No Immunity for Sheriff Who Was Speeding Just Before Collision

A South Carolina law enforcement officer who was driving 43 miles over the speed limit on a dark windy road in a non-emergency situation isn’t entitled to qualified immunity from the civil rights suit brought by the woman whose car he hit, the Fourth Circuit said Friday.

A reasonable jury could find that Anderson County Deputy Sheriff Brent McKinney was deliberately indifferent to the conditions and Janel Harkness’s safety when he ran head-on into her car on the dark curve, the court said in an opinion by Chief Judge Roger L. Gregory.

McKinney was initially responding to an emergency. When ...