CARSON CITY - In a dissenting opinion, seven judges on the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said a decision by their colleagues on the court related to a Reno case could turn police officers into babysitters, psychiatrists and social workers.

A three-judge panel of the appeals court ruled in July 2009 that the city of Reno and two of its police officers could be held liable for the suicide of Brenda Clustka, who hanged herself in her jail cell.

Police Officers Ryan Ashton and David Robertson were hauling Clustka to jail and witnessed her attempt to choke herself with a seat belt. But the officers did not report the incident to jail officials. Clustka, who long suffered mental problems, was released from jail but returned the next day when she hanged herself.

The three-judge panel on the appeals court ruled that, "When an individual is taken into custody and thereby deprived of her liberty, the officials who hold her against her will are constitutionally obligated to respond if a serious medical need should arise."

The panel said a jury could find the officers showed a deliberate indifference to Clustka's serious medical need. And the jury could find the city of Reno liable for its failure to train its law enforcement officers or to implement policies on suicide prevention and reporting.

The panel allowed the case to go to trial. Her children Charla and Dustin Conn filed suit in federal court.

U.S. District Judge Howard McKibben granted a summary judgment in favor of Reno and the two officers. And the children appealed to the 9th Circuit.

In response to the appeal, the judges said "Responsibility for preventing suicide rests with the individual and the family, not the state."

Reno and the officers asked for a rehearing and a session before the full 9th Circuit. That motion for a rehearing failed and the seven judges filed a strongly worded dissent.

The seven said that the reasoning of the panel "has no stopping point, and our decision to let it stand threatens unprecedented judicial intervention in our local institutions."

The dissenting judges said the state is required to take care of a prisoner who cannot feed or clothe himself or get himself to a doctor. But they said, "there is no free-floating obligation to safeguard prisoners, health." The decision by the panel creates "novel duties to train and to report information that bear no relationship to the fact of incarceration."

The decision of the panel will have "fair-reaching consequences."

"To avoid liability under our federal Constitution, police departments throughout the Ninth Circuit must now transform their police officers into suicide prevention experts," said the dissenters.