It takes so much for law enforcement to lose Qualified Immunity that most people say it should be called Unqualified Immunity. Genesee County Jail deputies lose immunity in wrongful hold case | Local | ABC12
The held him in Genesee County Jail, which is in Flint, Michigan, for three months on a Federal Hold. The only problem is that there was no such hold.
According to court documents, George E. Boyd was arrested on state charges in April 2022 and released on a $40,000 bond. But when a bail bondsman tried to post his bond on April 9, 2022, a jail deputy told the bondsman that Boyd had a federal hold and asked if he wanted to proceed, according to court documents. The bondsman retrieved the paperwork and Boyd remained in jail.
Documents add that there was no federal hold ever placed on Boyd. A U.S. Marshal Service representative later confirmed Boyd was not a federal prisoner and the agency had no hold on him.
Qualified Immunity is a legal construct invented by the courts that grants government officials immunity from prosecution or lawsuits for stuff they do on the job, unless the prosecutor or plaintiff shows that the official violated civil or constitutional rights, or went outside the bounds of their responsibilities. So when the SWAT team tears up your house looking for someone not there, you cannot sue.
So was this incompetence or malice? Could be both I guess. I honestly don't know, so I've labeled it as cops behaving both badly (malice) and stupidly (incompetence).
The jailers claimed Qualified Immunity. "You can't sue me; I was only doing my job." The court threw that out. So he can now sue them. Whether he wins is another question.
Hat tip to Steve Lehto. That is a 12 minute video, that I'm not sure I can recommend.
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