FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. _ The only armed deputy stationed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School the day of Nikolas Cruz's deadly rampage had "no legal duty" to protect the students and faculty from harm, the deputy's lawyer argued in court Wednesday morning.
Scot Peterson, who has since resigned from the Broward Sheriff's Office and is accused of shirking his responsibility by hiding instead of confronting Cruz, wants Broward Circuit Judge Patti Englander Henning to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the family of Meadow Pollack, one of 17 people shot and killed in the Parkland school on Feb. 14.
"We want to say he had an obligation, but the law isn't that," said Peterson's lawyer, Michael Piper. "From a legal standpoint, there was no duty."
Peterson was not in court Wednesday for the hearing _ in a separate motion he is asking the judge to keep Pollack's father, Andrew, from attending a formal interview as part of the lawsuit. Pollack, who is also suing Cruz, the family that took him in two months before the shooting, and his mental health providers, sat at the plaintiff's table during the hearing.
One of the lawyers representing Pollack expressed shock that Peterson would try to get out of the lawsuit.
"It is inconceivable that anyone could advance the proposition that Scot Peterson had no duty to these people," said attorney Joel Perwin. "That is an absurd proposition. ... This was an abdication of responsibility when this (shooting) happened, and it is an abdication of responsibility now in this courtroom."
Cruz is facing the death penalty if convicted of 17 counts of first-degree murder. He is also charged with 17 counts of attempted murder. On Tuesday he was formally charged with attacking a deputy and removing his stun gun at the Broward main jail, where Cruz has been housed since the Stoneman Douglas shooting.
