Judge throws out lawsuit alleging excessive force during Dakota Access Pipeline protest

BISMARCK, ND (AP) — A federal judge in North Dakota has thrown out the rest of a lawsuit by an Arizona man who alleged excessive force was used against him while protesting the Dakota Access oil pipeline.

In 2019, Marcus Mitchell sued several law enforcement officers, the city of Bismarck and Morton County. He alleged officers targeted him during a confrontation in January 2017 and hit him in the left eye with a bean bag, injuring him. His lawsuit alleged that excessive force was used and that Mitchell’s constitutional rights were violated.

In 2020, US District Judge Daniel Traynor granted Mitchell’s motions to dismiss the complaint. But in 2022, a three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned part of the judge’s ruling and sent some of Mitchell’s claims back to a lower court for reconsideration.

The defense denied Mitchell’s allegations earlier this year and asked the judge to throw out the case.

On Tuesday, Traynor granted the defense’s motions for summary judgment and dismissed the case. Mitchell failed to show that either of the two officers he accused intended to injure him, the judge ruled. He found that the officers did not use excessive force and that the force they did use was reasonable.

The Associated Press emailed requests for comment to lawyers for both sides.

In 2016 and 2017, construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline drew thousands of people to camp and protest near the project’s controversial Missouri River crossing, which is upstream from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Reservation. The tribe has long opposed the pipeline as a threat to its water. Hundreds of people have been arrested in connection with the months-long protests.

The pipeline has been carrying oil since 2017, including during a court-ordered environmental review process for the river crossing.

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