In a ruling last week, U.S. District Judge Jose Linares cited the New Jersey Tort Claims Act, which “bars the State from being held liable for the intentional wrongdoing of its employees.”
Yeah, not surprising. Most states don’t waive sovereign immunity for intentional wrongdoing of officials. Most states, if they waive it at all, only waive it for negligence and only up to their insurance policy limits.
True, but I’d be curious to find out if they just failed to plead any negligence claims in terms of the people who carried out the acts. I mean, sure, it was intentional that certain people orchestrated it, but it was negligence (arguably) that others carried it out. What were the fucking police thinking? Also, as far as I can tell, there’d be no collateral estoppel with respect to these parties and the convictions establishing the intentional acts of Kelly et al. such that the plaintiffs are stuck with that ruling.
Linares is a Dubya appointee…ergo, a douchenozzle…so I don’t trust him not to be protecting certain interests or trying to fuck with the plaintiffs.
"the intentional wrongdoing of its employees.”
Can the employees themselves be held financially liable in this situation?
State law question. Not my state. Though there are sticky 11th Amendment issues that would arise if you brought such an action in federal court. I’ve been fortunate enough not to have to deal with the 11th Amendment since I took my Federal Jurisdiction final in my third year in law school.