling, emphasized that Salazar-Limon never denied reaching for his waistband.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in June 2016 ruled that a lower judge had rightfully dismissed Salazar-Limon's lawsuit, based on the threat perceived by Thompson, who said under oath that Salazar-Limon had during their encounter pushed him toward speeding traffic. Salazar-Limon pleaded no contest to charges of resisting arrest and driving while intoxicated.

"Only Thompson and Salazar-Limon know what happened on that overpass on October 29, 2010," Sotomayor said in the dissent. "It is possible that Salazar-Limon did something that Thompson reasonably found threatening; it is also possible that Thompson shot an unarmed man in the back without justification. What is clear is that our legal system does not entrust the resolution of this dispute to a judge faced with competing affidavits."

Justice Samuel Alito, responding to the dissent, insisted that the high court applies "uniform standards" when deciding to review cases like Salazar-Limon's. He added that the lower courts "attempted faithfully to apply the correct legal rule to what is at best a marginal set of facts."

Image: Justice Sonia Sotomayor (U.S. Supreme Court/Steve Petteway)