CHEYENNE, Wyo.—Police groups from Colorado and Oklahoma are seeking to join the state of Wyoming in asking a federal appeals court to reconsider whether relatives of a man who died during a struggle with Wyoming Highway Patrol officers in 2002 may sue the state.
In a split ruling, a three-judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver ruled in October that the relatives and estate of Bruce James Weigel could proceed with their lawsuit against Wyoming.
The panel’s ruling overturned an earlier decision by U.S. District Judge Alan Johnson of Wyoming, who ruled that the state troopers and other state officials were immune from suit.
Johnson ruled that the state defendants were immune because there was no proof the troopers’ conduct was unreasonable under existing law. The Wyoming Attorney General’s Office has asked the full appeals court to reconsider the panel’s decision reversing Johnson’s ruling.
Weigel was 42 at the time of his death, according to a lawyer representing his family. The lawyer said Weigel lived near Denver and worked as a technician for Lockheed-Martin. He was divorced and had two teenage sons.
Weigel’s relatives claim in their lawsuit that Wyoming troopers John K. Broad and Devan Henderson used excessive force in subduing Weigel after a traffic accident. Their lawsuit also claims that the state failed to train the troopers properly.
According to court records, Weigel drove his car into Broad’s patrol car on the morning of Dec. 20, 2002, on Interstate 25 south of Cheyenne. Weigel then got out of his car and walked into a traffic lane, where he was hit in the chest by a mirror on a passing van.
The troopers tackled Weigel when he continued to try to cross the highway, court records said. Weigel struggled with the troopers, tried to grab the troopers’ weapons and resisted being handcuffed, the ruling states.
A passing motorist helped the officers subdue Weigel by pinning his legs down, and his legs were eventually tied together, according to court records. Weigel continued struggling, even though he was handcuffed face-down on the ground, and Broad used his knees and hands to apply pressure to Weigel’s upper body for a few minutes, according to court records. Weigel then went into cardiac arrest and died, the records stated.
An autopsy found that Weigel died of “mechanical asphyxiation,” meaning that he wasn’t able to breathe because of the weight on his back.
Police and government groups from around Colorado, including the Association of Colorado State Patrol Professionals and the Colorado Municipal League have filed papers asking the appeals court to allow it to argue in the case on Wyoming’s behalf. The Oklahoma Council on Law Enforcement Education and Training—a governmental agency of the state of Oklahoma—has filed a similar request to get into the case.
Lawyers for the Weigel interests have opposed Wyoming’s request for the full appeals court to hear the case.
“The facts of this case dictate that it must now proceed to trial to allow a jury hear and decide whether the troopers acted reasonably in light of the circumstances they faced,” the Weigel lawyers wrote.
An attempt to reach Bryan Ulmer, a Jackson lawyer representing the Weigel interests, for comment on Thursday on the law enforcement groups attempts to intervene in the case was unsuccessful.
Ulmer said recently that he regards the 10th Circuit Court decision as significant because it should alert law enforcement agencies about the dangers of positional asphyxia, or death resulting from holding people in a way that restricts their breathing.
Elliot Scott, a Denver lawyer representing the Colorado law enforcement groups, said Thursday that the groups fear the appeals court panel’s decision could endanger police and the public if allowed to stand.
“Ultimately, our concern is really simple; our fear is that the decision would substantially chill police officers’ decision to use an essential law enforcement tactic: prone restraint,” Scott said. “I’d say we’re also concerned about the erosion of qualified immunity, which is the only protection our police officers have for endless liability for the difficult job we ask them to do.”
David W. Lee, an Oklahoma City lawyer, represents the Oklahoma training council.
“We think it’s important that law enforcement officers have the right to use appropriate force in the appropriate situation,” Lee said Thursday.
He said there’s always the possibility when officers struggle with a person during an arrest that there could be an inadvertent death through no fault of the officers themselves.
Bruce Salzburg, Wyoming attorney general, declined comment on the case on Thursday.
