the town dandy / By Hank Sims

Bummer

(June 14, 2007)  When the other shoe dropped, it did so very quietly. On Monday afternoon, not even Eureka city officials knew that relatives of Cheri Lyn Moorehad finally made good on their threat to sue the city and members of its police department. This despite the fact that the federal suit had been filed in San Francisco a couple of weeks ago.

Moore was a mentally disturbed woman who was shot dead after a two-hour standoff with the Eureka Police Department in April 2006. The standoff took place during the day at Moore’s downtown apartment, in full view of passers-by and the media, which congregated outside. Moore had been armed only with a flare pistol; when police entered her apartment, they shot her multiple times with a rifle and a shotgun. The whole incident was set off when Moore, on the anniversary of her son’s suicide, made a call to the county mental health department, demanded medication and made vague threats.

The incident left many aghast and calling for reform. A coroner’s inquest was held several months later, at which point public testimony was taken from police officers, mental health professionals and friends of the deceased. The jury that heard the inquest recommended that local police agencies undergo training in dealing with mentally ill subjects, and that mental health professionals be present at any future standoffs. (For more background on the Moore case, see two Journal cover stories from last year: “Scenes from a Shooting,” April 27, 2006, and “Cause of Death,” Sept. 21, 2006.)

There was bound to be some litigation, and now it has come. Moore’s family is represented by San Francisco attorney Gordon Kaupp, who filed suit on their behalf on May 29. The suit names the City of Eureka, the Eureka Police Department and 11 individual current or former police officers, from then-chief Dave Douglas to the officers at the scene. Because Kaupp and his firm specialize in civil rights cases, the suit was filed in federal court and focuses on the alleged violations of Moore’s Constitutional guarantees against unreasonable search and seizure.

The suit particularly takes aim at the decision-makers on scene. “Chief Douglas worsened an already bad situation, pretended there was a grave threat when none existed and needlessly caused the death of a woman who, stricken by a mental health crisis, reached out to the appropriate government agency in order to get help and medication.” Kaupp writes.

It’s worth noting that Kaupp, who could not be reached for comment, belongs to Dennis Cunningham‘s firm. Cunningham was the lead attorney in two high-profile North Coast cases. He successfully sued the FBI and the Oakland Police Department on behalf of Earth First!ers Judi Bari and Darryl Cherneyfor violation of their civil rights following the bombing of the activists’ car in 1990, and he successfully sued Humboldt County and the City of Eureka on behalf of the “Pepper Spray Eight,” the forest activists whose eyes local law enforcement swabbed with the noxious substance in 1997.

EPD Chief Garr Nielsen, who took over the department earlier this year, said Monday that the suit would surely have an effect on department morale. “I think it’s certainly going to have a sobering effect on people, but I also think that we’re trying, as an organization, to move on,” he said. The department has become much more aware of mental health issues and different ways of approaching them, he said. He cited a case over the weekend, in which a mentally ill woman brandished a knife and begged officers to shoot her. The woman was pepper sprayed and taken into custody.

“I certainly see a much more positive attitude within the organization and the community,” Nielsen said. “You hate to have anything put a damper on that.” But he added that a civil suit in the Moore case was probably inevitable.

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