In Shielded, I write about interlocking & overlapping protections for law enforcement that make it exceedingly difficult to get justice when your rights are violate. There's no clearer example of those protections & the horrors they inflict than Terrell v. Harris County.
In February 2020, Shanita Terrell, a 33-year-old married mother was roofied while at a Houston bar. Michael Hines & Mark Cannon, off-duty, uniformed Harris County officers, were working security. When she walked out, disoriented, they ordered her into their patrol car.
Terrell doesn't know what happened next because, presumably, she'd passed out from the drug in her drink. When she work up, she had vaginal pain. She went to the hospital and Officer Hines's DNA was found in her underwear. Terrell sued Hines, Cannon, the Sheriff & the County.
The case against Hines was airtight, but he never responded to the complaint-presumably because he wasn't indemnified by the county & is judgment proof. Hines WAS criminally charged-but that charge ended up in a plea and six years' deferred adjudication.
The district court dismissed the claims against Cannon-the other officer-and the 5th circuit affirmed. Why? The allegation that Cannon helped put Terrell in the patrol car to facilitate her assault is speculative & so must be ignored, according to the Supreme Court's decisions in Iqbal/Twombly. Never mind that Terrell, it seems, HAD BEEN ROOFIED and so wouldn't have much in the way of facts about what happened leading up to her assault. And oh, also - the district court and 5th circuit say - qualified immunity because no clearly established constitutional violation.
What about Harris County & the Sheriff? No liability for not training and supervising Hines because no notice that they needed to do better-EVEN THOUGH, two years before, Hines was charged with sexual assault of a minor (though not indicted) and wasn't investigated by the county.
The 5th circuit's decision affirmed the grant of a motion to dismiss-meaning Terrell never even has the opportunity to get discovery, where she could seek out information about what happened to her that night. So: No Information. No Compensation. No Public Reckoning. SHIELDED.
You can read the 5th circuit's decision here.