OKC settles drummer’s suit for $30K
A well-known death metal drummer has accepted a $30,000 settlement to end his lawsuit over his 2014 arrest in Oklahoma City.
Phil Dubois-Coyne, now 32, suffered a broken arm when police arrested him at a concert after-party early Aug. 8, 2014, at the Downtown Airpark.
Police reported he was drunk and chanting at first, “F--- the police,” and then, “Kill the police.”
“I felt this was beginning to incite actions against us and we were easily outnumbered by the crowd,” one officer wrote in a crime report.
Dubois-Coyne, whose address was listed as Boston, was later charged with public drunkenness, disorderly conduct and resisting a police officer.
He filed a lawsuit against the city and three police officers in 2016, alleging false arrest and excessive force. A jury trial had been set to begin in January in Oklahoma City federal court.
The Oklahoma City Council agreed in November to settle the case for $30,000 without admitting liability. A federal judge approved the settlement Dec. 15.
Dubois-Coyne spent about 12 hours in jail in 2014 after his broken arm was treated at a hospital. He pleaded no contest in Oklahoma City Municipal Court last November to the public drunkenness charge and paid $178. The other municipal charges against him were dismissed in 2015.
Dubois-Coyne has been called one of the finest modern metal drummers and played nine years with the band Revocation before a 2015 split.
“He’s pretty famous with heavy metal rock bands,” said his attorney, Holly
Hefton of Oklahoma City. “He’s still playing. He had a little bit of deformity to his arm after all this. He has the option of surgery but his doctors have told him that by correcting it he could end up with nerve damage. He’s relearning how to play with his situation now.”
She said he also works as a drum technician for Cannibal Corpse, setting up the drum set for every show and sound checking it. “He’s been with them for a long time,” she said.
In the lawsuit, attorneys argued his chanting was exercising his First Amendment rights. They argued he was resisting an unlawful arrest and was taken to the ground in a negligent and excessive manner. “Bystanders could hear the bone break,” they told a judge.
Attorneys for the city told the judge the arrest was lawful, the level of force was not excessive and Dubois-Coyne was injured as a result of his own illegal actions.
Hefton acknowledged Dubois-Coyne and another performer were chanting, “F--the police” at the “Mayhem Fest” after-party in Oklahoma City. She explained, though, that they were just repeating the lyrics of a popular heavy metal song, “Cop Killer.”
“They see the cops arresting the other guy and they just like started chanting that song,” Hefton said. “There were
no members of the public there . ... They were walking away from the situation towards their bus . ... And I guess some other people nearby may have started chanting but it didn’t incite anyone and it wasn’t meant to.”
The arresting officer, Kenneth Lile, reported he first tried to calm Dubois-Coyne down and explained officers were just trying to help an assault victim. He reported Dubois-Coyne leaned in and yelled, “F--- you, kill ‘em all!”
The officer reported he had to take DuboisCoyne to the ground because the drummer was resisting being handcuffed. “I got him up and he said his arm was broken. I could see his upper left arm did appear broken,” the officer wrote. “The crowd around us began to get unruly.”
The officer reported Dubois-Coyne “was yelling profanity, insults and threats towards me and my family.”
“He was calling out the crowd to ‘get me’ and to stop me from taking him to jail,” the officer wrote in the crime report.
The officer wrote several subjects at one point blocked their way just past an opening in a fenced area and a crowd began to surround them. “I had no where to go,” the officer wrote.
He wrote he had to use his Taser to force one subject to back up and get to his patrol car. “I could see other officers also making it through the crowd and they covered my back,” he wrote.