PORTLAND, Maine (AP) - A federal appeals court has sided with a Maine woman who says state police troopers failed to protect her from a former boyfriend who went on a shooting rampage that left two dead after she reported he raped her.
The 1st Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston said Friday the troopers should not be granted qualified immunity, a legal doctrine that would have protected them from the lawsuit, according to the Portland Press Herald.
“Finally, the defendants’ apparent utter disregard for police procedure could contribute to a jury’s conclusion that the defendants conducted themselves in a manner that was deliberately indifferent to the danger they knowingly created,” the court wrote in the decision.
The case will now return to federal district court.
Attorney Scott Lynch, who represents the plaintiff, said his client feels vindicated by the decision.
A spokesman for the Maine Attorney General’s Office, which has represented the police, said he had no comment.
The woman alleged that in July 2015 she told Maine State Police that her ex-boyfriend, Anthony Lord, kidnapped and raped her but troopers did not attempt to find or detain him. He went on to kill two people and injure four. He was sentenced to life in prison.
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