Verdict:
This trial was found in favor of the defendant today for the following reasons:
Rights Violation - I am assuming we are going for a 4th and 8th amendment rights violation due to the filing. It was not really touched on in the opening or closing of the trial. Regardless, Miss Carter assaulted the CO in the prison and had to be tased and handcuffed after she resisted arrest a few times. This created a separate detainment that would have been lawful for the officer's statement while he decided on if he was going to charge her or not. He chose not to, and she was released from detainment. I do not find there was a right's violation here.
Punitive Damages - Asking for almost $800k out of thin air is borderline frivolous. We can't just throw giant numbers at the wall and hope they stick. If anything, I would have switched this amount with the civil rights violation damages, so it didn't look so ridiculous. Either way, there was no explanation for this number or how it applied to the punishment of SASPA, so I am not entertaining it any further.
Emotional Distress - Everyone else testified to Miss Carter's emotional distress except Miss Carter herself. She did not go into how this has affected her life since the incident, or if she is still currently suffering -- nothing was said at all. I don't really care about how long it took her to find a therapist, since everyone processes their emotions in their own time, but I do care that Miss Carter couldn't tell me herself how she was feeling or how she has been affected, so I could not factor this into any damages reward. Everyone in the world can say she is suffering, but if she doesn't testify to it herself, I am not convinced.
4 and 5: There are no receipts or records of her medical treatment, nor any receipts showing any payment to her lawyer, so these cannot be awarded even if I wanted to.
The Court recognizes that many of the witnesses could not attend today because of scheduling, and this was taken into consideration. Ultimately, though, the Plaintiff did not meet the preponderance of evidence needed for any of their claims.
