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- Family of woman shot on Hwy. 212 sues officer, Chaska: The federal case accuses a cop of improper use of deadly force.
- Smith, Kelly. Star Tribune; Minneapolis, Minn. [Minneapolis, Minn]03 Feb 2015: B.1.
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- The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court on Monday against Chaska Police Sgt. Brady Juell and the city of Chaska by Philip Sieff, the trustee for Pfister's children, alleges that Juell used "unconstitutional use of deadly force," shooting Pfister four times while she was on the ground and "posed no immediate threat." State statutes justify the use of deadly force by law enforcement authorities to protect the officer or someone else from death or great bodily harm.
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- The family of a woman shot and killed by police officers on Hwy. 212 in Eden Prairie last year filed a federal lawsuit Monday against the Chaska officer who shot her, accusing him of improperly using deadly force.
- The shooting, which took place one year ago this Saturday, killed Dawn Pfister, 34, of Elkhorn, Wis., and Matthew Serbus, 36, of Brooklyn Center, after they led police on a chase from Chaska to Eden Prairie, then refused officers' commands. Pfister's family says that the mother of two children posed no threat to police and that she had been reported as a hostage.
- "What happened is a really clear unconstitutional violation and needs to be redressed," said Minneapolis attorney Bob Bennett, who is representing the family. "This is a clearer act of police misconduct than [New York chokehold victim Eric] Garner ... or any case I've been involved with in my 38 years. You don't do this. You don't fire 21 bullets to protect the hostage and then shoot the hostage."
- The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court on Monday against Chaska Police Sgt. Brady Juell and the city of Chaska by Philip Sieff, the trustee for Pfister's children, alleges that Juell used "unconstitutional use of deadly force," shooting Pfister four times while she was on the ground and "posed no immediate threat."
- The city attorney didn't return messages Monday. But attorney Ryan Kaess, who represented Juell during a state investigation, said, "He's the finest cop I've ever represented. There's nothing there."
- State statutes justify the use of deadly force by law enforcement authorities to protect the officer or someone else from death or great bodily harm. In December, more than 10 months after the Feb. 7, 2014, shooting, a Hennepin County grand jury declined to indict the officers involved: Juell, Chaska officer Trent Wurtz, state trooper Mark Lund and Carver County Sheriff's Cpl. Nathan Mueller.
- "I feel a ton of grief for these families, for these people that made that choice," Juell told state investigators. "But what gets me through it all is I know that they made that choice to do what they did. ... At any time, they could have just gave up. ... I had no choice."
- Caught on dash cameras
- Juell's interview was part of more than 500 pages of documents and redacted squad-car dashboard camera videos released in December. Juell was the first officer to pursue the car as it sped away from rear-ending another vehicle.
- Squad-car videos show Lund shouting repeatedly for three minutes at Serbus to get out of the car and put up his hands. Instead, Serbus steps out and then ducks back into the vehicle.
- Serbus "didn't react, didn't care" about the commands, Juell told investigators.
- The videos show Serbus pulling Pfister from the driver's side. "He's got a gun and her as body armor," an officer says before officers report that she appears to be a hostage. The couple are seen facing each other and moving stiffly.
- "Lay down right now!" officers shout as a bang is heard. The cameras show Pfister starting to fall to the ground, but Serbus pulls her back up.
- "I don't think it's a gun, guys, I can't tell," an officer is heard saying before Serbus waves a knife at them. "It's a knife! C'mon, drop it! Don't do that to her."
- In the video, officers are heard saying Serbus is going to stab Pfister and the video ends, redacted.
- In documents detailing interviews with investigators, officers said it appeared that Serbus was stabbing Pfister in the stomach. They shot Serbus, causing him to fall, pulling Pfister down with him.
- Officers said that Pfister didn't stand up fully, but that she took the knife from Serbus and "advanced it toward the officers," with one officer saying it looked like she was "slinging it."
- Officers said that Juell shot at Pfister and that Serbus then reached and regained the knife, before officers fired again at him.
- " ... I hope your investigation shows that we did everything that we had to do and that you understand," Juell told investigators. " ... This is a tragedy, but it happened for a reason and all the law enforcement guys, they did the best they could."
- Treated as hostage
- The lawsuit argues that all officers involved in the incident viewed Pfister as a hostage, shooting Serbus to protect her. It also says that Juell shot her without a warning or orders. And the suit contends that Pfister's move to grab the knife after Serbus was shot was a reasonable move after she had been threatened with it.
- Bennett also accuses the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which did the investigation, of fabricating Pfister's conduct to "justify shooting her" and said it "improperly elicit[ed] false police statements about the actions of Dawn Marie Pfister and her unspoken and unknowable motivations."
- Bennett also says the city of Chaska failed to properly train officers and discipline Juell.
- The suit asks for more than $5 million and demands the release of unredacted videos.
- Kelly Smith - 612-673-4141
- Credit: KELLY SMITH; STAFF WRITER
- Word count: 859
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- (Copyright 2015 Minneapolis Star Tribune)
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