Payne v. Romanowski

How courts have described this case

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

• holding police officers are “liable for failing to stop ongoing excessive force when 8 they observe it and can reasonably prevent it.”
• explaining that the gratuitous use of force against a suspect who has surrendered is excessive as a matter of law, even when the suspect initially resisted arrest
• noting that “the law does not lightly subject officers to liability after the fact for doing a dangerous job that often requires split-second judgments in complicated, quickly evolving criminal investigations.”
• denying immunity when the officer “directly observed at least some of the excessive force and had the ability and opportunity to stop it”
• denying immunity when the officer “directly observed at least some of the excessive force and had the ability and opportunity to stop it”
• “Our caselaw clearly establishes that police officers are liable for failing to stop ongoing excessive force when they observe it and can reasonably prevent it.”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).