Excessive force verdict for the police is upheld on appeal

The optimism associated with starting a trial will collapse when the jury returns an unfavorable verdict. When that happens, we think about the appeal, and a new round of optimism kicks in. But it is quite difficult to overturn a verdict, particularly on factual grounds, as the Court of Appeals will defer to the jury's credibility assessments. That is the problem for plaintiff in this appeal.

The case is Chapdelaine v. Desjardin, issued on July 2. This is an excessive force claim where plaintiff alleges the police used too much force and authority in restraining her after they came to the house upon a complaint that plaintiff had assaulted an elderly victim, a friend of the family. Plaintiff alleged the police knocked her to the ground while trying to place her in handcuffs. 

Excessive force claim are difficult to resolve on the papers alone, as the parties often provide conflicting accounts, requiring a jury trial. This is one of those cases, and the jury ruled in favor of the police. But that's why we have the Court of Appeals: the losing side can argue that the evidence was so overwhelming in their favor that the jury had no choice but to rule for them. But while that argument is available to you, that argument is difficult to win.

The jury is tasked with deciding who is telling the truth. There are no real legal standards guiding how to assess credibility, thought the judge will instruction the jury on this point in the jury instructions, ultimately telling the jury to use their common sense and to pay attention to consistencies and inconsistencies and facial expressions on the witness stand. The jury decides who is telling the truth, not the judge.

The Second Circuit (Chin, Lee and Robinson) finds the jury was able to find for defendants. It did not have to find for them, but it did so, and it had a basis to do so in concluding that plaintiff had charged the police, who knew that plaintiff had previously threatened others with weapons, and that plaintiff let herself fall to the ground and her cries were "theatrical for the cameras." I am sure plaintiff strongly disputes this version of events, but the jury was free to reach those conclusions. The verdict is affirmed.