SAN JOAQUIN, Calif. (Legal Newsline) – A bank employee taken hostage who threw herself out of a car during a high-speed police chase has lost her lawsuit against the California city of Stockton.
Stephanie Koussaya couldn’t prove that Stockton’s police department was liable for the serious injuries she sustained jumping out of the car. She did that because she believed Stockton’s SWAT team would eventually shoot her.
She was apparently right. After escaping, police fired hundreds of rounds into the robbers’ Ford Explorer, killing them and their remaining hostage.
The California Court of Appeal Third Appellate District on Sept. 21 decided that the two defendant officers who used deadly force during the robbery and chase were justified, so claims against the city and its police department couldn’t survive.
Koussaya had argued the combined actions of all officers involved created a “continuing and escalating series of events” and “must be viewed as a continuum of circumstances” leading to her decision to jump out of the car.
“Koussaya cites us to no authority, nor have we found any on our own, extending the reasoning of the foregoing cases to a situation such as this one, where the conduct of officers not involved in the ultimate use of deadly force is relied upon to show that an otherwise reasonable use of deadly force was unreasonable,” Justice Andrea Hoch wrote.
“We decline to extend these cases to the facts of this one. Stated simply, because Anderson and Webb are not liable for Koussaya’s injuries allegedly caused by their respective uses of deadly force, the City cannot be held vicariously liable for their conduct.”
The court opinion tells the complete story of Koussaya’s ordeal.