Subscribe
Jobs
Cars
Real Estate
Apts
Classifieds
Shop
An attorney for Fort Wayne used a slew of denials to answer a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by the family of a 24-year-old Guatemalan man shot and killed by a rookie Fort Wayne police officer last year on the southeast side of town.
Carolyn M. Trier denied excessive and illegal force was used against Jose Baudilio Lemus-Rodriguez when he was killed Dec. 23, 2007, after a car chase with police ended at the corner of Oxford Street and Warsaw Avenue.
She also denies in her response, filed Friday, that Lemus-Rodriguez’s constitutional rights were violated or that city officers present were not properly trained or supervised, and also asserted that officer James Arnold acted in self-defense and in the defense of others when he shot Lemus-Rodriguez.
The response supports what officers have consistently said about what happened Dec. 23, 2007, and denies many claims made by the suit.
The lawsuit against Arnold and the city was filed in federal court this month by Jaime Palma, a personal representative of the estate of Lemus-Rodriguez.
Arnold emptied the 18 rounds from his 9 mm clip into Lemus-Rodriguez’s moving car, police have said. No criminal charges were brought against Arnold, who was completing his second month on the job at the time of the shooting. Allen County Prosecutor Karen Richards found no evidence he committed a crime in his actions.
Before joining the police force, Arnold saw combat in Iraq and Afghanistan as a sergeant in the Marines.
A private consultant hired by the city later found Arnold’s actions “objectively reasonable” and even found that Arnold’s military experience and training did not negatively affect his decisions that day.
“Nothing had been effective in controlling the life threatening behavior of Mr. Lemus-Rodriguez,” wrote the consultant, Lt. Robert Black, a master instructor with the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy in Plainfield. “Further delay in apprehension would have created a substantial and unreasonable risk to the police and others of death or serious physical injury.”
Tapes from squad car cameras that captured the incident have yet to be released, though Fort Wayne Police Chief Rusty York has consistently said they will one day be made available.
According to records, Lemus-Rodriguez was wanted in connection with a parole violation for a drunken-driving conviction at the time he fled police. He had a blood-alcohol-content well over the legal limit at the time of the shooting, an autopsy later found.
Trier’s response also denies that the city and Arnold are liable for wrongful conduct, that they are entitled to “qualified immunity” and that they “lacked the required intent (state of mind) necessary to commit a violation.”
jeffwiehe@jg.net
