Florida Keys deputy accused federal agents of hurting him. He won a settlement.
The U.S. government has paid a Florida Keys deputy more than $200,000 to settle a lawsuit over a 2017 post-Hurricane Irma confrontation with two federal agents, the deputy’s lawyer said.
Mark Jones, who in November was promoted to lieutenant with the Monroe
County Sheriff’s Office, said two agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives illegally detained him on Sept. 18, 2017, pointed their guns at his face and assaulted him.
“All over honking my horn,” said Jones, 54. “I didn’t know who they were. They were blocking the road. It was no big deal to me.”
The incident started at about 5 p.m. on Sept. 18, 2017, on Sugarloaf Key, where ATF agents were patrolling to prevent looting and other problems after the hurricane. Eight days earlier, Irma had struck the Keys as a Category 4 storm.
Jones was in an unmarked sheriff’s office truck and came up behind the agents’ SUV. He honked his horn and drove around them. About a half mile down the road, the agents came up behind him with their lights and sirens on.
Special Agents Luis Arias and Jason Scelsa were named in the lawsuit, which was settled Dec. 4. It had been filed at U.S. District Court in Miami.
ATF has said Jones was speeding and acting aggressively. They also say he got out of his truck without showing his badge, and that they used “minimal” force to detain him.
Jones said the agents charged at him, preventing him from telling them he was a cop.
“I’m thinking, these guys are going to shoot me,” Jones said. “I was at their mercy and couldn’t do anything. All I could do was yell, ‘sheriff’s office.’”
One held a gun on Jones while the other pushed him onto the hood of the SUV, he said.
Jones, a 32-year law enforcement veteran who has been with the sheriff’s office in the Keys for about 10 years, said he was thrown against a car and suffered a torn rotator cuff that required surgery.
“They decided to have some fun with him and pulled him over,” said Jones’ attorney Stuart Kaplan. “He was a little taken aback trying to find out who these guys were. These guys decided to get physical and put their hands on him.”
Spokeswomen for ATF and the South Florida U.S. Attorney’s Office said they could not comment on the settlement, which is confidential, Kaplan said.
“The settlement agreement has not been filed with the court,” said Marlene Rodriguez, of the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
ATF TELLS A
DIFFERENT STORY
An ATF report determined that the agents used the “minimal amount” of force needed to protect themselves.
Once they found Jones’ credentials on him, they stopped restraining him, ATF said.
Jones, according to the report, “violated all police protocol and exited his vehicle in an aggressive verbal and physical manner.” He was wearing a T-shirt and cargo shorts when he got out of the unmarked truck and refused to follow multiple verbal commands, ATF found.
Arias at one point grabbed Jones’ hand and pushed him onto the hood of the ATF’s SUV, but
Jones kept taking his hands off the hood and turning toward Arias, the ATF report states.
“Arias had no evidence that Sgt. Jones was in fact a police officer and in fact felt that all of his actions were inconsistent with someone employed in a law enforcement position,” the report states.
“When I realized they were lying and that it was being covered up by their supervisors, I was like, nope, they’re not going to get away with this,” Jones said. “I’m standing up for myself.”
A Florida Keys deputy says he has settled a federal court case against the U.S. government for more than $200,000. He sued after he said two federal agents assaulted him after Hurricane Irma.