# Lawson v. Garcia

> Wyoming Supreme Court · March 15, 1996 · 912 P.2d 1136

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9529690

## Case

- **Full name:** Officer Roger LAWSON, Appellant (Defendant), v. Charlene GARCIA, Appellee (Plaintiff)
- **Court:** Wyoming Supreme Court
- **Decided:** March 15, 1996
- **Citations:** 912 P.2d 1136; 1996 Wyo. LEXIS 40; 1996 WL 112135
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Dissent by Lehman
- **Judges:** Golden, Thomas, MacY, Taylor, Lehman
- **Cited by:** 4 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9529690

## Opinion text

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.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9529690. Public record. Not legal advice.