GRAND RAPIDS, Mich — Schurr will not be retried on the murder charge, but he is not yet done in court.
Before the criminal trial of Christopher Schurr began, the Lyoya family was preparing a civil lawsuit against the former police officer and the city of Grand Rapids.
The Lyoya family attorney claims Patrick’s Fourth Amendment rights were violated by what they say was Schurr’s use of excessive force. A civil lawsuit is a way for one party to seek compensation for damages from another party. It’s different from a criminal case, which usually involves the government and an individual seeking punishment for violating a law.
The original civil lawsuit filed in 2022 named both the Grand Rapids Police Department and Christopher Schurr as defendants. Since the filing, U.S. District Judge Paul Maloney ruled that the connection between GRPD’s training and Schurr’s actions was not proven, removing the city from the suit. Judge Maloney also ruled that Schurr is not necessarily protected by qualified immunity in this case.
Qualified immunity protects government officials from being sued for performing their duties reasonably. In September, Schurr's legal team appealed to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals on that decision, which denied the petition. This led to a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court, which was also denied last month.
This means the civil lawsuit is currently pending in federal court with no start date set. According to filing documents, the Lyoya family is seeking “full and fair compensatory damages in an amount to be determined by a jury, and punitive damages in an amount to be determined by a jury, along with attorney’s fees.”
Not a surprising move, according to a legal expert Lewis Langham, Professor Emeritus at Cooley Law School and Retired MSP Detective Lieutenant.
“You would love to go into a civil case with a criminal conviction, and this case would have probably gone forward by now in the civil arena, had it not been, you know, waiting for the criminal charges to be so," said Langham. "No, it does not help in a civil matter against for the plaintiffs to have this, not this verdict, not rendered one way or another.”
The Lyoya family’s attorney, Ven Johnson, has previously said the mistrial would not impact the civil case.
The possible outcomes? This could end up as another jury trial. In civil cases, if both parties waive the right, it can instead be a bench trial, which means the judge makes a decision. They could also still settle outside of court.
This story was initially reported by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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