False Imprisonment

N.M. (15) was walking to an after-school program when N.M. was arrested by 4 Boston police officers for armed robbery, although the officers had no reason to suspect N.M. of that crime. The robbery victim told the officers that N.M. was not involved in the crime. All of the criminal charges against N.M. were dropped after a prosecutor spoke to the victim. At the police station, an officer denied N.M. any opportunity to post bail. N.M. was sent to a juvenile detention center in Lowell and held overnight.

Plaintiff was confronted on sidewalk alongside of busy neighborhood shopping center by officers of Atlanta Police Department. Officers forcibly detained and strip searched Plaintiff and, after failing to discover any incriminating information or material, released Plaintiff. Officers denied having made any contact with the Plaintiff; Plaintiff and other witnesses placed one or more of the defendant officers at the scene.

Plaintiff TWICE arrested on another person’s warrant. First arrest resulted in 6 weeks of incarceration; second arrest resulted in 2 hours in jail. Sheriff’s dept was on notice for years that the warrant was wrongly using Plaintiff’s identifiers, instead of the identifiers for the true defendant, yet Sheriff’s dept kept refusing to update & correct the warrant.

Neil Miller spent ten years in prison before he was exonerated by DNA evidence. Mr. Miller reached a landmark $3.2 million settlement with the City of Boston after alleging civil rights violations, police misconduct, and misconduct at the police lab that resulted in his wrongful conviction. Miller v. City of Boston, 297 F.Supp.2d 361 (D. Mass. 2003) (permitting our client to proceed with a lawsuit against Boston police officers and the City of Boston based on his wrongful conviction for a rape he did not commit)

Plaintiff was in the wrong place at the wrong time, as officers were raiding the upstairs unit in the duplex where Plaintiff lived downstairs. Plaintiff was hit by the front door to the duplex when Officer Peter Stanton rammed it open. Plaintiff was subsequently thrown to the floor and stomped on by Officer Stanton, though Officer Stanton denied stomping on Plaintiff.

Client was an African American female detained for approximately twenty hours. The allegation was she was selling marijuana. No marijuana was found on her person. The judge threw the charges out at the arraignment. She worked for NYC and was drug tested subsequent to this and lost about a week of work. The client wanted to proceed with the settlement to be done with everything. She did not seek any medical (psychological or otherwise) attention and lost about $375 in wages.

Officer Joshua Henninger took out his department issued Freeze +P chemical irritant and gave a burst directly into Plaintiff’s eyes. Plaintiff and his brother later approached Officer Henninger, and Plaintiff said he wanted Officer Henninger’s badge number. Officer Heidi Eisenbeis and Officer Luis Realivasquez subsequently took Plaintiff to the ground, by jumping on Plaintiff from behind, pushing Plaintiff face first into a city bench on the sidewalk, and kneeing Plaintiff in the ribs at least twice.

On May 19, 2010, Boston police officers arrested Ms. Wernikoff, a male-to-female transgender woman, because she was using the women’s bathroom at a homeless shelter. Ms. Wernikoff’s use of the bathroom based on her gender identity was entirely appropriate, as both BPHC policy and a Boston city ordinance make clear. Officers took Ms. Wernikoff to the police station, where male officers including forced her to remove her shirt and bra, exposing her breasts, and to jump up and down, causing her breasts to jiggle. The officers laughed at Ms. Wernikoff. She felt humiliated and degraded.