A lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court last Thursday on behalf of a Cottage
Grove resident accuses members of the Cottage Grove Police Department of
excessive force, false imprisonment, battery and other rights violations.
Representatives of Matthew Susumu Waggoner filed suit alleging that
officers beat Waggoner and that one officer used a racial slur during Waggoner’s
subsequent time in the Cottage Grove Jail following an incident that occurred on
Dec. 15, 2011.
The suit requests a jury trial and names the City of
Cottage Grove and officers Tami Howell, Jarrod Butler, Doug Skaggs, David
Burgin, Police Chief Mike Grover and two unnamed officers as defendants.
The lawsuit’s introduction describes its purpose as a “civil action for
damages stemming from the unlawful arrest of Plaintiff without warrant,
reasonable suspicion, probable cause, or exigent circumstances, and the
excessive use of force in arresting and lodging Plaintiff Matthew Susumu
Waggoner in jail based in part on Plaintiff’s Japanese ancestry.”
The
suit states that on Dec. 15, 2011 at about 4:10 p.m., officers Howell, Burgin
and Butler responded to a possible burglary in progress at a home on Adams
Street in Cottage Grove. There, they spotted Waggoner walking away from them
toward 10th Street. The suit states that it was already dark outside at that
time and the plaintiff had been visiting a friend.