John Z. Lee
An Illinois state trooper is not liable in the death of a woman who walked onto the Eisenhower Expressway after she was released following her arrest on a drunken-driving charge, a federal judge ruled today.
In a written opinion, U.S. District Judge John Z. Lee rejected the argument that trooper Krzysztof Piotrowski violated the woman’s right to due process by allegedly dropping her off at a gas station with no money or cellphone.
Quoting Reed v. Gardner, 986 F.2d 1122 (7th Cir. 1993), Lee conceded that the government is liable when it “affirmatively places a particular individual in a position of danger the individual would not otherwise have faced.”
But Piotrowski did not put Diana Paz in a position she would not otherwise have faced, Lee wrote.
Instead, he wrote, Piotrowski rescued Paz “from an extremely dangerous situation” by arresting her after he saw her driving the wrong way down the Eisenhower Expressway.
Piotrowski left Paz “in a reasonable location” after she was processed at the Westchester Police Department and released, Lee wrote.
“Perhaps the [Westchester] Police Department could have (and perhaps even should have) taken some additional steps to assist Paz, such as returning her cellphone, offering to place a call for her upon her release, offering her a ride home or waiting until the gas station opened before dropping her off there,” Lee wrote. “But, the due process clause does not obligate it to do so.”
He dismissed the suit brought against Piotrowski by the special administrators of Paz’s estate.
But he gave the estate 21 days to filed an amended complaint.
In September 2011, Piotrowski stopped Paz for driving west in the expressway’s eastbound lanes.
After Paz failed the field sobriety tests administered by Piotrowski, he arrested her on a charge of driving under the influence of alcohol and took her to the Westchester Police Department.
The estate alleges Piotrowski did not let Paz remove her personal belongings — including her keys, purse, money, cellphone and driver’s license — from the vehicle she was driving.
Instead, the estate says, Piotrowski allowed the vehicle to be towed with Paz’s property inside.
After Paz was processed at the police station and released, Piotrowski drove her to a gas station on Mannheim Road in Westchester and left her there at about 5:40 a.m., the suit says.
The estate alleges she was still intoxicated when she walked onto the Eisenhower about 30 minutes later. Paz was struck and killed by a vehicle.
In his opinion, Lee held that the plaintiffs failed to state a claim for a violation of Paz’s constitutional rights.
In most circumstances, Lee wrote, quoting DeShaney v. Winnebago County Department of Social Services, 489 U.S. 189 (1989), the government’s “failure to protect an individual against private violence simply does not constitute a violation of the due process clause.”
This general rule applies when the government’s acts or failure to act neither creates nor increases the danger an individual faces, Lee wrote, citing cases that included Doe v. Village of Arlington Heights, No. 11 C 2764, 2012WL 1068787 (N.D. Ill. March 29, 2012).
And, he wrote, Piotrowski’s alleged conduct “did not create or increase the danger of private violence.”
The case is Maria Guerrero, et al. v. Krzysztof Piotrowski, No. 13 C 6119.
The administrators are represented by Benjeman L. Nichols of Cavanagh Law Group.
The lead attorney for Piotrowski is Illinois Assistant Attorney General Scott M. Crouch.
Both Nichols and a spokeswoman for the attorney general’s office declined to comment.