A federal appeals court in Denver ruled Tuesday that a woman can sue a police officer for publicly releasing a videotape showing her being raped.
The woman gave the videotape to a Norman, OK, police detective to help him investigate her rape, which occurred while she was unconscious. The detective, Don Blake, promised her it would be used only for detective work.
But it showed up on television, with the woman’s identity obscured.
She sued Blake, whose lawyers claimed he was immune from lawsuits because he’s a police officer.
But the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals said no, that government immunity doesn’t apply if conduct was unreasonable in light of clearly established law.
Plus, the woman “possesses a constitutionally protected privacy interest in the video because it depicts the most private of matters: namely her body being forcibly violated,” the three-judge panel wrote in its opinion.
A message left after hours for Blake at the Norman Police Department was not immediately returned.
The case heads back to a U.S. District Court for further proceedings.
