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
