Minnesota Supreme Court says off-duty St. Paul cop not entitled to city defense

Officer Eric Reetz was sued for alleged negligence by a woman who was stabbed by a male cli­ent at a St. Paul home­less shel­ter on Dec. 30, 2016. The lawsuit said Reetz failed to de­tect the knife that the man smug­gled in dur­ing his security shift.

Reetz con­tended he was en­ti­tled to a city defense. But the Su­preme Court ruled other­wise Wednesday, overturning an Appeals Court ruling that had supported Reetz against the city's rejection of representation for him.

"Be­cause we con­clude that Reetz was not 'act­ing in the per­form­ance of the du­ties of the po­si­tion' of a po­lice of­fi­cer un­der [Minnesota law] when he al­leg­ed­ly failed to de­tect the knife at the home­less shel­ter, the City was not re­quired to de­fend and in­dem­ni­fy him," the Supreme Court's ruling said.

https://www.startribune.com/minnesota-supreme-court-says-off-duty-st-paul-cop-not-entitled-to-city-defense/600035968/