Eaton v. Estabrook
No. 23-7987 (2d Cir.)
In short—we won.
When our client agreed to act as a liaison between officers and protesters during a march against police brutality, she didn’t expect to become a victim of police brutality. But a rogue officer with an axe to grind tackled her and threw her to the ground, and the district court granted him qualified immunity. We asked the Second Circuit to reverse—and it did, agreeing with our argument that since our client wasn’t resisting, the officer had no right to use any force against her.
Decision
We won! The Second Circuit agreed that the officer should’ve known he couldn’t “yank up a protestor by her bra strap, drive her backward several feet, and throw her down on the ground.” It reversed the district court, and we reached a favorable settlement for our client.