Jimma Pal Reat’s death was tragic, but the dispatcher who sent him back to the area where he had been threatened does not make an actionable case, an attorney argued Thursday before the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
But an attorney for Reat’s family said former Denver 911 operator Juan Jesus Rodriguez ordered Reat and his companions to return to the area where they were assaulted, knowing that it was risky.
“Rodriguez sent him back to the zone of danger,” Erica Grossman told a panel of three circuit court judges Thursday.
The 10th Circuit heard oral arguments after defense attorney Eric Ziporin appealed not to dismiss the case on summary judgment.
Ziporin had sought the dismissal on the basis that Rodriguez was protected by governmental immunity.
when a group of Latino men drove beside their rental vehicle and began harassing them. According to police reports, the still-unidentified men screamed racial epithets at the Sudanese men, threw bottles, and one of them waved a gun.
Reat made it to the parking lot at their apartment in Wheat Ridge, but Rodriguez told them they would have to come back to Denver and meet police to make a report.
The assailants spotted them when they crossed back into Denver, and Reat was shot to death.
On Thursday, Ziporin argued that when he listened to a tape of an 11-minute conversation between Rodriguez and Reat, two things were evident: Nobody anticipated the shooting, and any mistake Rodriguez made was a negligible impact on what happened. Ziporin said Rodriguez gave the victim an option of coming back, possibly the next day.
“That order didn’t prevent (the victim) from doing something different,” Ziporin said.
But Grossman said Rodriguez gave Reat and his companions no option but to leave the safety of their apartment and return to the area where they had been threatened with a gun.
“It was very clear if they wanted police action, they had to come back,” she said.
Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206, kmitchell@denverpost.com or @kirkmitchell or denverpost.com/coldcases
