Monica Perkins v. City of Des Mmonies, et al.

Des Moines, Iowa, personal injury lawyer represented the Plaintiff on a civil rights violation theory.

When Deputy Tart fired, Perkins was approximately sixty to seventy-five feet away from him and standing on the road outside her daughter’s vehicle. As Perkins describes the situation, she was verbally confronting another driver, walking back and forth between her daughter’s vehicle and the other driver’s vehicle. She claims she was returning to her daughter’s vehicle but then turned to address the other driveragain when she was struck. After she was hit, Perkins picked up her phone, got back in her daughter’s vehicle, and drove away.

Perkins sued on an excessive force theory.

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The Fourth Amendment protects “[t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures . . . .” U.S. Const. amend. IV. This constitutional protection against unreasonable seizures includes protection against the use of excessive force. See Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386, 395 (1989); Burbridge v. City of St. Louis, 2 F.4th -6- 774, 780 (8th Cir. 2021). Whether Deputy Tart violated the Fourth Amendment in this situation presents two questions: (1) whether he seized Perkins within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment; and (2) if he did, whether the seizure was unreasonable.

Summary judgment in favor of the Defendants.

Affirmed