CHEYENNE, Wyo.—The U.S. Supreme Court won’t block the family of a Denver man who died while under restraint by Wyoming Highway Patrol officers in 2002 from proceeding with a lawsuit against the state.
The estate and relatives of Bruce James Weigel are suing Wyoming contending that troopers used excessive force in subduing him after a 2002 traffic accident near Cheyenne. Court records say Weigel died after a trooper put weight on his back while Weigel was handcuffed.
The Wyoming Attorney General’s Office had asked the Supreme Court to reverse a decision that the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver issued late last year saying the Weigel case could go to trial. The Supreme Court last week refused to hear the state’s appeal.
“We’re disappointed that they didn’t agree to review the case,” Wyoming Attorney General Bruce Salzburg said. “But at this point, we’ll either go back and try the case or resolve it.”
Police groups and state governments from around the country have weighed in on the case, urging the courts to dismiss it. The groups have said generally that allowing the case to proceed to trial could endanger the public by discouraging police officers from arresting people.
Bryan Ulmer, a Jackson lawyer representing Weigel’s relatives and his estate, said 21 states came together to file a “friend of the court” brief urging the Supreme Court to reverse the circuit court.
Ulmer said the case will now proceed in federal district court in Wyoming. He said he was pleased with the Supreme Court’s decision not to review it.
The Supreme Court generally only takes up cases that involve highly contested issues of law, Ulmer said. He said the question of whether police used reasonable force in any given situation “will vary from case to case based upon the facts.”
U.S. District Judge Alan Johnson of Wyoming had ruled originally that the Wyoming troopers and other state defendants were immune from suit from Weigel’s family because there was no proof the troopers’ conduct was unreasonable under existing law.
But in an opinion written last October overturning Johnson’s ruling, Circuit Judges Stephanie Seymour and Harris Hartz ruled that the troopers had used unconstitutional force against Weigel.
Circuit Judge Terrence O’Brien of the three-judge panel wrote a dissenting opinion saying the troopers didn’t violate Weigel’s rights or use too much force to subdue him. He said that if the officers had allowed Weigel to get up, Weigel could have head-butted or kicked them and civilian bystanders.
Court records state that Weigel drove his car into a Wyoming Highway 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.
Two troopers tackled Weigel when he continued to try to cross the highway, court records said. Weigel struggled with them and tried to grab the troopers’ weapons before he was handcuffed.
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 a Wyoming trooper 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.
