The Baltimore Sun
BALTIMORE — Six men arrested during last year’s unrest — but cleared of all charges — have filed a lawsuit against the Baltimore Police Department, nearly two dozen officers and the state of Maryland, alleging they were beaten by police.
The plaintiffs — including Larry Lomax, a black 24-year-old Baltimore resident whose pepper-spraying and arrest during a citywide curfew was captured on video that went viral online — allege that city police officers “tore apart” their constitutionally protected rights amid heavy-handed enforcement during protests. Lomax had three charges against him dropped and was acquitted of disorderly conduct. Four of the other plaintiffs had all charges against them dropped, and one man whose arm was broken during an altercation with police was never charged, according to the lawsuit.
In addition to Lomax, the lawsuit names as plaintiffs Albert Tubman, a black 45-year-old city resident, and Roosevelt Johnson, a 44-year-old black city resident, who both say they were trying to avoid the protests when they were wrongly targeted and beaten by police with batons.
Also named as plaintiffs are Eric Glass, a 27-year-old black city resident and protester who says he was filming police when he was wrongly targeted by officers, thrown to the ground and kicked and punched; Andrew Fischer, a 21-year-old white undergraduate student at American University and co-founder of the news outlet News2Share who says he was working as a journalist when he was arrested for violating the curfew, which media were exempt from; and Myreq Williams, a 21-year-old protester who said police pulled him off a public bus one night after a protest and broke his arm before taking him to a hospital and leaving him there without charging him.
In addition to Williams’ broken arm, the plaintiffs allege they suffered a range of injuries at the hands of police, including abrasions, contusions, nerve damage, swelling and internal organ injuries. Lomax also alleges suffering burning and intense pain from being sprayed not with normal pepper-spray carried by officers, but with “an incapacitating spray used to disperse large crowds.”
Howard Libit, a spokesman for Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, and T.J. Smith, a police spokesman, both said they could not comment on the pending litigation. A spokeswoman for Attorney General Brian Frosh, who represents the state in legal matters, did not immediately return a request for comment Wednesday.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit, which was filed Tuesday, are being represented by the Baltimore firm of William H. “Billy” Murphy, the attorney who negotiated a $6.4 million settlement for the family of Freddie Gray, after Gray died last April 19 from severe spinal cord injuries suffered while in police custody. Gray’s death touched off weeks of peaceful protests and a night of rioting, looting and arson on April 27 that spurred Rawlings-Blake to institute a weeklong nightly curfew.
Lomax is also being represented by attorney Wylie Stecklow.
Jason Downs, an attorney in Murphy’s firm, said many protesters felt their rights had been violated during the unrest, and many came to his office “with stories related to the protest and related to police brutality in general.” The lawsuit gives voice to some of those concerns, Downs said.
“It’s an indication that there were many people out there trying to exercise their First Amendment right to peacefully assemble, and officers in Baltimore City unfortunately did not respect those rights,” Downs said. “These are a few people whose rights were trampled on.”
Hundreds of people were arrested during the unrest and the curfew, but many were released without charges or with all charges against them dropped. Gov. Larry Hogan ordered that hundreds of people arrested during the rioting could be held longer than the normal 24 hours — and up to 48 hours — before seeing a court commissioner, a decision that was later upheld in Baltimore Circuit Court.
The handling of the arrests was harshly criticized by the Office of the Public Defender, though the police department defended the arrests as lawful and necessary amid a chaotic situation. Law enforcement officials at the time also said that some people who were released without charges could be charged at a later date, after additional investigation. However, only a small number of cases have been refiled, said Deputy Public Defender Natalie Finegar.
“It was a very small number of cases in which police were then asserting that there was some video tape” that captured the alleged crimes, said Finegar, who previously represented Lomax. The “vast majority” of people who were released without charges — some after spending days in jail — have never been re-charged, Finegar said.
She said she believes that is because police “didn’t actually have any information to charge them with.”
Time is running out for such charges as well. There is a statute of limitations for most misdemeanors in Maryland of one year.
In addition to the police department, the state and former Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts, defendants include 15 unidentified officers and Lt. Christopher O’Ree, Sgts. Keith Gladstone and Joseph Landsman, Detective Daniel Hersl, and Officers Robert Hankard, Mark Neptune and James Craig.
The lawsuit seeks from all of the defendants more than $75,000 in damages, plus interest and costs, for each of the plaintiffs on each of 10 counts: excessive force, illegal arrest, false imprisonment, deprivation of liberty and property, false arrest, battery, a pattern or practice of constitutional violations, civil conspiracy, negligence and gross negligence.
It also seeks more than $75,000 in damages per plaintiff from Batts, the Baltimore Police Department and the state for negligent hiring, training and supervision, and more than $75,000 for each of the plaintiffs except Williams, who was never charged, for malicious prosecution.
Copyright 2016 The Baltimore Sun