DALLAS — The U.S. Supreme Court handed the family of Tony Timpa another victory today, denying review of a decision that officers used deadly force against him.

“The family has waited for years on this decision just to get their day in court,” Timpa family attorney Geoff Henley of Henley & Henley, P.C. said.

Timpa’s family sued the City of Dallas after he was killed August 2016 when he called the Dallas Police for assistance for a mental health crisis. Body camera footage showed that one officer had his knee lodged in Timpa’s back for more than 14 minutes while he was handcuffed. When Timpa fell silent, the officers joked and laughed that he was asleep and needed to wake up for waffles before heading to school.

The case has suffered a series of delays as the action has worked its way through several courts. In December 2021, a Fifth Circuit of Appeals panel handed the family a massive victory, ruling that officers may have used deadly force against the unarmed Timpa as he gasped for breath during his last few minutes alive.

Since the ruling, the Dallas City Attorneys’ Office has attempted appealed the ruling to the entire Fifth Circuit and then to the U.S. Supreme Court. The City and the officers had hoped that one of the courts would dismiss the suit and hold that “qualified immunity” protected the officers’ actions. 

Henley said the matter has been pending back in the trial court but has not been set trial. The Timpas were hoping to try this case sometime between June and September, while the City Attorneys’ Office has been pushing to delay the matter another year, according to court filings.

“There’s nowhere else for the City to go now—except to trial,” Henley said. “We still have a long way to go, but the road to the jury box is clear.”

The Timpa family is expected to speak this week.

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The Roderick & Solange MacArthur Justice Center is a national, nonprofit legal organization dedicated to protecting civil rights and fighting injustice in the criminal legal system through litigation at the trial, appellate, and Supreme Court levels. www.macarthurjustice.org