Haze v. Kubicek

Record supported jury’s verdict in favor of defendant-police officer in plaintiff’s section 1983 action alleging that defendant: (1) falsely arrested plaintiff on charge of disorderly conduct during incident in which plaintiff was arrested outside Milwaukee Bucks stadium while plaintiff was attempting to re-sell scalped tickets; and (2) used excessive force and targeted plaintiff on account of his African-American race. Moreover, jury could rationally find that defendant’s stop of plaintiff was unlawful (because he lacked reasonable suspicion to stop plaintiff), but that said stop was not proximate cause of any compensable injury. Ct. rejected plaintiff’s claim that jury rendered inconsistent verdicts by finding in his favor on unlawful stop claim, but rejecting his claim that defendant used excessive force, even though plaintiff argued that use of any force following unlawful stop is necessarily excessive. Moreover, jury could properly find that degree of force used by defendant was not excessive when considering all circumstances of said encounter. Also, Dist. Ct. could properly award plaintiff only $1 as nominal damages for plaintiff’s successful unlawful stop claim.