Reluctantly applying an objective standard to judge an officer’s motivation, the 1 st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on May 4 wiped out what remained of a $175,000 jury award to a man who claimed he was wrongfully stopped and then beaten up by a New Bedford, Mass., police officer. Bolton v. Taylor, No. 01-2227.
The 1 st Circuit concluded that despite evidence of a subjective improper motivation, the facts supported the officer’s “reasonable suspicion” to make a Terry stop. “That said,” U.S. Circuit Judge Michael Boudin wrote for the court, “we join in the view�obviously shared by the district judge and the jury�that [plaintiff David] Bolton was badly treated by the police.”
