Trucker sues city, alleging police brutality
Driver claims officers injured him in 2013 search for burglary suspect
A truck driver who claims Houston police officers attacked him in the 2013 search for a burglary suspect, causing post-traumatic stress disorder and injuries from a chokehold and punching, has sued the city, alleging excessive force.
In the lawsuit filed in Houston federal court, 36-year-old Nicolas Watson claims he was stopped in his driveway by Houston Police Department officers Felipe Gallegos Jr. and Ricardo Eduardo Perez, with their guns drawn, as they jumped out of an unmarked vehicle with darkly tinted windows.
According to the complaint, Watson had just left a fast-food restaurant and was returning home from a haul around 2 a.m.
Watson’s lawsuit claims the food flew out of his hands when one officer placed him in a chokehold and began “suffocating” him while another kicked him in the head, causing unconsciousness. The officers also allegedly searched him and his vehicle.
Then, he was handcuffed, placed into a marked HPD cruiser driven by a supervisor and taken a block away to the house that was allegedly burglarized, the lawsuit claims. He eventually was returned to his home.
The lawsuit also claims that despite filing a complaint with HPD’s internal affairs division, “no officer received any discipline for (anything) related to excessive force or false arrest and wrongful detention.”
Watson’s lawyer, Randall Kallinen, released a photo of Watson showing blood pooling in the corners on both of his eyes.
The lawsuit claims that the father of three, who drove trucks for 12 years, has been unable to work since suffering numerous serious injuries including eyeball hemorrhages, a concussion, headaches and muscle spasms.
The original complaint, filed in May, named the officers as “John Does” because their identities were unknown to the plaintiff despite “repeated requests,” the lawsuit said at the time. An amended filing identifying the officers was entered into court records on Wednesday.
The complaint specifically alleges that the officers violated Watson’s civil rights by assault, battery and false imprisonment. The filing also claims that the city was involved in a conspiracy that fueled supervisor liability and deliberate indifference.
In a June response, the city asked U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes to dismiss the lawsuit.
The 14-page filing by City Attorney Donna Edmundson said that Watson “fails to state plausible factual allegations showing that Houston had a policy, practice, or custom that was a moving force of the alleged constitutional violations and (Watson’s) alleged injuries, or that a policy, practice, or custom was a moving force and constituted deliberate indifference resulting in a deprivation of (Watson’s) constitutionally protected rights.”