A federal appeals court reinstated a wrongful-death suit Monday by the family of a man who was mortally wounded in a patrol car by a policewoman who reached for what she thought was a Taser, but pulled out her handgun instead.

A federal judge ruled in 2009 that Madera police Officer Marcy Noriega - who had undergone daily Taser training since a similar, nonlethal blunder nine months earlier - made a reasonable mistake in a fast-moving situation and could not be held legally responsible.

But the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said a jury might conclude from the evidence that Noriega's "poor judgment and lack of preparedness caused her to act with undue haste" and with excessive force against the handcuffed man, Everardo Torres.

The case dates from 2002, when electronic stun guns were a relatively new police weapon with few safeguards against confusion - Tasers looked much like firearms and were often worn on the same side of the body as an officer's pistol.

Investigators concluded that the fatal shooting was an accident, and Noriega was not charged with a crime. By contrast, BART Officer Johannes Mehserle was charged with murder for shooting unarmed passenger Oscar Grant in January 2009 with a gun that was much different in size and color from his Taser, and was worn on the opposite hip. A jury found that the killing was accidental and convicted Mehserle of involuntary manslaughter.

Torres, 24, was arrested with a friend in October 2002 by police responding to a complaint of loud noise at a party. Torres fell asleep in the patrol car, then awoke and started shouting and kicking at a door. He was complaining that his handcuffs were too tight, one of his lawyers said.

Noriega, who was standing nearby, said Torres kicked the door into her as she opened it. She pulled out her black Glock semiautomatic pistol from a holster on her right hip - just above her holstered black Taser - and aimed and fired the gun without looking at it, the court said. The bullet hit Torres in the chest.

Noriega had been issued a Taser less than a year earlier. About a month and a half later, she accidentally put her pistol into her Taser holster. A week later, the court said, she intended to use her Taser on a resisting suspect, pulled out her gun instead, and realized her mistake only when she was accidentally pointing the Glock at her partner's head.

She put herself through daily training sessions in the use of both guns for the next nine months, until the day of Torres' shooting.

In dismissing the lawsuit by Torres' family against Noriega and the city, U.S. District Judge Anthony Ishii said the officer had little formal training on Taser use and had been forced to make a "split-second judgment" in tense circumstances, justifying a finding that her mistake was reasonable.

But the appeals court said Noriega acknowledged that Torres posed no danger to anyone but himself. A jury "might question the reasonableness" of even using a Taser, and could also find that the officer should have looked at her weapon before firing, Judge Michael Hawkins said in the 3-0 ruling, which sends the case to trial.

Bruce Praet, a lawyer for the city, said he will probably ask the full appeals court for a rehearing. The court applied "20-20 hindsight" to a "tragic mistake" that may have been negligent but did not rise to the level of a violation of constitutional rights, he said.

The ruling can be viewed at links.sfgate. com/ZLCB.