U.S. Supreme Court rules against Grand Rapids man who claimed excessive police force, but case not over

A man who claimed police violated his constitutional rights when he was mistakenly arrested as a home invasion suspect, then allegedly beaten in a struggle with police, has lost his case at the U.S. Supreme Court.

But attorneys for James King say the legal saga that began seven years ago is not over yet, with important issues to be decided by a federal appeals court.

James King alleged excessive force after two officers wearing plainclothes — an FBI agent and a Grand Rapids police officer serving on a joint task force — arrested him in 2014 as he was walking along a Leonard Street NW sidewalk.

King was 21 at the time and a Grand Valley State University student. He had noticeable facial injuries after the scuffle.

In a lawsuit filed in 2016, he claimed Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights violations, saying he was the victim of unreasonable search and seizure, excessive force and malicious prosecution.

Related: Police said man was aggressive, ‘growling like an animal’ during arrest at center of lawsuit

A segment of the lawsuit was heard by the U.S. Supreme Court last year. The court issued a unanimous ruling Thursday, Feb. 25, reversing an earlier decision by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

In the ruling, written by Justice Clarence Thomas, justices determined a U.S. District Court judge properly decided issues surrounding the Federal Tort Claims Act and whether it had jurisdiction.

Among the key issues was that, under Michigan law, government employees have qualified immunity if they are acting in good faith in a particular incident. By extension, the U.S. Government also is not liable, the district court judge found.

King was represented by attorneys through the Institute for Justice.

In a Thursday statement, they said the Supreme Court ruling at first glance appears as a blow to “constitutional accountability.”

But they said the case now heads back to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals to decide a complicated legal matter on whether governmental immunity applies when a single lawsuit contains both constitutional and tort claims.

King’s attorneys say they simply want the right to take the case to trial.

After King was arrested in 2014, he was charged with resisting and obstructing police causing injury and felonious assault. A jury found him not guilty.

In the subsequent federal lawsuit, King claimed he didn’t know FBI Special Agent Douglas Brownback and Grand Rapids Police Detective Todd Allen, dressed in plainclothes and wearing baseball caps, were law enforcement.

Related: Dash cam video shows aftermath of arrest in federal lawsuit against cops

King alleged he thought he was being mugged when he was asked for his identification and held against an unmarked SUV. In the lawsuit, he claimed the men didn’t identify themselves as law enforcement.

The officers, in a police report, told a drastically different version and said they showed King their badges and told him they were looking for a suspect wanted on a felony warrant. King refused to give his last name, they said, and became verbally combative and aggressive.

The officers said King swung at Brownback after the agent grabbed King’s wrist. After that, a struggle ensued and at least one witness said officers pounded King’s face at one point.

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