Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Plaintiff,
vs.
Brady Juell, acting in his individual
capacity as a Chaska Police Officer,
and the City of Chaska,
Defendants.
COME NOW Defendants Brady Juell and the City of Chaska, for their
Answer to Plaintiffs Complaint, state and allege as follows:
1.
answering parties deny each and every thing, matter and particular alleged in
Plaintiffs Complaint.
2.
cognizable claim for relief under 42 U.S.C. 1983 or 1988 and, further, deny
Dawn Marie Pfister sustained any deprivation of rights under the Fourth
hereto, Brady Juell was performing discretionary acts in the scope of his duties
with a good faith belief his conduct was lawful, constitutional, proper and
pursuant to probable cause.
4.
These answering parties admit Brady Juell was at all times material
Dawn Marie Pfister and Matthew Serbus were carelessly traveling at a high rate
of speed eastbound on Highway 212 in a vehicle stolen from Denver, Colorado
three days earlier. Officers pursued the vehicle following citizen reports it was
driving recklessly and had been involved in a hit-and-run. The vehicle traveled
erratically on the highway and evaded officers despite the hood being up and
blocking the windshield. After Pfisters efforts to push the hood down failed and
the vehicle suffered blown tires from striking police stop-sticks, the vehicle
crashed into the sound wall on the side of the highway. Pfister and Serbus exited
the vehicle and both ignored all officer commands including show me your
hands and lay down on the ground. When Serbus finally showed his hands,
officers observed he was holding a knife. Pfister and Serbus seemed to dance
together and then exchanged a kiss before Serbus appeared to stab Pfister with
the knife. Officers fired several rounds at Serbus and he eventually went to the
ground with Pfister on top of him. Pfister then grabbed the knife, sat up, and
began to move toward the officers in a threatening manner. When Pfister ignored
commands to drop the knife, officers fired several additional rounds at her.
Pfister went down, dropped the knife and Serbus picked up the knife which
prompted officers to fire additional rounds at him. Officers quickly secured
Pfister and Serbus and began to provide medical care, but both died at the scene.
7.
deprived Pfister of her clearly established and well-settled civil rights to be free
from unreasonable searches and seizures and the use of excessive and
unreasonable deadly force in violation of the Fourth Amendment as alleged in
Count One of Plaintiffs Complaint.
9.
avoid the improper use of deadly force as alleged in Count Two of Plaintiffs
Complaint.
10.
fails to state a cause of action for claims upon which relief can be granted.
11.
belief as to the truth of Plaintiffs alleged damages and, therefore, deny the same
and demand strict proof thereof.
12.
resolved in federal court; however, the incident involving Plaintiff did not rise to
the level of a constitutional deprivation and, therefore, these answering parties
deny jurisdiction of this Court.
14.
particular use of force must be judged from the officers perspective and not
based on 20/20 hindsight.
15.
By
s/Jason M. Hiveley
Jon K. Iverson, #146389
Jason M. Hiveley, #311546
Attorneys for Defendants Brady Juell
and the City of Chaska
9321 Ensign Avenue South
Bloomington, MN 55438
jon@irc-law.com
jasonh@irc-law.com
(952) 548-7200