Wrongful-death lawsuit filed against Crook County, sheriff’s deputy in fatal Juniper Canyon shooting
DA cleared deputy, but suit claims he failed to try less-deadly options to de-escalate
PRINEVILLE, Ore. (KTVZ) – A federal wrongful death lawsuit has been filed against Crook County and a sheriff’s deputy who shot and killed a wanted man on a gravel road in Juniper Canyon nearly 11 months ago, saying the deputy failed, for lack of training or other reasons, to try de-escalating the situation with the mentally troubled man.
Deputy Steven Hatcher filed two shots that struck and killed Nicholas Rodin, 35, on Feb. 4, 2022 on Maphet Road near Davis Loop in Juniper Canyon southeast of Prineville.
In clearing Hatcher of wrongdoing, Crook County District Attorney Kari Hathorn noted that Rodin had repeatedly refused the deputy’s commands, said he had a gun and was reaching toward his pocket. She noted he called authorities twice, several hours earlier, to say he had a gun and a knife and to come pick him up before he hurt someone, also threatening to shoot the deputy during their encounter.
But Rodin, who was under the influence of methamphetamines, was unarmed.
Portland attorney Michael Fuller, representing the Rodin family, said at the time of Hathorn’s findings that they planned to file a wrongful death lawsuit in federal court, claiming excessive use of force and seeking no dollar figure, leaving that in a jury’s hands and instead seeking a change in the agency’s policies.
That lawsuit was filed on Sunday in U.S. District Court in Pendleton by a personal representative of Rodin’s estate against the county and Hatcher (see below), claiming wrongful death and seeking a jury trial, while noting Rodin is survived by his mother and a young child born after the fatal shooting.
It notes that Rodin “suffered from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder” and claims he “was experiencing a mental health episode” at the time that was “triggered or exasperated” by Hatcher’s “initial use of force” – pointing a gun at Rodin and repeatedly threatening to kill him.
The lawsuit claims Hatcher “stalked” Rodin after encountering him, rolling his car forward silently until “suddenly and without provocation, (he) leapt out of his car with his handgun drawn, behaving like a spaghetti-western cowboy,” though he had “no legal justification” for doing so, as Rodin “was not posing a threat” to Hatcher or anyone else.
The suit claims Hatcher “knew or should have known” Rodin was unarmed, and that “he “was kneeling in a way that the outline of any dangerous object in his pocket would have been clearly visible.” Instead, moments later, “Rodin responded to the disproportionate and unreasonable show of force by mocking Mr. Hatcher’s extreme demeanor and pretending they were in a spaghetti-western shootout.”
The lawsuit alleges that Hatcher did not attempt alternatives such as less-lethal force, waiting for backup or “merely approaching Mr. Rodin and arresting” him “either because he was not trained to use less-lethal force against a compliant, non-violent member of the public, or because he failed to implement his training.”
