Supreme Court may hear immunity issue in Krueger case

By John Dobberstein, Editor

WAGONER — The $50 million lawsuit filed against Wagoner County Sheriff Chris Elliott and several deputies has been called to trial as attorneys representing them plan to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review an Appeals Court decision about law enforcement immunity.

The family of Jeff Krueger has waited 6 years for their day in court, after the Texas man was pulled from his vehicle, slammed to the ground, handcuffed, chained, tased numerous times while in a prone position and kneeled on during a traffic stop. Krueger stopped breathing and died during the incident and his family filed a wrongful death lawsuit in U.S. District Court in 2019. 

Still named in the lawsuit are Elliott, Nicholas Orr, Kaleb Phillips, Matthew Lott, Elizabeth Crockett, Drew Craig, Tyler McFarland, Corey Nevitt and Ben Blair.

Earlier this year, lawyers for Elliott and the deputies filed a motion for summary judgment, claiming qualified immunity shielded them from the lawsuit’s claims.

A Wagoner County court ruled the deputies still currently named in the case do not enjoy qualified immunity from prosecution from allegations of excessive force and failure to intervene by officers during the incident, a decision that was affirmed recently by judges from the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.

But lawyers for the officers and Elliott say the Appeals Court erred by considering the summary judgement excessive force claims against the officers as a group rather than individually. They filed an appeal to prevent the Appeals Court’s mandate from taking effect, but it was recently denied by U.S. Judge Ronald White.

The defendants asked a federal judge last week to delay trial proceedings because they plan to submit a writ of certiorari next month requesting the U.S. Supreme Court to review the Appeals Court’s decision.

Randall Wood, attorney for Elliott and the officers, said the Appeals Court’s analysis of the actions, “focused on the actions of the officers as a group rather than a particular review of individual actions of each officer.”

Wood said lumping the actions of officers together is “improper and in contravention of Supreme Court precedent.” Wood also said the Appeals Court was mistaken to find individual officers could be liable on “a previously un-plead failure-to-intervene claim.”

Mark D. Lyons, the attorney representing Krueger’s family, objected to the motion, saying the 82-page opinion shows the Appeals Court, “was not swayed by (the defendants’) claim their acts of excessive force should be individually analyzed rather than jointly.”