By Nancy Huddleston, Editor

An attorney for Julie and Steven Pyle said his clients have dropped their federal lawsuit against the Savage Police Department because they didn’t have the monetary resources to continue the fight that stemmed from a 911 call involving an alleged “hostage situation” in their home during a DirecTV installation.

The lawsuit was a result of a miscommunication between a DirecTV installer and a customer service dispatcher in the fall of 2006. When the 911 call was placed, police were mistakenly told the installers were being held hostage with a gun at the couple’s home on 154th Place.

The Pyles dismissed their claims without compensation from the city, if the city agreed to not seek recovery for attorney’s fees or expenses incurred in connection with the lawsuit.

According to the Pyle’s attorney, they did receive a monetary settlement with Premier Communications, the DirecTV installer, but he would not disclose the amount.

“It came down to how expensive it was getting for the Pyles as individuals to fight a multi-million-dollar corporation,” said Minneapolis Attorney Marc Kurzman.

When asked if the Pyles were satisfied with the outcome, Kurzman responded “probably not.” He went on to clarify that the Pyles’ motivation in filing the lawsuit was to change the policies followed by police.

“When police responded to this there was a time and point when they knew there wasn’t a need to arrest my client,” he said, “But they lured her outside of the home, put a gun to her head and put her on the ground and arrested her.”

Kurzman said police policy dictates that police go ahead and act on the initial call, even though they know the information might be wrong. “We were never contending that police should not have responded to the 911 call; rather, there were mistakes made along the way,” he said.

The details of the lawsuit are contentious.

On Oct. 13, 2006, two technicians were working at the Pyle’s home to install DirecTV service and were there longer than they expected. During the course of the two-hour installation, Julie received two calls from DirecTV to check on the progress and because the installation was so difficult, she baked cookies for the technicians.

But after miscommunication in one of the phone calls to the technicians, a DirecTV customer service representative called 911 at 5:45 p.m. saying they needed police to respond to the Pyle’s home because: “Our technicians are being held at gun point by the customer.”

Another customer service representative also got on the line with 911 dispatchers and advised them that the technicians “gave her what she wanted and then got out the door.”

According to court documents, Scott County dispatchers then called the technicians and were told: “We are not being held hostage by the customer, we were held, being held hostage by DirecTV.”

 While dispatchers tried to sort out the miscommunication, the installer said, “I think there’s a major misconstrued statement going right now.” When he was advised that police were on the way, he said, “call off the units.”

When police arrived, the lawsuit alleges, they knew a hostage situation involving a gun was not going on, yet they ordered Julie to the ground and handcuffed her.

In response to the dismissal of the lawsuit, City Administrator Barry Stock and Police Chief Rodney Seurer contend that any other outcome of the lawsuit would have been a complete contradiction to the services that the police department consistently provides each day.

“The dismissal of this lawsuit exonerates our police officers of any wrongdoing,” said Stock. “It is important for the community to know that the Savage Police Department responded to this call the same way it responds to all calls: in a professional manner that exercises sound judgment and appropriate protocol.”

In addition to suing the Savage Police Department, the lawsuit also named a Savage police officer, Scott County dispatchers, DirecTV and its Burnsville contractor, Premier Communications, along with two technicians and two customer service technicians.

The Pyles were seeking a total of $450,000 in damages ($75,000 for each of six counts in the lawsuit). They were alleging negligence, negligent reporting of a crime, making a false arrest, unlawful use of force, emotional distress (Julie Pyle) and loss of consortium (Steven Pyle).

Prior to the federal court case being filed, an insurance adjuster found the city of Savage “performed appropriately” and denied any claim regarding the city. His decision indicated that the “error rests with DirecTV through their dispatcher.”

In a statement issued shortly after the incident occurred, a representative of DirecTV stated the company’s first priority is the safety of its customers and its employees. “We take threats very seriously and have trained our customer service team on how to respond to emergency situations … We sincerely apologize for any embarrassment or other duress that the customer and installers experience as a result of this incident.”

DirecTV officials have since declined to comment on the matter.

The Pyle’s lawsuit charged that DirecTV and Premier Communications have a duty to insure accuracy of information they provide and to train their employees properly.

That duty was “breached,” according to the lawsuit by “wrongly reporting, apparently upon use of some unknown ‘code’ language from their employees to their employers” that Julie Pyle was holding the installers hostage by gunpoint.

 Nancy Huddleston can be reached at editor@savagepacer.com.  

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