# Kenneth J. Haugen v. Rochelle Brosseau, Puyallup Police Department the City of Puyallup

> Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit · August 4, 2003 · 339 F.3d 857

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9496322

## Case

- **Full name:** Kenneth J. HAUGEN, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Rochelle BROSSEAU, Puyallup Police Department; The City of Puyallup, Defendants-Appellees
- **Court:** Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
- **Decided:** August 4, 2003
- **Citations:** 339 F.3d 857; 2003 Daily Journal DAR 8684; 2003 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 6893; 2003 U.S. App. LEXIS 15517; 2003 WL 21782540
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurrence by Reinhardt
- **Judges:** Reinhardt, Fletcher, Gould
- **Cited by:** 42 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- **Red flag:** Reversed on other grounds by Brosseau v. Haugen, 543 U.S. 194 (2004).
- Negative treatments: 1
- Distinguished by: 0
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9496322

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- holding that a police officer’s pursuit of a fleeing felon in an automobile played a “causal role” in an ensuing wreck, “but not the kind of cause the law recognizes as culpable.... [A] criminal’s effort to shift the blame [to police] ... is not one that any legal system can a…
- noting that the plaintiff was "a desperate man taking desperate measures”

## Opinion text

REINHARDT, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
I join fully in Judge Fletcher’s opinion for the court, on the understanding that officers may not use deadly force against an otherwise nondangerous felony suspect simply because a chase of that suspect, high-speed or otherwise, would become or does become dangerous. Rather, as I understand the controlling law, if a high-speed chase of a nondangerous felony suspect would be, or becomes, dangerous, the officers must terminate the chase. In other words, the chase itself cannot create the danger that justifies shooting a suspect who, under Garner, may not otherwise be shot. I do not understand the out-of-circuit cases discussed in Judge Fletcher’s excellent opinion and in the dissent to hold otherwise.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9496322. Public record. Not legal advice.