Iowa Judicial building.
The Iowa Supreme Court rules in favor of officers in a pursuit of an escaped inmate in central Iowa that led to a crash.
Amber Martinez of Des Moines claimed officers were reckless for pursuing Scott Grimes on a busy street in Urbandale, and that led to Grimes hitting her car head-on. She was in the hospital for six months after the crash.
Grimes had escaped from the Warren County jail and went on a multi-state crime spree before officers spotted him in 2016 and began the chase. An officer called off the pursuit just before Grimes crashed into Martinez — saying the traffic was too heavy.
The Iowa Supreme Court ruled that no reasonable jury could find that the officer’s pursuit of Grimes meets the high bar for recklessness under Iowa law.