Maryland Accident Law Blog
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.
Savage was handcuffed while police searched the vehicle without a warrant or his consent. No drugs were found. Savage says he asked to be set free and that one police officer began using excessive force on him, busting his teeth and jaws and bruising him on the face.
A Maryland jury would later find Savage not guilty of assaulting a police officer and failing to obey. They also acquitted him of assault charges. The state of Maryland dismissed the remaining criminal charges against him in May 2007.
Savage says he experienced a similar altercation in December 2007 involving some of the police officers he is now suing. All charges related to that incident where dismissed last year.
Savage’s Maryland police brutality lawsuit names Salisbury City Council, Mayor Barrie Parsons Tilghman, and Salisbury police officers Tanya Ehrisman, David Underwood, Kenneth Wilson, Brian Whitman, Christopher DeVoe, Milton Rodriquez, Chad Crockett, Lisa Purnell, and James Russell. The defendants had sought to have the Maryland personal injury lawsuit dismissed claiming that the Salisbury Police Department cannot be sued.
Brutality lawsuit still awaits trial, DelMarvanow.com, March 2, 2009
$45M lawsuit claims police brutality, DelMarvaNow.com, January 10, 2009
Related Web Resources:
Top 5 Police Brutality Videos, The Huffington Post, March 10, 2009
Stop Police Brutality