Little Rock is asking a federal judge to deny an effort to temporarily dismiss a lawsuit over a 2008 fatal police shooting so that city attorneys can submit arguments to have the case permanently dismissed.
In a response to the plaintiffs’ recent request for a dismissal with the option to refile, the city attorney’s office cited its “monumental effort” so far to defend itself in the case that it contends never should have been allowed to proceed in the first place because it was filed after the three year statute of limitations expired.
The lawsuit, filed Nov. 5, 2012, alleges that police used excessive force in the July 16, 2008, shooting of William “Collin” Spradling, 25, of Sherwood. Spradling was shot to death outside his girlfriend’s house at 621 Gillette Drive in Little Rock’s Leawood subdivision after detectives who went to question him about a burglary said he pointed a gun at them.
On April 1, attorney Mike Laux of Chicago, who represents Spradling’s family, asked that the case be dismissed until he can gather more information and refile it. Laux told a reporter, “We certainly intend to refile this case.”
The city attorney’s office objected to that request in documents filed Tuesday, asking that the city first be allowed to file a motion for summary judgment, summarizing the defendants’ reasons the case should be dismissed on legal grounds alone, “so that this matter can be finally resolved.”
“To allow Spradling to dismiss this action now and refile it later is futile,” the city argues, noting that the city has already spent a great deal of time and effort gathering material in response to the lawsuit by providing answers, seeking information from the other side and attending depositions.
The filing noted that on the morning of April 1, Laux canceled all depositions that were scheduled for that day after defendant Clay Hastings, a former Little Rock officer, had already arrived in town from his home in Iowa for the purpose of attending the depositions.
The filing asks that in light of Laux’s late cancellation of the depositions, the plaintiffs should be required to pay Hastings’ travel costs and the value of his lost vacation time.
“Prior to this time the City had obtained information through discovery that would defeat Spradling’s claim that the statute of limitations should be extended,” the city asserted.
Laux has asserted that “fraudulent concealment” by the Police Department should have stopped the clock on the statute of limitations, so that the three-year period wouldn’t begin at the time of the shooting, but at a later time when Spradling’s parents discovered new information about their son’s death.
The city’s filing notes that if the case is dismissed and then refiled later, “it would cause the … officers enormous emotional and psychological trauma in re-litigating and defending this lawsuit again.”
The lawsuit names four officers as defendants - Hastings, who accepted a job in Iowa before the suit was filed; Michael Ford; Frederick“Steve” Woodall and Aaron Simon, though the most recent filing indicates that allegations against Simon were thrown out in 2013.
The dismissal question is pending before U.S. District Judge James Moody Jr.
Meanwhile, Laux has two other excessive-force lawsuits pending in federal court in Little Rock over deadly shootings by officers in 2009 and 2010.
One was filed on behalf of the family of Landris Hawkins, 28, who was fatally shot by Little Rock police in November 2009 when police say he pointed a knife at a woman and an infant. It is scheduled for trial in October.
The other, currently on hold while the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals considers a pretrial appeal, concerns the December 2010 fatal shooting of 67-year-old Eugene Ellison by off-duty Little Rock officers working as security guards at Ellison’s apartment complex.
Arkansas, Pages 7 on 04/17/2014