The state Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that the Delaware Department of Public Safety was responsible for the actions of a former state trooper who forced a woman to perform oral sex during a shoplifting arrest, in a 3-2 decision that expands the state’s exposure to liability for sexual misconduct by police officers.
The 73-page majority opinion by Chief Justice Leo E. Strine Jr. relaxed the requirement that wrongful acts committed in the course of an arrest must be motivated by officers’ desire to serve their employer, and opened a new pathway for plaintiffs to bring civil suits against the state.
