Parish: East Baton Rouge
Police Department: East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office
Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
The American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana, along with UCI Irvine Law School Civil Rights Litigation Clinic, represented the estate of Mr. Travis Stevenson, a Black man who was experiencing a mental health crisis when he was fatally shot by East Baton Rouge sheriff deputies.
The officers’ conduct is particularly egregious in light of their knowledge at the time that Mr. Stevenson was experiencing a mental health crisis. Before the fatal shooting, Mr. Stevenson had expressed suicidal intentions to the officers over the phone. Nevertheless, the first officer to the scene immediately began shouting at Mr. Stevenson and attempting to extract him from his car forcibly. This behavior is entirely at odds with guidelines for dealing with mentally-ill people, and it likely worsened Mr. Stevenson’s mental state.
The lawsuit held the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office accountable for failing to adequately train their officers on how to interact with people experiencing mental health crises appropriately. There is currently no required training on interacting with mentally-ill individuals at the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office.
Through appeal, Mr. Stevenson’s counsel tried to persuade the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn a district court’s decision granting qualified immunity to the officers involved. Mr. Stevenson’s counsel argued that the officers should not be entitled to qualified immunity because their conduct was objectively unreasonable. Mr. Stevenson was in his car, which was boxed in by police vehicles, when the officers fired 21 shots into the car, killing him.
However, on appeal, the Fifth Circuit found that Mr. Stevenson could not show a Fourth Amendment violation for excessive force or a failure to train.
The defendants in the case were:
- Sidney J. Gautreaux, III, sheriff of East Baton Rouge Parish
- Michael Birdwell, deputy in East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office
- Shannon Broussard, deputy in East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office
- Charles Montgomery, deputy in East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office
- Scott Henning, deputy in East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office
- Christopher Masters, deputy in East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office
- Verner Budd III, deputy in East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office