Cotton v. District of Columbia

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• dismissing a negligent infliction of emotional distress claim where, “although adding the word ‘negligence,’ th[e] claim merely reiterate[d] prior allegations of intentional conduct”
• finding that a single officer responding to a “crowd” of people alleging an altercation involving a knife did not act unreasonably in handcuffing a person later determined to be the victim, and relying on the fact that the “altercation . . . reportedly involved a weapon”
• denying summary judgment on an IIED claim where an officer forced the plaintiff, whom he knew was not dangerous, to the ground and threatened to have the plaintiff’s children taken away by child protective services
• finding force reasonable to subdue an individual when she was suspected to be involved in an “altercation involving a knife” and, under the circum- stances, it was reasonable for the officer to believe she “may [have been] armed”
• granting summary judgment “[b]ecause . . . as_a constitutional matter [the defendant police officer] did not use excessive force” and “[t]herefore, . . . the plaintiff cannot show that [the defendant] used more than reasonable force for the purposes of common law assault and battery”
• “[t]he court cannot conclude that a police officer’s handcuffing a person ... even if based on a mistaken assumption' that she was a threat, ‘goes beyond all possible bounds of decency,’-is ‘atrocious, and utter* ly intolerable in a civilized community.’ ”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).