LONG BEACH, CALIF., USA, January 18, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- A Long Beach man who repeatedly explained to Long Beach Police officers that he’d recently undergone surgery for prostate cancer suffered emergency medical complications after an officer kneed the unresisting man in his groin multiple times during an arrest for driving with an expired registration tag.

The blows to his groin resulted in Johnny Jackson suffering emergency medical complications, including severe pain and blood in his urine.

The City of Long Beach agreed to settle a federal civil rights lawsuit against the officers for using excessive and unreasonable force. The city council approved the $300,000 settlement on Jan. 16.

“The city should issue an apology to Mr. Jackson for the outrageous conduct of its officers,” civil rights attorney Patrick Buelna said. “No one should have to endure such a humiliating and painful experience at the hands of what are supposed to be public servants.”

The Sept. 3, 2022 incident was captured on Jackson’s security camera and on one officer’s body-worn camera. It began as Jackson, who had prostate surgery just the day before, was returning home from Staples after making a copy of a doctor's note to give to his employer when he noticed he was being followed closely by an unmarked Long Beach Police Department vehicle.

Jackson pulled into his driveway and was approached by three officers as he got out of his car. Worried about their intentions, Jackson informed them about his recent surgery and that he was aware of an infraction on his vehicle registration.

The situation escalated when officers issued differing commands as a gust of wind blew pages from the doctor's report off Jackson's vehicle. When he went to put his hand on the report, one of the officers jumped off Jackson's porch, grabbed, pulled, and twisted his left arm, and told Jackson he was "about to get fucked up."

The officers grabbed Jackson's arms, pulling in different directions, and one of them kneed him in the groin three times with significant force after another officer hit Jackson in the head and attempted a takedown maneuver.

Despite Jackson not resisting, he was handcuffed, placed in a patrol vehicle, and cited for expired vehicle registration and purportedly resisting arrest.

“A civil settlement cannot, on its own, right the wrongs committed by the Long Beach Police Department against Mr. Jackson,” said civil rights attorney Michael Slater, of the Slater Law Firm. “Mr. Jackson has endured and will have to live with the physical pain and emotional harm caused by the excessive force LBPD used against him in front of his home and with his community bearing witness.

“But that Mr. Jackson emerged victorious in his lawsuit against LBPD has not only helped to restore, for Mr. Jackson, his dignity and pride; it is also evidence that no law enforcement officer is above the same laws Mr. Jackson, and we as citizens, have untrusted them with enforcing.”

Jackson was represented by Patrick Buelna and Adanté Pointer, of Oakland-based Pointer & Buelna, and by Michael Slater, of the Los Angeles-based Slater Law Firm. The lawsuit was filed at U.S. District Court, Central District of California, in Los Angeles; Johnny Jackson v. City of Long Beach, 2:23-cv-08571-PA-E (Oct. 11, 2023).

About Pointer & Buelna, LLP, Lawyers for the People: Civil rights attorneys Adanté Pointer and Patrick Buelna started their law firm to give people a chance against large institutions like the police, government, corporations and insurance companies. They have secured many of the largest trial verdicts and settlements in these practice areas.

Robert Frank
Newsroom Public Relations
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