Opinion

Lawson v. Garcia

  • 912 P.2d 1136
  • 1996 Wyo. LEXIS 40
  • 1996 WL 112135
Court
Wyoming Supreme Court
Filed
Mar 15, 1996
Status
Published
Author
Lehman
On the bench
Golden, Thomas, MacY, Taylor, Lehman
Cited by
4 cases

The opinion

LEHMAN, Justice,

dissenting.

I dissent.

The majority opinion is correct when it states: “The law clearly prohibits police from discriminatorily refusing to provide the same level of police protection to victims of domestic violence as is provided to victims of other assaults.” Where I part company with the majority is with the reasoning which follows: “However, we are not at liberty to expand that rule to include a right to a ‘quality investigation’ of domestic assaults.”

If an officer does not conduct the same level of investigation of a reported assault by a victim of domestic violence as they would with a victim of other assaults, they may be discriminatorily refusing to provide the same level of police protection. An investigation is not an expansion of police protection, it is only a part of it.

The district court was correct in its result that factual issues exist regarding Garcia’s claim that she was not provided the same *1140 level of police protection. Therefore, I respectfully dissent.

This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.

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