Houston police officer Ricardo Corral is not legally liable for crashing his police cruiser into another vehicle, the Texas Supreme Court ruled last week. After all, he was in hot pursuit of someone apparently considered a dangerous villain: an adult man who sought to pay a consenting adult woman for sex.
During a prostitution sting in 2019, Corral "made a wide turn from the middle lane," per Houston Public Media. He subsequently crashed into a truck containing two passengers, including driver Ruben Rodriguez.
Rodriguez sued, alleging both he and his passenger suffered injuries for which Corral should be held liable.
Now the Texas Supreme Court has dismissed the case, saying Corral is protected by "official immunity," a "common-law affirmative defense" under which authorities are shielded from legal repercussions for actions performed "in good faith" and "within the scope of their authority."
'In the Heat of a High-Speed Pursuit'
In this case, Corral was "acting in good faith when he executed the turn and collided with the bystander's truck," the court determined. Because of this, and because bad driving is part of police chases, he is not legally liable for the accident he caused.
"It bears emphasizing that what may be unreasonable in one context could be justifiable in another, especially in the heat of a high-speed pursuit when officers must make split-second decisions under intense pressure," wrote Justice John Devine in the court's December 31 opinion.
This would all be unremarkable if Corral was speeding after a dangerous criminal—someone wanted for, say, murder or violent assault. Likewise if he was rushing to get to the scene of crime where time was of the essence in order to protect potential victims.
But in this case, Corral's reckless chase was in pursuit of someone suspected of soliciting prostitution. The whole business was kicked off by the suspect offering to pay an undercover female cop posing as an adult sex worker.
Police put in danger the lives of countless people in order to arrest someone for trying to have consensual but non-state-sanctioned sex.
This is bonkers.
Ruling 'Should Not Be Construed as Sanctioning…a High-Speed Chase' To Catch Prostitution Suspects
The Texas Supreme Court's ruling also serves as yet another reminder of how immunity doctrines often shield cops from the consequences of their own bad or reckless decisions. Here we have a cop who felt justified in endangering innocent people in order to catch someone suspected of a completely victimless and nonviolent crime.
At least one judge acknowledged that the circumstances here were a bit dodgy, while still concurring in the majority's opinion. In a separate opinion, Justice Brett Busby writes that the court's ruling "should not be construed as sanctioning the decision to initiate a high-speed chase in these or similar circumstances."
Granted, Corral's partner ran the driver's license plate during the chase and found that the car he was driving had been reported stolen. But "hindsight and changing circumstances during the pursuit may not be used to immunize a contested decision to initiate pursuit in the first instance," writes Busby.
In this case, the initial pursuit was to go after someone suspected of what was at that time a misdemeanor crime. (The state has since made soliciting prostitution a felony.) Essentially, "they initiated a high-speed chase to pursue a suspect evading arrest for paying $40 to solicit sexual activity from another adult," Busby points out.
Moreover, since the initial pursuit started before the officers knew the case involved a stolen vehicle, it happened under circumstances where it was likely possible for cops to later apprehend their guy. They had seen the man involved, had seen his car, and had his license plate number. Even if they consider soliciting sex such a serious matter that they simply cannot abide anyone getting away (an absurd position, to be sure), they could have vowed to carry out the arrest later rather than embarking on a high-speed car chase around Houston.
"High-speed chases inevitably involve obvious, significant, and often fatal risks: to the public at large, to other drivers, to innocent bystanders or passengers, to the fleeing suspect, and to the pursuing officers," Busby concluded. "Incurring those risks may be reasonable and justifiable to stop fleeing suspects who pose a danger to our communities. But unless there is an accompanying reasonable suspicion of potential harm or danger, violent behavior, or other criminal activity, the need to apprehend a suspected nonviolent misdemeanant is unlikely to support official immunity for initiating an urban high-speed pursuit with all the risks such a pursuit entails, especially when information is at hand to later apprehend and identify the suspect."
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