This guest post is from Dana DiDomenico, Regent Family Law student:
On June 22, 1999, Jessica
Gonzalez’s life took a dramatic turn. See Town
of Castle Rock, 545 U.S. 748, 755 (2005). On that day, her estranged
ex-husband made the choice to violate the express terms of a restraining order
which expressly prohibited him from making contact with Ms. Gonzalez or their
three daughters, who were all under the age of ten. Id. at 752. Simon
Gonzalez kidnapped the three girls from the front lawn of Ms. Gonzalez’s home. Id.
Like any mother, she was terrified for the lives of her children. She called
the police, who, upon arrival, explained that because the children were with
their father, there was no need for any police intervention, restraining order
notwithstanding. Id. at 753.
Ms. Gonzalez made eleven attempts
to get the police to look for her children. Ms. Gonzalez called the police nine
times and went directly to the police station twice. After eleven
attempts to get the police to look for her children, the police still did
nothing. Id. at 753–54.
Around 3:00 AM the morning of
June 23, 1999, Simon Gonzalez arrived at the Castle Rock Police Station and
opened fire with a gun he had just purchased the night before. Police shot and
killed him. Ms. Gonzalez’s three daughters were already dead, murdered in the
back seat of Simon Gonzalez’s truck. Id. at 754.
Ms. Gonzalez filed a complaint
against the Castle Rock Police Department for their gross negligence in failing
to enforce her restraining order. Id. After several appeals, the
Colorado Supreme Court held that the Police department had acted grossly
negligent and that Ms. Gonzalez had a fundamental right under the Due Process
Clause to enforcement of her restraining order. More fundamentally, the court
explained that individuals have a right to protection, that this is what due
process, in its most basic sense, means. Indeed, the right includes protection
of “life, liberty, and property.” U.S. Const. amend. 4. To the Colorado Supreme
Court, this is exactly what the Castle Rock Police Department failed to do for
Ms. Gonzalez and her three little girls. Id. at 754–55.
The case was appealed to the
highest court in the land: The United States Supreme Court. Id. at 755. There,
Justice Scalia explained that due process does not require the police to
enforce restraining orders, nor does it require the police to protect
individuals like Ms. Gonzalez. Id. at 762. To add insult to injury, the
police officers involved were protected by qualified immunity—meaning no lawsuit
could be brought against the individual officers responsible for dismissing
her. Id. at 754 n.3.
Ms. Gonzalez appealed this
decision in the international courts, where the International community
formally rebuked the United States for human rights violations. See IACHR
report No. 80/11 case 12.626 merits Jessica Lenahan (Gonzales) et al. United
States.
Because of this case and others
like it, however, the law in Colorado is changing. In 2020, the Colorado
General Assembly passed a string of police reforms, including eliminating
qualified immunity for police officers in certain, delineated circumstances. The
2020
Bill Text CO S.B. 217 is called the Law Enforcement Integrity and
Accountability Act. If it had been enacted in 1999, Jessica Gonzalez might have
had recourse against the officers who ignored her cries for help, and the
Gonzalez girls might still be alive.
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