Lawsuit: HPD officer made a violent arrest

Man says he was beaten; union calls it ‘frivolous’

A Houston man said in a lawsuit filed last Friday that he was “violently beaten, harassed, taunted, wrongfully arrested and denied medical attention” during a July 2015 encounter with a Houston police officer.

Larry Moore Jr., 33, says the officer used excessive force and violated his constitutional rights after pulling him over for a traffic stop and finding a bag of marijuana. He is seeking compensation from the officer, the police department and the city for his injuries, pain, mental anguish and medical expenses, as well as punitive damages.

Representatives of the Houston Police Department and the city of Houston declined to comment on pending litigation. However, an official with the Houston Police Officers’ Union weighed in.

“We believe this to be a frivolous lawsuit,” said Joe Gamaldi, a union vice president. “Any force used by our officers was justified. This is an attempt of a suspect in possession of 2 pounds of marijuana to gain notoriety or possible financial benefit by suing our hardworking officers.”

Diverging accounts

Moore was pulled over about 7:30 p.m. July 7, 2015, while driving with a passenger on Mykawa Road in southeast Houston, according to the lawsuit’s statement of facts. He pulled into the parking lot of the Fiesta Mart supermarket at 5600 Mykawa.

Officer Kevin Hubenak, a nine-year HPD veteran, wrote in a sworn statement used to charge Moore that he pulled over Moore’s vehicle because it ran a red light and had a broken taillight.

Moore and his passenger turned around and looked at the officers through the back window “while repeatedly shifting their weight around,” Hubenak wrote. As the officers approached the vehicle, they smelled “the distinct odor of fresh marijuana.”

The officer could see into the vehicle as the passenger moved a black trash bag from the center console, Hubenak wrote. Inside that trash bag, the officers later found two clear plastic bags filled with a little more than 2 pounds of marijuana.

Moore and his passenger stepped out of the car when the officers told them to, the lawsuit and the sworn statement both say.

Then the passenger, Michael Brooks, ran away, both documents say. Hubenak’s partner caught and arrested him after a foot chase.

That’s where the accounts diverge.

Hubenak’s sworn statement says Brooks fought with the other officer and ran away after Moore already was handcuffed. It does not discuss any physical contact between Hubenak and Moore.

The lawsuit offers a different account, saying that after Brooks fled, Hubenak body slammed Moore, leaving him with cuts and swelling. After handcuffing Moore, the lawsuit says, the officer punched and kicked him until bystanders yelled to stop.

The lawsuit says “Mr. Moore was not attempting to evade or resist arrest, or otherwise harm any person.” It includes two photos of Moore’s face identified as taken a few hours later, which appear to show a black eye and swelling.

Moore was placed in the back seat of a patrol car for two hours and “forced to listen as other HPD officers on the scene praised officer Hubenak for the severity of the injuries he caused Mr. Moore,” according to the lawsuit, which says the other officers were “laughing and joking about how hideous his face looked.”

Moore was taken to HPD Central Jail, the lawsuit says, where jail staff refused to admit him because of “blunt facial trauma.”

Plea bargain accepted

The lawsuit alleges that “Officer Hubenak lied and stated that he found the drugs in the center console, although according to Michael Brooks, the owner of the drugs, they were hidden in the back of the truck underneath the passenger seat.”

Moore’s attorney in the lawsuit, Andre Evans, says that Brooks has always admitted ownership and Moore has always denied it.

Court records show, however, that Moore accepted a plea bargain in May 2017. Prosecutors dropped the felony charge of possessing several pounds of marijuana in exchange for Moore pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge of possessing several ounces. He was sentenced to two days in jail as well as drug education.