In Bismarck, North Dakota, a protester of the Dakota Access oil pipeline, Eric Poemoceah from Oklahoma, brought a federal court lawsuit in 2020 alleging excessive force by law enforcement officers during a demonstration in February 2017. Poemoceah named Morton County, County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier, then-Sheriff of Cass County Paul Laney, and other officers, including unidentified ones, as defendants. He sought unspecified damages to be determined at trial.

Poemoceah claimed that Bismarck Police Officer Benjamin Swenson tackled him during the protest camp evacuation, resulting in a pelvic fracture. He also accused other officers of causing additional injuries and claimed that the officers ignored his pelvic injury and retaliated against him for livestreaming the events.

Initial attempts to dismiss the case were made by the defendants, and U.S. District Judge Daniel Traynor granted their motions to dismiss in December 2020. Judge Traynor cited qualified immunity for the officers regarding the use of force and deemed Poemoceah’s claims insufficiently supported.

In 2021, Poemoceah appealed the decision. A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Wednesday to uphold most of the dismissals. However, the panel found that Poemoceah’s claim of excessive force against Swenson under the Fourth Amendment was plausible and ordered further proceedings on that specific claim.

The Dakota Access pipeline protest, which took place in 2016 and 2017 near the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s reservation, drew thousands of individuals who demonstrated and camped for months. The protests resulted in hundreds of arrests amidst the contentious opposition to the pipeline’s crossing of the Missouri River.

The pipeline has been operational since 2017, despite an ongoing court-ordered environmental review process specifically for the disputed river segment.