welcome back to the civil rights lawyer Channel last week a jury in Wayne County Michigan
awarded 9.3 million dollars to a plaintiff against a Dearborn Michigan police officer
who arrested him and used excessive force during the arrest I ended up finding all of
the raw body cam footage some of which was in the news but most of which was not let's
take a look at it come here guy come here yo
thank you
what did I do I'm sorry what did I do I just went for directions bro sir I was asking for
directions I told you I was there right okay [Music]
the confrontation began when then 20 year old Luther Gonzalez Hall was riding his bike
home from a friend's house where he had been drinking some and he sees a police officer
in a marked police car and he asks him for directions apparently wasn't satisfied with
those directions so then he goes into a White Castle restaurant also to ask them directions
then the police officer season go into the White Castle apparently he's not happy that
he's going into the White Castle here's what happens
this is
what are you doing man
uh about two minutes ago that was you yeah well who the [ __ ] was it I'm sorry that's
I told you I was there right yeah so why are you in here asking the same thing I told you
where to go that that Acura no yeah why are you in here you sure make sure I put the right
thing I just I'm not for sure where I'm going I told you where to go right yeah so why are
you in here all right sorry no no no why are you in here
all right
thank you come here guy come here yo
what are you doing all right
what
did I do what did I do I'm sorry what did I do I just went for directions bro I was
just asking for directions bro bro I was there for directions man what is your problem man
okay I was seven for Direction
Turn Around sir I was asking for directions I told you I was there right okay okay can
you please let me go hold tight what's wrong man okay easy one can you please let me go
what's wrong hold tight you can't hear that he was slurring his words a little bit and
the information did come out that he had been drinking some previously at his friend's house
but Internal Affairs found that that still did not constitute a crime in this jurisdiction
what is wrong
stop it
you're choking me bro you're just talking to me bro give me a car
so what happened here basically is that he was being choked and he decided the better
thing to do was to attempt to run away which he did what is your problem
so officer Sanders chased Gonzalez Hall knocked him to the ground and Gonzalez Hall claimed
that once he was on the ground and once you see the body cam itself fall to the ground
he claims that he was being choked and at that point he was scared and was able to run
off eventually two other police officers showed up we have their body cam footage as well
and that's where I think the use of force that caused the injury occurred take a look
okay
more what is this one yeah
wait wait wait wait here
what did I do please
don't do it I swear to God I'm not doing nothing shut up dude
yes guys
[Music] [Applause] why are you running away it was stupid wasn't it because you were dumb
enough to run this time so we're gonna parking lot grab my stuff and I got the camera opening
a lot
yeah the baby I just want to get home shut up
there's only one right hey Daniel can you walk yeah if you let me go hey stand up come
on no come on
hey are you serious bro yeah I'm serious move all right oh come on stand up
again
let's go yeah stand up now
girl please man
hey you can run you can walk
I'm [ __ ] trying you're hurting my [ __ ] Lane all right
all right
thank you so during this so-called rough arrest this
guy's foot got broken he got seriously injured and from my understanding he never fully recovered
he still today has a limp and that explains the large amount of Damages that the jury
was able to award in this case but they did criminally charge him they arrested him they
held him for hours without telling him what he was being charged with ultimately they
charged him with like resisting arrest maybe obstruction type charges those bogus charges
were quickly dismissed and then the case was referred to Internal Affairs at the deborn
Michigan police department and they ultimately found that this was a false arrest that this
guy had a legal right to resist an unlawful arrest a lawsuit was filed and ultimately
that wound its way up through over the course of four or five years ultimately to a jury
who awarded the 9.6 million dollars the most important thing to understand here is not
just that excessive force occurred but it was that it was a false arrest from the beginning
there was no Reasonable Suspicion or probable cause to either detain or arrest Mr Gonzalez
Hall he initially had asked the officers four directions on how to ride his bicycle to the
location in which he was headed he went into the White Castle and asked them for directions
as well and no matter what this officer Sanders ended up coming up with after the fact is
possible Reasonable Suspicion of a crime the fact is and Internal Affairs verified that
the employees inside the restaurant immediately informed officer Sanders that this guy was
not committing a crime in there he was just in there asking for directions and therefore
officer Sanders had no legal right to chase him down knock him off his bicycle and arrest
him and because of that everything that happened afterwards was an in violation of the Fourth
Amendment because there was no right to detain or arrest him therefore it didn't just matter
whether or not they were using a reasonable or an excessive amount of force in arresting
him because they weren't allowed to use any level of force or to detain him at all so
that's why it was a strong case for the plaintiff and then secondly because he had legitimate
verifiable medical injuries that he should not have had and he was going to have a limp
for the rest of his life that allowed the plaintiff's attorneys to push a very large
number of Damages at trial so remember usually the problem in constitutional injury cases
is that you don't have a whole lot of Damages you just have maybe some attorneys fees related
to the criminal case maybe some time off work things of that nature maybe a little bit of
pain and suffering type type injuries but here where you have actual matter critical
documented injuries that are going to affect the types of activities you can do or cannot
do in the future the type of employment that really can push up the damages so as always
if you like watching this sort of police footage especially this is the best kind where we
can watch the footage and then we know the the outcome 9.6 million dollar verdict so
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John H Bryant attorney at law remember freedom is scary deal with it
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