Victory against the cop who shot a student at a protest

Friends,

We just won a huge victory in McCrae v. City of Salem, our case against a cop who shot a student in the eye at a protest. Here’s what happened.

Eleaqia McCrae, a young college student and track star, was peacefully protesting the murder of George Floyd in May 2020. A police officer fired rubber bullets directly into the crowd where she was standing. He hit Elea in the eye, permanently damaged her vision, and ended her athletic career. She’ll never jump competitively again.

After nearly two years of litigation, the case went before a jury. The officer said he didn’t fire his gun—that it must’ve been a protester who hit her. The jury didn’t believe him. It rendered a verdict in Elea’s favor and awarded her more than a million dollars in damages. And then, after all that, the district judge decided to give the officer qualified immunity. Case dismissed. Never mind what the jury said, Elea, you’re getting bupkis.

We represented Elea in her appeal to the Ninth Circuit. We argued that the jury found the officer liable and the district court should not have substituted its own judgment for the jury’s. The Ninth Circuit agreed. In a short but sweet decision, it said that the district court failed to give the jury’s verdict the deference it was due, improperly made findings in the officer’s favor, and “effectively nullified the jury’s verdict in this case.” It reversed the district court’s decision. We win.

Qualified immunity has been a colossal disaster of public policy, and this case is a perfect example. If an officer can wriggle out of accountability even after a jury verdict against him, what rational lawyer would ever take a civil-rights case? What hope is there for people whose stories are less cut-and-dried? Our victory gets back for Elea the money and the accountability that she’s owed. Just as importantly, it draws a line in the sand: Constitutional rights are not a joke. They have real teeth. Violate them and we will hold you accountable.

---

If you enjoyed this newsletter, please consider sending it to a friend. And if you think our work is important, you should know that we run entirely on the support of people like you. Whether it’s $10 or $100, your contributions help us safeguard the constitutional rights of all. So please, consider investing in our work—

Thanks for reading,

Athul K. Acharya
Founder & Executive Director
Public Accountability