SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — An aged Ogden couple is suing two metropolis law enforcement officials and the division for extreme drive after they are saying officers pulled a 78-year-old man to the bottom face first final November, leaving him bloodied and with lasting accidents to his shoulder.
Attorneys for Rand and Vera Briem filed the lawsuit Wednesday in U.S. District Courtroom, alleging that police violated their constitutional rights when officers subjected Rand Briem to an improper forceful takedown with out trigger.
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Talking at a information convention Thursday, lawyer Robert Sykes stated that Rand Briem did nothing to impress a response from officers that required him to be slammed on the driveway of his personal property.
“No drive is suitable if no drive is required,” Sykes stated. “There was no drive wanted that evening.”
The Ogden Police Department responded to the lawsuit Thursday, saying that it’s assured the court docket will discover the officers use of drive justified, noting that the division’s inside evaluation had already performed so.
What the lawsuit says
In line with the lawsuit towards Ogden police, the 2 officers responded to the Briem home on Nov. 29, 2022, after somebody within the neighborhood complained about squatters within the residence, claiming the house had been foreclosed.
Nevertheless, the Well being Division had posted a non-occupancy signal for the house’s basement, the lawsuit stated, including that the couple had been dwelling within the dwelling’s indifferent storage.
The 2 officers encountered the Briems as they have been pulling out of their driveway, heading to lock up the neighborhood church meetinghouse. Physique digicam video obtained by the Briems and shared with ABC4 reveals the officers stopping the couple, who seem visibly confused and upset as to why officers are there.
“Is that this your residence?” one of many officers asks.
“Yeah, that’s my home, that’s my storage,” Rand Briem responds, the video reveals. “What are you doing?”
After a dispute concerning the non-occupancy signal, one of many officers tells Rand Briem that he’s detaining him and requests to see his license. The 78-year-old responds saying he’ll present it to the police, however not give it to them.
Whereas Briem reveals his license to one of many officers, the officer takes it. Briem begins yelling and tries to seize his license again, the video reveals. A loud wrestle ensues earlier than police get the person on the bottom, along with his palms behind his again and his face within the snow.
When the officers carry up the 78-year-old, blood marks the snow and covers his face, the physique digicam footage reveals. The officers maintain Briem handcuffed for roughly a half hour earlier than issuing him a quotation.
In line with the police assertion, Briem is going through a cost of interfering with an arresting officer, a case that’s nonetheless pending in court docket.
Sykes, the couple’s lawyer, stated that whereas Rand Briem was impolite to the officers, that doesn’t justify using drive.
“There’s no query on that in any respect,” he stated. “I believe the escalation occurred when the officers grabbed the license out of his hand. The officers ought to have been educated in de-escalation.”
On the information convention Thursday, Rand Briem stated that police threw him down face-first, including that he had bother respiration because the officers have been holding him to the bottom.
“I felt prefer it was the identical factor that they did to George Floyd,” he stated.
Together with the injuries to his face, Briem additionally suffered a torn rotator cuff in one in all his shoulders, an damage from which he nonetheless suffers, the lawsuit says. Moreover, a exhibit within the lawsuit confirmed Briem with in depth bruising alongside his proper arm, shoulder and torso.
The lawsuit is searching for damages to be decided by a jury. The doc additionally notes that Vera Briem, who was 74 on the time of the incident, suffered extreme stress and emotional injury. Within the physique digicam video, she will be heard screaming by way of a lot of the encounter.
“For somebody of their age, it is a horrible factor to have gone by way of,” stated Sykes, their lawyer. “I believe that entitles them to some affordable compensation.”
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