Andrew Hull v. Town of Newtown

Summary

The court affirmed summary judgment for the town, holding that Newtown police policies requiring searches of arrestees and prisoners did not impose a ministerial duty to search a person taken into custody for emergency psychiatric evaluation. The arrest policy was limited to criminal arrests, and the transportation policy likewise applied only to prisoners transported under criminal procedures. Justice Eveleigh, dissenting, would have held that the policy's plain definition of arrest required a search whenever a person was taken into custody, including under the mental-health statute.