AUSTIN, Texas (Legal Newsline) – A private university in Texas won’t be entitled to immunity from a lawsuit brought by the parents of a man shot by one of its law enforcement officers.
The Texas Supreme Court reached that decision on May 22 in the petition filed by the University of the Incarnate Word in Alamo Heights, where student Cameron Redus was fatally shot following a traffic stop in 2013.
In an 8-1 ruling, the court held that the university is not entitled to sovereign immunity when it is sued in connection with law-enforcement activities.
UIW argued that if law enforcement hired by private universities aren’t entitled to sovereign immunity, there will be less incentive to create their own police departments. That would leave it to publicly funded law enforcement to fill that gap.
“Sovereign immunity restrains judicial interference in the executive and legislative branches so that ultimately the people, not the courts, strike the policy balance between immunizing the government’s actions and providing a judicial remedy,” wrote Justice Jane Bland.
“Conferring immunity to an essentially unaccountable private university does not serve a separation-of-powers purpose.”
Redus was shot and killed after a traffic stop when he was 23 years old. The UIW officer, Christopher Carter, suspected he was driving under the influence of alcohol.
An autopsy found he was heavily intoxicated and shot five times. Audio equipment worn by Carter taped the altercation that led to the shooting.
Carter did not face criminal charges but has been sued by Redus’ family.
Chief Justice Nathan Hecht was the only justice to feel the university is entitled to sovereign immunity.
“Law enforcement and public safety are core government responsibilities, just as public education is,” he wrote in a dissenting opinion.
“When the Legislature has chosen to enlist private resources in those functions - university police departments in the one and charter schools in the other - the actors should be treated the same. I would hold that private university police departments have the same immunity from suit and liability as public police departments.”