Massachusetts

Zenaida Hernandez visited a prisoner at Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center on September 18, 2011. Ms. Hernandez was allowed to visit the prisoner briefly; a glass barrier separated them. Defendants then took her to a room and forced her to strip naked and remove her menstrual pad. Two defendants stood behind her, inspecting her naked body. Ms. Hernandez did not have any contraband, nor was there probable cause to believe she did.

On August 28, 2011, West Bridgewater police officer Robert Piepiora was working a paid detail at a bar. William Ortiz was outside using his cell phone to call for a ride when the bar’s manager began aggressively telling Ortiz that he could not drive. Ortiz, who had already assured the manager that he was not driving, told the manager to leave him alone. Without warning, Piepiora grabbed Ortiz from behind and slammed him face first into the pavement. The impact knocked out two of Ortiz’s teeth and fractured his upper jaw bone. He required a bone graft to repair his jaw.

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.

Erik Aguilar was a New Bedford man who died in the custody of the New Bedford police on July 22, 2010. The entire incident was recorded on surveillance video. A convenience store employee called the police seeking help for Mr. Aguilar. New Bedford police officer Paul Hodson arrived at the store, spoke with Mr. Aguilar, then tried to handcuff him. Officer Hodson then took Mr. Aguilar to the ground, sprayed him with pepper spray, handcuffed him with his hands behind his back, left him lying face down on the pavement, and applied pressure to his back. Mr.

Simon Glik was arrested for illegal wiretapping for openly using his cell phone to record police brutality by the Boston police. Our lawsuit, brought with the ACLU of Mass., argued that the arrest violated Mr. Glik’s clearly established constitutional rights. The Defendants lost a motion to dismiss and appealed to the First Circuit. David Milton argued the appeal. The appeals court’s landmark decision in August 2011 declared that the First Amendment protects the right to record police carrying out their duties in a public place.

In Lowell on 5/8/06, Mr. Bailey, a professor, received a call from his son, who was having difficulty with building security. Mr. Bailey rushed downstairs, not pausing to put on shoes. Officers were striking his son with batons. Mr. Bailey urged his son to calm down. Officers then roughed up Mr. Bailey, arrested him, and charged him with disorderly conduct, assault and battery on an officer, and resisting arrest. Mr. Bailey suffered nerve damage from the handcuffs. He was held overnight without medical care for his cut foot, even though he was diabetic and had high blood pressure.

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)

About 4,000 prisoners were unconstitutionally locked in cells with no toilets and no sinks while they were confined in Building 4 at the Suffolk County House of Correction at South Bay. Plaintiffs said that guards did not always permit them to use the bathroom, so they were forced to urinate and defecate in bags and makeshift containers. As a result, inmates were subjected to the stench of their own bodily wastes and were forced to sleep in close quarters with others resorting to such means. Tyler v. Suffolk County, 253 F.R.D. 8, (D. Mass. 2008)

This is a civil rights action against Cambridge police for causing medical personnel to conduct an illegal internal body cavity search and unnecessary procedures on Plaintiff. These police officers requested that medical personnel at Cambridge Health Alliance’s Cambridge Hospital Campus conduct a digital rectal search and x-ray search of Jean-Baptiste’s abdomen without his consent or a court order. The medical personnel complied. The officers forced Mr.