Leroy Kennedy, a Black man, says in his lawsuit that he was strolling on a sidewalk “minding his personal enterprise” on August 23, 2020. Regardless of not breaking any legal guidelines, he was instantly grabbed by police and “slammed … right into a brick wall and officers then “slammed his head into the pavement greater than as soon as,” the court docket doc provides.
The arrest report of the incident, supplied to CNN by Kennedy’s attorneys and featured as a part of the lawsuit, says that Kennedy appeared “straight in (the officers’) course and stiffen(ed) his physique” and “his eyes enlarge(d), which means his eyebrows rose which produced a shocked look his face.”
Officers wrote within the report that Kennedy’s look, and the truth that he “adjusted his arms and manipulated his entrance lap space,” led them to imagine he was concealing a gun.
The physique digital camera video from the 2 responding officers, supplied by Kennedy’s attorneys, exhibits officers run as much as him and virtually instantly slam him right into a brick wall after which the pavement. At one level, the video exhibits one of many officer’s arms grabbing Kennedy by the neck. The cameras didn’t document the primary two minutes of sound of the encounter.
The video exhibits that Kennedy, with giant seen scrapes to his brow, was then put into the again of the squad automobile the place he was searched and handcuffed. As this was occurring, a crowd of indignant bystanders started to confront and yell on the officers.
After officers drove Kennedy a brief distance to a different location, an ambulance known as for him. The arrest report says he was taken to a hospital for therapy. Chicago Police data present he was arrested on two costs of resisting arrest and one cost of aggravated battery of a police officer.
The arrest report doesn’t point out any weapons being discovered by Kennedy.
The felony costs in opposition to Kennedy have been dropped 4 months later, on December 18, 2020, in response to a spokesperson from the Cook dinner County State’s Legal professional’s Workplace. The lawsuit says that this was as a result of “video proof confirmed there was no case in opposition to (him).”
The lawsuit claims that the defendants — on this case the town of Chicago and the 2 arresting officers — used extreme pressure, subjected Kennedy to false arrest, violated his due processes, and 4 different counts. The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in US District Court docket for the Northern District of Illinois.
A spokesman for the Chicago Police mentioned that the division “can’t touch upon pending or proposed litigation.” CNN reached out to the Cook dinner County State’s Legal professional’s Workplace for a touch upon the lawsuit however didn’t instantly hear again.
“The bodycam video exhibits the form of vile, inhumane therapy that has left him SEVERELY traumatized,” Crump wrote.
The lawsuit seeks “compensatory damages and since defendants acted maliciously, wantonly, or oppressively, punitive damages in opposition to the person (officers) of their particular person capacities” in addition to court docket and lawyer charges.
