Agents Seek Dismissal Of Ruby Ridge Lawsuit Lawyer For Agents Defends Rules To Shoot On Sight In Suit By Harris
Shoot-on-sight rules of engagement in a deadly siege at the cabin of Randy Weaver on Idaho’s Ruby Ridge came under fire Monday at a federal appeals court hearing.
Lawyers for 13 agents from the FBI and U.S. Marshals Service, seeking to dismiss a $10 million damage suit filed by Weaver’s friend, Kevin Harris, were questioned closely about procedures followed by the two agencies in an 11-day siege in August 1992 near Naples, Idaho.
The hearing before a three-judge panel from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stems from the wounding of Harris during the siege. Deputy U.S. Marshal William F. Degan and Weaver’s son, Samuel, and wife, Vicki, were shot to death.
A separate suit by Weaver was settled in 1995 for $3.1 million. The next year, five deputy marshals were honored for valor in the siege.
Weaver and Harris, who now works in a northeastern Washington welding shop, were acquitted of all criminal charges in the case.
Last May, U.S. District Judge Lynn Winmill ruled that Harris’ claims could go to trial under the Fourth Amendment, which bans unreasonable government search and seizure.
According to the suit, lies told by FBI sniper Lon R. Horiuchi, deputy U.S. Marshals Arthur Roderick and Larry Cooper, and other top agents at the scene about the situation, including who fired the first shots, caused the standoff to be more deadly than it should have been.
Michael L. Martinez, representing most of the agents, defended the shoot-on-sight policy as a reasonable law enforcement response after Degan was killed. Martinez cited the danger of escape or further attacks.
Circuit Judge Stephen Reinhardt said that apparently would have allowed agents to open fire on Harris even if he came out of the cabin holding a gun over his head and offering to surrender.
“I certainly think that most reasonable law enforcement officers would know that is unconstitutional,” Reinhardt said.
“There’s no concept here (in the rules of engagement) of escape,” said Circuit Judge Sidney R. Thomas. “It just says here you can kill him.”
“The question is whether he (an agent) can kill him (Harris) deliberately … without giving him a chance to surrender,” Reinhardt told Horiuchi’s lawyer, Patricia Maher. “If your argument is that that gives you a right to shoot to kill without taking any other measures, then I don’t think there is much doubt as to how this issue is going to come out.”
The panel, which also included U.S. District Judge John Sedwick of Anchorage, Alaska, will rule at a later date. Harris’ lawyer, David Z. Nevin of Boise, said it would probably be two or three years before the case comes to trial.
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