A US District Court Judge ruled in favor of the Town of Waldoboro in a lawsuit filed by the parents of a Whitefield teenager fatally shot by a Waldoboro police officer three years ago.
Natalie and Millard Jackson filed the suit on Sept. 23, 2009, on behalf of their son, Gregori Jackson, who died after a confrontation with former Waldoboro police officer Zachary Curtis on Sept. 23, 2007.
The suit named the Town of Waldoboro, Waldoboro Police Chief Bill Labombarde and Officer Curtis as defendants, and alleged that Curtis was inadequately trained and used excessive force against Jackson, 18, when he shot and killed Jackson while attempting to arrest him for violating bail conditions.
Prior to the Jackson’s suit, the Attorney General’s Office investigated the shooting and cleared Curtis of any wrongdoing.
In March of this year, the Jackson’s lawyers withdrew from the case, and the couple did not retain new counsel. In the months that followed, they failed to respond to court filings including a motion for summary judgment filed by the defendants on Aug. 27.
Summary judgment allows a judge to make a decision on a suit when it appears that the decision in the case will clearly favor one of the parties, according to US District Judge George Singal’s written decision, filed in US District Court in Portland on Nov. 22.
Although in this case there was no opposition to the motion for summary judgment, and the Jacksons did not file any evidence to support their suit, the court was still required to review all of the evidence. Singal’s decision was based on the defendants’ ability to “demonstrate undisputed facts” in favor of summary judgment, according to the decision.
Singal wrote in his decision that, based on the account of the events that led up to Jackson’s death presented by the defendants, “there is more than sufficient evidence that Jackson posed a considerable and immediate risk to the safety, and indeed the life, of Officer Curtis.”