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Comment by spacemanmatt | Hacker News Reader

WIDELY MISREPORTED.

Austin resident here. There is very little right about this case.

He was joking, and his original post included indications of this. Prosecutors intentionally misrepresented and truncated his comments to mislead the Grand Jury.

The arrest warrant issued claimed they found him by driver's license records but he has never had a Texas driver's license.

They failed to protect him, an 18 year old kid, in jail. He has been sexually assaulted.

The state maintains their case against him at this point only to blunt his eventual lawsuit against them.

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I hope the kid wins a shitload of money in a lawsuit against the state... and the cops get punished. Now what's the chance of this happening?

I don't get it, I thought the USA was a massive litigation centre and you could sue people for millions left right and centre? Are you saying that you can't sue people like that?

I believe tbastos believes that there is little chance the police will be punished. The kid absolutely will bring, and win, a lawsuit if the parent comment is true.

Police officers and prosecutors are immune from personal liability in a suit (the liability instead shifts onto the government). It is very often the case that gross misconduct that costs the government millions in damages will not result in any sort of punishment for the responsible official.

i'm not sure if you're being sarcastic or not, but suing people takes time and money, something most people don't have a lot of.

Many lawyers will work for a contingency fee if they feel you have a strong case.

It is difficult to sue the state and officers acting on behalf of the state. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qualified_immunity and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_immunity_in_the_Unite...

It is difficult to sue the state and officers acting on behalf of the state. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qualified_immunity and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_immunity_in_the_Unite....

Sounds like an excellent lawsuit just waiting to happen.

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