Lawsuit against police to proceed

Man’s lawsuit against police can proceed after appellate court ruling

A man pepper-sprayed and Tased by Euclid police in 2016 has received an appellate court ruling that his attorneys say will allow him to have his day in court.

Lamar Wright sued Euclid in 2017, about a year after the incident. In the suit he alleged excessive use of force by a pair of Euclid police officers. A federal judge for the Northern District of Ohio dismissed the suit last year, but after the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals decision June 18, the case can be reopened.

“This appeal involves a Chris Rock video and a cartoon, but it is no laughing matter,” wrote Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge John K. Bush. “In fact, this case raises a gravely important issue—police use of force— that has dominated the nation’s attention in recent weeks.”

Bush is referring to a Euclid police training video that first came to light during another federal court case against the city’s police department.

“A reasonable jury could find that the city’s excessive-force training regimen and practices gave rise to a culture that encouraged, permitted, or acquiesced to the use of unconstitutional excessive force, and that, as a result, such force was used on Wright.”

— Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge John K. Bush

In that case, regarding the 2017 shooting death of 23-year-old Luke Stewart by a Euclid police officer, Northern District of Ohio James S. Gwin dismissed the lawsuit but was critical of the department’s training practices. He said presentation materials used during at least one of its in-service trainings displayed a “disturbing tendency to trivialize the use of excessive force.”

One slide contained a graphic showing an officer beating a prone and unarmed suspect with the caption “protecting and serving the poop out of you.” Another slide links to a Chris Rock Show comedy sketch titled “How not to get your ass kicked by police.”

“The video shows numerous clips of multiple officers beating suspects,” Gwin said. “Whatever the merits of this routine as comedy, it is grossly inappropriate in the context of a police department’s use of force training.”

The attorneys for the Stewart family have appealed Gwin’s decision to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals

and are awaiting a decision. Both Wright and the Stewart family are represented by the law firm Friedman & Gilbert. Both Wright and Stewart are black men.

The incident involved in Wright’s case occurred on Nov. 4, 2016, when he was driving in Euclid and pulled over into a nearby driveway to safely use his cell phone to call his girlfriend.

According to his lawsuit, two men appeared at his car doors and tried to yank them open. Wright saw a gun in the hand of at least one of the men and feared they were carjackers but soon realized they were police.

Euclid police officers Kyle Flagg and Vashon Williams stopped, searched and seized Wright without reasonable suspicion or probable cause, the lawsuit alleges.

During the course of the seizure, the lawsuit states Flagg grabbed and twisted Wright’s arm and discharged a Taser at Wright’s stomach area. At the same time, Williams discharged pepper spray into Wright’s eyes, nose and mouth. Wright was seated during what his attorneys called a “vicious and unprovoked attack.”

In a video of the incident, one of the officers can be heard saying that he thought Wright had a gun. Wright underwent surgery that October and had a colostomy bag at the time of his arrest.

The lawsuit states that Flagg caused Wright “extreme pain” when he twisted his arm. Wright cried out several times that he was hurting his arm, but was ignored. It also states Wright was terrified that by twisting his body in the car seat, Flagg might severely damage his colostomy bag and surrounding tissue and organs.

Wright was charged with obstructing official business, resisting arrest and criminal trespass, driving under suspension, driving without headlights on and failing to use a turn signal. Seven months later all charges against him were dismissed.

“A reasonable jury could find that the city’s excessive-force training regimen and practices gave rise to a culture that encouraged, permitted, or acquiesced to the use of unconstitutional excessive force, and that, as a result, such force was used on Wright,” Bush wrote in his opinion.

Euclid Mayor Kirsten Holzheimer-Gail did not respond to a message seeking comment.

“At this moment in history, as streets throughout Ohio, across the country, and around the world swell with protests against racist policing and brutality, this decision symbolizes a realization that police lies and violence against Black people cannot and will not be tolerated,” Friedman & Gilbert attorney Jacqueline Greene said in a statement.

Greene also said, “Now that his case can proceed, Mr. Wright looks forward to his trial.”

Wright and Stewart’s cases are two of several lawsuits the Euclid police department has faced in recent years.

Earlier this year Shajuan Gray settled with the city for $125,000. Gray said a Euclid police officer humiliated her when he exposed her body during an arrest, refusing to allow her to dress while arresting her and told a neighbor to cover her up.

She was later acquitted of resisting arrest, obstruction of justice and loud music charges. Euclid has denied liability in court filings and the settlement agreement. Gray was also represented by Friedman & Gilbert attorneys.

In another lawsuit that was settled in 2018, Erimius Spencer said he was seriously injured by two off-duty Euclid officers moonlighting as apartment security guards.

During the incident officer Michael Amiott allegedly kicked Spencer in the face and Spencer was later treated for a broken bone in his face. Charges against Spencer were later dropped.

Spencer received $40,000 as a part of the settlement. The city and the officers admit no liability and the payment is made “solely to terminate further controversy” related to the incident, according to the terms of the settlement.

The city is also being sued for another incident involving Amiott, where he was captured on video kicking and punching Richard Hubbard III during a traffic stop. That lawsuit is pending in federal court.

Amiott is facing misdemeanor criminal charges related to that incident. That case was supposed to go to trial in Euclid Municipal Court in late April but was postponed due to the novel coronavirus. A new date has not yet been set.

Gray, Spencer and Hubbard are also black.