Suit vs. town of Bellingham tossed
Man claimed excessive force in his 2012 arrest
A man high on ketamine who grappled with cops, swore at a police dog and trashed the Bellingham Police Station in 2012 — and pleaded guilty to all of it in 2014 — took another run at the PD in a federal excessive force lawsuit. But a judge isn’t buying it.
Shot with rubber bullets, shocked with a Taser stun gun and repeatedly beaten with batons, Joseph “Joe” O’Brien was unfazed by police attempts to restrain him, swearing at them and their dog, according to court documents.
O’Brien even swallowed a stun gun barb in a show of defiance, the documents state.
O’Brien was like a rabid animal in the police station, growling at the officers, tearing a phone from the wall and smashing windows with it, throwing a printer across the room, using a clock as a shield to deflect rubber bullets and as a weapon against police and, according to the report, he tried to wriggle free from his handcuff, attached to the wall by a chain, using his blood as a lubricant.
At one point after police shocked him with a stun gun, he allegedly said, “Give me another one.”
When they threatened him with the police dog, he said, “I like dogs,” and tried to pet it before also calling the dog an expletive, according to the documents. He urged officers to shoot him, kill him and murder him multiple times and reportedly said, “I’m not afraid to die. Are you?”
A federal judge recently threw out his case, in which O’Brien was suing the town for excessive force.
Officers allegedly used numerous physical measures in an attempt to get him to submit so he could be transported to the hospital, where he was eventually treated for a ketamine overdose and lacerations.
O’Brien claimed to have no memory of his 2012 arrest, which began in a wooded area in Bellingham behind a woman’s home, or of the post-arrest incident, which was caught on camera.
He had, in 2014, pleaded guilty to three counts of assault and battery, four counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and two counts of malicious destruction of property with over $250.
O’Brien remains undeterred in the face of the judge’s dismissal, his lawyer said.
“We were disappointed in the judge’s ruling. This has been a highly contested case from the outset but we think the court misapplied the law and did not review the case under the proper summary judgment standard and we were very much looking forward to going to trial and having Mr. O’Brien tell his story,” attorney Edward McCormick said. “We have every intention of appealing to the First Circuit.”