Palma v. Edwards

103 F. App'x 3
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedJune 22, 2004
DocketNo. 03-2019
StatusPublished

This text of 103 F. App'x 3 (Palma v. Edwards) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Palma v. Edwards, 103 F. App'x 3 (7th Cir. 2004).

Opinion

[4]*4ORDER

Alma Palma and her son’s estate sued the Village of Downers Grove and Downers Grove police officer James Edwards after Edwards fatally shot the son, Greg Palma. The plaintiffs claimed that Edwards used excessive force in shooting Greg, in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1983, the Illinois Wrongful Death Act, 740 Ill. Comp. Stat. Ann. 180/1 (West 2004), and the Illinois Survival Act, 755 Ill. Comp. Stat. Ann. 5/27-6 (West 2004). A jury found for the defendants. The plaintiffs then moved for judgment as a matter of law or, in the alternative, a new trial, see Fed.R.Civ.P. 50(b), which the district court denied. The plaintiffs now appeal the district court’s denial of their Rule 50(b) motion. Because they fail to show that no reasonable jury could have found in favor of the defendants, we affirm the district court’s judgment.

On April 21, 1999, at roughly 5:00 p.m., the Downers Grove Police Department received a 911 call from a woman who lived in the downstairs apartment at 928 Maple. The caller reported that her upstairs neighbor, Greg Palma, was using a chainsaw to break into her apartment through the back door. The woman escaped from her apartment, and a stand-off between Greg and the police began. This was not Greg’s first encounter with the Downers Grove police that day. In the middle of the afternoon, three Downers Grove police officers had attempted to talk to Greg at 928 Maple after a woman told police that Greg had threatened her life and followed her around town that morning. One of the officers, Nicholas Curcio, testified that during that earlier encounter Greg “was acting very irrationally, refused to come [outside], made a lot of off-the wall comments,” so the officers had left 928 Maple “[i]n an effort to try not to inflame things any further.”

When the standoff began the Downers Grove police enlisted the aid of a SWAT team from another jurisdiction. A negotiator with the SWAT team, Officer David Franklin, testified that he called Greg shortly before 6:00 p.m. to start negotiating his surrender. During the negotiations Greg pointed a rifle at several officers and told Franklin that he would shoot police officers if they did not move away from the house. Greg also told Franklin that he had wired propane tanks to explode if any officers came near the house, so Franklin called a bomb squad, also from an outside jurisdiction. Several times Franklin heard Greg running a chainsaw for 30 seconds, but Greg would not explain what he was doing with the chainsaw.

Officer Edwards testified that during the stand-off he was positioned in the backyard of the house next to 928 Maple and overheard Greg’s threats to shoot police officers and blow up the house. Edwards was armed only with a handgun, so another officer who had to return to the police station left his AR-15 rifle with Edwards. Edwards had not been trained to use an AR-15, but the SWAT commander decided to allow him to use it because Edwards had been trained on the military version of the gun — the M-16.

Greg eventually agreed to surrender and told the police that he would exit the back of the house. While most of the officers were waiting in back for Greg, Officer Dominic Scalzetti was standing to the side of the house and saw an individual in dark clothing running from the side of 928 Maple toward the backyard. Edwards then saw a man running toward him from 928 Maple pointing a sawed-off shotgun at him. Edwards testified that he heard a gunshot and believed that the man — Greg Palma — had fired his weapon at the officer. In fact, however, while raising his rifle Edwards had accidentally pulled the [5]*5trigger and fired the shot he thought came from Greg’s gun. Edwards then intentionally fired three shots at Greg as he was running toward him, two of which hit Greg. The testimony of two officers, and a bystander corroborated Edwards’ testimony that Greg was running across the yard, pointing a gun at Edwards.

After Greg was shot, police officers did not immediately approach him because they were afraid he could be playing dead or might have explosives on him. Members of the bomb squad testified that they secured Greg’s hands and turned him over in order to search for explosives. Greg was then pronounced dead. The defendants emphasized at trial that Greg Palma had told police he was going to surrender by exiting at the back of his house, but instead crawled through the crawlspace under the house and emerged on the side. The defendants claimed that Greg then ran across the back of the house with a sawed-off shotgun pointed at two officers, including Officer Edwards, so Edwards shot him in order to protect himself and prevent Greg from escaping.

The plaintiffs’ challenge to the jury’s verdict is premised on their belief that Greg Palma was handcuffed and in police custody before he was shot. The plaintiffs advance three reasons why they believe the jury was compelled to accept their theory of the case: (1) the medical evidence proves that Greg could not have been running when he was shot; (2) the defendants offered no evidence to counter Alma Palma’s testimony that she was told that her son was handcuffed and in police custody; and (3) Greg could not have escaped from the house by crawling because he was physically “disabled.”

We review the denial of a post-trial motion for judgment as a matter of law de novo. See Appelbaum v. Milwaukee Metro. Sewerage Dist., 340 F.3d 573, 578 (7th Cir.2003). The standard governing a Rule 50 motion mirrors that employed in evaluating a summary judgment motion. Reeves v. Sanderson Plumbing Prods. Inc., 530 U.S. 133, 150,120 S.Ct. 2097, 147 L.Ed.2d 105 (2000). Looking to “all of the evidence in the record,” id., we ask whether “any reasonable jury could have reached the same conclusion,” Liu v. Price Waterhouse LLP, 302 F.3d 749, 754 (7th Cir.2002).

In determining whether the intentional use of deadly force by a police officer is permissible under the Fourth Amendment, the jury must consider the totality of the circumstances. See Scott v. Edinburg, 346 F.3d 752, 756 (7th Cir.2003). If an officer has probable cause to believe that a suspect poses a threat of serious physical harm, either to the officer or others, it is not unreasonable to prevent escape by using deadly force. See Tennessee v. Garner, 471 U.S. 1, 7, 105 S.Ct. 1694, 85 L.Ed.2d 1 (1985). And we have held that if the suspect threatens the officer with a weapon, the risk of serious physical harm to the officer or others has been established. See Bell v. Irwin, 321 F.3d 637, 639 (7th Cir.2003). Under the Illinois Wrongful Death Act and Illinois Survivor Act, the jury must find that the defendants’ conduct was willful and wanton in order to establish liability. See Am. Nat’l Bank & Trust Co. v. City of Chicago, 192 Ill.2d 274, 248 Ill.Dec.

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103 F. App'x 3, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/palma-v-edwards-ca7-2004.