Tenth Circuit Schwartz v. Booker 11-1583

Decision here.

   I remember reading the criminal appeal from this case, but it didn't make the blog because it did affect police actions in the field (it was one of those decisions more important to prosecutors than to cops, if I recall correctly).  Anyway, it was a pretty gruesome read.

   The case centers around a child (Chandler) who was in foster care, and who was the subject of child abuse complaints whilst in foster care.  Suspicious bruises, long absences from school with cryptic explanations, and some really bizarre and heavy-handed discipline.  In the end, Chandler died of starvation after being confined to a closet as a punishment for something trivial.  Heads rolled.

   In this case, the child's biological parents filed a §1983 suit against a pair of social workers who didn't investigate one of the latest complaints of abuse.  Specifically, they alleged a due process violation. Usually, due process only protects people from actions taken by the government and not from actions by third parties (such as the murder of a child by a private individual). There are two exceptions: 1- Where the the state has assumed a special relationship with and control over an individual. 2- Where state officials created the very danger that caused the harm, they may be liable for the actions of third parties. 

   In order to meet the special relationship exception, the facts have to show some sort of involuntary custodial relationship between the state and the person whose rights are being violated (such as being under arrest, being involuntarily committed, or being a child in foster care).  Then the facts also have to show that the official knew of the danger or failed to exercise professional judgment, and that this behavior was conscious shocking.  As applied to this case, the social workers were held to have abandoned their professional judgment when they inexplicably closed the case in violation of agency guidelines and in light of all the previous information this was held to be conscious shocking.

   The social workers argued that since they weren't the ones who actually placed Chandler in the foster home where he died, they didn't have a special relationship with Chandler for the purposes of this exception.  The court didn't buy it; the special relationship isn't limited to the official who initially creates it by putting the victim in state custody.  The special relationship attaches to the state, not to the individual official.  The individual official becomes liable when in the context of a special relationship they abandon their professional judgment in some conscious shocking way.

   This is another one where the instant case doesn't involve police action, but the applications to law enforcement should be obvious.