From [HERE] and [HERE] A lawsuit has been filed in federal court against five Warner Robins police officers, their supervisor and the city of Warner Robins by a Fayetteville man who claims officers "used excessive force" and "viciously and unjustifiably beat" him during his arrest outside Famous Liquors on Davis Drive back in April of last year.

The lawsuit named Warner Robins police Officers Brandon Smith, Timothy Gray, Nicholas Taylor, Billy Styles, Bradley Triplett, their supervisor Lt. Donald Edwards and the city.

According to the lawsuit, Sims was cooperating with his arrest when he was assaulted by the officers after an "encounter" with Warner Robins police Sgt. Matt Moulton. He says the officers picked him up and threw him across the store. He also claims that after he was in handcuffs he was kicked and punched. 

The attorney representing Sims, Atlanta based Scott R. King, says that there is video surveillance footage of the incident that supports Sims claims. 

From [HERE] AZTEC — The Sheriff's deputy who was caught on camera beating a man in the head multiple times with a Maglight flashlight was fired for violating the agency's use of force policy.

Dale Frazier, a nearly five-year veteran of the department, was captured on video [HERE] striking Donovan Tanner, 22, in the head and neck with his department-issued flashlight during a St. Patrick's Day incident. The deputy's dashcam video shows the officer forcefully hitting Tanner at least five times with his flashlight. Deputy Frazier later said that Tanner had grabbed his flashlight with the attempt to disarm him.

Asserting numerous civil rights violations motivated largely by race, Tanner filed a lawsuit contending that his rights were violated when he was unlawfully detained and arrested by Frazier. Sheriff Ken Christesen denies there exists any issues of racism among deputies at the Sheriff's Office.

Leonard Gorman, the executive director of the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission, condemned the beating, calling it an example of the type of discrimination faced by American Indians in Farmington.

From [HERE] and [HERE] CHARLOTTE, N.C. --After an internal investigation by Charlotte-Mecklenburg police, no criminal charges will be filed against three officers in the arrest of Malcolm Springs. Witnesses say Springs, who shot and injured an officer, was beaten by police.

Police were chasing Springs because he was suspected in an armed robbery and attempted murder on West Trade Street. Police say Springs shot Officer Harrison in the leg and Harrison in return shot Springs in the torso.

Eight residents who witnessed Springs' capture told the Observer that officers went too far after handcuffing Springs. The witnesses said officers hit, kicked and stomped Springs as he lay near the sidewalk. The witnesses said they didn't see Springs - who is thin and about 6 feet tall - resisting officers. [MORE] 

"They were beating him," said Wade Miller, who said he watched from his front door, about 20 feet away. "He was handcuffed. I didn't see the man moving."

Another witness said,  "the gun was nowhere. He was lying in a ditch. Three cops were beating the crap out of him for five to seven minutes, even more,” said witness Sharon Allen. The FBI is also looking into Springs’ arrest to see if police actions violated Springs’ civil rights.

In the case of Jesus "Jessie" and Cristela Gomez, the two were driving near their home in the early morning of Oct. 25, 2008, when they were pulled over by Officer Paul Fukuma near Mabury Road and Salt Lake Drive, according to a lawsuit filed on their behalf. The lawyer alleges that the minor traffic violation stop quickly turned violent when Fukuma yanked Jessie Gomez's arms upward and demanded that he stop resisting.

"I'm not resisting," Jessie Gomez yelled, according to the suit. The officer threw Gomez to the ground, banging his face against the pavement and knelt on him, the suit says. He blacked out.Then, Fukuma and another officer picked him up and slammed him face down on the patrol car trunk.

"You're going down, (expletive)," one officer said, according to the suit. Then he tripped the suspect and made him fall face down; the plaintiff was bleeding profusely from his face, the suit alleges.

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) - Shuterra Holley, 19, said she was trying to get the attention of a Mobile police officer after a fight broke out at the Club Vivd in downtown Mobile. She claims the officer threw her to the sidewalk, chipping her front teeth and cutting open her lip.

At around 1 a.m. Friday morning, a man threw a punch inside the club and struck Holley's cousin, Synia Smith. Security escorted some people outside, including the two girls. Holley tried to get the attention of a police officer. She said she tried to tell the officer who the violent man was, but she did not get the reaction she was looking for.

"He came to me and said, 'I'm tired of you.' And he just grabbed me by my hair and threw me on the ground and slammed my face to the ground. My teeth came out of my mouth. It was busted up and everything," said Holley. She was not arrested or charged, but she was rushed sraight to the hospital.

From [HERE] and [HERE] TRENTON — Three Trenton police officers shot and killed an unarmed man after police say the man raised his hand as if he had a gun. The man was identified as 31-year-old Corey Brown of Trenton.

Police responded to a report of an assault in progress about 1:20 a.m. Monday and were advised the suspect might be armed. They saw Brown walking from the area. Police say Brown put his hand into waistband as if he had a weapon and ignored officers' commands to show his hands. The officers fired when Brown raised his hand as if he had a gun. After he raised his hands, all three officers fired at least once, police said. Thus far, the media has not talked to any witnesses. 

From [HERE] JONESBORO, Ark. — After only three hours of deliberations, a federal jury decided Friday that two West Memphis police officers cannot be held liable for the death of a 12-year-old boy, whose family filed a $250 million lawsuit after he was fatally shot by police.

Officer Sammis said he believed DeAunta Farrow was holding a gun when he and Evans, who were conducting nighttime surveillance, came upon the boy and his then-14-year-old cousin, Unseld Nance Jr., in a dimly lit parking lot in June 2007. Investigators later said DeAunta was holding a toy gun.

But DeAunta's family said the boy was not armed and filed the lawsuit against the officers, alleging they used excessive force and violated the children's civil rights. 

The family's attorney, Bennie O'Neil, said no decision has been made whether to appeal Friday's verdict. "I'm a little surprised," O'Neil said. "I thought their conduct on June 22 (2007) was unreasonable."

From [HERE] PROVIDENCE, R.I.—A jury found a Providence police detective guilty Friday on charges that he struck a handcuffed suspect with a flashlight but acquitted him on a lesser assault charge.

Robert DeCarlo was convicted on one count of assault with a dangerous weapon but was found not guilty on a count of simple assault, said Craig Berke, a spokesman for the Rhode Island judiciary. The jury returned the verdict in Providence Superior Court hours after beginning deliberations Friday morning.

"Today's verdict sends a strong message," Rhode Island Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin said. "Excessive force by a police officer against a detained suspect is a breach of the public's trust and will not be tolerated."

DeCarlo remains free on bond pending sentencing. A date has not yet been set. Assault with a dangerous weapon carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

Prosecutors argued that DeCarlo, 46, attacked Luis Mendonca deliberately and out of anger, knocking the 22-year-old unconscious with a flashlight blow to the head.

From [HERE] A  Brockton police officer used his work email to send a message to a restaurant holding a benefit to honor the late Danroy “DJ” Henry of Easton, asking when a similar event would be held for the police officers involved in Henry’s fatal shooting in New York.

“Please let me know when the benefit is being held for the two police officers that were struck and killed by the drunk driver,” wrote Patrolman Scott D. Uhlman. “I will charter a bus and fill it up with people who would spend money at Uno’s for a good cause.”

The three-day fundraiser, held in February at Uno Chicago Grill in Taunton, raised $5,000 for the DJ Dream Fund, a nonprofit group founded by the Henry family that will award money to children younger than 18 for the purchase of sports equipment and to pay athletic fees and gym memberships.

Henry, 20, a student at Pace University, was shot and killed by police on Oct. 17 in a shopping plaza in suburban New York. He was unarmed and witnesses say he complied with police orders. His family on Wednesday filed a wrongful-death civil suit against, Aaron Hess the officer who shot him to death.That officer, Aaron Hess, was named “Officer of the Year” last week by his union.[MORE] 

Surrendering Unarmed, Black Man Beaten by Police in front of Police Station

From [HERE] BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- Travarious Daniel, a Black man whose arrest by Birmingham police was caught on videotape has filed a federal lawsuit claiming his civil rights were violated when officers repeatedly hit and kicked him though he was trying to comply with their demands. 

The complaint states, "while his hands were in the air, and during a time when he demonstrated no hostile or aggressive attitude or behavior, and in fact was making efforts to comply with instructions from the officers, Daniel was savagely attacked and beaten by the officers," the lawsuit reads. "Daniel did not have any weapons or drugs on or with him and did not pose any threat to the police officers or any other person."

While the officers were brutally assaulting Daniel and using excessive force, Daniel was lying on his stomach and offering not threat of harm to the officers, according to the lawsuit. At least one or more officers used weighted gloves to strike Daniel in the back and side of the head with the intent to cause permanent and disabling injuries.

During that time, the suit reads, another officer pummeled Daniel with his fist numerous times to his head and upper body. Other officers were using their knees and feet to kick and strike Daniel numerous times about his body while he lay prone on his stomach on the side walk. The complaint says Daniel was rendered unconscious.

From [HERE] and [HERE] A family is outraged after a 7-year-old boy, a special education student, was handcuffed by the NYPD at his school. NYPD cops handcuffed Joseph Anderson because he was ‘acting in a threatening manner’ at school after becoming upset while decorating an Easter egg.Cops say they were protecting the boy and others after his emotional outburst. His mother says it was just plain wrong. 

School staff threatened to send him to the hospital if he did not calm down - and he jumped up, saying: ‘I just want my mummy,’ his mother told the New York Daily News.

The NYPD has also defended its actions, with a spokesman saying he was ‘acting in a threatening manner’ and another source claiming he was waving scissors. ‘He was a danger to himself and others in the classroom,’ a spokesman told the New York Daily News.

From [HERE] EASTON -- The family of Danroy “D.J.” Henry Jr., the Pace University football player from Easton who was fatally shot by police in New York in the fall, has formally filed a lawsuit against the police officer who fired the fatal bullets. 

The lawsuit, filed in US District Court in White Plains, N.Y., alleges Pleasantville Police Officer Aaron Hess showed a “reckless disregard for human life, most specifically the life of Danroy Henry Jr.” The lawsuit alleges that Henry's civil rights were violated, and seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.

Henry’s family said they wanted to use the lawsuit to compel New York authorities to release evidence in the case, including audio and video recordings, as well as Hess’s testimony about the incident and his personnel file.

Henry, a 20-year-old junior at the university located in Pleasantville, was shot outside a bar in the early morning hours after a homecoming game celebration. Two officers fired, but it is believed that Hess fired the fatal shots.

Several witnesses, including passengers of Henry’s car, said he drove away because an officer had ordered him to leave the fire lane. Before he could slow down, Hess jumped in front of the vehicle, onto the hood, and started firing, they said.

The passenger in the car, Brandon Cox, told authorities that Henry slowed down before he was shot by police. [MORE] According to witness testimony, Henry was handcuffed and placed on the sidewalk, where he lay dying. He was left on the street for 15 minutes without any medical attention.

From [HERE] and [HERE] PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) - The trial of a Providence Detective accused of police brutality continued Tuesday. Veteran Providence Police Detective Robert DeCarlo took the stand in his own defense.

"What was your sense at the moment you realized he [Luis Mendonca] was in handcuffs?"

"I couldn't believe I did it, did this type of force on this guy that was already handcuffed. I was disgusted," said DeCarlo in court.

DeCarlo is on trial for allegedly striking and kicking Luis Mendonca in Providence back in October of 2009. DeCarlo claims he used necessary forced to subdue Mendonca, because he was resisting arrest. The incident was caught on video by a nearby surveillance camera. [SEE it HERE] 

Mendonca was knocked unconscious and suffered a severe gash in his head that was closed with eight staples. Mendonca's attorney claimed his client was in a coma for two days following the incident. 

From [HERE]and [HERE]  Jury selection started Monday in the federal lawsuit filed by the family of an unarmed Latino man shot to death by a San Diego Sheriff's deputy as he tried to flee nearly six years ago.

The death of Jesus Manzo was the final of three unrelated, fatal shootings of Latino men by deputies in Vista during a five-day span in the summer of 2005.

The shootings angered many in the city's Latino community ---- the population in Vista was about 42 percent Latino at the time ---- and sparked protests and allegations of racism in the Sheriff's Department.[MORE]  The families of the men each filed civil suits; the one involving Manzo is the last to be resolved.

According to the district attorney's report, deputies went to Manzo's Newport Drive home on Aug. 1, 2005 to question him about a stolen car and to check whether he was on a gang injunction.

Manzo fled when deputies approached. After a search, he was confronted by Deputy Lew Schott. When Manzo reached toward his waistband, Schott shot him once in the chest. Deputies later found that he had a multipurpose tool similar to a Leatherman.

Suit Alleges Pattern and Practice of Using Overly Aggrgessive Tactics in Black Areas

From [HERE] and [HERE] WEST MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Jury selection began Monday in a $250 million civil lawsuit [READ] filed against two West Memphis police officers involved in the shooting death of 12-year old Deaunta Farrow. The trial is expected to last a week. Last October, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from officers Erik Sammis and Jimmy Evans, who maintained the lawsuit shouldn't go to trial.

The officers were conducting nighttime surveillance when Sammis fatally shot DeAunta Farrow. Police have said the boy was holding a toy gun in a dimly lit parking lot. When “the suspect” didn't drop the "weapon", Sammis said he feared for his life and opened fire. Only then, he says, did he realize that the “gun” was a toy gun and that he had just shot and killed a 12-year-old child.

Farrow's family and the family of a boy with Farrow at the time of the shooting sued the officers, saying they used excessive force and violated their civil rights. Family members and others who were eyewitnesses say DeAunta Farrow was gunned down without cause. 

From [HERE] and [HERE] The officer who is a target in a federal probe of the police department claimed he pushed a handcuffed prisoner because the man had spun toward him in a threatening manner and invaded his personal space.

But a review of the security tapes of the May 2010 incident involving Evan Cossette, the police chief's son, and the prisoner, Pedro Temich, shows there is about a six to eight second gap in the security tapes that could have been picked up by a camera in the booking area outside the holding cell. Police now say that tape has been erased.

The gap coincides with the time when the prisoner would have made the move that Cossette described to internal affairs investigators.

Officer Evan Cossette is seen on surveillance video pushing a handcuffed man, Pedro Temich, in a holding cell after he was picked up for intoxication in Meriden last May. In the video, Temich hits his head on a concrete bench and Evan Cossette is seen moving the unconscious Temich, but never calling for medical assistance.

According to an investigation report produced by Commonwealth’s Attorney Michael Doucette, police officers Michael B. Eagle and Michael A. Huntsman came to Beard’s apartment that morning looking to arrest a woman on outstanding warrants. The report states that Beard let the officers in to search, but that he later tried to stop Eagle from searching the bedroom area. Doucette’s report noted that Beard put his forearm across Eagle’s chest, assaulting the officer. The lawsuit claims Beard was withdrawing his consent to the warrantless search. Apparently, the police did not find anything incriminating from the search.

A fight between Beard and the officers ensued, continuing through the apartment, both accounts note. Beard was hog tied with the help of backup officers and was taken outside the apartment where he was laid face down on the ground.  The lawsuit claims police ignored pleas by bystanders for several minutes that Beard had stopped breathing, although the prosecutor’s report notes dashboard cameras show policemen tried to revive him. 

The family says police mistreated the 46-year-old Beard and could have done more to save his life. Beard died while handcuffed outside his apartment.

From [HERE] Despite a judge's order, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has refused to allow an attorney to take photographs of a client he said was beaten so badly by jail deputies that he was unrecognizable.

Deputy Public Defender John F. Montoya said the inmate, Federico Bustos, suffered severe bruising two months ago to his face, stomach, chest, right arm, both legs and feet. Bustos' left eye was so swollen that Montoya said he initially feared his client had lost the eye.

Sheriff's officials repeatedly turned down his requests to allow a public defender's investigator into the jail with a camera to document the injuries, even after he obtained a court order permitting photos, he said.

"He was so severely beaten that I could not initially recognize him," Montoya said. "I don't understand what the Sheriff's Department is trying to hide."

Neighbors who witnessed Thursday night's confrontation say Philadelphia police are covering up the truth. And they claim cops on the scene, most of whom were white, used the "n" word at Kwende Williams, 20 and residents after the shooting.

A friend of Williams, who would give her name only as Hasana H., said she witnessed cops pull up beside Williams as he left a corner store at 29th Street and Huntingdon. He began to run, and police followed, yelling at him, "Throw the gun down or I'm gonna shoot your ass up," she recalled.

Multiple witnesses said yesterday that police were chasing Williams down Newkirk and, as he eluded authorities, he threw a gun into a vacant lot.

"After he threw the gun, the cops shot him three times" in the back, said Christina, who said she saw the shooting from her house and asked that the Daily News withhold her last name. "Never once did he turn around and look. The cops were behind him. I knew he was wrong for carrying a gun, but he never pointed the gun at the cops." "Why'd they have to shoot him [three] times in the back?" asked friend Latoya Armstrong.

The witnesses said that once Williams fell, police handcuffed him and kicked him as he bled on the sidewalk.

"I've seen them kicking him, called him a n-----," Hawthorne said. "F--- this n-----," police said, according to Hawthorne. Armstrong and others said police began shoving and pushing residents who openly criticized them for the shooting. "The cops didn't care," she said. "No type of remorse for anybody. The cops were just mean.

From [HERE] and  [HERE] A Chicago police sergeant is facing brutality charges stemming from an October incident caught on surveillance tape showing him repeatedly slapping a unresisting, handcuffed man across the face. [See Video]

At a hearing Friday, a bond $20,000 was set for Sgt. Edward Howard Jr., 48, on charges of felony aggravated battery and official misconduct.

According to prosecutors, on the evening of October 11, while leaving King Gyros on South Vincennes Avenue, a 19-year-old man and two friends were arrested by two Chicago police officers for criminal trespassing. The man immediately complied with the officers' orders to place his hands on the squad car. He was searched and handcuffed without incident.

Witnesses said Howard then arrived on scene and struck the man three times across the face with an open hand. The third hit was forceful enough to send the man backward and off balance. The blows resulted in cuts, bruises to the man's lips and swelling to his face, prosecutors said.