From the Asbury Park Press:

Beaten in raid, man gets $350G

EXCESSIVE FORCE ALLEGED

A Toms River man, who claimed he was in an apartment to measure for curtains when he was kicked and stomped on by law enforcement officers during a drug raid four years ago, has won a $350,000 settlement in exchange for the dismissal of his excessive force lawsuit, his attorney said.

Jon Caldwell, 54, suffered chest trauma and fractured ribs after law enforcement officers “put their boots on his neck and started beating him by kicking and stomping on him,” according to the lawsuit, which attorney Eugene Melody said was filed in September 2006.

The lawsuit contends that on Dec. 17, 2004, the then-Dover Township Police Department and the Ocean County Narcotics Strike Force were executing search warrants on a pair of apartments in the Park Ridge Apartment complex on Walnut Street. The raids were part of an ongoing investigation into the distribution of marijuana in the Toms River area, according to the suit.

[...]

“Several men in SWAT-type gear broke down the door to his apartment and tackled him, slamming him face first to the floor. These men, . . . members of the Narcotics Strike Force, put their boots on his neck and started kicking and stomping on him,” the suit states. “None of these men ever identified themselves as “law enforcement’ to Mr. Caldwell or asked him what he was doing in the apartment.”

After law enforcement realized Caldwell had nothing to do with the drug raid, they let him go, the suit states. The next day, Caldwell was admitted to Community Medical Center, Toms River, according to the suit. His medical bills total nearly $100,000, according to the suit.

From The Mississippi Press:

Taser incident being probed

23 May 2008

Otis Ashford in his hospital bed

MOSS POINT — The Moss Point Police Department is investigating an incident in which a Moss Point police officer allegedly subdued Otis Ashford in the home of his sister last month with volts of electricity from a Taser gun, Interim Police Chief Frederick Gaston confirmed Thursday.

[...]

Ashford was arrested for interfering with police duties and resisting arrest on April 18. He said his court date has been set for June 10.

[...]

Curley Clark, president of the Jackson County chapter of the NAACP, said the organization is conducting its own investigation.

[...]

According to Ashford, he was watching television with his sister Dell Jones at her house on Westpine Street when they heard a disturbance in the front yard.

“We went out to see what was going on and this man started yelling to get back in the house,” Ashford explained. “At that point, I was just on the screened-in porch. So, we were really still in the house.”

Ashford said he and his sister were concerned their younger brother was being attacked and started calling his name.

“The man on top of the other man never said he was a police officer,” Jones said. “We didn’t know that until he picked the other guy up and took him away. When he stepped into the light, we could see he was an officer. He then started screaming he was coming back to get us.”

Ashford said as the officer disappeared into the night and they thought the incident was over.

“Then he came back, he busted through the screen door and just came at us,” Ashford said. “He was like a mad man. We never even left the porch. He kept saying he was getting me for interfering, but I never got off the porch. How could we interfere?”

Ashford said the officer, who he identified as Johnny Vaughn, pushed him against the wall and doused him and Jones with pepper spray.

“It was everywhere,” Jones said “All over us and all in the house. There was no sense in it.”

According to Ashford, another Moss Point officer arrived and Vaughn ordered him to use the Taser gun.

“He hit me with it probably eight times,” Ashford said as he raised his shirt and showed scars from the Taser’s barbs.

“And that right there,” Jones said as she pointed to a large white scar about the size of a half-dollar on her brother’s back, “that was where they held it on him.”

Ashford and Jones claimed the officer took a barb that wasn’t attached to Ashford and held it in one spot for several seconds, shocking him until he was unconscious.

“I don’t remember nothing after that,” Ashford said.

Jones said she called the police to come and direct the “out-of-control officers.”

“They were killing him,” Jones said, “and they would not stop.”

Their mother, Lillie Ashford, entered the house and watched her son being subdued by police and her daughter passing out.

Lillie Ashford said her son was dragged out of the house by the officers and thrown into a patrol car.

“There was an ambulance right there,” she said. “I begged them to take him to the hospital. I thought they had killed him.”

Lillie Ashford said the officers refused and took her son to jail.

Otis Ashford’s wife, Rosa, said it was at least three hours before her husband received medical treatment.

“When they finally let me see him, he was on a stretcher in the police station,” she said. “They said his heart rate was 179 and his pupils were dilated. They kept asking me what he was on and I told them he doesn’t do drugs.”

Otis Ashford said that when he awoke hospital technicians performed a drug screen test on him and it came back clean. He said he bonded out from the hospital after being kept for two days.

Otis Ashford said FBI Agent Robert Lambert told him the FBI has launched an investigation, but Gaston could not confirm his comments.

See also the SunHerald story.

Hat tip: The Spook at The Brown Watch

From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

Seattle to pay for unlawful arrest, excessive force

Stencil / Plantilla sobre asfixia policial by lademocracia.es @ flickr

In a stunning setback for the Seattle Police Department, a federal civil court jury on Monday found patrol officers made a false and unlawful arrest and used excessive force when they detained and then jailed a young Seattle man on charges of obstruction and resisting arrest.

The nine-member jury awarded Romelle Bradford $268,000 in damages. Though they rejected punitive damages, they also found the 2006 arrest was a federal civil rights violation, which means the city must pay Bradford’s attorneys fees, an amount not yet determined.

[...]

The arresting officer in the case, Jacob Briskey, said he was “disappointed” by the verdict but offered no other comment.

[...]

It was after a club dance Bradford was supervising in August 2006 that he and club volunteers summoned police because of a potentially unruly crowd outside the club. Briskey, 26, was then a rookie officer. He arrived as things were settling down, spotted Bradford jogging down the street and ordered him to stop. When Bradford didn’t halt immediately, Briskey rushed at him and slammed him to the ground.

Bradford said he didn’t think the officer was talking to him because he said he was wearing a red T-shirt clearly identifying him as a Boys & Girls Club member. He said he was holding up his club badge and showing the officer his T-shirt when he said the officer decked him with his forearm.

Using the F-word, the young officer threatened to break Bradford’s arm as he handcuffed him in front of several youngsters who were protesting that he was, indeed, a staff member trying to help.

After a police station interview in which Bradford insisted he was a staff member, police nevertheless booked and jailed him overnight. Briskey claimed Bradford’s failure to immediately stop justified the obstructing charge and that a hesitation to offer one arm during handcuffing — which Bradford doesn’t recall — justified the resisting charge.

Criminal defense attorneys refer to “obstructing a public officer” arrests by two other monikers: “Contempt of cop” and “the cover charge.” Several told the P-I those nicknames are applied because the charges are sometimes abused to punish people for their being “mouthy” or to cover up when police might have used wrongful force against an innocent person.

[...]

The jury didn’t rule entirely in Bradford’s favor. They found that Briskey had “reasonable suspicion to stop and temporarily detain” Bradford prior to arresting him. Thus they rejected an “illegal seizure” claim. They also found that Briskey didn’t act “with evil motive, actual malice, deliberate violence or oppression, with intent to injure, or in willful disregard” for Bradford’s rights. They also rejected other claims of “malicious prosecution,” “abuse of process” and “assault and battery,” denying an unspecified request for punitive damages.

But they did find that Briskey lacked “probable cause” to arrest Bradford, and that the arrest was unlawful. They said the force used was excessive under the federal civil rights law.

Somehow unable to manage taking an intoxicated, frightened young woman back to her mother, the cops take her back to a jail cell. Things get really out of hand when Ms. Kinloch kicks a shoe at a poor defenseless jail matron. She’s pinned against a wall, thrown to the ground by two police officers, bound at the hands and ankles and left sitting against the cell door like that. For four hours. Without a toilet. With nothing to eat or drink.

Kinloch took the uniformed bullies to court, and won. The Victoria PD has been ordered to pay her $60,000 to settle the case.

The sanctimonious police chief was quoted by Canwest News Service:

B.C. teen who was tethered in jail cell wins lawsuit

Jury says police used excessive force

[...]

Victoria’s interim police Chief Bill Naughton said the police department will be reviewing the jury’s decision and assessing its next steps.

“While it was always our intention to keep Ms. Kinloch safe, I do regret the distress the incident has caused Ms. Kinloch and her family,” Naughton said.

He said as soon as he became aware of the incident, he advised the office of the Police Complaint Commissioner and initiated an external investigation now being conducted by the Vancouver Police Department. He has also ordered a review of policies regarding the restraint of people in custody.

Naughton said he was surprised at the verdict but would not elaborate.

Asked what would happen to the officers involved, he said he would be in a better position to comment after thoroughly reviewing the jury’s comments.

“I think it is critical to understand that while the jury has found fault on behalf of the officers, they did not find it necessary to punish them by awarding punitive damages, and I think that’s very significant,” Naughton said.

A local radio station reports:

VICTORIA POLICE REACT TO KINLOCH LAWSUIT VERDICT

[...]

IT’S THE DEPARTMENT WHO HAS BEEN ORDERED TO PAY THE $60-THOUSAND, NOT THE OFFICERS PERSONALLY.

And the burly jail matron whose ridiculous overreaction to being hit in the leg by a flying sneaker is having second thoughts about having been assaulted, according to the Vancouver Sun:

Guard backs off from claim teen assaulted her

Jail matron admits video doesn’t support story

Presented with video evidence in court Friday, a Victoria jail matron named in a civil suit backed away from a statement she signed three years earlier claiming a local teen assaulted her.

Victoria’s taxpayers, who will be forced to foot the bill for these thugs’ misdeeds, were not interviewed. They can rest easy, though, that the police are still out there “protecting” people, and that “protecting” their city from the nightmare horror of a drunken teenager cost them only $60,000. Plus legal fees. Plus court fees. Plus the salaries of everyone involved. Plus… oh never mind.

Of course we’ll wait for all the “facts” to come out in court, where the deck will be stacked heavily in favor of the trigger-happy uniformed thugs, as usual.

Just remember here, it could have been worse for Mr. Fields. The ultimate penalty, after all, for insufficient obeisance to the State, is death.

UPDATE: New at AlterNet: Why the Police Wouldn’t Tase Me When I Asked Them to

From the Mansfield News Journal, Ohio:

May 12, 2008

Mansfield man’s lawsuit alleges excessive police force

BY LINDA MARTZ
News Journal

MANSFIELD — A West Third Street man has sued Mansfield, claiming police used excessive force in a traffic stop after he suffered head wounds and a collapsed lung. The suit says the injuries required surgery to his ankle, and he spent several days on life support.

Phillip Fields Jr., 36, of 191 West Third St., contends the police department failed to properly train officers on the use of the taser and failed to use good faith investigating his complaint about the incident.

Defendants in the lawsuit, filed May 6 in Richland County Common Pleas Court, are the City of Mansfield, Officers Richard Dittrich, Terry Rogers, Philip Messer Jr., and up to 10 unnamed employees of the police department.

Fields was arrested July 6, 2007, when he pulled into his driveway at 334 West Longview Avenue.

“He was supposedly pulled over because he had an expired license tag. He exited his vehicle and gave his ID, and the officer said he was under arrest,” attorney Daniel R. Mordarski said. “When Mr. Fields tried to find out why, the police officer threatened him with a taser, then actually used the taser on him. He shot him anywhere between 5 and 10 times.”

The lawsuit contends Fields immediately fell to the ground after the taser was first used, and got tangled in the long wires attached to his body via the taser darts. Fields contends he had difficulties complying with Dittrich’s order to place his hands behind his back because of the wires and the electrical current traveling through his body.

Court filings maintain the suspect’s brother Jimmy called the police department asking for additional officers to respond to the scene to stop Dittrich from using the taser again. He tried to remove the wires from his brother, and was arrested.

“Phillip went inside the house with his mom and sat at the kitchen table and had a cigarette and waited for police to come for him,” Mordarski said.

According to the lawsuit, a team of officers entered the house and tackled Fields after he held his arms out and told police he would come with them. Fields claims he was kicked and punched by Officers Rogers, Dittrich and Messer Jr. He contends he received a serious ankle injury, a serious head injury, burns from electricity, a collapsed lung and other injuries that required him to be on a medical life support system at the hospital.

The lawsuit alleges the city tried to cover up the use of excessive force and minimize the extent of Phillips’ injuries — with only three officers filling out a Response to Resistance/Aggression Report, listing Fields only injury was a minor cut to the head or forehead.

The lawsuit said Fields was taken to the hospital and remained in intensive care and on a ventilator for several days, with severe injuries.

“It does appear that he had some memory loss and some pretty difficult emotional distress,” Mordarski said.

According to Mordarski, an internal affairs investigation conducted by the city “attempted to justify the actions of the officers, rather than actually investigate the details of the brutal attack.”

The lawsuit contends the city took no action to discipline any of the officers, and tacitly authorized their conduct.

“I don’t know anything about it,” Mansfield Service-Safety Director Ron Kreuter said. “This is the first I’ve heard of it.”

Kreuter said he wasn’t sure if the citizens police review board has looked into the incident.

“I imagine if there was a use of force case, it went through the review board, because we take everything through them, where a use of force is involved.”

Field’s attorney said the 36-year-old’s past history of arrest should not have made a difference in how officers treated him.

“The Constitution says that a police department can only use a reasonable amount of force. Mr. Fields was being arrested for a non-violent traffic violation,” Mordarski said. “They cannot use a taser to simply get a defendant to comply with the order of a police officer.”

Mordarski said Monday a jury trial will be sought, along with payment of Fields’ medical costs, as well as some changes in police department procedures.

“Just based upon what we’ve learned so far, we believe he (Dittrich) either was not adequately trained in the use of the taser, or that he disregarded what he learned. It’s a tragic situation for Phillip Fields, being abused and beaten and put in the hospital for an expired license violation.”

S.F. settles excessive force suit for $235,000

Sunday, May 11, 2008
Kelly Medora, a petite preschool teacher who weighed about 118 pounds, went out with a friend in North Beach one Saturday night in 2005 for some fun.

Instead, San Francisco police officer Christopher Damonte, who weighed about 250 pounds, arrested her for jaywalking, twisted her arm behind her back and broke it with an audible crack.

Although Damonte and the city denied wrongdoing, the city recently mailed Medora a check for $235,000, the largest amount ever to settle a lawsuit claiming San Francisco police used excessive force not involving a weapon.

The Office of Citizen Complaints, meanwhile, has found that Damonte used excessive force in the incident and that another officer failed to investigate Medora’s complaint. Damonte faces a disciplinary hearing at the Police Commission and potential punishment including dismissal.

Damonte, 41, a six-year veteran of the department, has been the subject of other misconduct complaints, according to city sources. He was admonished in 2003 for inappropriately threatening to arrest a woman without authority, and he is among more than 18 officers disciplined for their role in the controversial 2005 Bayview Police Station videos, which Mayor Gavin Newsom denounced as racist, sexist and homophobic.

Good for Ms. Medora for getting something approximating justice out of the situation.

There’s just so much wrong with this situation though.

• SF taxpayers forced to pay put this uniformed gangster out on the street, for their “protection”, of course
• Uniformed gangster, despite a solid career of citizen abuse, is out on the prowl
• Uniformed gangster decides to pick on young woman for victimless crime (jaywalking)
• Uniformed gangster assaults young woman
• Uniformed gangster breaks young woman’s arm as retribution for not being sufficiently submissive
• SF taxpayers forced to pay for court and prosecutor in the case
• SF taxpayers forced to pay compensation to young woman for uniformed gangster’s crime
• SF taxpayers forced to pay plaintiff’s legal fees in the case
• Uniformed gangster faces, at worst, loss of uniform and pension, and a not-so-glamorous career as an even more surly uniformed gangster working for mall security

But let’s read on:

According to Medora’s account, Damonte seemed “irate” and “angry” from the start.

“I was fearful just of his demeanor,” she testified. “He was definitely very threatening with the questions he was asking and his body language and his facial expression, the tone of voice he was using.”

Damonte grabbed her friend’s arm, held it up by her face and demanded she tell him her age, Medora said. Damonte said he would cite her, but didn’t say why.

Medora saw the name “R. Fitzpatrick” on Damonte’s jacket – he had borrowed it from another officer – and asked if that was his name. This seemed to set him off, she said. He said yes and demanded why she wanted to know.

“I don’t believe you’re treating my friend appropriately,” she replied, court records show. “You haven’t told us what we’re being cited for. Please let go of her arm.”

Medora said Damonte started to scream at her. Fearful, she said she turned and walked up to another officer and complained about Damonte.

By her account, Damonte then demanded Medora’s driver’s license. Medora said she’d give him her license if he told her what she did.

Instead, Damonte said “detain her,” by this account, and he and two other officers surrounded her. She said she did not resist them, but merely clutched her purse. Then Damonte grabbed her right arm.

“It all happened very quick,” she testified. “Like he physically took my arm and twisted it up back by my neck to a point where I was completely immobilized. And I said ‘ow, ow.’ And he pulled even harder, and he snapped it.”

There was an audible “pop,” according to a police report.

The city’s lawyer said in court papers that Damonte used an approved method of holding her arm, but she struggled. Then “in an effort to escape,” she squatted down and “broke her own arm.”

Ah yes, they do so often break their own arms…

Besides the insult and injury to Ms. Medora and everything mentioned above, the real injustice here is that the people, not this uniformed gangster, are getting saddled with the bill for his misdeeds.