Eugene K. Sullivan and Thedis Beverly Sullivan v. Officer Damon C. Gagnier and Town of Dewitt, New York

How courts have described this case

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

• noting that, although resistance to arrest “no doubt justifies the officer’s use of some degree of force,” it does not “give the officer license to use force without limit”
• excessive force is “subject to an objective test of reasonableness under the totality of the circumstances”
• “The force used by the officer must be reasonably related to the nature of the resistance and the force used, threatened, or reasonably perceived to be threatened, against the officer.”
• excessive force claim not precluded by conviction for resisting arrest as “the issue of the officer’s use of excessive force was not essential to the conviction”
• “The fact that a person whom a police officer attempts to arrest resists, threatens, or assaults the officer no doubt justifies the officer’s use of some degree of force, but it does not give the officer license to use force without limit.”
• “… it is unclear which of Sullivan's acts formed the basis for his convictions. Indeed, lacking any transcript of the state court proceedings, it is difficult to perceive how such an inquiry could take place in this case.”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).