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Allentown Begins To Pay On A Long List Of Police Abuses

Friday, February 12, 2016 12:26

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Anyone that reads any police abuse pages has heard about the list of lawsuits filed against Allentown Pennsylvania. In the past month, we have finally started to see some movement on these cases. I was quite saddened to see the result one of the most well known cases. James Ochse “The Allentown Singing Man” was brutality assaulted by Officer Randy Busch. Sadly, that case just recently ended with Ochse excepting a plea deal. The City of Allentown will not be so lucky with the rest of the pile of lawsuits.

As reported by Peter Hall of the Morning call:

Allentown paid $100,000 to settle a city woman’s lawsuit over a police officer’s use of a stun gun against her 14-year-old daughter as the girl left Dieruff High School in 2011, according to a document obtained by The Morning Call.

The settlement of Victoria Geist’s federal civil rights lawsuit against the city came in December as her allegations of excessive force by officer Jason Ammary and of improper training and deficient policies moved toward a trial scheduled for this month.

The city provided a copy of the settlement Tuesday in response to a right-to-know request by the newspaper. It resolves Geist’s claims on behalf of her daughter Keshana Wilson and provides compensation for Wilson’s pain and suffering, but is not an admission of wrongdoing or liability by the city.

Wilson, a freshman at Dieruff, was walking in the street near the high school Sept. 29, 2011, when Ammary, a school resource officer, ordered students to disperse and get out of the road.

According to court documents, he grabbed Wilson’s arm from behind and pushed her against a parked car when she pulled away. A struggle ensued, and Ammary fired his Taser’s electrical contact probes into Wilson’s groin, causing her to fall to the street.

Video of the incident was captured by security cameras.

Geist alleged in her 2012 lawsuit that Ammary violated Wilson’s civil rights by using more force than necessary under the circumstances. She also claimed the city was liable for his actions because it failed to properly train him as a school resource officer or in the use of Tasers.

In a ruling on a motion by the city to decide the case in its favor without a trial, U.S. District Judge Lawrence Stengel said in 2014 there were questions about the circumstances leading to the altercation that were not resolved by the video. Wilson claimed she pushed Ammary away because she couldn’t breathe, while Ammary testified in a deposition that Wilson was defiant, hitting him several times.

“Essentially, this fact comes down to the credibility of Ms. Wilson and officer Ammary. Which account is more accurate would be a question for a jury to answer,” Stengel wrote, ordering the case to a trial.

Attorney Max Kennerly, of Montgomery County, who pursued the lawsuit with South Whitehall Township lawyer Rick Orloski, said the case against Allentown was unusual in that a judge agreed with the plaintiffs that there were serious questions about the adequacy of the city’s Taser training and policies.

Stengel found that shortcomings in the city’s training and policies could amount to deliberate indifference to the constitutional rights of residents, which Geist and Wilson would have to prove to hold the city liable for Ammary’s actions.

While a trial would have brought more attention to the city’s Taser and use-of-force policies, the settlement is a good result for Wilson, Kennerly said.

“It helps her move on with her life,” he said. “As eager as we were to go to trial, at the end of the day, lawsuits aren’t about what attorneys want to prove and what they want to try. Lawsuits are about the client.”

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Allentown solicitor Susan Ellis Wild said that while she was confident the city would have prevailed in a trial, the decision to settle was made to protect the city from attorneys’ fees it could have been forced to pay under the federal Civil Rights Act if a jury had sided with Geist and Wilson.

“Such disputes are uniquely suited for settlement, especially given the potential for a high award of attorneys’ fees, which likely would have exceeded any award in favor of the plaintiff. The downside risk is such that a business decision was made to resolve this matter,” Wild said in an emailed statement.

Stengel wrote that in addition to Wilson’s and Ammary’s differing accounts of the incident, a jury would have to weigh factual inconsistencies in Ammary’s statements.

In an affidavit charging Wilson, Ammary wrote he had received information Wilson was planning to fight other girls and overheard her saying so, but he testified in his deposition he had never met Wilson and didn’t know who she was, Stengel’s opinion says.

“This factual inconsistency raises questions about whether officer Ammary believed Ms. Wilson was a threat to his safety when he first approached her,” Stengel wrote, adding that a jury would have to decide whether Ammary was credible.

Other facts in dispute were whether Ammary ordered Wilson and other students to disperse; whether Ammary ordered Wilson to lie on her stomach, driving the Taser probes deeper into her groin; and whether Wilson covered herself with her school bag, forcing Ammary to aim for her lower body.

Stengel also ruled Ammary was not entitled to qualified immunity, the legal doctrine that protects law enforcement officers and other public employees from lawsuits when they reasonably believe their conduct was legal.

“Viewing the facts in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, a jury could conclude that officer Ammary used excessive force when arresting Ms. Wilson,” Stengel said.

The judge also found there were serious questions about the adequacy of Ammary’s school resource officer training, which consisted of shadowing another resource officer. And, Stengel wrote, it was foreseeable that a student would be injured as a result of the inadequate training, because police routinely detained students to ensure they did not have outstanding warrants.

The evidence also raised questions about the city’s Taser training and use-of-force policies, Stengel said, noting the use of Tasers on “small children” was discouraged, but the policy did not clearly define the age of a small child.

“Given that seven officers were placed in city schools with Tasers, the department’s lack of guidance on what type of force may be used on children and teenagers and lack of guidance on when tasing juveniles was appropriate could amount to ‘deliberate indifference,’” Stengel wrote.

I would like to point out that not a single officer on the Allentown Police Department has been fired related to these lawsuits. That includes the officer in this story. The only ones that pay are the taxpayers.

Allentown Begins To Pay On A Long List Of Police Abuses is a post from Cop Block – Badges Don’t Grant Extra Rights

Source: http://www.copblock.org/153932/allentown-begins-to-pay-on-a-long-list-of-police-abuses/

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