House Committee kills bill that would have opened police officers to civil lawsuits

A bill that would have allowed citizens to file civil lawsuits against police officers died in the Virginia House of Delegates’ Appropriations Committee Monday.

Two Democrats, Del. David Bulova from Fairfax and Del. David Reid from Loudoun, voted with Republicans to create an 11-11 deadlock and prevent HB 5013 from advancing.

Current law protects law enforcement officers from such suits for the most part, unless they commit an act that is “clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known.”

The proposed bill, sponsored by Del. Jeff Bourne (D-Richmond), would have eliminated that “qualified immunity.”

“Eliminating qualified immunity is not putting the thumb on the scale of justice,” said Bourne as he presented the bill to the committee. “It is simply allowing victims or their families to have a full day in court and not allow a bad actor to escape accountability or responsibility by simply invoking a judge-created defense which effectively cuts off access to justice for many of these victims.”

Princess Blanding, a community activist and sister of Marcus-David Peters spoke in favor of the bill – asking the committee to put people over profits and politics.

“We must pass this bill to end qualified immunity so that officers will think twice before devaluing black and brown lives,” said Blanding. Peters, a Henrico man, was shot and killed by police along I-95 in Richmond in 2018 after suffering a mental health emergency and charging officers while naked.

Republicans opposed the bill, citing concerns of losing qualified officers and being unable to hire new officers because of the potential legal risks they could face.

“This is going to have an absolute tremendous, chilling effect on hiring any law enforcement officers in Virginia,” said Del. Barry Knight (R-Va Beach). “I urge the committee to vote no.”

Technically, the bill may be brought back up by the full House in the future, but the Senate already has killed similar legislation – leaving Delegates doubtful that this legislation would make it out of the Senate regardless.

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This article first appeared on VirginiaScope.com. It is republished here with permission.