Police Brutality

Harford County and Its Sheriff’s Office are Defendants in $145 Million Maryland Wrongful Death Lawsuit Alleging Police Brutality

February 3, 2010 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

The family of Dwight Jerome Madison is suing Harford County and the Harford County Sheriff’s Office for Maryland wrongful death. Madison, 48, died after police threw him in jail last June. His family is alleging wrongful arrest and police brutality. They are seeking $145 million from the defendants.

According to the Maryland police brutality lawsuit, Madison was arrested on June 11, 2009 just hours after police stopped him in Bel Air. The 48-year-old was let go after he told them he was looking for a friend in the area. Police officer followed him and arrested him for trespassing. He was transported to the Harford County Detention Center.

Police claim that Madison asked to be arrested so he would have some place to go. They then contend that while in custody, he became uncooperative and grabbed and choked one of the guards. Police TASERed Madison, who fell and struck his head.

Baltimore Man Sues Anne Arundel County Police Department and Officer for False Arrest

January 12, 2010 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

A 38-year-old Baltimore man has filed a civil rights violation lawsuit accusing Anne Arundel County police of violating his civil rights when they arrested and imprisoned him without just case. Melvin B. Thomas says he was falsely arrested on January 17 for asking “What about freedom of the press?” after officers apprehended his friend for using a cell phone to videotape cops handcuffing spectators following a Glen Burnie boxing event when some people became rowdy.

Thomas says he and his friend, 32-year-old Pasadena resident Leshon C. Ruffin, were the only two people who were thrown in jail where he stayed for 12 hours. Now, he is seeking $30,000 in damages.

Cpl. Russell Hewitt III, who is a defendant in the Maryland false arrest lawsuit, claims in charging documents that Ruffin was apprehended for trying to approach officers while they were doing their job. He says he arrested Thomas because he was causing a disturbance with his yelling.

Thomas’s attorney, however, says that Thomas and Ruffin were behaving in a nondisruptive manner while others around them were shouting out profanities. All charges against the two men were dropped. Thomas has said that because he and his friend are black he thinks race was a factor. Two white people that also were handcuffed were released at the scene.

Thomas’s Maryland civil rights violation lawsuit is seeking $30,000 in damages.

Maryland False Arrest Lawsuit

A police officer who has violated a person’s civil rights can be sued for damages. Making false arrests, wrongful imprisonment, excessive use of force, verbal abuse, harassment, torture, intimidating tactics, and sexual assaulting a suspect or prisoner can be grounds for a civil lawsuit against the offending police officer, his/her police department, and possibly even the city or the county where the violation took place.

You don’t have to be afraid about coming forward if you were the victim of Maryland police brutality or were falsely arrested without just cause.

Man sues county police for arrest, HometownGlenburnie.com, January 2, 2010
Related Web Resources:

Anne Arundel County

False Arrests, Convictions and Imprisonments, New York Times

$261,000 Prince George’s County Police Brutality Verdict Awarded to Woman

October 24, 2009 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

A Maryland jury has awarded a Greenbelt woman a $261,000 Prince George’s County police brutality verdict. Kimberly Jones says sheriff’s deputies forced their way into her residence, assaulted her, and maced her.

The alleged Prince George’s County, Maryland personal injury incident occurred on September 15, 2006. Jones, 35, woke up to the sound of knocking. She put on a robe and slightly opened the door. Two Prince George’s County sheriff deputies, Gerald Henderson and Billy Falby, allegedly forced their way in without a warrant.

Not only did the two men allegedly assault her, but they are accused of making her change into dirty clothes at the arrest scene without making sure a female deputy was there to help her. A neighbor, who would later testify in court, called 911 to report seeing the two deputies assault Jones.

City of Annapolis Settles Maryland Police Brutality Lawsuit

April 15, 2009 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

In Maryland, the city of Annapolis has reached a confidential settlement with two men who say that a police officer wrongfully arrested and beat them. Their lawsuit stemmed from two separate alleged police brutality incidents on March 30, 2005 and on August 19, 2005.

According to the Maryland police brutality lawsuit of Quinton T Smith and Jose Louis Meneses-Araiza, the two men were separately arrested and beaten without cause by Annapolis Police Officer Gary Black. The plaintiffs alleged false arrest, battery, false imprisonment, unlawful search and seizure, and conspiracy by Black and were seeking to have a civil jury determine compensatory damages, punitive damages, and attorney fees.

Menesez-Araiza, 28 sustained serious head trauma after his altercation with Black on March 30, 2005. He underwent brain surgery and his medical expenses were over $70,000. According to the Maryland police brutality complaint, Menesez-Araiza approached Black and another officer while they were talking to some Hispanic men they had stopped over a traffic violation. Menesez-Araiza offered to help translate.

Baltimore County Wrongful Death Lawsuit Claiming SWAT Team Fatally Shot Mother Without Provocation in 2005 Goes to Trial

March 25, 2009 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Four years after a SWAT team fatally shot Cheryl Lynn Noel during a drug raid of her Dundalk home, the ensuing wrongful death lawsuit filed in Baltimore County has finally gone to trial. Attorneys for both sides gave opening statements last week.

During the wrongful death trial, a jury will determine whether law enforcement officers were justified in shooting Noel or if the deadly incident was an example of police abuse of power and her family should be compensated for her loss.

According to the Maryland wrongful death lawsuit filed by her husband Charles, he and Noel, a 44-year-old mother, were in bed on January 1, 2005, when at around 4:30 am members of the Baltimore County SWAT team barged into their residence using a battering ram and a flash-bang grenade because they suspected it was a narcotics den housing cocaine and marijuana. The officers, who were heavily armed, claimed to have found traces of drugs in garbage cans outside the residence.

Salisbury Man Still Waiting to Find Out if $45 Million Maryland Brutality Lawsuit Can Go To Court

March 10, 2009 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

In Maryland, a Salisbury man is waiting to find out whether a judge will allow his $45 million police brutality lawsuit to go to court. Ceasar Savage says that a number of police officers beat him unconscious when apprehending him outside his mother’s Newton Terrace home in January 2007.

Savage, 37, says that he did not regain consciousness until he was in the emergency room at the Peninsula Regional Medical Center. Upon his release, police took him into custody and charged him with resisting arrest, assaulting a police officer, and a number of drug charges.

According to Savage’s Maryland police brutality complaint, two of the police officers that approached Savage said they were probing a reported burglary in the area. They asked for his registration and license information and asked him to step out of the car.

Maryland Board of Public Works to Pay $500,000 Settlement for Wrongful Death of Prisoner Pepper Sprayed by Police

January 2, 2009 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

In Maryland, the Board of Public Works has approved a $500,000 wrongful death settlement for the family of Ifeanyi A. Iko, an inmate who died in 2004 after being subdued with pepper spray at the Western Correctional Institution. According to the state medical examiner, his cause of death was homicide due to the “chemical irritation of the airways by pepper spray,” the use of a mask on the 51-year-old prisoner’s face, and the manner in which he was restrained.

The Nigerian immigrant was found asphyxiated following an altercation with police when he was removed from his cell, handcuffed at the wrists and ankles, put in a spit-protection mask, and sprayed with pepper. Other prisoners who saw the incident say that prison guards severely beat Iko and used three cans of pepper spray on him.

While an Allegany County grand jury did not indict the correctional officers involved in the pepper spray incident, the prison’s lead investigator in the case has admitted that key evidence, such as wet clothing and video footage, were not preserved. Also, two months after Iko died, the state prison commissioner issued stricter guidelines on pepper spray use. Now, officers need a warden or assistant warden to approve the use of the spray and anytime the spray is used, a full report must be prepared within 24 hours.

Anne Arundel County Settles Maryland Wrongful Death Lawsuit with Family of Naked Glen Burnie Man Shot by Police Officer

December 21, 2008 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Anne Arundel County has agreed to pay $90,000 to settle the Maryland wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of Donald Coates. The 20-year-old was shot dead by Anne Arundel County Police Officer Tommy Pleasant in 2005.

Earlier this year, Coates’s family members filed federal and state lawsuits seeking millions of dollars in damages. They claimed that Pleasant, who was a rookie and had been patrolling solo for just a month when the incident happened, acted wrongfully when he shot Coates, who was naked and unarmed at the time.

The shooting incident occurred on May 24, 2005. According to witnesses, Coates had called 911 while he was smoking marijuana in his home. He claimed that someone was trying to kill him. He then fired several shots before leaving the premise.

Maryland Police Targeted in Two Separate Police Brutality Lawsuits

December 15, 2008 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Two recent Maryland lawsuits have brought the topic of police brutality to the media forefront. Last week, a judge ruled that teenager Eric Bush can sue the city of Baltimore for Maryland personal injury even though he had missed the deadline for letting the city know he intended to sue. The judge said Bush showed good cause for why his notice that there would be a lawsuit was late.

Bush became a YouTube star after footage of Officer Salvatore Rivieri putting the then-14-year-old skateboarder in a headlock and chastising him for calling the cop “dude” was posted on the popular Web site. The altercation took place in 2007 at the Inner Harbor.

Bush says he never heard Rivieri give him an order about skateboarding. Rivieri, a police veteran, was suspended after the video footage of the incident was brought to the Baltimore police Department’s attention.

Family of Maryland Wrongful Death Victim Calls on Governor O’Malley to Suspend State Police Trooper Involved in Deadly 2006 Traffic Crash

October 29, 2008 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

The family of Randy Rakes, a Finksburg man who died in 2006 in a Maryland motor vehicle crash involving a State Police trooper car on Md. 140, is calling on Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley to remove trooper Dale Derr from the force. Their demand comes following a confrontation between Derr and Rakes’s half-brother, Joseph Blizzard, earlier this month.

According to the Rakes family’s Maryland wrongful death lawyer, other troopers had detained Blizzard in Carroll County on October 12 when Derr arrived at the scene and verbally and physically assaulted him before throwing him to the ground, allegedly causing the suspect to break his thumb. Blizzard was arrested over allegations of check forgery.

Police say they are investigating the allegations against Derr. The Rakes family wants him suspended from the force pending the probe’s outcome.