Lyndal Kimble's hard fought civil rights case against the three Warren Police officers who beat him in front of his minor children and wife and neighbors on a bright sunny day in June of summer of 2003 has won a critical appeal by the briefing of Attorney Richard A. Olivito.
As a result, the case will be able to continue on inside the Northern District Court of Ohio in Youngstown where it has recently won yet another subsequent legal victory, post the Sixth Circuit decision in the original District Court this year, after more briefing was done with the efforts of Attorney Bill Hinant Jr of South Carolina built upon that which attorney Richard Olivito had originally created for the basis of a significant legal victory for Kimble earlier at the Sixth Circuit.
The case is a critical civil rights constitutional case which related video tape
made national television news and sparked a series of constitutional claims
against the city and brought about a Department of Justice investigation
and review of the City of Warren, Ohio's police department and officials.
The case has been in litigation since early 2004 but was subjected to a lengthy
delay as a result of the defense firm of Weston Hurd taking an interlocutory
appeal to the Sixth Circuit in an attempt by the City to dismiss the case
without discovery or having a trial on the merits.
The case became one of the most controversial and highly covered legal cases in the Youngstown Vindicator and Warren Tribune chronicle's history.
It also made national print media when the video tape was shown live on GMA
and related cable news stations nationwide. The Cleveland Scene Magazine also
did a cover story called the "Blue Mob", early in 2004, featuring Kimble and Olivito, after this case and others began to take on a life of their own inside Cleveland media market
The case contained a video tape which was made by friends of kimble on the
saturday afternoon which shows the excessive force that was employed against
Mr. Kimble as he pulled his car into his front yard on Kennilworth Avenue
in Warren's distressed neighborhood, on a bright sunny early afternoon.
The police claim that Lyndal did not use a turn signal and this is why they
pulled into his driveway and then proceeded to pull him from the car and then proceeded to
punch, kick, body slam and use mace and a metalic object against him repeatedly
ABC news Good Morning America and Fox's Bill O'Reilley both played the
video tape for a national audience in early July of 2003, the same summer
Bush was declaring victory in Iraq.
This significant milestone at the Sixth Circuit, done on the briefs written exclusively
by Mr. Olivito, represents a clear victory for the solo litigation efforts of both
Mr. Olivito and his client Lyndal Kimble.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
1 comment:
Just a note on the progress of the Kimble case since it was remanded for further proceedings by the Sixth Circuit after that Appellate court rejected an attempt by the lawyers for the City of Warren and its Police Officers, Greg Hoso, et. al. to have the case dismissed without any process or discovery.
After the defendant city's appeal was dismissed and the case was remanded by the Sixth to the Northern District Court to proceed, Judge Economus scheduled several hearings on the matter last year. After another year delay for reasons beyond this blog, the court entertained separate briefs on summary judgment inside this case this past Spring.
The result was clear; Kimble once again overcame the serious legal challenges to his fundamental civil rights claims brought by the City lawyers from Cleveland's law firm of Weston Hurd.
Judge Economus ruled in favor of the plaintiffs on the underlying officer immunity claims and allowed Kimble and his family to overcome summary judgment on the qualified immunity claims given there were such strong evidence that there are significant issues of material fact which would otherwise prevent any summary judgment being granted against the plaintiffs and in favor of the officer's combined actions in light of the case's video taped and eye witnessed evidence.
The case now is set for a federal in court public trial in early 2008. The Kimble family has been through much and Lyndal remains incarcerated on basically unrelated charges; However, given the seriousness of the case and the intense public scrutiny and major media coverage, this case is still one to watch both in the Warren-Youngstown region and across the nation for how an American citizens' civil rights are valued inside their communities and the federal courts.
The Kimble's are impressed with the Sixth Circuit judiciary's opinion and give great credence to the same court for its clear and strongly worded and favorable opinion it issued last March allowing them to not only overcome the significant hurdles that Weston Hurd created early on for this case but also in simply allowing the public to have the opportunity to once again possibly hear and see what it means to have one's basic human rights violated repeatedly, in front of one's home and family and neighbor's on a bright sunny satuday summer day inside of an Eastern City of Ohio
Post a Comment