Appellate Attorney Janet Schroer Wins in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals

Janet Schroer and the Hart Wagner appellate team won reversal in the 9^th Circuit of the District Court’s denial of qualified immunity to defendant Officer Tran on plaintiff’s 42 USC Section 1983 claim based on his arrest of Laizure for telephonic harassment of his ex-wife, despite Laizure’s later acquittal on the criminal charge.  

The 9^th Circuit held the Officer Tran had probable cause to believe that Laizure committed the crime of telephonic harassment under ORS 166.090, as he knew that his ex-wife did not want to receive calls from him, as she found them harassing, and he nonetheless continued to make calls and texts. The 9^th Circuit also found that there were no cases to clearly establish the law as applied to an officer acting under similar circumstances, that the officer’s conduct violated the 4^th Amendment. For this reason, too, qualified immunity attached. Laizure v. Washington County and Officer Tran.