Michael J. Witkowski v. Milwaukee County

How courts have described this case

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

• holding risk of being shot by prisoner inherent to sheriff’s deputy’s employment, even if shooting results from prisoner obtaining weapon of second deputy because prisoner was improperly restrained, in violation of protocol
• noting also that “someone who chooses to enter a snake pit or a lion’s den for compensation cannot complain[,] . . . he is a volunteer rather than a conscript”
• affirming dismissal 1 In fact, Plaintiffs allege that Defendants intended to project a false appearance of safety within the facilities, precisely the opposite of an intent to encourage more violence. (FAC, at ¶¶ 10, 88.
• “The [B]ill of [R]ights protects people from the government but does not oblige the government to furnish protection against private violence.”
• “[N]o decision in [the Seventh] circuit (or in any circuit after Collins [v. Harker Heights, 503 U.S. 115 (1992)]) has awarded damages under § 1983 to a public employee injured in the line of duty . . . .”
• “[I]f the state puts a man in a position of danger from private persons and then fails to protect him . . . it is as much an active tortfeasor as if it had thrown him into a snake pit.”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).