Innocent black man who was beaten, tasered and arrested by police is awarded $18 damages

Outrage as jury orders each police officer to pay just one dollar to DeShawn Franklin and his parents after they burst into home without warrant

Rachael Revesz
New York
Wednesday 31 August 2016 16:50 BST
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Four years after the police beat up the teenager, the officers were found guilty of violating his constitutional rights
Four years after the police beat up the teenager, the officers were found guilty of violating his constitutional rights

An innocent young black man who was woken in the middle of the night, punched repeatedly, tasered, handcuffered and arrested by police officers has been awarded just $18 of damages by a jury.

DeShawn Franklin, who was 18 years old, was punched three times in the face in the summer of 2012 when three officers of the South Bend Police Department, Indiana, burst into his family's home. They told his mother, Vivian, to stay outside, and found Mr Franklin asleep.

His father, who is disabled, could only listen to the noise in the next room. Such was the commotion that he concluded officers had shot his son.

“It's traumatising,” Mr Franklin told the Washington Post. “It’s somewhat of a burden that you have to carry every day.”

The following year he and his family filed a civil rights lawsuit, alleging excessive use of force and unlawful entry.

In August a jury found the officers - Eric Mentz, Aaron Knepper and Michael Stuk - guilty of violating the high school student’s constitutional rights by arresting him and entering his house without a warrant.

Four years after the incident, the jury decided each of the defendants should pay the plaintiff and his parents $1, amounting to $18.

Peter Agostino, the police officers' lawyer, told The Post that the case was not about racial injustice but a lack of evidence, which made it impossible to supply the $1 million worth of damages the Franklins asked for.

He said the city had offered previously to settle by paying the family $15,000. Mr Franklin's lawyer said he would have settled if they had offered an "appropriate" sum. Similar cases are worth between $100,000 and $300,000, as reported by the Indiana Star.

Reverend Mario Sims, also from South Bend, told the Washington Post that the teenager, now 22, had no criminal history but had become distrustful of the police.

Officers were searching for his older brother at his parents’ house as they were responding to a domestic violence report.

Why you should care about #BlackLivesMatter

The Indiana Star reported that the officers in question were given classes on Fourth Amendment - which protects the right of citizens to be secure in their homes - as well as ethics and diversity. They were disciplined for their actions, added city spokesman Kevin Lawler.

The force has also committed to hiring more officers of colour, the Tribune reported.

The same three officers were named in a 2013 lawsuit by a man called Jonathan Ferguson, a shop worker with a learning disability whose car tyre was slashed by the officers and who was challenged by them to eat a teaspoon of cinnamon for $30 and a food voucher. He was sick for hours after eating it. The parties reached a settlement, according to the Post.

One of the same officers, Mr Knepper, was also saved by his department after he was accused of assaulting 55-year-old Tom Stevens in March 2014 after the latter failed to stop for a routine traffic stop for six blocks, until he had parked outside his mother's house.

Upon exiting his car, Mr Stevens was allegedly shot with a taser stun gun and was repeatedly punched in the face and chest until his dentures fell out, according to his mother, Suzanne Stevens. Her son was hospitalised. The city's department dismissed the claims.

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