Court rules in high-speed Miami Twp. police chase case

In a case that could impact police chases, the Ohio Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that Montgomery County sheriff deputies and Miami Twp. police officers involved in a high-speed pursuit that severely injured a bystander can’t be sued for civil damages.

Law enforcement officers, like all government employees, receive immunity from civil lawsuits related to their on-the-job duties — as long as they don’t act in a reckless or wanton manner.

Lebanon grade school teacher Pamela Argabrite sued Miami Twp., the Montgomery County Sheriff ’s Office and others after she was struck by a suspect being chased at 80 mph on Ohio 741 on July 11, 2011. The burglary suspect, Andrew Barnhart, 19, was killed in the head-on crash with Argabrite’s vehicle and Argabrite was seriously injured.

Argabrite argued in the lawsuit that the officers — John DiPietro, Jim Neer and Gregory Stites of Miami Twp. Police and Tony Ball and Daniel Adkins of the sheriff's department — acted in an "extreme and outrageous" manner.

The supreme court held that the “extreme and outrageous” standard didn’t apply in this case. Instead, the court held that the officers in the Argabrite case didn’t act “with malicious purpose, in bad faith or in wanton or a reckless manner.”

Ohio lacks statewide standards for police pursuits, which killed 352 people between 1982 and 2014.

RELATED: Huber Heights chase help spur task force

In November, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine’s task force on law enforcement vehicle pursuits issued recommendations that included:

— mandatory training for all officers in vehicle pursuit best practices and safe driving techniques;

— require law enforcement agencies to report all vehicle pursuits to a state-maintained database;

— pursuit policies should consider the seriousness of an offense and weigh the danger to the public of a pursuit against the risk of letting a suspect go;

RELATED: Butler County working toward uniform police pursuit policy

— pursuit policies should consider road conditions, population density, traffic, weather and officer training and experience;

— limit the number of police vehicles involved to two or three and lights and sirens should be engaged; and

— the pursuing officer should report to dispatch the reason for the stop, whether the fleeing individuals are armed, vehicle and suspect descriptions and the location, speed and direction of the pursuit.

State law requires departments have pursuit policies but it doesn’t prescribe what those policies actually say.

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