Bemis v. Edwards
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
45 F.3d 1369 (1995)
- Written by Sean Carroll, JD
Facts
Ronald Bemis (plaintiff) brought a civil-rights action against police officers Tim Edwards, Leo Lotito, Perry Aldrich, and the City of Bend, Oregon (defendants). Bemis alleged that the defendant-officers had used excessive force against him in an incident that occurred outside the home of Gary Estep. Bemis sought to introduce into evidence the recording of a 911 call that Estep had made while the incident was occurring. On the call, Estep stated, “Now there’s a cop beating the shit out of the guy now.” However, at one point, Estep stated on the call that he could not personally describe to the dispatcher what was occurring in front of his house. In addition, the 911 recording reflected that Estep was repeating to the dispatcher the statement of another person’s voice in the background of the call. Estep did not testify at trial. The district court excluded Estep’s statement in the 911 recording, finding that Bemis had not carried his burden of establishing that Estep had personal knowledge of the events taking place outside his home. Bemis appealed.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Nelson, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 805,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
