Christopher Nguyen was a rookie police officer in Baltimore, Maryland. On August 12, 2020, he responded to a report of two men fighting inside a gold sedan. When he arrived, he saw a man, Wayne Brown, lying face-down on the sidewalk near the sedan. He was bloody and unresponsive, so Nguyen called for a medic. A second man, Kenneth Somers, was sitting in the driver’s seat of a pickup truck stopped in the middle of the roadway. Nguyen questioned Somers, who explained that he fought Brown while trying to regain possession of the car, which Brown allegedly had stolen from Somers’ business. As he spoke to Nguyen, Somers called Brown a slur and began to approach him but stopped and returned to his truck. Somers continued to loudly insult Brown while Nguyen returned to his police cruiser to obtain a notepad.
Officer Franklin Phipps then arrived on scene. He tended to Brown with a first-aid kit and directed Nguyen to “stand by.” Somers approached Brown again, taunting him. Nguyen followed Somers from behind and continued to question him about the alleged motor vehicle theft. As Somers answered one of Nguyen’s questions, he approached Brown and kicked him in the head. Phipps and Nguyen immediately arrested and handcuffed Somers and placed him in the back of Nguyen’s police cruiser.
In the aftermath of the attack, Nguyen called for backup, describing Brown as the “suspect” and Somers as “the good person,” while also noting that Somers was “bad.” Nguyen spoke further with Somers, explaining that he understood why Somers was angry with Brown, and added “you got to do what you got to do.” Nguyen also asked Somers if he ever considered fighting professionally and suggested that Somers would not be arrested if he had not attacked Brown in his presence. Brown was transported to a hospital where he was treated for three stab wounds to his head. Somers was later charged with attempted murder, as well as other crimes, and ultimately served a sentence for first-degree assault and reckless endangerment.
One year later, Nguyen was charged with criminal reckless endangerment and misconduct in office. After a bench trial, he was convicted of reckless endangerment. The Court noted that there was no dispute as to whether Nguyen was obligated to protect Brown and concluded that Nguyen recklessly ignored the ongoing threat that Somers represented to Brown by failing to keep the men separate. Nguyen resigned from the Baltimore Police Department following his sentencing and appealed.
The Maryland Court of Appeals affirmed Nguyen’s conviction for reckless endangerment: “The crime of reckless endangerment states in relevant part that ‘a person may not recklessly engage in conduct that creates a substantial risk of death or serious physical injury to another.’ The Supreme Court of Maryland has held that the conduct proscribed by the statute includes ‘the willful failure to perform a legal duty.’ To convict Nguyen of reckless endangerment based upon an omission, the State needed to adduce evidence from which a reasonable factfinder could find that (1) Nguyen owed a legal duty to Brown; (2) that he was aware of his obligation to perform that duty; (3) that he knew that his failure to perform that duty would create a substantial risk of death or serious physical injury to Brown; (4) that a reasonable police officer in Nguyen’s position would not have disregarded his duty; and (5) that he consciously disregarded his duty.” Nguyen’s primary argument was that he did not owe Brown a legal duty.
The Court rejected this argument. Generally, police officers are not liable to private citizens for acts committed by other private citizens, unless a “special relationship” exists between the police officer and the victim. When a police officer detains a suspect, and has them in custody, a special relationship exists between them whereby the officer is obligated to protect the suspect from violence by other citizens. However, Nguyen had not detained Brown at the time Somers kicked him in the head, and so no special relationship existed between them. Nonetheless, the Court determined that Nguyen owed Brown a legal duty because “as a matter of Maryland common law police have a duty to protect the public and its breach is enforceable in a criminal proceeding.”
Having concluded that Nguyen breached his duty of care to Brown, the Court had to determine whether Nguyen had the requisite mindset to be guilty of reckless endangerment. Put simply, to be guilty Nguyen had to consciously disregard the risk that Somers would attack Brown. The Court determined that Nguyen consciously disregarded this risk because (1) he immediately observed that Brown was severely beaten upon arriving to the scene; (2) Somers shortly thereafter called Brown a slur and seemingly believed his actions were justified; (3) Somers approached Brown and taunted him; and (4) review of Nguyen’s body-worn camera showed that Somers had bad intentions toward Brown prior to the attack. Taken together, Nguyen knew that Somers remained an ongoing threat to Brown. The Court concluded that Nguyen fell below the reasonable expectations of a trained police officer by failing to keep Somers separate from Brown during the investigation.
Nguyen v. State of Maryland, No. 1495, Sept. Term, 2022, 2024 WL 277450 (App. Ct. Md.).