Texas Supreme Court Hears Arguments in Wrongful Death Suit Against UIW

A lengthy legal battle over the 2013 shooting death of University of the Incarnate Word student Cameron Redus by a university police officer during an off-campus stop reached the Texas Supreme Court on Wednesday morning.

Redus’ parents filed a wrongful death lawsuit against UIW in 2014, but university lawyers have since argued the institution should be granted immunity because its police officers are licensed and commissioned by the state. Attorneys for the Redus family contend that as a private university, UIW does not receive public funds, and therefore would not qualify as a governmental entity.

In March 2018, a decision from Texas’ Fourth Court of Appeals concluded UIW is not a governmental unit and therefore would not be subject to governmental immunity. UIW attorneys appealed the decision to the state Supreme Court.

Oral arguments took place Wednesday in Austin, with each legal team arguing its case for 20 minutes.

“Immunity protects the government,” UIW legal counsel Amy Warr said. “Private university police departments are the government. Therefore, immunity protects private university police departments.”

UIW has operated a state-sanctioned police department for more than two decades. It is one of about two dozen private universities in Texas to do so, university officials said.

At times, justices interrupted Warr to ask questions about how a complaint against a private university police department could be addressed.

Warr told justices that concerned individuals could seek recourse from the Legislature and ask for permission to sue.

“It is important also that the UIW and its police department and its officers demonstrate that under the laws of Texas, they have immunity that is granted all other police departments,” UIW legal counsel Laurence Kurth added after oral arguments concluded. “That’s the argument we put forward today and we do so with all respect to the family.”

Attorney General Ken Paxton filed an amicus brief on behalf of UIW in July. In his brief, Paxton writes that UIW should have immunity because the school performs a state function.

Redus family attorney Brent Perry countered that for an entity to act as “an arm of the state” and have governmental immunity, the state would have to control the entity’s actions. This is not the case at UIW, he added, where the police department answers to the university’s administrators and its board of trustees.

“The [Fourth Court of Appeals] said … that just being a law enforcement agency wasn’t enough,” Perry said. “We’re back here today with UIW saying that being a law enforcement agency is enough. It is still not enough.”

Brent Perry, center, speaks to opposing counsel Laurence Kurth and Amy Warr after arguing before the Texas Supreme Court.

Both legal teams expect a decision to be issued by the end of the Supreme Court’s term in July. Perry estimated a decision could be handed down next spring.

The lawsuit stems from Redus’ death in December 2013 after UIW police officer Christopher Carter pulled the 23-year-old student over at his apartment complex near campus. Carter told Alamo Heights police he decided to follow Redus after he observed a car weaving as it traveled northbound on Broadway.

Carter said he did not know Redus was a UIW student at the time he decided to follow him, according to authorities.

When Carter attempted to arrest Redus outside of his apartment, a struggle ensued and the officer fired six shots at close range, killing Redus. An autopsy report later showed Redus was legally drunk and had traces of marijuana in his system.

Carter was placed on extended administrative leave and eventually resigned. A Bexar County grand jury declined to indict Carter on criminal charges in 2015.

In a March interview with the Rivard Report, UIW President Thomas Evans said he would like the long-running legal battle “to be resolved” and had asked the Redus family if they would be willing to meet with him. A UIW spokesman later clarified that university attorneys reached out to the Redus family’s attorneys.

“We have set reasonable terms for settlement and the university has refused to engage,” Perry told the Rivard Report following the oral arguments Wednesday.

Valerie and Mickey Redus speak with the media outside the Texas Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, on Friday, Mickey and Valerie Redus plan to attend a vigil marking the sixth anniversary of their son’s death. They received permission from the university to attend the ceremony on campus, where their son’s life will be remembered near a tree planted in his honor.

“We hope that this court will decide that UIW doesn’t have sovereign immunity so that we can begin getting facts after six years,” Mickey Redus told the Rivard Report following arguments. “We are ready to get into the facts of the case. Here we are six years later and we don’t really know much more than we did day one.”

Emily Donaldson