Pierce County Settles Lawsuit Filed by Family of Slain Nurse, For $7.8 Million

Jessica Ortega, was shot to death by her estranged boyfriend in 2016.

Tuesday, Pierce County Council members approved a $7.8 million settlement that ends a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by Ortega’s family.

The decision “allowed Pierce County to avoid an embarrassing trial,” according to a statement from the law office of John R. Connelly, which represented the family. “This murder could and should have been prevented.”

The lawsuit contended that the Sheriff’s Department failed to protect her after she sought help, and fell short of reasonable standards in their response to her initial call to law enforcement.

“She had contacted them pleading for help, and informing them that she was going to be killed,” attorneys wrote in a court briefing filed Nov. 9. “Unfortunately, she did not receive assistance and she was killed as she feared.”  (KIRO 7 News, November 28, 2018)
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In Warren v. District of Columbia, 444 A.2d 1 (D.C. Ct. of Ap., 1981) the Court stated that a "fundamental principle of American law is that a government and its agents are under no general duty to provide public services, such as police protection, to any individual citizen."

The seminal case establishing the general rule that police have no duty under federal law to protect citizens is DeShaney v. Winnebago County Department of Social Services (109 S.Ct. 998, 1989; 489 U.S. 189 (1989)). The court in DeShaney held that no duty arose as a result of a "special relationship," concluding that Constitutional duties of care and protection only exist as to certain individuals, such as incarcerated prisoners, involuntarily committed mental patients and others restrained against their will and therefore unable to protect themselves.

Did the Pierce County Sheriff's Office fail in its duty to protect Ms. Ortega? Many court decisions would suggest that as a rule, law enforcement has no duty to protect any individual citizen. Of course, law enforcement may be said to have duty toward the community as a whole.

In this $7.8 Million settlement the Pierce County Council has declared that the Sheriff's Office has failed in its general duty toward the community.

The murder of Ms. Ortega is certainly a tragic loss for her family, but was her death the result of the Sheriff's Office failing to do its job?  What do you think?

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