From Gay City News:
Just weeks ago a unanimous three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, based in Denver, ruled that a Wyoming school superintendent, found to have discriminated against a lesbian couple because of their sexual orientation, was immune from personal liability.
Now, a completely different three-judge panel has rejected a similar immunity defense by an Oklahoma deputy sheriff, sued by a lesbian for refusing to enforce an order of protection she obtained against her former partner.
The new decision, issued on May 2, may at first glance seem inconsistent with the prior one, but there are distinctions that explain the different outcomes.
Dana L. Price-Cornelison claims that Garvin County Deputy Sheriff Steve Brooks, assigned enforcement responsibility for both an emergency and a permanent order of protection she obtained from the County Court, consistently brushed off her efforts to have the orders enforced, and ridiculed her in the process. Under the terms of the order, her ex, Vickie Rogers, was barred from returning to Price-Cornelison's farm, where they had lived together.
At the time the emergency order was granted, the former couple was engaged in a dispute over Rogers' attempts to remove items from the farm. Once she had the emergency order in hand, Price-Cornelison asked for Brooks' assistance in removing Rogers from her property. He responded that Oklahoma was a community-property state, so Rogers could take anything she wanted until the order went into effect the following day. In fact, he ordered Price-Cornelison to stay away from the farm until Rogers was done removing her things, threatening to arrest her otherwise.
http://www.gaycitynews.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19672694&BRD=2729&PAG=461&dept_id=568860&rfi=6
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