Youngstown settled a police brutality lawsuit



By David Skolnick
YOUNGSTOWN
City council will consider legislation today to have the board of control pay $50,000 to the city’s insurance company to settle a federal police- brutality lawsuit.
The settlement pays $69,000 to Alexander Henderson of Youngstown with “no admission of liability” by the city, said Law Director Martin Hume. The city would pay $50,000 to HCC Public Risk Claim Service, the city’s insurance company, for its deductible with HCC paying the remaining $19,000 to Henderson.
The city denies the allegations in the federal lawsuit, Hume said.
The suit was filed Feb. 13 stemming from an incident nearly two years prior.
The lawsuit contends that on Feb. 17, 2012, Rodney W. Lewis Sr., then a Youngstown police officer, “physically and savagely assault[ed]” Henderson “causing permanent and severe injuries to the face, head and/or ears.”
The two were in an elevator at the police station with Henderson, a prisoner in the Mahoning County jail appearing in city municipal court, in handcuffs and ankle shackles at the time.
The two exchanged words in the elevator, with Lewis telling internal affairs at the time that he hit Henderson after the man spit on him.
When the elevator opened, the lawsuit states Lewis grabbed Henderson’s ankle chains “forcibly” pulling his feet out from under him, causing him to hit his face, head and other body parts on the floor, and then the officer dragged Henderson across the floor and into a holding cell.
While Hume said Tuesday the city denies the allegations, police officials determined at the time that Lewis hit Henderson, dragged him by his ankle shackles, causing Henderson to fall face first on the floor and dragged him across the floor, then-Police Chief Rod Foley told The Vindicator in a March 17, 2012, article.
Lewis, who was planning to retire later that year after 37 years on the force, was given the option of facing disciplinary action or retiring early, Foley said in that article. Lewis could have been terminated or suspended had he chosen not to retire, Foley had said.
Lewis had told internal affairs that Henderson spit in his face, leading to the officer’s hitting him and pulling him out of the elevator, according to the 2012 article.
In the lawsuit, Henderson’s attorneys say their client never spit on the officer.
However, Henderson pleaded guilty in June 2013 to harassment of bodily fluid, a felony, for spitting on Lewis. He was given two years’ probation for the conviction in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
Less than a week ago, the city’s board of control voted to pay $50,000 to HCC to settle a federal civil-rights lawsuit for $70,000 regarding claims of police misconduct.
Desiree Johnson of Youngstown sued the city, saying police Lt. Kevin Mercer used “excessive and unreasonable force and searched and seized” her then-12-year-old son at gunpoint “without probable cause or justification” in 2009. The boy was not charged with any crime. That lawsuit was filed in 2011