Skip to main content

Hamdi Mohamud--Wrongly arrested and incarcerated in 2011. Still waiting for justice in 2022.

Here is just one case that shows some of what's involved in seeking restitution for a violation of constitutional 'rights'. It's life-changing and frightening, and it can happen to anyone. 

Hamdi Mohamud

Hamdi Mohamud, Credit: Institute for Justice
  • Rights violation took place in 2011
  • Ms. Mohamud was wrongly incarcerated for two years at age 16. One of those years was spent in federal prison.
  • Still waiting for her case to be heard in 2022

Hamdi Mohamud was arrested at the age of 16 and incarcerated for 2 years without a trial based solely on false information provided by a police officer. Eleven years after her initial arrest and eventual release, the case against the officer that provided bogus evidence against her still has not been allowed to go to trial.

In June 2011, 16 year old Hamdi Mohamud and a friend were innocent bystanders during a fight involving three older girls. St. Paul police officers responded when Muna, one of the older girls, attacked the others with a knife. Unknown to responding officers at the scene, Muna was an informant in separate investigation by a federal task force. Heather Weyker, an officer on that task force, hearing about the incident, convinced responding officers to free Muna, and arrest the other girls in an effort to protect her own informant in an investigation that later turned out to be meritless.

The day after the initial baseless arrests, officer Weyker filed a federal criminal complaint and affidavit with information that she knew to be false in an effort to enforce the detention of the innocent girls without probable cause. There are many news stories about Officer Weyker's documented lies. Although Hamdi was never involved in the initial altercation and should never have been charged with any crime, she ended up spending 2 years in detention, including 1 year in federal prison without ever receiving a trial.

Upon dismissal of the charges against her, Ms. Mohamud sought to hold officer Weyker accountable for her actions. Like many victims of police misconduct, she then entered a world of protracted litigation that victims are forced to engage in if they seek any recourse for a violation of their Constitutional rights.

Police routinely claim qualified immunity to have cases against them dismissed before trial, and they are able to appeal denials of their claims all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Victims can only bring cases of police misconduct to court if all appeals for qualified immunity have been denied and this can take years.

Officer Weyker was initially denied qualified immunity and Ms. Mohamud's case against the officer was allowed to proceed. Weyker appealed, and the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that because Weyker was deputized as part of a federal task force at the time, Ms. Mohamud could not sue Weyker in her capacity as a federal officer.
 
In a follow-up appeal filed with the U.S. Supreme Court, the issue was summarized as follows:
 
“The officer, Respondent Heather Weyker, was denied qualified immunity because ‘a reasonable officer would know that deliberately misleading another officer into arresting an innocent individual to protect a sham investigation is unlawful.’
 
To resolve the growing circuit split on the application of Ziglar v. Abbasi, the question presented is: Whether a constitutional remedy is available against federal officers for individual instances of law enforcement overreach in violation of the Fourth Amendment.”
 
Ms. Mohamud is represented by the Institute for Justice. See more details of the case and access court documents here.

The Institute for Justice also has a helpful FAQ on qualified immunity here. For a brief explainer of qualified immunity, see this post.





Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

don't be a robot

Popular posts from this blog

We Do Entertainment and Fast Food

May 6, 2021 Albuquerque, NM to Amarillo, TX Miles Today: 301 Total miles: 2,469 Gas in NM: $2.79  What we're good at Here I am with my friend, cardboard Gus Fring. One thing I learned from living overseas is that the major influences in and exports from the U.S. are entertainment and fast food. I can't say we're good at either one of them, but we are prolific. One thing we are very good at that some of the countries I've visited were lacking in is construction safety. And we probably have our propensity for litigation to thank for that. The 'real' world of American culture is heavily influenced by the entertainment industry and pop culture, and nothing makes our dreams come true like being able to see where our favorite characters made meth and dissolved bodies. It happened to Albuquerque Anyway, Albuquerque was lucky enough to be the setting for Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. Some are unhappy about that, because what generally comes along with fan worship...
Post a Comment
Read more

Birmingham Alabama

May 13-15 Birmingham, AL A.G. Gaston (right) in front of his motel with R.A. Hester. City of Birmingham Archives Arthur George Gaston died in 1996 with a net worth of $130 million. He was an innovator from the beginning, first earning some cash by letting the neighborhood kids ride his tire swing in exchange for their buttons, which the children's parents would buy back from him. As a young adult, he was a miner in Birmingham and provided lunches and burial insurance to his coworkers. Gaston opened a business school, a funeral home, a savings and loan, and the A.G. Gaston Motel, which was listed in the Green Book. While he generally laid low to keep out of conflict with white society, he did provide financial assistance to the Civil Rights movement, and opened his motel to activists in the early 60's. Dr. King stayed there during the Children's Crusade in 1963, a march in which children left school to walk downtown and talk with the mayor about segregation in Birmingham. Bu...
Post a Comment
Read more

In A Canyon, Not A Cavern

  Grand Canyon visit, May 4, 2021 One Canyon, Many Peoples Above is a graphic of the tribes of the Grand Canyon , which has been home to humans for 13,000 years. Below is a list of the associated tribes of the grand canyon, taken from the national park service website (linked above). I've included links to the tribe sites. Each of these websites has COVID-19 information on the landing page, but persevere and take a look beyond that. I've linked to a couple of constitutions also. Havasupai Tribe - AZ Hopi Tribe - AZ Hualapai Tribe - AZ Kaibab Band of Paiute Indians - AZ Constitution of the Kaibab Band of Paiute Indians of the Kaibab Indian Reservation, Arizona Las Vegas Band of Paiute Indians - NV Moapa Band of Paiute Indians - NV Navajo Nation - AZ Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah - UT Constitution and other gov't documents San Juan Southern Paiute Tribe - AZ The Pueblo of Zuni - NM Yavapai-Apache Nation - AZ Pandemic Plusses Zero waiting for horrifically popular dest...
Post a Comment
Read more