Posted 1/30/2005 02:07:00 PM by Douglas

Finally, some good news about an idiotic lawsuit getting thrown out. Turns out, if you get hit by a truck because you jumped out of a moving cop-car, it's not the city's fault.

An appellate court ruled that the family of a teenager who escaped from a Sugar Land patrol car and was killed by a passing 18-wheeler cannot sue the city for negligence.

In its ruling Thursday, the 1st Texas Court of Appeals stated the city is protected by governmental immunity.

Wow! It's amazing that this sort of thing makes the news, but it's infinitely better than the news of the family winning $14 million. But what really happened?

Mark Ballard, 16, was arrested Aug. 17, 2002, after officers found him and two other suspects inside a restaurant. An alarm had alerted police.

Police said two officers were taking Ballard to the juvenile detention center in Richmond when he managed to get his shackled arms in front of him and opened a car door.

He jumped out of the moving car on a U.S. 59 service road near Sweetwater.

Ballard ran across the freeway's southbound lanes, climbed over a median guardrail and started across the northbound lanes when he was hit by a tractor-trailer and killed, officers said.

Geez, what balls. The kid runs from the cops, and the family sues because the cops didn't restrain him properly. How do they keep a straight face when they file these suits?